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Pearls And Homeschooling


debrand

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The Pearls are quick to put on the mantle of homsechool pioneers. Like many of their articles, not every thing that they write is wrong. The tiny bits of good advice might be why some families follow the Pearls. However, everything good that they discuss can be found on other sites without the additional violence or thought control.

In fairness, I have to include that one of their children, Rebekah did attend a small Bible College where she studied Linguistics(I think). I am not sure about the other kids. However, I don't think that any of their children could get into a state university.

What interested me were ideas, concepts, possibilities, and communication. What I had to learn in school were facts, spelling, and math. Those I could do without. So when my children came along, I decided to teach them what I loved. And they loved to learn. Only one in five could spell, but I thought, “No matter.†Well, it does matter—just ask Shoshanna, who owns The Bulk Herb Store and writes professionally. Or you can ask Nathan, who also is a teacher and writer. And if they don’t convince you, ask Shalom. She has a very popular blog—NGJ’s most popular BY FAR—and her spelling is poor. So not being able to spell is a problem but not a life issue. There is a difference.

I will admit that my oldest is a horrible speller. He has a learning disorder and got help in public school but he is aware of his problem. Some people are just poor spellers and that doesn't make them stupid. However, some of the boring facts did help me as I grew older. Kids need both ideas and facts. You can't know if your ideas will work unless you can back them up with facts. By the way, I don't think that Nathan is a teacher in the sense that we would think of a teacher. I don't think that her son has a teaching degree

I didn’t care if they were up on history as long as they could read history and have an intelligent conversation about why Napoleon’s strategy was faulty or why Hitler was allowed a reign of terror over so many without anyone taking him down, and how God judged the Germans for allowing such a man to come to power. I wanted them to think about consequences—eternal consequences on nations, families, and individuals.

How can you discuss history if you don't know about it? It would be far more productive to understand the conditions that led to Hitler's acceptance so that we don't repeat them again. If god punished the Germans for allowing Hitler to come to power, why didn't he punish them BEFORE so many people died?

http://nogreaterjoy.org/articles/answer ... position-1

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The Pearls are quick to put on the mantle of homsechool pioneers. Like many of their articles, not every thing that they write is wrong. The tiny bits of good advice might be why some families follow the Pearls. However, everything good that they discuss can be found on other sites without the additional violence or thought control.

In fairness, I have to include that one of their children, Rebekah did attend a small Bible College where she studied Linguistics(I think). I am not sure about the other kids. However, I don't think that any of their children could get into a state university.

I will admit that my oldest is a horrible speller. He has a learning disorder and got help in public school but he is aware of his problem. Some people are just poor spellers and that doesn't make them stupid. However, some of the boring facts did help me as I grew older. Kids need both ideas and facts. You can't know if your ideas will work unless you can back them up with facts. By the way, I don't think that Nathan is a teacher in the sense that we would think of a teacher. I don't think that her son has a teaching degree

How can you discuss history if you don't know about it? It would be far more productive to understand the conditions that led to Hitler's acceptance so that we don't repeat them again. If god punished the Germans for allowing Hitler to come to power, why didn't he punish them BEFORE so many people died?

http://nogreaterjoy.org/articles/answer ... position-1

Well, when one writes a lot, every now an there might be something right.

As for the rest of your post, I agree!

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What I did 35 years ago as a pioneer homeschool mom was set up a 6,000-year timeline, a map of the world, and a place to pin stuff up on the wall.

Big chunk of epic fail right there, Debi.

Also, your comments on spelling are an interesting contrast to a piece your oldest daughter, Rebekah, wrote a few years ago (homeeducator.com/FamilyTimes/articles/12-1article1.htm):

One of those poor, mistreated, under-socialized, restricted and downtrodden homeschoolers would like to have a word. A correctly spelled word, mind you.

[ETA]

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The thing is, when homeschooling comes up the Pearls are *never* mentioned as being some of the "pioneers" of the movement like they claim they are. The Moores, John Gatto Taylor, Susan Wise Bauer and her mother Jessie Wise, all get named, but I've never heard of the Pearls being considered as anything in the homeschool community.

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Big chunk of epic fail right there, Debi.

Also, your comments on spelling are an interesting contrast to a piece your oldest daughter, Rebekah, wrote a few years ago (homeeducator.com/FamilyTimes/articles/12-1article1.htm):

"One of those poor, mistreated, under-socialized, restricted and downtrodden homeschoolers would like to have a word. A correctly spelled word, mind you."

I missed the 6,000 year timeline. And I agree with Sobeknofret, the Pearls aren't mentioned as homeschooling pioneers

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They only like homeschooling so much because theres less chance of the kid beating up the baby dolls in kindergarten and the teachers wondering why, or a kid telling the teacher "Please dont tell my dad I was naughty, he will hit me when I get home" or learning that loving parents dont hit their kids.

What interested me were ideas, concepts, possibilities, and communication. What I had to learn in school were facts, spelling, and math. Those I could do without. So when my children came along, I decided to teach them what I loved. And they loved to learn. Only one in five could spell, but I thought, “No matter.†Well, it does matter—just ask Shoshanna, who owns The Bulk Herb Store and writes professionally. Or you can ask Nathan, who also is a teacher and writer. And if they don’t convince you, ask Shalom. She has a very popular blog—NGJ’s most popular BY FAR—and her spelling is poor. So not being able to spell is a problem but not a life issue. There is a difference.

That is awful.

Facts, spelling and math are some of the most important things you learn at school. The only reason that she thinks she can do without is because she is a submissive helpmeet whos only skill is in producing babies (but not parenting. shes a crappy parent.)

Yes, one of my closest friends has very poor spelling. She can write really well, even writing stories that are imaginative and better written than the average fundie SAHD's writing, and shes quite an intelligent person. The only difference with this is that she actually cares that her spelling isnt very good and uses a spell checker. She also has trouble because she is dyslexic, not because her parents (or teachers, she wasnt homeschooled) didnt bother teaching her because they felt it wasnt important.

Kids have a right to actually be educated and have an education that is as good or better than public schools have.

Also the world isnt 6000 years old. How can anyone believe that? I imagine their history does not include any of the important historical periods before 6000 years ago then?

Facts are important. For this reason. The world being 6000 years old is not a fact and isnt even in the Bible.

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As ever, Debrand, thanks for bringing more of the Pearls crap to light.

Only one in five could spell, but I thought, “No matter.†Well, it does matter—just ask Shoshanna, who owns The Bulk Herb Store and writes professionally. Or you can ask Nathan, who also is a teacher and writer. And if they don’t convince you, ask Shalom. She has a very popular blog—NGJ’s most popular BY FAR—and her spelling is poor. So not being able to spell is a problem but not a life issue. There is a difference.

OK, Debi -- make up your mind. Does it matter or doesn't it? What the hell does "a problem but not a life issue" even mean?

In the sentence about Shalom's blog, I guess she's trying to make the point that it is popular in spite of her poor spelling. But it struck me as very odd -- I'd think that the author of a popular blog would feel the urge to write correctly, and make sure she is understood.

Not to mention that, pointing out that a blog is popular on one's parents' site is hardly a claim of success. It's not like she has achieved something major in a setting where people are impartial.

As ever, these people see the world as black and white. It's either learn basics or learn concepts. Funny, my education and my own interest gave me both. It is possible, you know, Debi.

Not to mention, having people as rigid as the Pearls claim they were teaching kids how to think, and learn how to learn, is a level of bullshit so phenomenal that I can't even wrap my mind around it.

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In order to understand and apply your own ideas, you need to know the facts. Taking the Hitler example, ask me to write an essay on attitudes in Germany post -WWI and their contribution to the rise of the Nazis, and despite being an excellent thinker I couldn't do it. However, give me a week and some history books and I'll find out the facts, read at least two competing viewpoints, digest it all of that and then come back to you with my own interpretation and argument (without spelling errors).

While I think the upper levels of Blooms taxonomy are neglected in many schools, that doesn't mean it's better to chop the bottom half off.

http://juliaec.wordpress.com/2011/03/23 ... lassrooms/

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I missed the 6,000 year timeline. And I agree with Sobeknofret, the Pearls aren't mentioned as homeschooling pioneers

This one time, I set up a 4.5 billion year timeline. You know what? Houses have too many doors and windows in them.

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It's amazing that she can fit all the important historical events of all the regions and cultures of the world on one 6,000 year timeline.

Oh wait, never mind, only Western civ matters, and only the Biblical version of the story. :roll:

Dumbfucks begetting more dumbfucks. Sad.

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I would much rather have the gift of writing than the discipline of good spelling.

Because being able to write well is a gift rather than something that is practiced and worked on. :roll:

I will say that I am a terrible speller- but not for lack of being drilled and practicing it. I simply can't visualize words in my head. There is a big difference between knowing that one is not naturally inclined at something and simply never practicing it. Somehow I doubt the Pearl children ever had a chance to be good spellers. I suppose they are also naturally bad at math as well. ;)

we didn’t care about keeping up with the Joneses’ school grades. . . We wanted them to make decisions based on conviction.

So. . . indoctrination rather than education. I doubt they're talking about the child's own convictions.

Another reason I valued teaching concepts and ideas rather than facts was because I wanted my kids to be leaders. . .

Idea = opinion = not fact

You know, many of my professors didn't care so much about the facts we learned but rather the processes we learned: constructing arguments, researching, distilling other's arguments, setting aside our own judgment to understand and argue from a different position, etc. It's not just about facts, but many of those activities do involve facts.

Sitting down to a stack of boring books and learning a pile of facts you don’t care about is for Nazis, not homeschoolers.

And this is why some people study history- so they don't look ridiculous when referencing the past.

he never had a history textbook while being homeschooled. . . we never—not one time—went through a science curriculum book. Never.

Not really something to brag about.

Go to the library every week and check out books that pertain to your week’s project. Over the years we studied volcanoes, spiders, Indians, herbs, wind currents, trees, and hundreds of other interesting topics.

I wonder how they did that without science books. :lol:

I did that when I was a kid because I loved everything sea and space. But that never counted for school.

Also, Indians? Somehow I suspect she didn't have a particular in the country of India. :doh:

Homeschooling and learning can and should be a real pleasure for the whole gang. It is your job to make sure it is.

Because education should be fun! not a serious pursuit. Because it's not serious. Ultimately spelling and history are not as important as having fun.

And if you and your many children are not having fun while crowded into a small space competing for attention to a subject, and you just want to scream because your oldest has no interest in reading- it's all your fault. You're a terrible parent. :x

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Also wondering, why is it that discipline, doing what you're told without question, sitting still, memorizing the Bible, etc. are all SO.IMPORTANT111!!!1, but discipline and hard work and doing boring stuff to get to the fun stuff is OMGFASCISM when when it comes to education. In that area, many fundies are suddenly all "but it's unnatural for kids to sit still for so many hours!" and "it has to be FUN!" When else do they ever give a flying fuck if the kids are bored, uncomfortable, or unstimulated? All this rhetoric seems to me to be there just to hide the fact that many fundie moms of many are just plain too worn out (and, for second-gen fundie moms, too uneducated themselves) to effectively teach their kids, so schooling takes a backseat and is simply fitted in wherever and whenever. Then they justify it with either "education isn't important, character/Bible/etc. is!" or "book learning is pointless and kids won't get anything out of it anyway, or some combo of the two.

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I think its an excuse for keeping their followers uneducated so theyre too stupid to question things and have no chance of living on the outside world if they escape. If the kids can barely read and write and have no education beyond 3rd grade, theyre easy to control.

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We were a generation who grew up in the hippy age, and we wanted our children to be freethinkers.

Wonder how much "free thinking" is Rebekah Anast doing these days while having 7+ kids with Gabriel Anast and living hand-to-mouth due to his refusal to hold a job?

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I think its an excuse for keeping their followers uneducated so theyre too stupid to question things and have no chance of living on the outside world if they escape. If the kids can barely read and write and have no education beyond 3rd grade, theyre easy to control.

This.

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Not really something to brag about.

I wonder how they did that without science books. :lol:

To be fair, we don't have "textbooks" per se either. That is, we don't use specific textbooks as curriculum. I think what she's getting at is the same method we use-- books on specific subjects, as opposed to one science or history textbook. For example, right now my son is studying the Inuit. Instead of a textbook, we gathered lots of books on the Inuit people, the arctic climate, plants and animals of the arctic region, and an anthropology book about the Inuit culture. Next week we're doing maps, and we'll do the same sort of thing.

I still wouldn't consider the Pearls as "pioneers" or even significant contributors to the homeschool movement.

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To be fair, we don't have "textbooks" per se either. That is, we don't use specific textbooks as curriculum. I think what she's getting at is the same method we use-- books on specific subjects, as opposed to one science or history textbook. For example, right now my son is studying the Inuit. Instead of a textbook, we gathered lots of books on the Inuit people, the arctic climate, plants and animals of the arctic region, and an anthropology book about the Inuit culture. Next week we're doing maps, and we'll do the same sort of thing.

I still wouldn't consider the Pearls as "pioneers" or even significant contributors to the homeschool movement.

Yeah, to be fair, there is a difference between a curriculum and general nonfiction. Then again, I am not fair on the Pearls, and I do find it amusing that they brag about not using textbooks, but have no problem with other nonfiction. I guess picking and choosing rather than using something more comprehensive allows them to skip over inconvenient stuff on evolutionary history and the age of the universe.

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Yeah, to be fair, there is a difference between a curriculum and general nonfiction. Then again, I am not fair on the Pearls, and I do find it amusing that they brag about not using textbooks, but have no problem with other nonfiction. I guess picking and choosing rather than using something more comprehensive allows them to skip over inconvenient stuff on evolutionary history and the age of the universe.

Ah, 'tis true that. :lol: We homeschool for academic reasons not ideological, so I tend to forget that aspect of it.

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It's amazing that she can fit all the important historical events of all the regions and cultures of the world on one 6,000 year timeline.

Oh wait, never mind, only Western civ matters, and only the Biblical version of the story. :roll:

Dumbfucks begetting more dumbfucks. Sad.

Most ancient history timelines don't go back as far as 6000 years. I've seen a few, but I didn't think there was much information about ancient cultures before the sumarians at around 3200 BC or so. I made one with my kids and started around 4000 because there didn't seem to be enough to bother with before that date.

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When I was in the ebil school and we studied human history, our timeline included prehistoric human events as well as events that occurred during recorded history (which, agree, is generally considered to have started ca. 5,000 years ago).

But without prehistory, you don't get to study cave paintings! Cave paintings rule.

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I bought her tape 'Best Homeschooling Ideas' a LONG LONG time ago (my kids weren't even 3 yrs old, and now my oldest is nearly 15).

It's really weird. She's very laid back and quite serious about not pushing the kids too hard, not making them hate learning, making sure you are not a 'bully' to your child in your teaching, but just guiding them along etc et.c All in all she had some great 'unschooling' or 'Charlotte Mason' type ideas.

But then you read their child training books (yep read them all, gag. Thank goodness I was always too 'soft hearted' to do much of the actual stuff they recommended) and they're all rigid and firm and absolutely NO exceptions ever etc.

Such a weird oxymoron type of thing to me.

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Most ancient history timelines don't go back as far as 6000 years. I've seen a few, but I didn't think there was much information about ancient cultures before the sumarians at around 3200 BC or so. I made one with my kids and started around 4000 because there didn't seem to be enough to bother with before that date.

Sorry, I wasn't clear. I was thinking that she would need a really big timeline or several of them if she was doing earliest human history - the present. Like, there was a whole other thing going on in Asia during what we think of in the West as "antiquity". But if she's only doing the Western-centric, fundie Christian perspective, she could make a very short, condensed timeline indeed: evil dark times>Jesus>age of faith>"corruption" of RCC>Martin Luther>Evil Enlightenment (yes I know that makes no sense)>America, fuck yeah>heathens taking over>present day.

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Sorry, I wasn't clear. I was thinking that she would need a really big timeline or several of them if she was doing earliest human history - the present. Like, there was a whole other thing going on in Asia during what we think of in the West as "antiquity". But if she's only doing the Western-centric, fundie Christian perspective, she could make a very short, condensed timeline indeed: evil dark times>Jesus>age of faith>"corruption" of RCC>Martin Luther>Evil Enlightenment (yes I know that makes no sense)>America, fuck yeah>heathens taking over>present day.

:clap: :lol: :clap:

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As so often with fundies I am clutching my head and saying "What the fuck". :shock:

For a start, I can't always spell either. Strangely I struggle more with words with double letters and those I can't pronounce in my head. That's what spell checkers are for, and it's not a virtue. It's a learning difficulty.

Also, she's teaching them the Great Man theory of history. That's utterly discredited. If someone's actually saying "Why couldn't the German people rise up and defeat Hitler?" that's a question with an answer I learned as a kid. If you're touting this past 10 years old as "look! how brainy are my children!" you have failed at life and are relegated to the SOTDRT.

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