C.S. Lewis, Dr. Markos, Me, My Kids, Unschooling, The Knowledge Party... etc.

Stream of consciousness post ahead.. no conclusions.. just thinking out loud...


I have spent the last 4-5 days listening to Dr. Markos' lectures on C.S. Lewis. I am also reading his book straight through for the first time.

My mind is filled with CSL's life. Right now I am at that place in both the lectures and the books, where Markos is describing CSL's early influences, his relationships, his learning.

Unschooling. The thread it keeps bringing to the surface is that we can trust our children to seek knowledge. To learn by living, exploring, finding their unique path. I won't to into the skeptisms. I'm sure most readers know them.

I have seen all that learning happen in my home. That is why I have hung in there with the whole premise. My manta over the years has been 'What about content ? How do I bring it in?" Or at least my main mantra. I have others, but that has been the one I have spent the most time on and bothered my friends about the most. You know who you are.

I have seen the learning. I see the subtlley of it. I see organization, logical thinking, skills (you name 'em' they picked them up). I salute John Holt. The man was RIGHT.

Now to CSL. I am watching his journey. It was not a picture perfect childhood. God had his hand in it. So, that lets us perfectionist parents off the hook. Our mistakes can be God's openings.

How did CSL learn? I don't hear a lot about his lessons or classes. I hear about the relationships in his childhood. (good and bad). One of his primary good ones was with his brother, Warnie. During WWII, the family moved out to a rambling country house, Little Lea, which was like a Narnia to the Lewis boys. They spent hours in imagination games. This lay the groundwork for much of CSL's later work, including the Chronicles of Narnia. This history has a special place in my heart because I see a lot of strong parelells between the Lewis brothers and my boys.

Then boarding school. He detested it. He focused on his books. To escape. But again, the influces I hear about in his life are not the subjects he studied, but his passions. Norse mythology. Not to say the lessons were not beneifcial, but the strong influences that formed CSL into the man he became were through his passions, his life experiences (good and bad) and his relationships.

There is a list of books he savored as a child. As I read through them I realized the boys and I had done a lot of them as read alouds. Yes. My influence is important. I spent a lot of time with Charlotte Mason groups/reading and found these great books. But we loved them. It was not an assignment but a time of fun and adventure. But I did choose the books. This, to me is the unschooling I accept. Me as researcher, mom, nuturer, influencer... but allowing the children to make the connections. If we didn't like a book, we put it aside.
But how cool that we read most of the same books as little Jack Lewis? :)

What about when his father finally let him leave boarding school and have a private tutor, Kirkpatrick. The man was very influencial in his life. He was a atheiset, but taught Lewis to think, reason, analyize, lay out an arguement, which made him into the great apologist he was.

What if he had never had a great influencer. Where would he have gone?

Now- as parents can we give our children that kind of influence. If we are not relying on lessons/curriculum/scope and sequence, or even mandantory reads, then where will our children go?

I am finding my role is that of student. The more I investigate and learn the more it is at my fingertips to share.

What do I share? How do I share?

What do they do when I'm busy learning, researching, blogging... and they are on their own?

They are constantly in motion---- mentally. They alwayss have projects going. We are always intersecting. They will come up and have learned something and I had no idea where it came from.

Perhaps I can scatter seeds to them as they continue on their learning/living wheel.

I like learning about our roots. All the stuff I have been putting in my Knowledge Party posts. I can give them that gift. I can read passages aloud, things that strike me. Thing I know they would like (for eg when Markos talks about how much Lewis was influenced by Tolkein). There is an essay of Tolkein Markos recommends called On Fairie Stories. I ordered it up for my 15yos as he is writing a LOTR type story now.

Those are things I can do.

To me these sort of things always sounded small. When I would compare them to the GREAT things I see others doing, or read about.... the classical works, the long book lists, etc. Having the kids do written narrations, critical analysis, etc.

I am just spreading seeds.

Just?

No, I am doing more. I think a key compoent here is the element of conversation. And relationship of course, which is implied in a good conversation. Some conversations are short, some long. Some are natural- I read something, get excited and share. Just a moment ago in the kitchen B was picking up a tuna sandwich and heading upstairs I shared a bit of my CD. He will remember, too. His memory is awesome.. sometimes he remembers too much. (mom laughing here)

Some conversations are deeper. The car is a great place for those. The conversations on the move have been long and engaging. Sometimes it is me just saying: "Hey, get over here, I want you to see this. Why, because I'm your mom and I said so."

Are they missing the boat by not being assigned projects, books, narrations and reports. I just can't see it. They are doing projects, books, narration and reports in one way or another on their own. They are just of their own choosing.

And, if I plant seeds now of other greater things (greater in my estimation) they can pick up and run with them now, in 5 years or in 25 years.

Again, no matter how Lewis' life was managed for him, he always took his own path eventaully. His boarding school was heavey on hazing, athletics, jocks and rugby. He hated it all. It did influence him into spending a lot of time thinking and later writing about the ugliness of the 'inner circle' which contributed greatly to his Christian insights. But no one could force him to absorb it and make it his own.

Can we then really force our children to absorb and make any 'knowledge' we choose their own?

And isn't there more chance of that happening if we offer it palatabily? The the most appealing way to explore something is to see someone else enjoying it. Think Tom Sawyer.

Maybe my time IS better spent researching, learning, sharing, strewing, planting seeds and knowing my kids. Sharing me. Me is different than any other mom. So my gifts will be different than my friends. God has taken that into account.

Sometimes I thinkI am planning this education and am in charge. But what they take away from it, I will really have little control over. Their minds belong to them. They hopefully will see that Mom had interests, shared them, respected theirs own interests and loved and supported them. Ditto for Dad.

What if I was a mom who had no interests? I don't know, I never have been. What about when I had little ones? Humm. I had less time, but thinking back, I made time to read. I had to. I was beginning homeschooling and lost. That was my study then. Time not wasted.

No time is wasted. Focusing on virtues. If they can see those in dh and me, then they are learning more than most of the human race. And learn about our humaness, too.

all for now...

God Bless,
Cindy