Being the new year, I have been writing down short term and long term goals. One of my long term goals is to raise educated, responsible, spiritual children. Then I was challenged to get more specific. What does each of those mean? How can I tell when I get there? Here is what I came up with…
Responsible – They are able to take care of themselves physically and financially. They are able to think through to the outcome in order to choose a course of action and then take full responsibility for that course of action.
Spiritual – They are in constant communication with God and make choices based on Divine guidance.
Educated – …
As you can see, I left educated for last because this one left me a little stumped.
What does it mean to be educated?
When I went to school, we learned a bunch of facts and read certain list books. Is that what it means to be educated?
I want more than that for my children. I want them to be able to form their own opinions. I want them to be able to write and speak eloquently about those opinions. I want them to be able to make sound financial and business decisions. I want them to know how to resolve conflicts and live in harmony with their families and neighbors. And there is so much more.
Shouldn’t all of that be part of their education?
So many times we focus only on the “book learning” part of home schooling. “Which spelling, math, or grammar program are you using?”etc. But to send well-rounded young adults into the world, I think it is more important to be able to know how to invest money than to know how many protons are in the nucleus of a Beryllium atom (4).
What do you think is important to learn before leaving home?
