Is There A "Biblical Model" for Education?

I can't add anything to this posting by Generation Cedar. End of debate.

Regarding my opinion that homeschooling is a “better” way…I would hope all of us have strong opinions on “better” ways to do a lot of things–especially important things.  If we don’t ever form carefully studied opinions on “better or worse” ways to do some things, we become dangerously apathetic.  This, I think, is a tragic side-effect of our obsession with “tolerance”.

All things are not equal and to suggest such kills the human spirit, erodes ambition and unravels the very fabric of a society on too many levels to count.

And where it involves the very upbringing and transmitting of our values to the next generation, I’d say we better all study to form VERY strong opinions about such a life-impacting endeavor.

But is homeschooling “biblical”?

First, allow me to define what I mean by that:

Saying a thing is “biblical” does not always mean everything else is “sin”.  I do NOT assert that any form of education besides homeschooling is a sin. (And yet, this crime has been continually ascribed to me.)

To say a thing is “biblical” is simply to say that there are principles in Scripture to guide and offer insight into a particular area.  Just like there are biblical principles for handling money, one is not necessarily in sin for ignoring those principles.  So, if I say, “not co-signing on a loan is biblical” that is a true statement.  But it doesn’t mean that it is sin to co-sign on a loan. There would be a lot less anger if opponents viewed my stance through that lens.

Many people claim “the Bible doesn’t speak on the subject of education” and so we can’t talk in terms of what is “biblical”.  I disagree.

It’s interesting to compare the Greek (pagan) model of education to our current public school model and contrast that to the Hebrew model (practiced by God’s people) upon which the homeschooling model is patterned:

“The Greek model of education shapes our modern American educational theories. Greek education focused on content. Hebrew education focused on relationship. Greek teachers tried to shape students’ minds. Hebrew teachers tried to shape students’ hearts. Greek students were to learn what their teacher knew. Hebrew students were to become what their teacher was. The notion that one can merely teach the mind and body of a child without involving the heart and soul is the method of the Greeks. We see no precedent in Scripture for the teaching of children’s minds for the sake of academia.” http://www.homeschoolbuilding.org/Item.php3?id=2291

In a nutshell, the “biblical model” of education is Hebrew in nature, based primarily on relationships, specifically between parent and child.  And that’s just the starting point…

Read more...

Raising Godly Tomatoes (Follow-up on Ear Trainers)

After Yesterday’s posting on Nancy Campbell’s devotion - Ear Trainers, I got responses like:

“HOW do you teach a child to listen”; 

“But it seems like I got nowhere, my children only worsen”; 

“How do you handle tantrums?”

A few years ago I’ve read To Train Up a Child, by Michael Pearl.  This book gave me some insight, but since I’m a very strict, black or white-kind of a person, the principles in this book, made me harsh in my discipline.  Luckily the Lord gave me a husband with a special, soft side, who gave me some balance!

I figured out that Training takes time and absolute commitment, while staying on my knees before the Lord for wisdom.

About a year ago the Lord lead me to a Book:  To Raise Godly Tomatoes.  The whole book can be read on their website. In the very beginning of her book, Elizabeth identifies four main areas were parents often fail: their priorities, their beliefs with regard to authority, how willing they are to separate their children from the world, and their willingness to reject worldly parenting theories and adopt biblical principles and godly standards instead. 

Immediately I knew my biggest problem was and still is, my priorities. 

I quote:

“...if you work very diligently at it, putting the training and nurturing of your children first all day every day, then the things in this fantasy will become reality, with greater and greater frequency, as your children grow older and older. You cannot enjoy the pleasures of a close, loving relationship with godly, well-behaved children, if you are not willing to make parenting them your top priority. You must view it as your FULL TIME JOB. If you make it so, you will experience these rewards far sooner and in greater quantity that you could have ever dreamed. “

Every time my little ones are spinning out of control, I can trace it back to me getting distracted in my priorities, not putting their training and nurturing first all day every day.  Just this morning I’ve experienced it again.  Just after Christo left for work and while the kitchen had to be cleaned up, little ones had to get dressed, supplements needed to be given, laundry had to be done (you get the picture), I decided I just want to quickly check my e-mails.  It turned out I had to answer two e-mails and within 5 minutes there was havoc in my house.  The little ones started whining, the older children got distracted in their duties and the atmosphere in my home turned south, with me losing my patience and ready to blow it!  

It was only then that I realized it all started with me not taking care of first things first!  I immediately closed my computer (in the middle of answering an e-mail) and took care of the little ones and got the older children on track again.  Half an hour later there was peace in the house. The little ones was safe and secure with me training and nurturing them, knowing all my attention where with them and the older children knew I was watching them closely and I was expecting them to finish their duties and get ready for their education time. Life was back to normal again. Children thrive on routine.

Maybe your biggest problem is authority or separating your children from the world. No matter what, I’m convinced this book will give you insight and wisdom in how to train Godly children with obedient hearts.

Here is a quote from the book that touched me the most at first, when I started reading it.  It could just as well be my call for help:

A Call for Help
Dear Elizabeth,

Help. I'm completely overwhelmed. I feel as though I’ve been doing everything wrong. I have several young children and they are out of control and I'm totally frustrated. I want to change things, but don't know how or where to begin.

Sincerely,
Just One Desperate Mom

Elizabeth’s Response If I could tell the mom who wrote me the letter above, just one very practical thing to help her get going, it would be this: Keep your children close to you one hundred percent of the time. I call this Tomato Staking, and I’ll talk about it more later in the book, but it’s really not much more than what in the olden days of the 50’s, used to be called “watching your children,” with a good dose of fellowship and mentoring added to it. If you do this, you’ll be able to see everything they are doing, and you’ll be able to encourage it or stop it, as desired. You will get to know your children and will learn to recognize and understand what is going on inside their heads and their hearts. You can not know and train a child who is not near enough to you to be known and trained. Keep your children with you. This will provide you with the opportunity to be the kind of parent you’d really like to be.

Your goal should be godly children. That means training their hearts to think like God thinks and their bodies to do what God would do. Keep them right with you (the younger and most untrained ones by your side, the older and better trained ones at least in the same room until they are absolutely trustworthy elsewhere). Love, nurture, encourage and educate them constantly. Teach them who God is and what His ways are like. When they disobey, or display a bad attitude, or do anything a godly child would not do, correct them promptly and require them to repeat what they did in godly manner. Once they have obeyed you with at pleasant attitude (never proceed until they do), go back to loving, nurturing, teaching, mentoring, apprenticing and enjoying your children as you were before. Watch your children.
"The eyes of the LORD are in every place, watching the evil and the good."
- Proverbs 15:3

Focus on the Heart
Sadly, since starting my parenting website in 2002, I have received hundreds of internet appeals like the one above. These parents are sincere in wanting to raise their children for the Lord but don’t know how. The psychology based parenting methods so popular today, are not working for them. Most have floundered for a few years, trying different failing methods, and now find themselves with a small band of rowdy young ones who do not respect them, do not obey them, and are headed toward disaster rather than faith in the living God.

It is my hope that this book will reach and help many young parents in this situation. I have focused primarily on toddlers through grade school aged children, but have touched on older children in later chapters. I have used many of the questions I have received via email or my website message board to help explain the concepts I want to share. I’ve tried to give examples and suggest dialogs where I thought they would be helpful. Although teaching basic obedience is the starting point, the heart is always the real issue. Raising godly children is impossible without knowing how to reach and address their hearts, therefore I have tried to promote a focus on the heart throughout this book, over and above anything else. As you read my suggestions, do not take them as strict step-by-step rules. Instead, try to understand the principles underneath the rules, then be creative and wise as you apply them, so that they will best reach your own child’s heart, turning him toward the Lord and toward you.
"And it shall come about, if you listen obediently to my commandments which I am commanding you today, to love the LORD your God and to serve Him with all your heart and all your soul…”
- Deuteronomy 11:13

I really encourage you to get this book (Christo has now ordered me the book) or read it on line.  There are dozens of golden nuggets in there, from how to take care of newborn babies’ cries, to handling toddler tantrums and sibling rivalry, to take care of Mother's emotions.

With love

Linnie

Please, Listen to my Voice!

I’m currently having a real challenge training my little ones.  Although I have eight children, it is the first time half of them are boys and five years and under!  They are loud, busy, strong willed, demanding and I am stressed out!  

A few days ago, Christo asked me what my biggest source of stress was.  I was pondering on his question the whole day and it hit me while we had supper that night!  The boys were all asking questions and talking simultaneously, making it impossible for any of the other members of the family to have a normal conversation.  

What is the biggest source of my stress?  My boys who are not properly trained to listen to my voice!  I immediately cried out to the Lord and as usual the Lord was faithful to come to my rescue.  

Last night I got this electronic devotion from Nancy Campbell:  Ear Trainers.

May you be blessed by this, as it blessed me and gave me hope - and this is only part 1!

Ear Trainers

Part 1

"The ear that hears the reproof of life abides among the wise. 

He that refuses instruction despises his own soul:
but he that hears reproof gets understanding"
(Proverbs 15:31-32).

What is the first thing we should teach our children? When I ask women this question at seminars they give me lots of very good answers, but usually not the one I am looking for. What is my answer? I believe that the first thing we teach our children is how to listen.

If children do not learn how to hear, they will not learn to obey. If they do not learn to listen, they will not learn to hear the voice of God speaking to them. If they do not learn the art of listening, they will not learn to acquire knowledge.

If they do not learn how to hear, they will not come to faith, because "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God" (Romans 10:17). How you train your children to hear will determine their relationship with God!

It is possible to hear but not really hear. That's why Jesus constantly said, "He that has ears to hear, let him hear." We have to learn to listen with our ears but this takes training.

All parents are ear trainers. By the way we parent; we train our children to have obedient ears-or, disobedient ears, lazy ears, dull ears, defiant ears, resistant ears, gullible ears or even forgetful ears. What kind of ears are you training your children to have? When you ask them to do something but they take no notice of you, you are training them to have defiant ears. When you ask them to do something but they delay doing it, they have dull ears. When you ask them to do something, but they don't bother doing it until you have asked for the sixth time and by now you are shouting, you are telling them that they do not have to obey until the sixth time! You are producing lazy ears. What will God have to do to get their attention?

What kind of ears does God want our children to have?

SHAMA EARS

When God told Solomon that he could ask God for anything he liked, Solomon responded by asking for "an understanding heart" (1 Kings 3: 9). The margin in my Bible gives "hearing" for "understanding." The Hebrew word is shama and means, "to hear with attention and obedience, to give undivided listening attention." This is what Solomon wanted more than anything else, more than riches and fame-a hearing heart. May God give us wisdom to teach our children how to have hearing hearts.

The word shama is synonymous with obedience. Proverbs 25:12 says, "As an ear ring of gold and an ornament of fine gold is a wise reprover to an obedient (shama) ear."

Proverbs 1:5 says, "A wise man will hear, and will increase learning." There is no way we can teach our children to be wise without teaching them to hear with undivided attention.

QASHAV EARS

 When King Saul disobeyed the word of the Lord, the prophet Samuel came to him and said, "Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken (qashav) than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry." (1 Samuel 15:22-23).

The word qashav describes acute hearing. It means "to prick up the ears, sharpening them like an alert animal." Children with qashav ears will be ready for God to use as soldiers in His army.

TACHUS EARS

James 1:19 says, "Let every man be swift (tachus) to hear." This Greek word means, "prompt or ready." Most Bibles translate it as "quick to hear." It describes instant obedience. True hearing results in immediate action. I used to say to my children, "Delayed obedience is disobedience."

How do we teach our children this kind of hearing? As soon as they can understand a command, we teach them to obey that command. But before they can obey, we must make sure that they have heard us. Sometimes, you may have to get your little child to repeat your command to make sure they have heard you. Don't yell commands from another room. Always give commands eye to eye and face to face so that you know your children have heard what you ask them to do. When you know that they have heard, teach them how to obey straight away. Don't accept anything less. This takes time and effort, but remember, mother, you are an ear trainer! This is one of your most important tasks as a parent!

May God help us to be parents who train prompt and obedient hearers.

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL

PRAYER:

"Oh God, please forgive me for not diligently training the ears of my children. Please help me to train children who have obedient ears.  Amen."

AFFIRMATION:

I am a diligent ear trainer!

With love

Linnie