Humilty + Knowledge = Relationship?

Thinking more about Kempis' call for humility and how it relates to knowledge.

Maybe the crux of this is in our hearts. As it is for all things, really. How our hearts are to be for Christ. We are not duplicity if we are in the world- just if we know that that is not our first love.

Perhaps with knowledge it is the same, or else why would God give us intelligence and the ability to find dignity through our inventions.

That is not the issue and I think that is what Kempis is saying, too.

Knowledge, when used for God's kingdom is good. What is not good is pride. When knowledge is used for that purpose, then we are in trouble.

Ways pride can step into knowledge:

Flaunting a course of study.
Forcing a course of study upon our children to satisfy our pride.
Desiring college degrees (or any other accolades) for ourselves or our children as a form of status.
Wrapping our or our children's identities up in a course of study.


Ways knowledge works with humility:

Developing a positive relationship with the world and knowledge of the world.
Choosing what to study based on the child's interests, our interests or what can help our children find a vocation in the world suitable to their natures.
Looking for God in his world through studying and knowledge.
Sharing our studies together to build our family and relationship.

I am seeing through the past days of posting both the beautiful nature of knowledge. The connections it can give us to our past, our world and God. I am also getting written out some of the traps.

What does this mean concretely to me and our homeschool?

It means I don't have to worry about the 'what' of what we study. I think we are on the right course. Bringing in books, discussion, exploration. Sharing our passions. Finding the methods that work for my particular dc.

Planting seeds.

Trying new things. Revisit online courses, co-ops periodically. Try a read aloud again. Assign books at times, back off at times. Explore rabbit trails. Bring in things they may not pick up on themselves. Open door. Journal what we do.

Make sure I take time to see what skills are being developed along the way.

Share what knowledge is with them. What it really IS. I think part of this journey for me is that I want them to have more than I had. I had a good education, but it could have been more. It could have been real. Instead of spending so much time pleasing teachers and professors, I want them to think it through, know when it is real and when it is not. I hope for them that faith is intertwined.

One thing I have seen already is that both my dc *think*. They can discern. They know when something is authentic. That is good. I think I can just share a lot of this journey with them. They are already seeing what they are learning, a lot from the discussions we have.

Continue that. Pass the gauntlet. This is their education and is becoming theirs moreso every day.

I am going to keep thinking about knowledge and humility. I may be the only one out there who worries about this. But, I know this is a recurring theme. I know I don't want to spend time and energy chasing after things that are not important. I think it began with the whole school at home.... and Charlotte Mason began to make it more real. But even with the Cm learning I did, there was a question about *why* learn this or that. Maybe that is easy for a mom who just puts the lessons out and the kids lap them up. (are there any like that? :) ) But, no, I don't think I would have been satisfied. I wanted more- deeper learning, connections.

Enter interest-led. Is that the answer? Can kids completely know where they need to go? I think kids can completely learn with interest-led. If the environment is rich. How can you NOT learn? But what do we need to help them find?

Think I'm coming to a full circle. The 'what' rests on the foundation of humility. If we are to choose for our children it must not come from a place of pride but from a place of relationships and connections. The child needs to get a positive relationship from it.

That relationship could be:
1) the interest/pleasure in learning (and thus the subject is not important)
2) something that connects him with who he is and where in God's world he exists
3) something that points him back to Christ
4) something that may give him a 'ticket' to the next stage of his life... that parents can see a little more clearly that the kids at a given point in time.

Thinking back on the biographies I have read the dominant experiences from their childhood and learning really all fit in these categories.

But without humility, it can all become convoluted.

Kind of like this post! lol