Posts Tagged homeschooled
Is Influence Inherently Neutral?
Posted by Diane in Post-Trivium Homeschool | High School on October 2nd, 2008
“Ouch! That stung!” Immediately, the homeschooled child withdrew the 9 volt alkaline battery from the tip of her tongue. The shocking buzz was brief but sharp. Both kids collapsed in giggles and wonder at the power of this tiny electric storage cell.
But the real power of this story is not the inherent charge of the battery. Battery power is dwarfed by the enormous potential power of persuasion exercised when one human wants to influence another. One homeschooled child, seeking to influence, coaxes or dares the other homeschooled child to touch the terminal of the battery with a wet tongue. Innocent of the looming hazard, the other child is persuaded to comply. One child influences while the other child is influenced. One leads, and the other follows.
Leaders call people to act a certain way or adopt a new belief. The proposed change can be cultural, moral, economic, political, intellectual, spiritual, or behavioral. Unlike the battery, however, human influence is never neutral. The annals of human history reveal horrendous stories of evil men like Adolf Hitler, Charles Manson, and Osama Bin Laden who influenced willing disciples for wicked purposes. Fear, prejudice, hostility, hatred, and egotism are the frequent tools of the corrupt leader.
Thankfully, history also discloses the multigenerational impact of righteous men and women like the Apostle Paul, Florence Nightengale, and Nelson Mandela. What causes the good leader to choose love, forgiveness, sacrifice, and service as tools of influence?
- Are good men and women genetically predisposed to goodness?
- Does private education make a difference?
- Is a pleasant, affluent lifestyle the key to positively influencing others?
- Will well-meaning parents necessarily raise good kids?
- Does indoctrinating a child in religion predict a future of good decisions?
No. Exceptions can always be presented to refute these generally-accepted platitudes. Although genetics, education, circumstances, parents, and religion do contribute to the shaping of an adult, none of these suggested factors completely explain why a man or woman leads with love, forgiveness, sacrifice, and service. What makes the difference?
belief in the One who raised Jesus of Nazareth from the dead
The answer seems so profoundly simple, but that’s not surprising since “the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:17) A tender-hearted response to the call of Jesus miraculously changes a person from the inside out. It is not that a good person has faith in Jesus. None of us are good before that life-changing encounter. When the living God adopts a new child into His forever family, He freely gives of His Spirit, and it is the constant presence and counsel of His Spirit that moves the man or woman to act as Jesus would: in a life of sacrificial love, forgiveness, and service. Gratitude fuels the words and deeds of the leader who follows Jesus.
But God in His infinite love does not force Himself on any of us. He gently woos and patiently waits for a response. Likewise, parents cannot force salvation upon a homeschooled child. If your heart’s desire is to raise godly leaders who will impact our culture like the Apostle Paul, Florence Nightengale, or Nelson Mandela, you can follow their example. Lead your children in a spirit of love and forgiveness. Show them the delights of sacrifice. Serve others in your family and community. Children learn by imitating, so show them what a life of righteous influence looks like, and when Jesus calls them, He’ll give new purpose and meaning to the influential habits that your homeschooled children are already forming.
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Wisdom, Understanding, and Knowledge
Posted by Diane in Post-Trivium Homeschool | High School on July 21st, 2008
Over the past few posts, we’ve been looking at four unusual home schooling qualities that we hope to foster in our children, especially those older kids who have substantially mastered the three skills of the classical trivium and are ready to advance towards supervised independent study of subjects. What four home schooling qualities are we cultivating? We want our rising classical scholars to:
- Exhibit self-discipline
- Interpret meaning
- Influence culture
Insightful interpretation comes after a full knowledge and understanding of the topic is mastered. You cannot effectively interpret the facts if you know nothing about the underlying causes. The maestro who can bring a musical score to life or the Indy Car driver who can observe the signs of an engine problem have both learned how to interpret meaning because they have exercised self-discipline to become masters of their material. Your home schooling children have been observing and accumulating knowledge for years. Now it’s time to interpret the knowledge.
The Simple Question
How can you explain the home schooling concept of interpretation to your high school teens? Some people use the word interpretation as a synonym for translation as in determining the original intent of a foreign language text or conversation. Others use the word interpretation to describe the process of personalizing a dramatic script for public performance. For classical Christian homeschool students and parents, interpretation boils down to one simple question.
What does it mean?
“It” can be an idea, a spoken word, or a deed. The question is the same whether you are reading a text, listening to a conversation, or watching live and recorded action. What is the meaning of this chapter, this lecture, or this documentary?
To interpret is to understand the central message, themes, or truths
Knowing facts is not enough for our home school kids. Train them to ask the simple question (“what does it mean?”) by consistently asking them to tell you what “it” means as you supervise their work.
The Not-So-Simple Answer
You have enough life experience to know that asking a simple question does not always result in receiving a simple answer. Such is the case with interpretation. The answer is not always clear, nor is the answer always quickly obtained. Sometimes it takes a lot of pondering, exploring, dissecting, and reassembling to figure out the meaning of an idea, word, or deed. Often, especially in the case of the classics, the definitive meaning changes or deepens as each new generation reads and interprets the text while bringing their own perspectives to the material. The classics are considered timeless because they discuss some of the most important questions about being human, so don’t expect simple answers.
For a high school teen tackling the unabridged classics, understanding the central message takes time and careful thought. In the early childhood years, you have given them the three foundational tools so that they can thoughtfully analyze the possible messages and use the English language to effectively communicate their understanding by summarizing an abstract, composing an essay, or narrating the major points.
But effective communication is not a one-way street. If your kids write or narrate their understanding, you have to be available to listen to their points and ask questions about the idea. They need your participation so that they can wrestle with any counterpoints that you might suggest. Conversations are crucial to clear understanding.
Supervise the Quest for Truth
Many Christian home school parents avoid discussing ideas which are controversial. I have a dear friend who protected her homeschooled daughter from certain ideas while she was living at home. When her daughter left for college, her faith was shattered because she internalized these new ideas as truth. This young woman now calls herself an atheist and is outraged that her parents withheld the “truth.” My friend’s heart is broken with grief and self-doubt. Should she have discussed both sides of evolution with her daughter? Would things have turned out differently if she and her husband had seriously talked about the opposing position instead of indignantly dismissing the counterpoints as rubbish?
Take this opportunity, while your kids are still living at home, to shepherd them in the discovery of truth. Introduce them to the classics. Don’t be afraid to talk about all the possibilities of meaning. Help them exercise their thinking skills while under your care. If you have trained them in righteousness and not just religion, then they should be able to distinguish truth from falsehood.
“My child, if you accept my words and treasure up my commandments within you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; if you indeed cry out for insight, and raise your voice for understanding; if you seek it like silver, and search for it as for hidden treasures- then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.
For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk blamelessly, guarding the paths of justice and preserving the way of his faithful ones.
Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path; for wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul; prudence will watch over you; and understanding will guard you.” (Proverbs 2:1-11 NRSV)
You don’t have to share the point of view of every writer or speaker, but you can learn from those with other viewpoints. Most of the people that your adult children will encounter when they leave your safe home will have viewpoints about the meaning of life that are drastically different from your own. Prepare your home school children now, while under your tutelage, to use their language, thinking, and communication skills to interpret meaning, using the classics as their laboratory, so that when they are finally finished homeschooling, they are ready to respond to the world’s biggest questions with wisdom, understanding, and knowledge.
Develop Your Curriculum with Road Maps to Mastery
Posted by Diane in Personalized Homeschool Curriculum on June 30th, 2008
Throughout your career as a homeschooling teacher, you need to assess your child’s mastery of the three skills of the classical trivium (language, thought, and speech) so that you can make necessary adjustments to your customized homeschool curriculum. Weaker areas need more time while skills that have been substantially mastered are checked off the to-do list. Let’s look at the race car analogy again. The Vehicle An Indy Car driver does not learn to drive in an expensive race car. He probably drove his Daddy’s tractor, dirt bike, or old beat up Chevy around the farm before he was invited to drive a million dollar vehicle. Simple concepts precede complex concepts.
We use different vehicles for different purposes. Indy Cars are made to travel on a wide oval track, Formula One cars travel on tight European city streets, and good ‘ole boy stock cars are made for intentional frequent crashes! Mountain bikes have fat tires for scaling rocky uphill terrain. Racing cycles are lightweight with thin tires for speed and manueverability on pavement. Gargantuan cruise ships carry loads of vacationers while shrimp boats are perfect for fishing and hauling seafood. So, too, there are different purposes and rules for using language, thinking critically, and communicating effectively. Whether you are transitioning to authentic classical homeschooling from the public school paradigm or just beginning the homeschooling journey, you need to decide what basic rules of operation you want to teach your child for each particular skill.
What content will you teach your children?
Now if you were expecting me to lay out a full “scope and sequence” for teaching the trivium, I’m sorry to disappoint you. When I go to home school curriculum fairs and see the words “scope and sequence,” my eyes glaze over, and my brain goes numb. In my opinion, scope and sequence is a phrase invented by professional educators to intimidate home school parents into thinking they need experts to tell them what’s best for their children!
Besides, anyone who tells you what to teach by grade level is advocating a public school model, not a classical model. Remember you just need to focus on the big picture: teach three skills! You don’t need a 12 year plan, and in fact, you need frequent pit stops to reevaluate progress, so I suggest you develop a short-term home school curriculum. Personally, I like to reevaluate progress about every 10 to 12 weeks, and I always end up adjusting the course as a result to better meet my goals.
The Skills
In my experience, there are six specific language abilities that every literate home school scholar needs to master: (1) how to read, (2) how to spell, (3) how to write, (4) how to punctuate and capitalize, (5) how to use proper grammar, and (6) how to decipher unfamiliar vocabulary. Use my Road Map to Mastery of Reading Skills to add or subtract content from your personalized homeschool curriculum.
Seven primary thinking abilities require mastery by the literate home school child including (1) how to arrange data according to systems, (2) how to solve problems, (3) how to structure and analyze arguments, (4) how to use the scientific method, (5) how to analyze literature, (6) how to research a topic, and (7) how to listen. My Road Map to Mastery of Thinking Skills will help you decide on appropriate content for the thinking portion of your personalized homeschool curriculum. Finally, I believe there are five communication skills, both oral and written, hat every literate homeschooled child needs to master before moving on to the Socratic Paideia of the high school years: (1) how to maintain a conversation, (2) how to write a paragraph, (3) how to take notes, (4) how to write advanced compositions, and (5) how to give a speech. Adjust your custom homeschool curriculum by using my Road Map to Mastery of Speaking Skills.
Teaching Variety
Each homeschooling family will teach content differently. Let’s take an example. Learning how to research and develop arguments are two components of critical thinking. These skills can be taught in various ways. For instance, my husband, David, is an attorney who often finds himself before a federal judge. Learning how to research and debate a national or international resolution meets my husband’s criteria for teaching research skills, developing an argument, listening well, and giving a speech. Consequently, participation in our local debate club is mandatory for the Lockman kids! Whereas, your husband may be an engineer who believes research is best learned in a lab setting and communicated in a research paper. Tailor the content and methods to best meet your family’s abilities and preferences. Your personalized homeschool curriculum will uniquely meet the needs of each child unlike the canned curriculums that you find with homeschool vendors.
The Audience is Always Right!
Posted by Diane in How to Teach Homeschool Skill 3: SPEAKING on May 26th, 2008
Successful home schooling communicators consider the audience who will read or hear the composition before they begin researching the topic. Think about how a speech on euthanasia might be received by each of these audiences:
- a few medical doctors who work at the local hospice
- a Sunday School class of 11 and 12 year old girls
- a funeral home director and his staff
- a group of state or federal legislators
- a gathering of elderly nursing home residents
- a convention of pharmaceutical reps
Obviously, each of these collective audiences would have a different perspective and perhaps a biased self-interest in advocating or outlawing euthanasia. No two audiences are ever the same. (My homeschooled speech students who compete in different regions of the country know this hard fact!) Excellent public speakers do their best to assess the audience in advance and tailor the message accordingly. If poor or unenlightened choices are made during the content phase, the message may be doomed no matter how brilliant the delivery of the homeschooled youngster. Failure to communicate ultimately rests with the speaker because the audience is always right.
Whether addressing a parent, a small group of friends, a few thousand newsletter subscribers, or an auditorium full of paid attendees, the home schooling speaker and writer is particularly challenged by this compound question:
Who is my audience, and how will I reach them?
Understanding the audience – who they are, how they think and feel, and what they need – is essential to effective communication. This concept applies to all ages and levels of expertise: from the little homeschooled boy who desperately wants another cookie to the grandparent who needs a ride to the pharmacy to the homeschool high school debater who hopes to persuade the judge to vote affirmative. Possible attitudes toward your appeal include:
supportive (they agree with you) apathetic (they don’t care) doubtful (they’re not sure or have serious reservations) hostile (they are actively opposed) knowledgeable (they already know a great deal) unlearned (they know nothing about it) indifferent (the thought never occurred to them)
Knowing some key facts about the audience favorably impacts the message. The home schooling speech or essay can then be crafted in such a way that the ideas have personal meaning and relevance to your unique audience. People pay attention to ideas that compliment their own hopes, needs, and goals.
Savvy home schooling speakers and writers adjust the theme (invention), structure (arrangement), style, vocabulary, length, and delivery to each audience. If addressing a large, heterogeneous audience, more explicit syntax and background information is needed. If addressing a specialized niche (for instance, baseball players), specialized language (like earned run averages) can be used to illuminate.
What do the members of the audience have in common? Do you expect them to be good listeners? Can you estimate collective age, social status, ethnicity, education, and cultural background? Consult others who have spoken before similar audiences in the past, or check out any written records (bylaws, public minutes) that are available about the group. Will the surroundings such as lighting, acoustics, and distance impact their ability to favorably respond to you?
Communication is an exchange of information. The word exchange implies giving and taking. The homeschooled orator or writer gives three things: (1) a debatable idea, (2) the evidentiary proof, and (3) a call to action. The audience receives this offering and responds with verbal, nonverbal, and sometimes written feedback. Nothing is more deflating and discouraging to a homeschooled public speaker or writer than a tepid, unresponsive audience. To improve immediate feedback, consider adding novelty, humor, contrast, movement, suspense, and intensity to command attention. Above all, use your writing and speaking skills to tailor the message to the audience. Certainly, the audience has the right to disagree as in the case of the mom who refuses the second cookie, but if the audience doesn’t understand the idea, plea, argument, or information, somehow the author has failed to communicate. Although it’s hard home schooling work, effective communication rests primarily with the creator of the message because the audience is always right!
Voice and Gestures Personalize Speech Delivery
Posted by Diane in How to Teach Homeschool Skill 3: SPEAKING on May 21st, 2008
The five principles of classical rhetoric provide a template for the homeschooled student to write speeches and essays. In canon one, invention, the homeschooled orator or writer determines the debatable idea, discovers the logical arguments, and develops the thesis for his speech or essay.
Canon two, arrangement, divides the speech or essay into an introduction, a statement of facts, an outline, the proof, the refutation, and a conclusion.
Style canon three, involves determining purpose (instruction, persuasion, or entertainment) and selecting words for greatest effect.
With canon four, memory, the homeschooled orator practices memory techniques, particularly placement of ideas within a room, so that he can enhance his ability to recall the elements of the speech.
Delivery, canon five, is like style in that it determines how something is said. The Greek word for delivery, hypokrisis, translates in English as “acting,” so it’s not surprising that canon five focuses on vocal training and the use of gestures. Writers must make up for the lack of physical delivery in brilliant style.
Effective Use of Voice
You’ve probably heard the legend of the Athenian orator, Demosthenes, who, in order to overcome a severe stutter, purportedly ran along the Greek seashore reciting poetry with pebbles in his mouth. His efforts paid off in the long run as he became an eloquent public speaker. These days the only people who seriously study vocal techniques are singers, actors, and some elite politicians. Singers and actors know that the proper use of the diaphragm results in more oxygen which leads to more volume and pitch control. Likewise, an open larynx and dropped jaw allow the sound to resonate creating a clearer tone as the notes vibrate against the bones of the head. The deliberate homeschool speaker articulates vowels, consonants, and diphthongs for accurate, crisp pronunciation.
An experienced orator often plays with vocal techniques before settling on the final spoken piece. When still preparing the presentation, he experiments with the following elements:
- pitch (the musical tone on a standard scale like the note “middle C”)
- volume (the loudness or softness of sounds)
- pause (the temporary suspension of sound)
- emphasis (the stress placed on certain sounds, words, or phrases)
- rhythm (the ordered alternation between strong and weak elements of sound)
- pace (the speed at which the words are spoken)
- tone (the mood or intensity of the spoken words)
Consider that a homeschool speech is somewhat like a personalized work of art. Each orator will bring unique vocal attributes to the very same text. Use your voice to decorate the content.
Effective Use of Gestures
Now it’s time to involve the entire body as an instrument of communication. The homeschooled speaker should plan physical movement from your head down to your toes. Will you nod your head up and down at key points? Perhaps you will tilt it in a certain manner. Generally, your arms should relax comfortably at your side with fists unclenched unless you are using your arms and hands for specific illustrations. Don’t point your fingers unless you want to threaten your audience.
Decisions need to be made about your legs as well. Will you walk to certain points during the speech to accentuate specific points in the content? Will you adopt a stable stance of good posture for most of the speech?
How will you manage your eyes and face? Eye contact is critical, but don’t flit from person to person. Engage certain members of the audience with a direct gaze.
Consider the overall theme or message that you want to communicate and make sure that your physical delivery is consistent with that message. A ceremonial speech might use a greater variety of casual gestures where a deliberative speech might use less gestures of a more formal nature.
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One of the best ways for the homeschooled speaker to investigate vocal and physical delivery options is to observe other excellent public speakers! Pay attention to the techniques used by political candidates, actors, and soloists, and imitate their best ideas in your next speech. Above all, practice makes perfect, as the old saying goes! Pretty soon you’ll be an excellent homeschooled public speaker or writer!
