Benjamin Franklin's 13 steps to perfection

I have been reading the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. It is very interesting and entertaining. At one point in his life he set out to be morally perfect and he really thought that he could accomplish this. He set up a system where he would perfect one at a time a list of 13 virtues. He, obviously, never became perfect and he wrote that "I was surpris'd to find myself so much fuller of faults than I had imagined;but I had the satisfaction of seeing them diminish." I too have, upon serious examination, found myself "so much fuller of faults than I had imagined" but I have yet to see many of them diminish significantly. I have made progress, but still have a long way to go. I wanted to list his 13 virtues and his explanations as a list that I too would sometime like to perfect, or see improvement in my life.

1. TEMPERANCE: Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
2. SILENCE: Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation (I should probably start here).
3. ORDER: Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.
4. RESOLUTION: Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
5. FRUGALITY: Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing.
6. INDUSTRY: Lose no time; be always employ'd in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.
7. SINCERITY: Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
8. JUSTICE: Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
9. MODERATION: Avoid extreams; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
10. CLEANLINESS: Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloaths, or habitation.
11. TRANQUILLITY: Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.(I need to work on this second)
12. CHASTITY: Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dulness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another's peace or reputation. (ignoring this council every now and then would be ok, right?)
13. HUMILITY: Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

I love what he wrote about humility:

In reality, there is, perhaps not one of our natural passions so hard to subdue
as pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as
much as one pleases, it is still alive, and will every now and then peep out and
show itself; ... even if I could conceive that I had compleatly overcome it, I
should probably be proud of my humility.

I would probably do the same and so I feel it is probably best to just not worry about this virtue, right?

The New Yorker Article

I read an article from the New Yorker that is about how parents and children are portrayed in modern picture books. They are weak and the children are in charge. I have seen this in many of the books we bring home from the library. I always knew that I would have to preview books when my children are older, but never thought that I would be previewing picture books. When I first read the article I laughed, but the more I thought about it the more it disturbs me.

Read it here: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2009/10/19/091019crat_atlarge_zalewski

Why I Home-Educate Part 2

This year my daughter was supposed to register for kindergarten. The thought of this made my heart ache. The main reason I am home schooling is because I am not ready to share my children with strangers. I just got them, why would I want to send them away? We have so much fun together and learn so much here, why would I want to give them to someone else for a while? God sent them to me and has given me charge for their upbringing; I want to make sure that it is done in the way the Lord would have it done. I am able to receive inspiration concerning what they need. Teachers may love them and truly want what is best for them , but only my husband and I can know what that best actually is.

Another reason I have chosen this route is that public school is set up in a way to guarantee failure. The students there are not learning for the sake of learning. They are being prepared to take tests designed to measure how well they can take the test. An education is so much more than test prep. At the beginning of my home school journey I decided prayerfully on eight attributes I wanted my children to have when they left my home, they are, not in order of importance:
1. A strong testimony
2. Budgeting skills
3. Skills necessary to be a good wife/mother or husband/father
4. A love for the United States of America
5. A love of literature, art, and music/ to love learning
6. A love of the outdoors
7. Confidence and worth
8. Know how to work hard
These are not things that can be tested and therefore could not and would not be taught in public schools., these are traits that I feel will make them be responsible and successful adults.

Lately, as I have been interacting with people I realized there are many additional skills the world needs them to learn. I hadn’t been able to put them to paper until I recently read an article by Deborah W. Meier called Undermining Democracy “Compassionate Conservatism” and Democratic Education. In it she lists skills that can not be tested, but are necessary. They are; meeting deadlines, accepting responsibility, speaking clearly, weighing evidence, working with others, and trying stuff out. She implies that these are necessary, but tells us they aren’t being taught anymore because they do not count on tests.

These skills are not only hard to test, but also difficult to teach in a public school setting. They are mostly taught by example, especially by parents’ example. A teacher can only reinforce lessons taught at home or what is called by some the actual “real world”. I feel best equipped to teach my children how to be the best adults they can be by giving them models of these traits and limiting their exposure to the examples of people who demonstrate the opposite qualities.

Deborah Meier gives ways that we can teach these lessons to children, which are situations that naturally happen in a proper home school. “…kids must see that adults care about getting things right for reasons beyond scores… they must live with adults who take responsibility for decisions and stand by them…they need schools that provide safe opportunities to explore their own life-sustaining and joyous powers under the guidance of adults the world respects… they need schools that belong to their communities and families and know them well.” Her and I disagree on at least one point, the world does not need to respect me for me to provide these opportunities to my children, in fact I know that the world doesn’t respect me as a mother, homemaker, and home educator, and I am happy about that. When I look at what gets respect in this world I don’t want to be the kind of person that belongs to that category.

The opportunities listed above are what I have always imagined my home school would become. These are the goals of our home, even if I was unaware of them. She sums it up this way “They must, in short be surrounded by grown-ups whom the young can imagine becoming and would like to become.” This is why I have chosen to follow a classics/living books approach to home schooling. By doing so my children will not only be surround by living examples of what to become, but also examples of people from history and literature as well.

I want more for my children than to be prepared to take tests. I want them to be able to receive three gifts from God mentioned over and over in the scriptures; knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. This will be accomplished as we meet the goals we have outlined for our home school. It is nearly impossible in public school. There children learn some knowledge, but they do not get the skills necessary to understand that knowledge. This is contrary to God’s plan. Giving children knowledge before they have the skills to understand it will never lead to wisdom and is in my opinion dangerous.

Why I Home-Educate.

I wrote an essay to myself about this subject about a year ago and thought that I would share it for the benefit of those who love us and want to undestand why we are keeping our girls in our home instead of sending them to school. It is a little long for a blog post so I will break it up into parts.

America’s children are in trouble. The education system in this great country is creating adults who are ill prepared to live and thrive in this world. In an effort to “keep up” with the rest of the world the power over our children’s education has been handed to a federal government that is so large there isn’t anything to compare it to. Not only is the government large, but it is so far removed from the actual children they have control over that those who have the power can no longer (if they ever could) be considered a judge of what is best for them. They do not think of our children as individuals; there is no John or Mary or Susan, just students, no names just numbers, like in prison.

The state of education in America is not solely the fault of those who are in control of it, it is by and large the fault of those who gave that power away to something that had no right to it in the first place; the same people who have the right and responsibility to take that power back.
I am speaking of the parents. By taking the decision making power away from parents and communities and relying on the Federal Government to decide what is right we have forced our children to get a cookie cutter or assembly line schooling. It may be more efficient, but it is definitely not what is best. Of course it is cheaper this way (if anything about the American School system can be considered cheap). It is standardized. This also makes it easier to measure and hold teachers and administrators and the students themselves accountable. Accountability is necessary because there is no trust within the system; parents don’t trust the teachers, the teachers don’t trust the administrators, and no one trusts the students, including the students themselves.

In my opinion trust is the biggest barrier I as a home educator have to break. I have to get the government to trust me, then the administrators, then the teachers, and then I have to somehow trust myself. Following this I have to gain the trust of my extended family and my friends. My children’s trust is the only one I don’t have to work for. Being taught by their parents, and especially their mother, is natural to children. Attempting this has left me tired even before I begin teaching.
If home schooling is so much extra work and so tiring why am I even doing it. This is a question I have been asking myself lately, not because I am thinking of giving it up, but because soon I will have to start answering the hard questions of my family and friends. I want to be prepared to answer them in a way that will seem non combative, yet informative. I do not plan on trying to talk them into home schooling, but I want to be prepared when they try to convince me that public school is the best for my children.

More of the essay to come soon.

So many emotions......

I read a post on a blog today that touched me to the core of my soul. I sat there eating my bowl of cheerios wondering what to make for dinner and stopped almost dead trying to imagine the suffering of these children. I am sobbing again just thinking about it. You can read it here . My life has had trials that I thought were just the worst, but I truly have suffered nothing. I went to the website of her organization and I am really impressed. I didn't read it all or research it very much, but on the surface it seems really good. You should go and read it too, especially the stories part.

24th of July Canoe Trip

On the 24th of July we went to Muddy River Outfitters to go canoeing. These are the people who rented the canoes to the Varsity Scouts for their week long trip. They let us stay on their beautiful property which is right along the river. Right off of their dock is a nice, not too deep reservoir with very little current. We had such a good time. We are hoping to make it a yearly event. Hopefully next time we can stay for more than one night, but we had to come back for church.

Here are the girls warming up after a swim in the river.
Here we are eating our yummy dinners.
This is daddy and Miss M and Beans in the canoe. They both did very well in the canoe and were great paddlers. Sis S was kicked off the boat more than once for moving too much.

Sis S after having been kicked off the boat one time.

Lagoon

This weekend we went to Lagoon. It could not have been better. The temperature was perfect. It was overcast so no hot sun on us. There was a slight breeze every now and then. The girls were all brave and went on rides I never expected them to, even Sis S liked riding the Puff roller coaster. Tubbs also won a $50 gift certificate to Costco in the drawing for his work party. Now I can't wait until next year when I might even get to go on a few rides.