Written By: Oliver Van Demille
Number of Pages: 141
Number of Stars I'm Giving It: 5
This book is basically a handbook for some homeschooling families.
I had taken a class on this at the homeschool convention
I attented in last June.
It has literally taken me 4 months to read this book.
That may sound like a contradiction since it is less
than 150 pages and I gave it 5 stars.
This book was a little hard to get into and seemed
quite repetitious to me. I just kept picking up other
books instead of finishing this one!
That being said I really agreed with the content.
It is a book that everyone should read
because it will change the way you view education.
It had many worthwhile and memorable quotes such as:
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world"
Ghandi
"You were born with potential.
You were born with goodness and trust.
You were born with ideals and dreams.
You were born with greatness.
You were born with wings.
You are not meant for crawling, so don't.
You have wings.
Learn to use them and fly."
Rumi
And perhaps the one that hit me the hardest and made me think was:
"...the world's greatest civilizations have progressed through this sequence:
from bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage;
from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance;
from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency;
from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependancy;
from dependancy to bondage."
Alexander Tytler
This quote is also in "The 5000 Year Leap" I believe.
Another book I highly recommend reading.
I believe as a people we are now somewhere
around the complacency in that sequence.
It is clear that education reform is desperately
needed in our society.
While I know that the method taught in this book in theory would work
amazingly well, in real life this is not something that would work for us.
I am sure there are many families who find great success with this method.
I am going to incorporate the classics heavily into our curriculum.
While it is a book used a lot by "homeschoolers" this method
could and should be applied, at least in part,
in all schools and at all levels.
Our children need a return to virtue, honesty, mutual respect and
great expectations. By choosing to homeschool,
I feel the weight of my childrens futures more heavily on my shoulders.
It is my responsibility to prepare my chidren for the
trials and joys this life has to offer.
It is both a burden and a blessing,
but I feel a sense of peace and
comfort in my decision.
I am so grateful to live in a country and at a time
where I have the freedom to make this choice!
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