Mon 12 Feb 2007
Mentoring and Discipleship
In a comment on The View from the Plain Linda mentions the book A Thomas Jefferson Education, I have not read that book nor do I intend to because I just don’t like to read books by Mormons (there you have it), but Linda mentions that the author makes the point that education does not take place apart from inspiration. To put it another way, all education is ultimately self-education.
God has gifted some men and women to be inspirational teachers. Some homeschooling moms have this gift. Putting a child in an institutional school is no guarantee that he will have inspired teachers. As a matter of fact, we could almost say that in the government schools he will be inoculated against inspiration. An inspired teacher can go into a classroom and make it work. He or she can make changes and adjustments based on the real needs of the students. American government schooling is set up to be the antithesis of this. Most great teachers will not have the heart to stay in that system.
Most of us have had one or two gifted teachers in the history of our institutional schooling, so that among the hundreds and hundreds of classrooms we have sat through we can each probably think of 2 great teachers. I can think of 2. Neither were charismatic; they just loved their subject. Maybe a few of you can think of more.
George Grant has a cd series on Thomas Chalmers. Not only is George Grant an inspired teacher but he goes into some details about that life of Chalmers that illustrate that this man was able to pass along his vision to those around him. Listening to this cd set has changed my life and it has changed my husband’s life. It has given us a vision during a time of floundering. The thing about this cd set is that it just sort of fell into our hands serendipitously. Inspiration is like that.
So having inspired teachers teaching a subject is the superior method. The question then is how do we inspire our own children. Must we put them in school in order to have gifted teachers? Homeschooling is still the easiest way to get your children in touch with great teachers, the great teachers. In this day of Internet, cd’s, video, and co-ops there isn’t any reason at all that your children can not be introduced to great teachers. Charlotte Mason was recognizing and promoting this long before modern conveniences made it this simple. Charlotte wanted the teachers in her schools to get out of the way so that her students could meet the master teachers amongst their books.
My advice is that the homeschooling mom and dad each pass on to their children the things that they love first. We each have our own El Guapo 
(Poetry, literature, history and birds in this home). We will inspire our children through the things we love. My children love baseball just because my dad is a mentor in this area. He is a gifted teacher and a gifted coach and that spark has caught.
My next suggestion is to make sure your children are reading books by authors who love their subject. This will take some time and research but it will reap huge rewards. Ambleside Online is a good place to start looking.
I use Gileskirk with my highschool students just because of this element of having a teacher who loves his subject. If you know of a local co-op that has a talented teacher by all means use it. Just don’t assume that because someone is teaching a subject at a co-op, they are gifted. You will waste too much time and energy if you are carting your children around to classes when they could be reading a great book.
Pray that God will open your eyes in this area. Homeschooling is far better when our children are inspired. Pushing and pulling donkeys is hard work. If that describes your school, you need to get to work looking for inspiration for yourself and your children. Ask God for wisdom; he promises to give it.
I would love to hear about your efforts in this area!!
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Thanks for this.
Comment by DeputyHeadmistress (February 12, 2007 @ 11:54 am )
Cindy,
You hit the nail on the head with this. I can customize the “inspiration” to fit each child. No I
cannot inspire them in the area of math but I have found an excellent tutor who is doing just that. She knows her subject and can quickly see areas which require help and then inspire my kids. That could be done in almost all subject areas if needed and I would still be paying far less than the loca Christian school. In addition, I would be on top of what my kids are learning and be able to teach to character issues or whatever since I would still be involved even when using tutors or online. You lose so much if they are away from you for hours a day at school.
Laura
Comment by Laura (February 12, 2007 @ 12:19 pm )
Hey! I had never even heard of that book until YOU brought it to my attention some years ago! So there!
No, I understand your hesitation in reading it, but it really is a goldmine. It is one of those books that keeps you nodding your head in agreement as you read.
We each have our own El Guapo. Cute. In our home it’s history, literature, sports, and um…debate.
As for inspired teachers, I can remember one. Only one. Sad. He was a history/music teacher I had in 8th grade at a Catholic school. I wish George Grant had been my teacher! No one gets me revved up like him. I’m sure it is because he is SO excited about WHATEVER he is talking about. Gotta get those Chalmers CDs.
Comment by Linda (February 12, 2007 @ 2:09 pm )
What is El Guapo? I can guess that it applies to our most pursued interests, (which in our case would be music, math in the case of some and good books in the case of others, but always music), but where does it come from?
Comment by Eva in AZ (February 12, 2007 @ 3:05 pm )
Eva, I somewhat misused the term El Guapo but I couldn’t help it once I had said, “We all have…”
El Guapo comes from the movie The Three Amigos with Steve Martin, Chevy Chase & Martin Short. In the movie Steve Martin stirs the people to fight their enemy El Guapo by giving a rousing speech about overcoming adversity. In it he says, “We each have our own El Guapo, for some their El Guapo is a lack of educations for others….for some their El Guapo is the real El Guapo.” This speech just cracks me up every time I hear it. Don’t know why
I know Linda has seen the movie. Anyone else out there catch the allusion?
Comment by Cindy (February 12, 2007 @ 3:33 pm )
“Anyone else out there catch the allusion?”
El Guapo–well, I thought it just meant “the thing you find beautiful” in your own homeschool, since “guapo” means handsome or good-looking, and classical ed is supposed to bring the good and beautiful to our children.
Pretty obvious I never saw the movie, huh?
Comment by Patricia (February 12, 2007 @ 4:06 pm )
Patricia, I did look it up first to make sure that Steve Martin hadn’t been using a foul term for his joke and I thought The Handsome thing worked, also.
Comment by Cindy (February 12, 2007 @ 4:11 pm )
Well I opened up the comments to ask that very question; what is El Guapo. Imagine my relief when I saw I was not the only one who had no idea what you were talking about. lol
I love to hear how others get inspiration for their homeschool. The El Guapo in my homeschool is, far and beyond anything else, literature. Science is El NoGo in my house.
Comment by mrs darling (February 12, 2007 @ 8:36 pm )
Great, inspirational post. This has been the rub for me as a homeschool mamma and recovering leaglist. When I see a plan (AO, classical ed. ,etc.) then I feel like I must pursue it and not include things that I know would be of more personal interest or inspiration to my children.
Also, I have been allowing the idea of a more concentrated time of grammar, Latin, and math to sink in. I have asked my husband to mull this over and give me his thoughts. It is a great concept, I think.
Comment by Tarheel mama (February 12, 2007 @ 8:40 pm )
Look at most graduating teenagers of the public school. If you can get them to mumble more than a one-word answer, they will usually tell you that they don’t know what they want to do in their lives. They lack passion for living and a curiosity for things unknown. They have no hobbies, no interests, and perhaps most sadly, no beliefs.
I think much of this is a result of what you’ve already discussed. Children are shuffled through the same five courses, taught often by teacher’s that don’t care about their subects or hate their jobs.
The homeschool children that I know are completely different. They have wild-eyed dreams and expectations for their futures. They are excited about things that lie ahead and always interested in one thing or another. They have rousing dinnertime discussions and debates. It’s quite a contrast.
Comment by Mimi Rothschild (February 13, 2007 @ 9:34 am )
I know El Guapo! I’m a long-term lurker, Cindy, and it just cracks me up that you used that term. I love it when I’m writing or speaking and a movie reference forces its way in.
Comment by Nuranar (February 13, 2007 @ 9:50 am )
I agree with what you say about inspiring your children to learn, and that it’s the best way to teach.
However, I find it odd that while you seem well-educated (self-taught)you are also close-minded enough to generally exclude a whole group of books simply because they are written by mormons. Why not? Would you also exclude reading books in your education such as the Communist Manifesto? Are there other books you won’t read because of a stereotypical view, or do you only single out mormons? Have you read the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People? That’s written by mormon. Do you use Franklin Day Planners? That was created by a mormon.
That said, I think you’d really like Thomas Jefferson Education, as it expounds on exactly what you said. It also doesn’t talk about any mormon doctrine at all either, that I could tell.
Comment by dmcc (March 10, 2007 @ 2:04 am )
dmcc,
I don’t deny that you are right and that I am inconsistent in this. I have not read 7 Habits nor do I use Franklin planners. There is a certain demonic aspect to Mormonism that distresses me even though I know individual Mormons and like them.
And now I will tell you something completely weird. A Mormon once put a curse on my husband at his workplace. The man using a strange voice and invoking things I won’t mention didn’t even know he had done it.
Mormonism has worked hard to gain a place at the orthodox Christian table, I refuse to accept that they are anything but a cult and a horrible one. That is why I am perhaps harder on Mormons than on other doctrines.
And we do read The Communist Manifesto, in the same way I would read the Book of Mormon.
Comment by Cindy (March 10, 2007 @ 8:29 am )