Common Threads in Classics by Sara Sweet

Don’t you love it when common threads emerge among the various topics you’ve been studying? It’s so inspiring to find the ways things fit together and reinforce one another. I’ve lately been studying these are other materials: Steven Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, the Thomas Jefferson Education philosophies (contained in books such as Amy Edward’s LOLIPOP book and the DeMilles’ Leadership Education and Phases of Learning), Parenting:A House United by Nicholeen Peck, Commitment by Vaughn Featherstone, my canons of scripture, and a Positive Parenting class offered by the local LDS Institute presented by Carleen Tanner (whose blog can be found at carleentanner.com).

While there have been many bridges revealed to me over the last few months that connect the various ideas presented in these resources, there is one bridge in particular that has stood out to me as the most traveled between these topics. It is the idea of agency. I believe agency may be the key to unlocking many of the goals I have for my children and for myself so that we are free to develop and improve ourselves.

How easy it is to just answer a question with a straightforward answer, especially when the question is asked by a child. If we are answering with the intent to exhibit our expertise, then an accurate, thorough answer may accomplish that goal. But if our intent in answer the question is to bestow real understanding in the person asking, such an answer may not be most effective. Often the answers we seek for ourselves are the most complete and memorable. Christ often inspired this type of learning in his earthly ministries through the use of parables.

The real question we might ask ourselves is: What are our underlying goals as a parent? As a home educator? What type of child do we want to raise? What strengths to we wish to provide the opportunity for our children to develop? What will give them the wisdom and capacity to conquer challenges when we are not by their side? I submit to you that your worthy goals can only be achieved if you pursue our Heavenly Father’s plan, and not through the pursuit of His (and our) adversary, Lucifer’s plan. The path of compulsion is the path of misery and dissent. The path of free exercise of agency is the path of empowerment and self-refinement. As parents our charge is to provide the opportunities and environment in which our children can become who they are destined to become by their own choosing. By this, we effectively join Our Father’s work to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of men.

This necessity of protecting the right of our children to choose is a necessary component of Nicholeen Peck’s parenting skills. It is the key identified by Sister Tanner to inviting a child to come unto Christ, by encouraging them to interact with their Savior Himself rather than to perform required religious tasks for us. It is the secret to unlocking a love of learning that leads to true scholarship as taught by the DeMilles and Amy Edwards, as opposed to educational compulsion. It is the tool with which we place ourselves securely in Covey’s Circle of Influence, where we can become empowered to act and not to be acted upon.

Most of us must resist our desire to compel our children to act so that we may empower them to act for themselves. We must be creative in the way we structure our home to allow this preferred type of development in our precious, capable children. We are not the result of our circumstances. We are free to act, and to own both our mistakes and triumphs. With that freedom comes the responsibility to be better each day than the previous day, to set our own goals, measure, evaluate, and encourage ourselves along the path of our choosing. It is the way to wisdom, happiness, and success. Let us travel this bridge often and invite our loved ones to come along, that we can discover together our individual and collective joys.

How to Inspire Great Readers

Begin with Basic Tools

Did you know that over 90% of the English language is phonetically correct?  I have personally always struggled with spelling and when I heard this statistic, I wanted proof.  I found “proof” in my favorite resource, Spell to Write and Read.  I cannot give this program enough praise.  It is truly the secret to our families reading success.  You can find it at http://www.bhibooks.net/home.html

A Vacuum of Stimulation

Just like any other habit in your life that you want to create, you must make room for it.   No child would ever pick up a book on their own if they are allowed unlimited time with Television, Movies, Internet, and Video Games. If you want to raise a good reader, it is time to UNPLUG your family and let your children become very, very bored.  This may take some time to adjust too, that I like to refer as “detoxing.”  After a week or two of no electronic stimulation, your children will be craving new ideas – and that is where books come into the picture. 

Besides too much electronic stimulation squishing any desire to read, children can also spend too much time with friends, sports, dance, and other activities such as roaming the neighborhood.  Freeing their schedule up and allowing your children to have hours of “boredom” will highly increase their desire to read quit naturally.

Poetry

Did you know that the average American functions at only a 4^th-grade reading level? This is the level that we read newspapers, hear and understand our media and speak daily to one another.  How do we surpass this average and start thriving at a higher level?  POETRY! Add it to your student’s daily lives through reading it, memorizing it, reciting it, and copying it.  Poetry gives us a superior form of patterns of the English language at all levels.

Time, Not Content

Great mentors help their students establish and follow a consistent schedule, but they don’t micromanage the content.  Indeed, micro-management has become one of the real poisons of modern education. Encourage students to pursue their interests and passions during their study time.  For example:  Set aside a half hour a day for your student to read, but let them choose what it is they read.

Classics, Not Textbooks

No one can deny the value of a great idea well communicated. The inspiration, innovation and ingenuity inherent in great ideas elevate those who study them.  Great ideas are most effectively learned directly from the greatest thinkers, historians, artists, philosophers and prophets, and their original works. Great works inspire greatness, just as mediocre or poor works usually inspire mediocre and poor achievement.  The great accomplishments of humanity are the key to quality education. Study original sources — the intellectual and creative works of the world’s great thinkers, artists, scientists, etc., in the form they were produced.  Refer to the “Fantastic Reads for All Ages”book list for ideas for class titles.  Introduce new classics to your student by reading them aloud together.

Audio Books

A person can often understand concepts and vocabulary at a much higher level and rate when they are listening to a book, instead of reading it.  Listening to audio books is fantastic way to introduce your student to classics, which would be too difficult for them to read independently.  (This really works! My ten-year-old son recently no only listened to unabridged production of Charlotte Bronte’s “Jane Eyre,” he loved it too.)  Listening to great classics improves vocabulary, pronunciation, and comprehension.

Inspire With Your Example

Focus on your education, and invite them along for the ride. Read the classics in all fields, find mentors who inspire and demand quality, structure your days to include study time for yourself, and become a person who inspires great education.  A parent or teacher doesn’t have to be an “expert” to inspire great education (the classics provide the expertise), but he does have to be setting the example.

3 Teaching Goals of Leadership Connections Commonwealth

1.  Help children develop a love for learning.

2.  Build students' confidence in their ability to learn anything with resources and hard work.

3.  Teach strategies and processes for learning - various methods through which information and skills can be learned and even mastered.

(Chapter 3 pg. 35.)