Our school year is beginning to wind down. Yay! So this is also the time when I begin to think about the coming school year. And while my homeschooled kids take standardized tests to help me assess their overall progress, I also take time to think of the big picture.
After all, a real education is much more than just academics. Indeed, a real education entails educating the whole child. There are many great thinkers who ascribe to the idea that a real education is more than book learning:
- Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he has learned in school. – Albert Einstein
- Intelligence plus character, that is the goal of true education. – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
- The primary goal in the education of children is to teach and give an example of a virtuous life. – St. John Chrysostem
- A good school provides a rounded education for the whole person. And a good Catholic school, over and above this, should help all of its students to become saints. – Pope Benedict XVI
While that all sounds good and true, what does it actually mean to educate the whole person, and how do we go about doing that?
Sitting in a rocking chair and musing over this while waiting for Junior to get sleepy, I envisioned this little diagram (Thank you, Holy Spirit!):
Continue reading “Educating the Whole Child”
Mercy for Marthas 