Yesterday, I wrote (here) a little bit about how Kelly and Christian learned how to read. Luke from the Sonlight and Homeschooling blog made a comment about the success of the reading dogs program in getting shy children to read. That made me think of a couple of special advantages my family enjoyed when it came to education. The first and maybe the greatest was the gift of a love for education that probably started with our grandmother, Grandma Sarah’s mom. Ida Jenkins was a small woman, the daughter of very poor Finnish immigrants who spoke only Finnish for the first eight years of her life. She had to wait until she was eight years old so her younger brother was old enough to go to school with her as they had to row a rowboat five miles each direction across Tenmile Lake and their parents did not want them to go alone. She taught third grade at Harrison Elementary School after having gotten a teaching certificate from Oregon Normal School. I think she must have gotten the certificate some time in the 1930’s. She admonished and advocated for my siblings and I while we attended school at Harrison for our early elementary years.
Grandma valued education greatly and instilled that love in our mother who graduated from Oregon State University in 1952 with a bachelors degree in pharmacy. She and another woman were one of only two women in their class, the second and third women to ever graduate as pharmacists from Oregon State. The competition for grades was fierce in those years as many of the students were veterans of the World War II and the Korean War, serious about getting a later than usual college education so they could on with life and support their already growing families. Grandma J. and our kid’s Grandma Sarah were passionate about education. Grandma Sarah gets genuinely excited about people who finish their college well. That excitement has been an encouragement in all my educational endeavors. I truly want to pass the gift of that excitement along to my children.
The second advantage we enjoyed was that we did not have a television in the house when we were growing up. The motivation for our not having a television when we were children was mostly religious. Almost no one in our church had a television. We were slightly embarrassed about that and tried to make up for it by reading as much as possible so we could talk about the things the other kids saw on television. I guess the thinking was that if we read the book, we could at least sound like we might have seen the movie. It did not work so well with the weekly television programs. I well remember the first family in our neighborhood who got a color television set and the excitement around the school centered around the first full color episode of Bonanza. We kind of got stuck on the outside looking in. What we did not realize is that, even in those days when television programming was a lot more wholesome than it is today, the fact that we did not have a television gave us a huge academic advantage. I think the greatest benefit for us kids was that it gave us a whole lot more time to read, play, do projects, and engage with other people than those kids whose parents let them watch a lot of TV.
It is kind of funny. Now, when I tell people we do not have a television a typical response is, “Good on ya!” Even the kids are proud to not have a television. Still, we try to find appropriate ways to enage with video and television so the kids are not completely divorced from popular culture. Now, though, when secular and materialistic worldviews, bad morals, and other negative influences are added to the waste of time, we make a big effort to manage their use of those media. I think that not having a television in the house is still a huge academic advantage. Now we just need to figure out what to do about the internet.
Great points!
We didn’t have a television in our house growing up either. But, yes, this whole new “internet” thing is going to take some adjustment and wisdom to figure out, especially since I do almost all my work online [smile].
~Luke
That is my exact problem Luke. I program for a living. Coding today requires an internet connection. The kids need it for some of their work and to talk to family in Mexico. It IS a problem.
Someone once said the internet is a useful tool and a dangerous toy. We live in a day where we have to self-monitor and be wise about everything. Life’s a balance, and I’m still learning to walk the fine line. Nice post about your grandma and ma!
Youngin, I have a love-hate relationship with the internet. I cannot live without it at work and it is nice sometimes at home, too, but for a lazy guy like me it can be a major time waster. Thanks for the note about Mom and Grandma. I often wonder why I was the one that got picked to have such good stuff happen in my life. They are a big part of that.
Mark
We don’t have cable and watch very little TV – a little PBS now and then and an occasional football game. Was ready to “go dark” with the DTV conversion but Obama postponed that for a few months. We have lost local CBS affiliate who didn’t postpone, so down to 4 channels.
That is great Mark. We have absolutely no regrets on the whole thing. I think more and more people are opting out either partially or all together. The whole homeschool thing seems to lend itself to a “going dark” (I like that term). I think it might be because the time wasted on TV is something for which there are very apparent consequences for those who are doing the teaching. Time lost is time lost.
Yes, I too have a love-hate relationship with all forms of technology. We have television. My husband is a big sports fan, and my youngest boy also plays and watches with dad. We have what is called limited basic cable, meaning just paying 13.00/month so to get only the local channels and PBS, and so we don’t have to have rabbit ears. We also watch some acceptable movies, but it IS a challenge. It absolutely must be monitored or it can suck your time, just like anything else in life. (If I had cable, I would probably watch Animal Planet all day long!)The children are not allowed on the computer/Internet and cannot play any video games unless all homework, chores, animal needs cared for, outside sun time accounted for, and then, they still have to get permission! Time lost is time lost, but I have to tell you that I had a grand time wasting time tonight sitting in the van with all the windows down on this beautiful evening as the kids were in their karate lesson eating my yummy chicken salad and reading a Louis L’amore novel! I could have run errands or brought the rest of the days work to correct, but I just wanted to relax and put my feet up!
Ruthie, I get in the mood for a good Louis L’Amour myself. It was the one thing that I did not really pass on to my kids and that makes me kind of sad. I think Kelly’s Louis L’Amour is Agatha Christie. Everyone REALLY should have one of those. Something they can read just for the pleasure of the read and nothing else. I don’t count that as time lost. I count that as recharging time! This summer, I want to do some very low effort reading with the kids with the hope that Christian finds his own Louis L’Amour style reading pleasure!
Eric the Luddite
I grew up without a television, as well … and that was before my parents ever felt compelled spiritually to be rid of it. A wise decision on my father’s part.
Interestingly, when I tell people (unapologetically) that I “refuse to own a television”, their response is almost universally apologetic. They say things like, “Well, we only watch it for hrs per week. And, we only have it to watch .” Generally, I think people are ashamed of what they watch and how much time they waste watching it.
As Audrey has heard me say often, “We are drowning in a sea of electrons.” It is not that we cannot swim in this sea, it seems to me that the sea is just full of toxic and deceptive currents.
Toxic because it lulls us into a passive state and then imposes offensive material (mostly images) on us against our will. Deceptive because it perverts our sense of material value.
Let me elaborate on this last point. What is the real value of a TV, i-Pod, XBox, or your favorite consumer electronic gadget? The value is that it brings the user temporary distraction or joy. Thus, they are a purely consumptive use of time. But, more importantly they perpetuate no real value.
On the other hand, the value of — say — knitting needles, is that we use them to create secondary value in what is knitted. Thus the stream of value is perpetuated at least on “generation”. Not so with consumer gadgetry. Think of all the follow-on value created by the machinery at Quality Corners. The stream of value is very real and flows for several “generations” until the corners end up in someone’s home and support one of our society’s greatest assets. This is not trivial.
God is the original and greatest creator of value. It is the creation of real and lasting value that feeds the human spirit, much more so than the consumption of value. I believe this is a testimony the fact humans are created in His image.
(A further deception is we are told that buying things whose only value is consumptive is good for the economy. Maybe in the short term, but an economy based on this type of value must eventually deflate in conjunction with obsolescence.)
Wow, how I digress!
Anyway, I vociferously agree with your point … not having a television improves everyone’s ability to learn, most importantly our children’s. Probably, the smallest benefit is that time (the currency of heaven) is not spent in vain. More importantly, I believe, our minds are freed to learn and create real value for what and who come after us.
Eric, I love it when you go off on one of these!!! It has inspired me to write another post about something similar. I think you have put your finger on knowing what to do with the Internet is not as easy as with TV. In spite of all the bad stuff on the internet, there IS potential for community and economic value through its use that is just not there for TV.
You are absolutely right! The internet is a fantastic source for knowledge which a requisite for creating value.
To me, the internet is like a bookstore full of good information and all kinds of bad. The problem is the bad is often easier to find than the good. Also, we often inadvertently encounter the bad as we seek the good.
If the foundation and/or building is weak in ANY WAY, the internet enables us to easily feed the weakness. This is why I have to be so careful for my own children whose youthful minds are inclined to explore and experiment … The very activities I encourage could very well harm their minds and souls. I also have to be very careful for myself.
Probably, no other generation has had so much that is deceptively destructive arrayed against it. But then, no other generation has had the opportunity to prove, and is proving, the power of God to develop spiritual, selfless, healthy and productive young minds in the face of it.
Along the lines of media awareness, societal impact, etc. Please check out Mars Hill Audio Journal by Ken Myers – it’s my favorite. Bi-monthly set of audio interviews with authors, professors, etc. from a serious Christian perspective. Really interesting – I listen to each issue at least twice and sometimes 4 or 5 times. More about it on my site as well if you search for “Mars Hill” or “Ken Myers”.
http://marshillaudio.org/
Thanks Mark. I will check it out.