I was able to receive a book entitled God Schooling: How God Intended Children to Learn written by Julie Polanco’s to review this last month. This book took me on a roller coaster ride! It reminded me of what's most important in educating my children and it also came face to face with my long held beliefs. Come along this journey with me from my initial perceptions to my final conclusion.
You won't be disappointed :)
First Impression:
To name a book God Schooling: How God Intended Children to Learn seemed like quite a bold and confident statement to me. It seems gives the impression that within it’s binding God Himself has clearly laid out the one and only way in which we are to school our children. When I received my copy in the mail for this review, I read the synapsis on the back of the book and it mentions including Julie Polanco’s (the author) fifteen years of personal experience homeschooling as well as many Biblical references. I noticed the following statement, “Interspersed throughout the book are quotes from more than 25 experts in child development, psychology, neuroscience, and education.” I wondered if this book would refute modern psychology or align with it.
So my journey through this foundation shaking book began. It challenged me, to say the least. It directly opposed what I held as my core beliefs on what an education for my children should look like and entail. It also kindled in me a confidence in certain areas that we already practiced.
Intrigued?
Read on!
SUMMARY OF CONTENTS:
The basic premise of this book is challenging the “textbook, you-have-to-finish-this-subject-by-this-age-in-this-way” approach to education. It suggests that within a child lies the desire to learn and a curiosity that, when fueled correctly by the parent, will usher a child into all the knowledge they need to maintain before becoming a productive adult in society.
This idea of “Unschooling” and the Charlotte Manson theory of learning is summarized in two principles: (1) Education is an atmosphere, a disciple, a life and (2) Education is the science of relations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_Mason#Teaching_philosophy
Polanco dictates this on page 89, “…whole experiences are best. All of life are inter-related and interdependent. History is not separate from science or geography. Science, technology, and art overlap in a myriad of ways. Math and language are not subjects, but skills used in all areas of life. If we put all the separate areas of study back together again and live life with our eyes and ears fully open to life, there are so many opportunities to learn. If schools tell us we need to know all these separate branches of study to function better in the world, then shouldn't the world itself teach us what we need to know of it if we only pay attention?… The new process of educating children is but a rediscovery of what our forebears knew for ages. Nothing teaches quite so well as real experiences.”
Another great summary of what this book’s main point includes is from page 19 reading, “I have come to believe that the heart of unschooling is freedom within parental limits… Unschooling means allowing your children to choose what they would like to learn about and when and how they would like to do so. It means helping them to achieve their goals by working with them to organize their time. It means respecting their individual developmental time table… Unschooling can be a very deliberate endeavor, not necessarily haphardzard… it casts off grade levels, grades, tests, scopes, and sequence, records, scores, and all other trappings of school that we have been brainwashed into believing are necessary.”
What is this child called to? What natural skills do they have? What are they drawn to? How can I feed this curiosity in them and not hinder it? These are questions that are posed over and over reminding the reader that God has placed His calling on your child’s life and tailoring the child’s education around these things will amount to a much more effective schooling. This I agree with. I do believe God has placed interests, abilities, and things in our children that we can use to hand-craft their education.
I was greatly encouraged and challenged by this book as I stated above. I would like to point out the areas I completely agree with as well as some areas I personally disagree with. I respect this author very much and appreciate her laying out what the Lord’s taught her for her family. I pray my review reflects this respect. Like I said, I agree with some things, and I agree to disagree on others.
It wasn't until page 96 that I really started to grasp the whole picture of what Polanco was trying to get across. It was at this point that my worldview shifted a little bit. I started to comprehend how we may do better by shying away from most traditional school formats and toward a more "free range" schooling model. Like I said, I believe there is a balance still.
It wasn't until page 96 that I really started to grasp the whole picture of what Polanco was trying to get across. It was at this point that my worldview shifted a little bit. I started to comprehend how we may do better by shying away from most traditional school formats and toward a more "free range" schooling model. Like I said, I believe there is a balance still.
Agree :)
Polanco is a huge advocate of waiting until a child develops the correct skills and interest in a subject before teaching it. For reference, there is no sense teaching Algebra at 10 years old and struggling through it within a year’s time frame when the child could master it in 4 months at the age of 12.
I agree with following a child’s timetable as far as developmentally being capable of learning something at a certain age. We saw this in our son Elias. My other children started basic phonics and math at age 4, but Elias didn’t seem to be developmentally ready so we stopped. We picked it back up 6 months later and he loves “school” so much he talks about it when his dad gets home, before he goes to bed and first thing when he wakes up! He’s excelling at things in his own timeframe.
God Schooling stirred up in me some beliefs we have always held when it comes to education. I was so encouraged to include my children in what I’m learning. I LOVE to learn and am always studying new things. I immediately incorporated this idea into my home and it’s been the most freeing, the most entertaining, and most productive thing I’ve done in my homeschool.
I have been studying Jewish culture, feasts, and traditions and decided to get the kids on board! We got mounds of books and followed endless recipes making Challah breads, cookies, and soups, we sang songs, watched movies, and tried some new dances. Now we are going to work on remineralizing our teeth and ordered books about the composition of our teeth. We are going to study bacteria, germs, fermented food and bone broth! This beats sticking to a science, health, or cultural studies curriculum any day!
Another belief that Polanco maintains is that learning through hands on experiences makes the education something the child owns. It becomes a part of them. It’s not something they read about. It’s something they experienced. They didn’t just read about fish, they caught one and held it! She says on pages 63-64 that getting a child under the age of eight to book learn is “a waste of time.” Now, while I don't completely agree with that, she is illustrating the point that tuning into their emotions and concrete life experiences is better then anything else. Swimming in a pond of fish teaches the child that fish live in water, have fins that move them, they eat worms, can be bated, can be caught, gutted, cooked, eaten… all things that a book would fail to teach them properly.
She values teaching hard work, character, and a relationship with God above book knowledge with I 100 % agree with.
A home educated teenager is freed up to do everything an adult does giving them a sense of responsibility and a feeling that they are "needed" for something bigger then themselves. Teens that are able to use their young adult lives refining skills that will mature them for real life is very crucial and not offered in traditional public school formats.
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| Noticed an incorrect reference. The verse is supposed to be Ephesians 4:28. |
Agree to Disagree :)
One concept I had a hard time truly buying into was in Chapter 2: Motivation & Excellence. The principle in this chapter was that a child that is internally motivated to learn or accomplish something is far better then externally motivated. Polanco goes as far to say that external motivation is not a good thing at all. She says on page 26, “Children who do things just to please adults possess a weakened character… children who only do right because they are afraid of being punished will often do wrong when there is no threat of punishment. It is the same with education.”
Polanco gives many personal examples of how the ideas she has played out in her homeschool. I want to give examples of my standpoint on this theory of external motivation. I hated history. I thought it was the most boring subject ever. Until I got into high school and had a teacher that had us do an enormous amount of homework. I fell in LOVE with history and every elective class I took in college was historical or archeologically based. This happened to me with government and civics as well. I despised the subject until I was assigned one of the more strict teachers in our school. His grading strategy was much more difficult then the other teachers, he required more homework, and had more required “extra” activities such as watching political debates and researching how and who to vote for in a mock election. I am so grateful for this external motivation I had!
I was also involved in a program called Bible quizzing. We memorized entire books of the Bible word for word so that we could compete against other middle schoolers from other churches in hopes of winning trophies. This has benefited me more then I can put to words! Polanco especially speaks against this type of external motivation when it comes to memorizing scripture. She calls it bribery and says it is Biblically wrong. I agree to disagree on this perception.
I have a child that cried and cried and hated handwriting when she was four years old; now at 5 1/2, she has better cursive then anyone in our family! She loves handwriting so much it’s her first subject done. She writes everything in cursive. She had no idea it was a passion until I externally motived her with a competition amongst my children: gum of the day! Whoever had the best handwriting got a piece of gum. Even though we stopped rewarding for the best handwriting, all my children LOVE and take pride in their beautifully neat handwriting.
In God Schooling, Polanco uses many modern psychological opinions that are not Bible-based, but based on modern schools of thought. She mentions forcing a child to do something academically is similar to “despising him” and is driven from our idea that “children are insignificant, not worthy of respect, lower then adults, or are not important.” (page 15). Telling a child to do something that is more fruitful for them is not wrong, nor is it despising him. It is parenting. My child is not going to always want to do handwriting, math, or even read their Bible over watching TV or reading mystery novels. But, as a parent, I need to teach my children to overcome their flesh and discipline their bodies and minds to do what is fruitful for them, not necessarily only what interests them.
Polanco makes many blanket statements in her book that assumes the application to all people or citations. One example, although there are a number of them, is right in the beginning is on page 6 when she is describing a mom who has made the statement that their child is still in the third grade during the summer because they didn’t finish their curriculum. Her statement is, “These moms have become slaves to their chosen curriculum; it has becomes their religion.” This statement seems to assume what is going on in the heart of the homeschooling mom. In my opinion, just because someone sticks with a curriculum from start to finish doesn't mean they are idolaters.
One last thing I wanted to note: She mentions having her child Tiger care for her younger siblings as a bad thing on page 53-54. Her statement says that she did this “at a younger age than she really should have.” Having a husband that is from a country outside of the Untied States I have a well-rounded perspective on this topic. In Africa, the young children carry a lot of responsibility when it comes to caring for the house, the family, and especially younger siblings. In our home our children can and actively do everything that our babies need save nursing or bathing them. This has never hurt them in any was. Quite the opposite. My children think of other’s needs much more then their friends who aren’t expected to practice caring for their younger siblings.
I told you this book challenged me right?!?
Recommend?
ABSOLUTLEY!
Although I disagree with a number of things, I see the author’s heart and passion to seek the Lord in all areas of her life, specifically in homeschooling. This book will challenge any reader to re-evaluate what they hold onto as “the one and only way to educate”. It will either solidify what you believe or it will alter the way you look at “education” and encourage you to look at schooling as a way of life. I believe every family is called to a different way of life and educating and, therefore, am encouraged by this book to press into what God has called our family to do.
Even though Polanco shares different beliefs and views then my family and I, I respect her and her relationship with the Lord and would challenge my readers to dig into the Bible and see exactly what God intended for us to raise our kids.
The best resource we have on God Schooling is simply the Bible :)
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