An Ideal Curriculum

I've been reading a book by E. G. White titled Education.   I don't know enough about her to make any comment about her different teachings, but I do think she was a very wise and inspired woman.  This book is like poetry and I have found much truth in it.  I wanted to share a quote because it sounded like an ideal curriculum.  She is speaking about the educational atmosphere in Jerusalem at the time when Christ came to earth:

"With the people of that age the value of all things was determined by outward show.  As religion had declined in power, it had increased in pomp.  The educators of the time sought to command respect by display and ostentation..."

Sound familiar?  She continues:

"To all this the life of Jesus presented a marked contrast.  His life demonstrated the worthlessness of those things that men regarded as life's great essentials.  Born amidst surroundings the rudest, sharing a peasant's home, a peasant's fare, a craftsman's occupation, living a life of obscurity, identifying Himself with the world's unknown toilers---amidst these conditions and surroundings---Jesus followed the divine plan of education.  The schools of His time, with their magnifying of things small and their belittling of things great, He did not seek.  His education was gained directly from the Heavenly appointed sources; from useful work, from the study of the Scriptures and of nature, and from the experiences of life---God's lesson books, full of instruction to all who bring to them the willing hand, the seeing eye, and the understanding heart."

I loved this.  It can be overwhelming to think of all the things that I'm supposed to be teaching my children.  I've been pondering if I'm sometimes magnifying small things and belittling great things.

What is most important?  

What do my children really need to know?


Work

I talk a lot about work in my blog, but that is not because I am good at it - it is because I think about it a lot since it is something I need to focus on. It is hard to motivate myself, let alone my children, to work day after day - but it gets easier once it becomes a habit. It is what character is made of.
I was inspired by this quote from Arthur Henry King in Arm the Children:

As a people, we need to understand world culture, and then we need to work to save ourselves and others. An ideal Mormon is not one who spends hours in front of the television set...but one who is active, brisk and busy. There are many good ways to be active: there is work, there is exercise, there is prayer. There is a time for all these things, and if we are doing none of them, then we had better sleep. How much better to sleep than to look at most television, because television detracts from our strength, but sleep at least builds it up. Mormons should not expect to be entertained. Life is too short for that. If they want relaxation, they should look for it not in passive entertainment, but in activities that are different from the ones they have been engaged in."

Scriptures:

I am working on making this much more of a focus in our daily lives. I underestimated the importance of the scriptures in the past. I thought those homeschooling families that made everything about Jesus where narrow minded. I think the media contributed to this outlook. The fact of the matter is that everything is about Christ. It doesn't mean we shouldn't study the myriad of truth out there, but we study it with a purpose. All truth comes from God and we draw closer to him as we seek truth with the intent to do good and not for our own gain. That is what I want for my children. Another great quote from King:

The most important thing we can read to our children is the scriptures.  The scriptures can be a complete education, as has been shown by those in the past who truly educated themselves from the scriptures when they had no other education --- people like John Bunyan, George Fox, Joseph Smith.... all of us can get something if we will but read the scriptures.  And, indeed, by reading the scriptures thoroughly, we can get a better education than we can in any other way.  Self-educated people who have read the scriptures are better educated than someone who has been through BYU or Harvard or Berkeley or wherever because the self-educated have been reading the word of the Lord and concentrating on it.

But, alas, the scriptures no longer occupy the place in our lives that they did with our forebears. We no longer read the scriptures aloud to one another daily in the family, as we should do, year after year, decade after decade, until they have sunk in and become part and parcel of ourselves. They are no longer a stable part of public education, as they were in Britain when I was a child: in my school, we had two scriptural lessons per week and a Bible reading in school assembly every single morning. Even in the Church we often prefer to read about the scriptures rather than to read the scriptures themselves. The result of this is that we do not readily appreciate the scriptures or get out of them all that there is to be got. Fewer and fewer people today are able to feel the scriptures; the haven't been brought up to do it. The don't know what is going on there...

Some may think that the language of the scriptures is too difficult for children, but the language of the scriptures can be built into children's lives if it is part of their daily existence. A family that reads the scriptures together regularly from the time when the oldest child is still an infant in arms will be helping the children, as the grow to learn the language of the scriptures at the same time as they absorb the language of their home and environment..."

Nature

E.G. White describes nature as God's lesson book. I am filled with awe lately as we go outdoors. I notice a flower and I ask myself, "Why did Heavenly Father create this - what did he want me to see, to think, to notice, to learn?" I learn something every time. That is what I want for my children.

"The child who sees his mother with reverent touch lift an early snowdrop to her lips, learns a higher lesson than the 'print-books' can teach. Years hence, when the children are old enough to understand that science itself is in a sense sacred and demands some sacrifices, all the 'common information' they have been gathering until then, and the habits of observation they have acquired, will form a capital groundwork for a scientific education. In the meantime, let them consider the lilies of the field and the fowls of the air." -Charlotte Mason

Life Experience
I have learned much in my own life experience - from my mistakes and from my good choices. I have so much more to learn! I am coming to find that a great deal of our purpose in life is to know the good from the evil. I am really working on this lately - learning from personal revelation. I'm trying to give my children choice so that they may also learn from their own experience to know the good from the evil.  I also love learning from other people's life experiences and insights. There is great power in a story.  One of the best, most insightful talks I have heard on this was by Marlene Peterson at the TJEd forum. You can listen to it for free on her website. Click here and go to the bottom right hand corner and push play under Stories that Build Statesmen. It will be well worth your time!

That's it.  Doesn't that sound like an ideal curriculum?  Math, science, art and music will flow so naturally as we gaze in wonder at the beauty in nature and ponder God's words.   History will be fascinating as we strive to learn from the life experience of those who came before us.  Every subject will be filled with life as we understand it guided by the Source of all truth and light.   Now, to put it into practice....