Monday, November 17, 2008

Breaking A Child's Spirit


I don't think a day has gone by yet since giving birth over 8 years ago to K#1 where I wonder if I am doing a good enough job raising my daughters. With a potential son on the way, I'm thinking even more about this. What will I do with a boy? I don't know how to raise boys? Granted, I didn't know anything about raising girls either before I had K#1. But, I was a girl, so I thought I could figure it out easy enough. Since K#1's birth, I've grown to realize that I don't do a good enough job and never will. I'm not perfect. I can only do my best (and I even stink at doing that some days but that is another blog post) But, with God's strength, wisdom, patience, love, you know where I'm going with that, I can go to bed at night knowing that I haven't completely screwed things up, and, if I have, I have God's grace.

I was just reading an article about Chute's latest book coming out here. The author states that Mr. Chute had a bumper sticker on his truck that read “School Takes 13 Years Because That’s How Long It Takes to Break a Child’s Spirit.” I'm not about to bash the public school system nor private nor any other system. There are some wonder schools out there that are run by wonderful people that give above and beyond of themselves. They all have their flaws too - just like L'Ecole de Pfeiffer does. But that bumper sticker really struck a chord with me. My primary motivation for wanting to homeschool was due to my public schooling years. 13 years I'd prefer to NEVER have to live over again. They were awful - the good times were far and few between. I did have some SUPER teachers that left a lasting impression on me. But the system is geared to teach the majority, as it should have been. But, I was in the minority, and was BORED OUT OF MY GOURD most days and socially, well, let's just not go there. My spirit was definitely broken.

I have to pray regularly that the Lord helps me to not brake the spirit of my own children. They are all 3 different - each as their own personalities that are different - and of course, they each have their own learning styles. Somedays I am not able to customize the day for each of them and they get taught to the majority, but I often try to not make that the case. Praise HIM for Grace!

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