Part I
For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.” –Isaiah 28:10
Many parents are constantly on the look to find shortcuts to their children’s education. While it is fine to clept subjects which children have already mastered them, or are they are less necessary for a college major, we need to show discretion and sometimes restraint when trying to shortcut the educative process. Again, we are talking about education not school. School is one thing, but education is something completely different. Some individuals are highly schooled but poorly educated.
God has built the notion of process into His creative order, and we cannot get away from it. For instance, we first learn the basics of math, like addition and subtraction, before continuing through the levels of algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and calculus. If we leapfrog from multiplication to calculus, our children will be totally lost, having missed all the essential tools for the process.
Consider public schooling. Try as it might, public schooling simply cannot respect the true spirit of process. Teachers feel the need to cover material prescribed by the syllabus. They can’t wait long for a struggling student even at the cost of that child learning needful information that is necessary for future concepts. Do you remember that feeling of being totally overwhelmed when it came to a certain theorem? Homeschooling parents have the privilege of slowing down during a challenging lesson, relieving their children of unnecessary pressure, so they can genuinely master the formula and thus, the process. They even have the freedom to postpone a particular lesson and come back to it later when they feel their children are ready for it. Here is what is so important to remember: process is not limited to mathematics or other academics; it is true in life in general.
Isaiah reminds us that life is taught one precept at a time and even at that, it is taught one line at a time, “here a little, there a little.” This is important to note, especially for parents. Why? First, we don’t want to get any of our unmet needs met through rushing our children’s performance. That is idolatry, looking for egotistical satisfaction through our children. Second, we do not want to train our children to simply have a superficial head knowledge of life, so they can immediately regurgitate the right answer but forget it later in life when it really matters. We want them to be educated to know life precepts, applying them to daily living.
Process gives our children time and opportunity to not only eat knowledge but to digest it, allowing their entire being to be positively impacted. It allows them to mature spiritually and emotionally even as they mature intellectually. This balanced integration will serve them extremely well as they grow older, when pressures become greater, and the stakes rise higher.
When your children get frustrated with a concept, it is an opportune time to talk with them about the importance of the process because they will repeat it time and again throughout life as they are introduced to new challenges. Sometimes the process is quick and nearly effortless, while at other times it is stubborn and protracted. If they understand this is the way process works, it will give them a healthy perspective, and this, in turn, will provide patience and perseverance to conquer life’s contests.
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