Slow Schooling Chapter 19: The Peace of Our Children
What you're really doing...is teaching your grandchildren.
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Spring softly swept in, with patches of sun flashing through the windows between diagonal downpours. I sat with my ten and twelve year olds at the table and in that 45 minutes or so, I oversaw their note taking, taught about exchanging Y for I in spelling words, and quizzed them on William Bradford and the multiplication tables. As they gathered up their daily planner and books, I swirled what was left of my latte. Was this enough? Am I doing enough? Are they getting enough?
It is the question that looms large at many homeschooling tables, and one that the secular world is quick to answer with a violent, “NO”. But it is the wrong question. It assumes that any educational institution (or parent, for that matter) will ever be enough, do enough. And it assumes that the child is a blank slate, without personality, interests, or needs that make him not only a unique individual, b…