Aug. 10, 2008 - Book Review: When You Rise Up
As the school year draws near I've started my annual "read a good homeschooling book to get pumped up." One of my favorites that I read over and over is "When You Rise Up" by R.C. Sproul, Jr. This book will challenge you on the "why" of your homeschool. R.C. Sproul writes in a very frank manner. I find it refreshing. Some may find it grating. I don't always agree with him but he certainly challenges me.
Our goal in homeschooling informs the homeschooling decisions that we make. From curriculum to outside activities. Should I teach Latin? What about sports? Sproul asserts that our goal should be the following,
"This is our goal - raising God-glorifying children, rather than raising responsible citizens who can manage to get along with the world around them."
~page 17, emphasis mine~
Sounds good, right? I am really, what Christian parent wouldn't want to raise God-glorifying children? But did you read the last part? We want both, don't we? We want it to read "raising God-glorifying children, and raising responsible citizens." However, though we may end up with both, Sproul would argue that our goal should be singular.
He goes on...
Our children are made to seek God, as we are. Therefore, if we are to train our children rightly, we must expunge from our own hearts that overarching agenda of the culture around us, the pursuit of personal peace and happiness.
So I am sometimes troubled by how we homeschoolers measure our success. It seems that every few months the headlines tells us of another triumph, that this homeschooler got a perfect score on the SATs or the other won the national spelling bee, or a third the Young Inventors Contest. And we present this that we are doing a good thing in homeschooling. Of course, there is nothing wrong with homeschoolers' achieving, nor is there anything particularly surprising about it. But these are not our successes.
~page 28
And this is all from Chapter 1. In Chapter 2, he provides his scathing opinion of the public school system and the ridiculous notion of a moral free education. He goes on to assert that parents are God's chosen teachers (Deut. 6) and we do wrong in shirking our responsibilities.
If you have read the book, leave a comment with your thoughts.
Comments
Aug. 11, 2008 - Untitled Comment
Posted by BlessedMamaof3
Haven't read the book, so don't blacklist me for posting a comment anyway! :-)
Thanks for the good idea of reading an encouraging homeschooling book before the new year starts. Great wisdom! Having trouble getting motivated to order my things and get organized, so reading an inspirational homeschooling book to get me pumped up will be a priority.
This sounds like a winner!
Dani
Oct. 20, 2008 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Haflingerhorses
Yes, I have read the book. I love it. Totally. I agree with it, 100%
Antoinette
