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As I write this post, a family from Germany is living in a town not far from me. They are seeking asylum In America for religious reasons: they want to raise and educate their children without German State interference. They are homeschoolers, something not allowed in Germany. Our government has gone to court seeking their deportation.

Many of you know that I spend several months each year in Israel, leading tours, mostly for homeschooling families. In Israel, the Holocaust is the ever-present backdrop against which life is lived. It is part of the Israeli educational fabric; ignorance of the Holocaust is not an option.

Yet, even among educated individuals, not everyone agrees as to how the Holocaust could have happened.

“What,” you may be asking, “Does the Holocaust have to do with homeschooling?”

The answer is “More than you could ever imagine!” A quick history lesson will make this clear…

For centuries, the various Germanic tribes were ruled by the huge and powerful Prussian Empire. The power behind the Empire was its massive war machine. In order to create such an imposing military force, Prussia had instituted what became known as the Prussian Experiment. The Empire set out to establish a system of government-run schools, each one called a “Gymnasium”. All children were required to attend these schools. The intention was to diminish the influence children received from their families, communities, and the various and colorful ways their cultures lived and, instead, provide children with a universal curriculum which would ultimately influence them with a unified State-prescribed worldview. In addition, competition among students in each Gymnasium would manifest those who were destined for leadership and those who were destined to be followers of those leaders.

In the early 1800′s, America educators became interested in the Prussian Experiment. An individual named Horace Mann became Secretary of Education in the state of Massachusetts, the first Department of its kind in the country. Mann was a person of vision. He saw that Americans were migrating from farm life to the newly built factories where men could actually earn a wage for their labor instead of depending on the insecurity of raising crops.

Factories need workers—not just workers–but workers who are willing to do what they are told. Horace Mann not only felt he understood how America should approach the future, he also had the authority and the influence to make others bend to his worldview. It wasn’t long before compulsory government school attendance was the norm, and, for the same reasons espoused by the Prussian Experiment.

The problem was not that American children needed more, or better, education. Americans had always had a deep belief in education. In the year 1800, America was considered the most literate nation in the world. But, in Horace Mann’s day, there was an inherent problem with Americans, themselves. Americans simply didn’t follow orders very well. Americans were notoriously independent-minded. They didn’t like to be governed without giving their consent to those who were doing the governing.

Horace Mann called American children “ungovernable”—an interesting choice of words—and he saw the Prussian educational model of mandatory schooling the answer to turn these ungovernable youngsters into adults who would fit into the newly emerging industrial world.

Now, to return to the Holocaust: Anti-Semitism has always existed, everywhere and in every age. Nevertheless, historians believe that, in the early 1900′s, the majority of Germans were not then, as they are not now, anti-Semitic. The number of Jews living in Germany was a tiny percentage of the total population. Although Germans were certainly aware of Hitler’s anti-Semitism, his rise to power was not due primarily to his attitude toward the Jews, but was due to Hitler’s three-fold promise: To protect the country from the spreading influence of Marxian socialism; to restore Germany’s failing economy caused by the Great War; and to remove the humiliation Germans experienced by their defeat in that war. With Hitler at the helm, Germans would once again be proud to be Germans.

Obviously, what allowed the holocaust to occur was multi-faceted and does not permit simple explanations. However, it is human nature to ignore what is not currently affecting oneself, personally. And, when other people’s suffering seems far away, that suffering is seldom forefront in the mind (this is one reason why most concentration camps were situated outside Germany). Add to this the reality that people tend to believe their government has good reasons for what it does, and a holocaust-type event is capable of occurring anywhere, and at any time. Even today.

What is truly revealing is what occurred after World War II when a court was convened to put on trial the perpetrators of the mass killings (the Holocaust).

Many of those on trial told stories of how, growing up, some of their best friends had been Jews. They stated that they had no animosity toward the Jewish people. Many even said they hated the things they had been ordered to do and some of those who so testified had been Commandants of the concentration camps. What the prosecutors had to contend with was the defense put forth by those being tried: “We are soldiers and soldiers obey orders. If there was something wrong with the orders we are told to follow, that is not our fault but the fault of those giving the orders.”

I am not against Germany or the German people; my own ancestry is partly German. However, I have to say there is a reason Germany cannot allow parents to raise their own children in accordance with their personal beliefs. The Prussian Experiment has produced the intended outcome and even one family’s deviation cannot be tolerated.

For years, I have told parents that the fear of public schools is not a valid reason to homeschool. I said this because I believe decisions should never be made from a position of fear. After all, there are far better, and positive, reasons to decide to homeschool. I now believe I was wrong.

The initial reasons for the creation of compulsory, government schooling, has been largely forgotten. Still, the end product remains the same. How governments arrive at this end product should frighten anyone sending their children into the culture of government schools.

Regarding the German family fighting to stay in our country in order to raise their children as they believe God is directing them: This family needs our prayers. They don’t need to be forced to return to Germany where they have the choice either to bow to the will of the German government or have their children taken from them.

What does homeschooling have to do with the Holocaust? The answer is that you must raise your own children to see the world differently than what some “universal, core curriculum” requires them to know; to raise them to be independent thinkers; to raise them to be the individuals God created them to be. It would be a rare thing for that to happen after 12 years in government schools.

I offer you an interview with John Gatto, public school teacher in the New York City Public School System for 30 years, and the former New York State “Teacher of the Year”. This little-seen interview is worth watching.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_CeWip5BpU

And, should you wish to join one of our trips to Israel, take a look at our website, www.ExperiencingIsrael.com

Chris Davis

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I don’t like to see fear controlling homeschooling parents’ decisions. It is normal to carry some amount of concern about whether we are doing “right” by our children; but we must guard against fear even more so than we guard against making mistakes.

Why? Because no one can be tuned in to the voice of the Spirit who is tuned in to the voice of Fear!

A “prop” can be what keeps something else from collapsing (as in “propping up”); or, in theater, a prop helps provide reality to the fantasy of a play.

Here are “4 props” that fear uses to help us feel secure but which, actually, provide a false sense of reality to our homeschooling journey and keep us from doing what our hearts are telling us we should be doing.

Let’s look at each of the things that prop up—or, seem to provide reality—to our homeschooling. What I am talking about here is what we accept as truth in order to alleviate Fear:

Prop #1: The 12-year Window - The belief that the majority of a child’s education will (and should) occur during the 12 years between the ages of 6 and 18. Believing this, homeschooling parents prioritize academics during these years, alleviating the fear that their children will not have learned enough information to function as an adult. However, by prioritizing academics, parents leave little time for the child to become proficient in the unique skills, giftings, and callings (see more on this below) which are most important to the child’s future.

Prop #2: Sequentiality and Grade Levels – The belief that knowledge moves from the simple to the complex and that a topic should be divided into its smallest, most “digestible” pieces, which then must be learned in a predetermined order and at a certain age (grade). Believing this, homeschooling parents tend to follow the same Scope & Sequence used by public schools, alleviating the fear that their children will have learning gaps. However, by accepting an educational model created for the masses, parents ignore the fact that individual children learn in different ways and at times that simply don’t follow the kind of predetermined plan used in public schools.

Prop #3: Subjects – The belief that all knowledge can be organized under subject headings (Language Arts, Science, Mathematics, etc.) and these subjects can be (and should be) prioritized according to their importance to the whole of society. Believing this, homeschooling parents will segment learning into subject areas, prioritizing those subjects they believe are most important, alleviating the fear that their children won’t be prepared to earn a future living. However, in so doing, parents often give too much prominence to subjects having no meaning to the child’s future because the parents are ignoring their child’s passions and giftings without giving thought to the possibility that those passions and giftings actually might have been placed within the child by God, Himself.

#4: Curricula – The belief that there already exists a perfectly written set of materials with which to educate one’s children. Believing this, homeschooling parents will constantly seek the perfect book or curriculum in order to alleviate the fear that they might be using materials that will not adequately educate their children. However, in seeking the perfect curricula, parents lose sight of the fact that true learning does not come from books or curricula, but from life experiences that require individuals to find answers to problems they are encountering as they live.

The “Mystery of unknowing”

What if you didn’t use any of these props?

What if you didn’t know you had 12 years to accomplish the task of educating your children?

What if you didn’t know about grade levels or that knowledge could be sequenced?

What if you didn’t know that you had to spend a certain amount of time teaching Language Arts and then move on to teaching Math and then follow that by teaching Science…?

What if you didn’t know that Math and Science were more important to your child’s future than art or dance or music?

What if you didn’t know that some expert had already prepared the “best” curriculum for your children?

There was a day in the history of our nation when virtually all children were taught at home and none of these props were available; yet, in those days, our nation had the highest rate of literacy of any country in the world.

What if you homeschooled your children and made a conscious decision to have none of these props available to alleviate your fears. Would you still be afraid?

What other “props” can you think of that we homeschoolers use to alleviate fear but which are detrimental to what we are doing?

 

Want to bring your family on the educational journey of a lifetime? Come with me, Chris Davis, to Israel this May. Visit the Experiencing Israel Website  

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Please take a look at this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siu6JYqOZ0g&sns=fb

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Question: What one word would you use to differentiate a Common School education (i.e. either public or private school) from a home-based education?

I offer the word “individual”.

An individual is distinguished from a group in that “an individual has special, singular, or markedly personal characteristics; exhibiting unique qualities.”

Now, imagine that Common Schools (government or private) suddenly decided to prioritize the individual, rather than the curriculum, as they seek to educate our children. Even though plenty of evidence exists that children must be treated as individuals, the sheer number of children Common Schools are attempting to educate (not to mention financial limitations) mitigates against this ever happening.

Some individuals do thrive in a Common School setting. The problem is that this translates into an expectation that all children should thrive in a Common School setting. Because of this expectation, those who don’t thrive are regarded as deviant in some way with the deviant child being negatively labeled and the deviance being treated as having negative value to society.

When a child is educated at home, there is no need to compare the child to some generic group “norm” and this allows the child’s individuality to become the central focus of his, or her, education.

If you are already educating your child at home, is the curriculum you are using driving your child’s education, or is the child’s individuality driving his, or her, education?

OK, it’s your turn: Suggest some other words that differentiate a Common (public or private) School education from a home-based education.

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One day, God appeared to a childless woman and told her she would conceive and give birth to a son. The Lord also told her that her son would have a specific purpose for his existence.

When the woman told this to her husband, he asked that the Lord would reappear to them both. When God did this, the man asked God two questions.

It has been my passion for years to get every parent to ask these same two questions.

The son was named Samson and it was his life-mission to deliver Israel from their mortal enemy, the Philistines.

The two questions Samson’s father asked God (even before his son was conceived) can be found in Judges 13:12. The English translation doesn’t provide the same emphasis found in the original Hebrew. Here is my interpretation of the father’s two questions found in this verse:

First question: “What will be the purpose of this child’s existence?”

Second question: “What is our responsibility in raising this child so he will fulfill that purpose?”

For years I have tried to express three truths I strongly believe:

1. God gives us each child He intends us to raise
2. We are to raise each child for a purpose which only God knows
3. If He knows who each child is to become, doesn’t it make sense to ask God the same two questions Samson’s father asked?

Please don’t be like most parents who, mainly from ignorance, fail to ask God these two questions. God is more interested in letting you in on why He created this child than you could possibly imagine!

Can we raise each child to go into the world equipped to fulfill his or her individual life purpose? We can if we know what God knows. We can if we believe He will tell us?

And, He will…

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I have read an article suggesting that following one’s dreams is anathema to following God. In other words, Jesus’ comment to “deny yourself”, meant that whatever you have in your heart to do is probably worldly and should, therefore, be rejected as self-centered, not Kingdom-centered.

But, why should “following your dreams” and “following Christ” be mutually exclusive?

When you meet an individual who is actually doing what God has gifted him to do, you meet someone who is truly Kingdom-centered.

There are two kinds of miserable people in the world: Those who spend their lives trying to increase their personal, worldly happiness and those who have never discovered the gift God has made them to a world that desperately needs to see someone experiencing the joy of the Lord.

Let us help our children discover the giftings/talents God has put within each of them. Let us respect those giftings/talents. Let us give our kids the time and the resources to become proficient in what God has put within each of them. Let us send our children into a world that needs to see someone expressing God’s giftings/talents and expressing “the joy of the Lord as their strength.”

What could be more appealing to a world that has found no real joy in living self-centered lives?

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Everyone knows the difference between teaching and learning. One has to do with what I (the teacher) think you need to know; the other has to do with what you (the learner) want to know, or need to know for the task you are currently performing.

When the teacher is asking the questions, the only way learning is taking place is if the student is engaged in dialog with the teacher. Otherwise, learning is not taking place if the learner is not the one initiating the questions.

Let’s say a child shows no interest in learning to read but the parent believes the student should be reading by a certain age. This is a common problem in homeschooling. Most adults believe learning is “age appropriate”, meaning a student should have learned certain tasks, and information, by a specific age. This idea comes from public schooling where age-segregated (grade-segregated) classes are a necessity. Such classes—and such an idea of learning—are not a necessity at home.

I say, rather, learning should be “maturity appropriate”, “task appropriate”, and/or “interest appropriate”. This idea comes from the mentality that every child is unique in his or her maturity, the present tasks in which they decide to involve themselves, or their current interests.

If a child is presently involved in tasks that don’t allow him time to learn to read, can we be secure enough as parents to allow the child to eventually arrive at a season when reading becomes either interesting or relevant—in the child’s mind—to pursue that discipline? One of my sons decided to learn to read at age 9 and another at age 10. The only one of my sons who is not a strong reader is the one I taught to read at age 6. That taught me a lesson.

Children love the world. They love to learn about it. The world is full of interesting things that intrigue children.

Can we allow our children to learn through that love?

In your homeschooling, who is asking the questions: you or your child?

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I have always been a curious, inquisitive person. As a little boy, my house was situated at the edge of a vast, southern California desert and, from earliest memory, the desert was my classroom. It drew me. I absorbed its beauty, its vastness, and its wildlife. Early childhood existence was an endless series of questions: What is this? What does it do? Where did it come from?

All that ended when I was sent to school.

Curiosity had fled, but I never knew where it went or why. One day I read a quote by Albert Einstein: “Modern education destroys curiosity”.

I knew this to be true, but what did “modern education” do to destroy this little boy’s inquisitive nature?

Recently, I came across another quote that explained what had happened to me. To paraphrase: “In school, I was continually told answers to the questions I had not yet considered asking.”

An analogy: A sponge can exist in a dry state. But, when a sponge is immersed in water, it absorbs the water. Why? Because water is the natural habitat for a sponge and it is, therefore, natural for a sponge to absorb water.

Two observations: Daily life is the natural habitat for a child and that is why he naturally absorbs what it has to teach him. School is not the natural habitat for a child and that is why its lessons must be forced into the child.

Long ago, school teachers gave up believing their students cared about what they were being taught. So, schools were left using the only tool they had to make students learn the answers to questions they weren’t asking: fear of failure (properly called “tests” and “grades”).

Since this is a homeschooling blog, the question becomes, “What does this have to do with homeschooling my children?”

The answer: Everything.

More next time…

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At some point we must come to terms with the reality that, though generally unintended, government education has become the most pervasive form of legalized child abuse. Instead of education being an invitation to enter a dialog to discover why each of us is on this planet–to discover what each individual has to offer a world that doesn’t know what to do next–public education now serves the function of gate-keeping, the process of sorting the worthy from the unworthy.

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I can’t stop thinking about it…

It comes to my mind constantly and I am frustrated that so few parents realize that “school” is actually robbing their children of a future.

I have said this before, but it needs to be repeated until we hear it:

How will our children become proficient in the area in which God has gifted them? THEY MUST BE GIVEN TIME TO BECOME PROFICIENT!

How much time?

Researchers say 5,000 hours spent on a task will create proficiency.

You do the math: That’s 10 YEARS at 2 hours per day (not counting weekends and taking 2 weeks off during the year). Consider that 2 hours per day is about what most public school kids spend doing homework rather than becoming proficient in their area of personal gifting.

Want your child to become (not just proficient but) World-Class in his/her area of personal giftings? Researchers say this takes 10,000 hours! That’s 2 hours per day for 20 YEARS or 4 HOURS PER DAY FOR 10 YEARS.

When do kids have that kind of time today to become proficient (or World-Class) in what they have a heart to do in life?

Do we really respect what God has put in our children to do with their futures? If so, do we make room for those giftings to flourish? Or, do we use up their time with things like “school”?