Lori and I began our journey as parents just one year ago.
Jocelyn is the delight of our life together. Although life is a daily joy for us with her, we are assuming our roles as parents with soberness and careful consideration. Simple things like choosing children’s books suddenly seem important, requiring our careful analysis. We decided not to buy Disney books or the frivolous, fairytale/princesses type; only books that will teach her about animals and trees and such. We both agree that we do not want any video games or useless distractions in our house. For something to go downhill, little effort is required. We are on an uphill journey, requiring much creativity and effort.
One thing in my training that has proved invaluable to me is a strong work ethic. I want to pass this gift on to my children, so I have done much reflection on how I was trained to work. Many homeschool young men have missed this critical training. Homeschool families are often so caught up with “doing curriculum” that they miss this vital element of life’s assignments. Traditional schooling is mostly 10,000 boring hours of useless facts crammed into a curriculum. Much of what is “learned” is quickly forgotten because it was irrelevant.
I remember that from the time I was 10 until I reached 18 years of age, we would complete our school in the morning, and in the afternoon we worked. Work wasn’t just mindless exertion; it was a time of learning. The skills I learned while working as a young boy are the same skills I use today. These skills are just as important, or maybe more so, than the information I learned while sitting in the house “doing homeschooling” in the mornings. It was the work ethic (not the schoolwork) I learned as a boy that has made me who I am today. It didn’t matter whether we were planting, hoeing, picking, and packing tomatoes for a living or selling books online; we children knew that we were an important part of the work of the family. Working with our parents gave us a real sense of personal accomplishment and a broad vision of what was possible.
In my mid-teens, Dad was wise enough to allow me to hire on with one of the carpenters (Tim) in our church. This gave me the opportunity to learn different trades and to be on the job with other honorable, hardworking men. In order to keep work interesting, Tim would continually provoke us to use our brains. He would drill us on all kinds of facts, from geography to science to music. He turned everything into a contest, which caused me to love quizzes and questions. His constant interrogation created in me a powerful hunger to learn. To know the name of a river in Russia or the height of the highest peak in China, when Tim did NOT know it, was exhilarating. To figure in my head the correct rafter length before he could figure it on the calculator was a real victory. Now, as an adult, I realize that Tim pushed me, not only into learning facts, but into the love of knowledge, all the while teaching me how to make a respectful living with my hands. It was the ultimate classroom.
So, Lori and I also are committed to teach our children to put feet to the knowledge they will accumulate over the years of their childhood. They will not be ignorant of book learning, and just as important, they will not be ignorant of life. And, perhaps best of all, they will be mentally and emotionally equipped to work in a creative manner, enjoying all the challenges of life that God sends their way.
Gabriel Pearl