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"But Aren't Schools
the Best Way to Learn?"
by Michael Pearl
(This article was excerpted from an article
entitled
"The Reformed School of Alexandria?" that appeared in
the Feb/Mar
1998 issue of the "No Greater Joy"
newsletter. Ordering
info
appears at the end of this article.)
I
am often asked, "But aren't schools the best way to learn?" ... H.G.
Wells, a noted humanist and historian, wrote concerning the schools of
Alexandria, Egypt between the second and seventh centuries AD:
"Wisdom passed away from Alexandria... For the use of books was
substituted the worship of books... The learned became a specialized
queer class with unpleasant characteristics of its own... a new type of
human being: shy, eccentric, unpracticed, incapable of essentials,
strangely fierce upon trivialities of literary detail. ... He was a
sort of by-product of the intellectual process of mankind. For many
precious generations the new-lit fires of the human intelligence were
to be seriously banked down by this by-product."
I have
observed the by-product of America's modern counterpart to the
Alexandrian school. Their frail bodies, white with the tan of
florescent lights, shoulders humped, eyes squinted, poor complexion
from the junk food consumed between lessons, stumble from their
classrooms to stand in line for the next culturally pre-ordained phase
of life. Their mentality is that since they have given themselves to
the system, the system owes them a good job, good wages, medical
coverage, fair play, protection, entertainment, a vacation, retirement,
old age convalescence, and a proper burial. God save us from being
average. I don't want to be a part. I don't want to rear children to be
a cog in this wheel.
It is obvious that many homeschooling families are nothing more than
reformed public educational systems. A system faulty at the very core
of its philosophy doesn't need reformation. It needs dismissal. The
educational system in America doesn't need a new teacher; it needs a
new birth.
Whether in the home, dictated by parents, or in the corporate
classroom, John Dewey style education has taken an invasive,
destructive course. Intensive, time-consuming mental discipline out
of proportion to working with the hands is alien to natural humanity
and a threat to normal development.
It is a perversion to take a five-to-twelve-year-old child and enter
him in a demanding competition for academic excellence. We would all
find fault with an ambitious adult that put his seven-year-old child
through a demanding schedule of football training. Is the
seven-year-old any better equipped to handle the emotional demands of
professional study? How can we justify raping a child's youth by forced
confinement in full-time study? Child prodigies usually end up as
abnormal, unfulfilled adults. Head-starters often become late finishers
with no desire to continue their education.
Just as the motions of crawling are essential to the development of an
infant, and the four-year-old hanging onto his mama's skirts is
essential to a child's sense of security, so the ten-year-old following
his daddy around is an integral part of his psychological development
into manhood.
Schooling will fill their brains with facts, enabling them to pass
tests, but it will not teach them to relate to society. When children
should be developing confidence, creativity, individuality, strong
bodies, and work ethics, instead they are made to ease independent
decision making and march (or rather sit) in formation to the drum-beat
of a lifeless curriculum. If you have wondered where the real men went,
they disappeared into textbooks and went through puberty with books in
their laps rather than tools in their hands.
Let us not go through another upper-class Alexandrian Dark Age. There
is no ignorance as great as book ignorance not ignorance OF books,
ignorance IN books. Just so you understand my perspective: I am a
college graduate. I write this while sitting in a room with thousands
of books lining all available wall space from the floor to ceiling. I
have read a meaningful portion of most of them. My children all read
for enjoyment and as research to satisfy curiosity or to fill a need.
Rebekah, our only child who thus far has found it needful to go to
college, earned a four-point average. My present purpose is not to brag
on my kids. I am willing enough to do that, but I want you to
understand that book education is shallow without a larger education in
real life. When book education becomes predominate, the student is no
longer living in the real world.
I know that there comes a time when a mature adult may need to immerse
himself in studies, shutting out the real world, but this should be the
burden of a mature adult who has a goal that can only be realized
through the weariness of much study. A child who is yet growing and
developing a personality and character should not spend long periods of
time withdrawn in study.
What horrors, to see a small child quivering under the condemnation of
his mother because he can't keep his mind on a dead book lying in front
of him! Long hours of boredom and pretended study stunts the
intellectual growth of young children. Yes, we want our children to be
educationally equipped to enter into any field or discipline they may
choose, but mind-set is more important than mind content. It is far
more important for a child to grow into personal confidence, creativity
and vision than to rush into academic excellence.
The reality is that most homeschooling parents are following the
current pop philosophy (of "school at home"), sacrificing the humanity
of their children for the promise of academic security.
There must be a balance. Rather than the imbalance of six hours of study and one hour of recess, for the 6
to 10-year-old let there be one hour of study, five hours of recess, and two hours of work.
Balance the
10 to14-year-old with two hours of play, one hour of study and five hours of work.
Balance the
15 to16-year-old with seven hours of work, one hour of study and let him find time to play.
Following a natural course as I have described, the 17 to18-year-old
won't need your balancing; he will be a man in every sense of the word.
The 17-year-old girl will be a lady of poise and confidence, ready to
meet whatever challenges await her.
I am just aware that
children and young people should not be pushed by anxious parents who
feel that their children's happiness depends on cramming them full of
book knowledge as early as possible. When they are old enough to send
themselves through college, they can make that decision to become a
professional student. The self confidence and working skills learned in
their youth will better equip them for higher education than will the
long hours of wimpish study in youth.
Over the last 40 years I have observed many families who believed the
greater the education, the greater the success in life. Many of those
college graduates have never provided adequate support for their own
families. Opportunity existed, but they were not able to do anything
other than sit at a desk on a weekly salary. If the economy were to
collapse, they would not know how to survive.
I know that what I have said is radical. A little light in a great
darkness is always radical. I have not advocated ignorance. Quite the
contrary. It is isolated book learning that is ignorance, ignorance of
real life. College professors don't make better spouses and parents
than do farmers. Corporate executives can be terribly ignorant in human
relationships. Engineers can be insecure wimps who are paralyzed with
fear at the thought of being cast upon their own bare resources.
Politicians can negotiate a peace treaty with a foreign power but have
not the power to negotiate a peace with their own teenagers.
(From Barb: This is precisely the case with
Sam Hill who designed what is now called the Mary Hill Mansion (art
museum) near Goldendale, WA. He did amazing things for mankind, but the
photo of him with his teen-age son who Sam was never able to get a
relationship with will forever haunt me.)
Computer programmers can solve the most complex problems but not be
able to deal with the complexities of marital relationships.
The profession with the lowest divorce rate and the lowest suicide rate
is that of farmer. Again, I am not advocating avoidance of the higher
trained professions. I am just aware that children and young people
should not be pushed by anxious parents who feel that their children's
happiness depends on cramming them full of book knowledge as early as
possible. When they are old enough to send themselves through college,
they can make that decision to become a professional student. The self
confidence and working skills learned in their youth will better equip
them for higher education than will the long hours of wimpish study in
youth.
In your heart you know that the present public school system is
anti-human as well as anti-God. Homeschoolers have eliminated the
anti-God aspect, but most of them have retained the anti-human elements
in their schooling.
Children need a mother who has the time and energy to mother them, not
a teacher who has neither the time nor the patience to appreciate them
as people. Lay down your stern professor's mantle and pick up your
apron. Next time you meet eyes with your child, make sure it is with
approval and not with academic disappointment... In your desire to see
your children "educated," don't stop being a mama or a daddy.
Relax and give them time to develop emotionally. Allow them to be three
years behind the normally accepted standard in academic achievement,
and by the time they are sixteen they will be three years ahead. Twelve
to fifteen is a very good age for "catching up." The twelve-year-old
who has not developed a disposition against schooling will learn more
in six months than most kids know when they graduate. A child who is
confident and secure will learn with ease. Fear of failure and
rejection will close the mind up worse than retardation. Many children
fear learning because they associate it with painful boredom and/or
rejection.
So, now to answer the question posed earlier: "But aren't schools the
best way to learn?" My answer? Where did you get a ridiculous idea like
that?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Used with permission. Author Michael Pearl is the editor and main
writer of the free-upon-request monthly newsletter entitled "No Greater Joy"
which is based on this verse in III John 4: "I have no greater joy than to
hear that my children walk in truth." We carry his book,
To Train Up a Child
(excellent!) in our online catalog.
The
Church at Cane Creek / 1000 Pearl Rd. / Pleasantville, TN 37147
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I
got the plaid background at:
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