Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Philosophy of Education

One of my college classes was "History and Philosophy of Education."  It was a night class, and the only thing I actually remember is "Every pizza has a porpoise" ...er..."Every teacher has a purpose."  (The professor had a rather difficult accent.)  So, because the class was so obviously useful, I am now trying to sift through all of the possible philosophies to arrive at the correct one to use with my children in our homeschool.  This has been an ongoing thing for the past two years, and I am still working on it.

I had settled rather comfortably into the "Charlotte Mason" approach.  Learning through literature seems to suit both my son and I, and the idea of learning to focus hard for a short time has been helpful to his attention span, when I remember to do it.  However, I was reading one of the books from her Homeschooling Series last night, and realized that she was promoting Humanism.  Huh.  Now, you have to know that until recently, I would have agreed with a humanistic philosophy.  I attended public schools, and a state university, and was quite comfortable with the idea.  The problem is, that it is not meshing with what I have been learning about God.  So, I put down the book, and started wondering, again, where to start.

I've determined that I need to be following a Biblical approach.  The question is, how, and which one?  A quick look at homeschool curricula reveals a plethora of possibilities.  Because the homeschooling movement is pretty heavily populated with Christian parents, there are plenty of "Christian" and "Bible-based" methods out there.  You can choose workbooks, textbooks, unit studies, classical, etc., etc., etc.  There are the proponents of early education, and the later-is-better enthusiasts.

So, I am on my knees.  Not right now, but before, literally.  I am feeling a bit overwhelmed, and have decided the only thing to do at this point is to pray.  Isn't it funny how that is usually the last resort?  Yep.  Another thing I need to work on!  Maybe this is the natural consequence of starting our Family Bible Time.  Well, whatever it is, I'm thinking I might need knee pads after a while!

1 comment:

  1. Humanism? *shudders*. lol @ needing knee pads. You'll definitely get the answers you're looking for on those knees so you may want to get a dozen of those :)

    ReplyDelete

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