Homeschooling and the Essence of Time.
Homeschooling and the Essence of Time.
Philosophical preparation and utilizing a classical history from three authors.
So, let’s quickly review. This school year we’ve seen fake shootings, fake bomb threats, and ridiculous media attention as a brainwashed public drinks these staged events in like a cold glass of water on a hot day. We’ve seen politicians inflate and emotionally react to these staged events as if they’re real, while either believing the lie or willfully participating in the fabrication in order to move the American public closer to a “police state,” where our reliance on government outweighs our reliance on our own minds. This is not only disgusting, but it perpetuates the status quo. We’ve also seen the “tranny train” leave the station time after time, as American school officials push these pedophilic agendas on minors without any repercussion.
So, my question is a rhetorical one, but who actually thinks any learning about the real world we live in is taking place within these school environments?
As I’ve said before on my show (American Education FM), homeschooling families are laughing ever single time these stories hit the news, as the predictable reactionary response occurs within American schools. Homeschooling families are so far removed from the chaotic false reality that takes place on a daily basis with American K12 schools, that many feel pity for those who still attend and remain brainwashed.
Now, as the 2022-2023 school year comes to a close, it would behoove any family to take this opportunity to learn about how to homeschool and make the necessary plans and adjustments to do so at the conclusion of this current school year. With the Summer fast approaching, the time to read about homeschooling, it’s personal philosophies, and what real education was always intended to be, is now at hand.
As I’m known for saying; “If you can read a write, you can teach yourself.” This is applicable to all humans regardless of the subject, and parents have a responsibility to lead by an example that their children should follow. If a parent can do it, so can their children when it comes to their own education within a homeschooling environment.
I’ve had the absolute pleasure of talking with adults who homeschooled when they themselves were children, parents who currently homeschool their children now and those who are continuously learning about it. Their experiences have educated me on a great and many things regarding the importance of homeschooling, and how this is the only way forward within a civilized society in America.
Cicily Hellekson is one such person who has taught me a great deal about homeschooling. She was once an elementary school teacher and has left the profession to homeschool her two children. She quit teaching during the plandemic nonsense, as many within K12 education decided to leave the profession for the moral high-ground. With every step she makes in educating herself about how to homeschool her two children, she has come to the realization that the way she was taught to teach elementary school children in American schools—was without a doubt the wrong way of doing things. The correct way, is in fact, far more simple and far more effective, and she has told me as much. Cicily has stated the following:
“I never would have thought I would be telling people to homeschool. But a new seed has been planted in my life. I’ve just been telling people that I had a purpose. I fulfilled that purpose for 8.5 years, and now I have a new purpose!”
I will be describing three authors and their books (two of which are a book series) and two authors (Mason and Macaulay) have been shared with me by Cicily herself. I will also link a website to a downloadable PDF at the conclusion, that includes homeschooling curriculums and resources for those who are considering homeschooling for the upcoming year.
Keep this simple fact in mind: I have yet to meet anyone who has homeschooled or is currently homeschooling their children, and regrets it.
The first resource to become acquainted with, which involves the process of not only homeschooling, but revisiting a correct frame-of-mind in the philosophy of the parent first, and then that of their children, involves the work of Charlotte Mason.
As stated in Wikipedia, regarding Charlotte Mason’s philosophy;
"Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life" and "Education is the science of relations." She believed that children were born persons and should be respected as such; they should also be taught the Way of the Will and the Way of Reason. Her motto for students was "I am, I can, I ought, I will.” According to Mason, children have a natural love for learning and she devised strategies that facilitated this through the creation of a positive learning atmosphere. She believed that children should be fed upon the best ideas, which she called 'mind-food.' She believed even the youngest children should be given 'ideas, clothed upon with facts' as they occur, inspiring tales, and worthy thoughts. Her approach is child-centred and is focused on liberal arts. It also emphasizes more on concepts (ideas) than on facts. Today, one can find Charlotte Mason inspired homeschool curriculums in many subject areas including maths and science. Mason placed great emphasis on the reading of high-quality literature, and coined the phrase "living books" to denote those writings that "spark the imagination of the child through the subject matter."
Having personally read much of her first book in her series titled, Home Education, I can tell you that I will be purchasing the other books and reading them as soon as I can. After initially just reading the Preface to Mason’s book Home Education, I fell in love with it and her work, immediately.
Charlotte Mason’s entire book series includes the following titles;
Volume 1: Home Education
Volume 2: Parents and Children
Volume 3: School Education
Volume 4: Ourselves
Volume 5: Formation of Character
Volume 6: A Philosophy of Education
Her work has also stretched to what is called Ambleside Online.
“A curriculum that is provided free for the private use of homeschoolers worldwide. They are a group of international Christian homeschooling mothers who have joined together to study and propose an educational plan of excellence 'for the children's sake.' As others begin to implement this educational plan, it is our fervent hope that it brings 'life' to those who do so.” https://www.amblesideonline.org/index.
This is named after the town where she moved to in England, called Ambleside, in 1891, where she established the House of Education, a training school for governesses and others working with young children.
I highly recommend these books for parents to read, as they will convince you in very short order, how little education your children are receiving within the American K12 brick-and-mortar landscape, and how your own frame of mind needs to change first in order to transform yourself, your family and your children for the better.
They’re also available for download in PDF a the following website: https://simplycharlottemason.com/store/home-education-charlotte-masons-original-home-schooling-series-volume-1/
“This idea of all education springing from and resting upon our relation to Almighty God-we do not merely give a religious education because that would seem to imply the possibility of some other education, a secular education, for example. But we hold that all education is divine, that every good gift of knowledge and insight comes from above, that the Lord the Holy Spirit is the supreme educator of mankind, and that the culmination of all education (which may at the same time be reached by a little child) is that personal knowledge of and intimacy with God in which our being finds its fullest perfection.”
― Charlotte Mason
The second resource I recommend people become acquainted with, is the work of Susan Schaeffer Macaulay. Macaulay was a student of the work of Charlotte Mason and she has carried on the messages that Charlotte Mason set forth for future generations. In 1984, she published the book, For the Children’s Sake.
As Macaulay references Charlotte Mason’s philosophies throughout her text, Macaulay stated the following herself within her book, For Children’s Sake;
“Charlotte Mason not only said she treasured the minds of children, but she acted upon that belief, [she] enjoyed sharing the good things of life with the eager minds of children. She dealt with them on an eye-to-eye level … delighting in introducing them to all aspects of reality with a positive joy. She delighted in their separate individuality.”
“It does not mean that adults think of a child as a blank sheet of paper on which they imprint their ideas, impressions, and knowledge. Neither does it mean leaving the child unattended like a weed growing in a sidewalk. It is a balanced understanding of education as the provision of possibilities for a person to build relationships with a vast number of things and thoughts.”
“Don't try to get him to "see everything" [at an art museum]. You'll give him pictorial indigestion. One sure way of making a person hate apples is to take him to an orchard at 9:00 a.m. and force feed him apples until noon! Indeed, the revulsion may last a lifetime. So it is with pictures and museums.”
“There is a danger in these days of much educational effort that children’s play should be crowded out [or what is the same thing] should be prescribed for and arranged until there is no more freedom of choice about play than about work. We do not say a word against the educational value of games (such as football, basketball, etc.) … but organized games are not play in the sense we have in view. Boys and girls must have time to invent episodes, carry on adventures, live heroic lives, lay sieges and carry forts, even if the fortress be an old armchair; and in these affairs the elders must neither meddle nor make.”
― Susan Schaeffer Macaulay, For the Children’s Sake.
Susan Schaeffer Macaulay’s books, articles and interviews can be found online and where books are sold.
Finally, I highly recommend the books by William McGuffey known as the McGuffey Readers, in particular when it comes to teaching a child how to read, comprehend, write and spell. Having used these hardback books personally with my own niece, she went from being illiterate, to being able to spell, write and read out loud and on her own with comprehension, within two weeks.
As stated on Wikipedia;
“The Eclectic Readers (commonly, but informally known as the McGuffey Readers) were a series of graded primers for grade levels 1–6. They were widely used as textbooks in American schools from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century, and are still used today in some private schools and homeschooling.
The editors of the Readers were brothers William Holmes McGuffey and Alexander Hamilton McGuffey. William created the first four readers and Alexander McGuffey created the fifth and sixth reader. About 120 million copies of McGuffey's Readers were sold between 1836 and 1960, placing its sales in a category with the Bible and Webster’s Dictionary. Since 1961, they have continued to sell at a rate of some 30,000 copies a year. Only the Ray's Arithmetic series (1834–1913) matched it in popularity, written by a colleague of McGuffey's and begun in 1834.
Most schools of the 19th century used only the first two in the series of McGuffey's four readers. The first Reader taught reading by using the phonics method, the identification of letters and their arrangement into words, and aided with slate work (writing). The second Reader was used once students could read. It helped them to understand the meaning of sentences, while providing vivid stories which children could remember. The third Reader taught the definitions of words and was written at a level equivalent to the modern 5th or 6th grade. The fourth Reader was written for the highest levels of ability on the grammar school level.
McGuffey's Readers were among the first textbooks in the United States designed to be increasingly challenging with each volume. They used word repetition in the text as a learning tool, developing reading skills by challenging students using the books. Sounding-out, enunciation, and accents were emphasized. Colonial-era texts had offered dull lists of 20 to 100 new words per page for memorization. In contrast, McGuffey used new vocabulary words in the context of real literature, gradually introducing new words and carefully repeating the old.
McGuffey believed that teachers, as well as their students, should study the lessons and suggested that they read aloud to their classes. He also listed questions after each story, for he believed that asking questions was critical for a teacher to give instruction. The Readers emphasized spelling, vocabulary, and formal public speaking, which was a more common requirement in 19th-century America than today.
Unfortunately, you will not find McGuffey Readers within elementary classrooms nor school libraries in America today. In fact, William McGuffey’s work is not even taught within Ohio universities, nor within the university buildings named after him that house teacher-education students who claim to be interested in the education of American youth.
“The Christian religion is the religion of our country. From it are derived our nation, on the character of God, on the great moral Governor of the universe. On its doctrines are founded the peculiarities of our free Institutions. From no source has this author drawn more conspicuously than from the sacred Scriptures. From all these extracts from the Bible, I make no apology.”
― William Holmes McGuffey
In conclusion, the resources above are a foundation on which to start. In order for a parent to properly teach their own children, a parent has the responsibility to learn from the best and those who mastered the subject of educating youth over a century ago, and long before that, dating back to when Jesus Christ walked the Earth.
The books above will cleanse your soul of the misfortunes that many of us had when it came to our exposure to American public, private and charter school education. With God at the forefront of the above authors’ works, you can rest assured that you’re in good hands.
The wheel never needed to be reinvented. Only the corrupt attempt to reinvent the wheel, and the insane fail to learn from their persistent mistakes and unnecessary reinvention. Now, it’s time to unlearn the fallacies of the current corrupt system and pass true guidance on to the children of America within homeschooling environments.
Please take the time this Summer to educate yourself on these texts so that your children never have to be subjected to the poisonous environment that is the American K12 school system, ever again. It’s time to dig up the old seeds, cast them aside, and plant a new seed and let it take root. The time to homeschool is now, and if a child can read and write—they can teach themselves.
Homeschooling Resources PDF: https://storage.googleapis.com/production-websitebuilder-v1-0-1/601/146601/Q3I9XbJl/d907e1d807a74ec1a4fb82f826d09a6a?fileName=NEWHomeschoolingResources.pdf
BIO: Dr. Sean M. Brooks is the host of the podcast American Education FM and the author of several books including; The Unmasking of American Schools: The Sanctioned Abuse of Americas Teachers and Students.