| CARVIEW |
Here’s a few books for parents and others interested in the philosophies of home education. I don’t suggest you read them all! But you might like to have a look through.
I read a lot of books before I made my decision to home educate, but you might want to just read a few bits and pieces.
Books by Dr. Maria Montessori
Montessori Handbook and Spontaneous Activity in Education available as free ebooks from MANY BOOKS
Handbook, Montessori Elementary Materials, Montessori Method available as free ebooks from Gutenberg
The Absorbent Mind (not formatted as far as I know) free ebook from Internet Archive.
Here’s a book I haven’t read yet – it’s on my wish list for the future; Montessori; The Science Behind the Genius
These books by and on Charlotte Mason are from Internet Archive and therefore not formatted fully. Nevertheless they are worth reading.
Charlotte Mason’s Book of Centuries
You can get a set of hardcopy Charlotte Mason books at Amazon.
Books to buy:
If you buy one book I recommend For the Children’s Sake by Macaulay Susan Schaeffer
John Taylor Gatto books on internet archive
I don’t agree with everything John Taylor Gatto says but he is certainly pretty much on the point over the standards of schooling. He is generously trying to make his books free for all readers. You can download Dumbing Us Down here.
There’s a list of home ed books on Goodreads. Some are better than others, but if you can borrow a couple go ahead.
Education, therefore, is not about filling a person with information. It is about leading them to knowledge. A true education gives a child the tools they need to learn. It doesn’t merely pour the teacher’s, or Government’s choice of information into the empty child.
All parents have an inherent right and duty to the education of their children. Some choose to fulfill that right and duty through home education. Even if a parent decides to delegate part of that duty to a school the primary role remains with the parents. It is for them, for us, to lead our children out.
In days of old children were not sent to school until they were at least 7 years old. Wealthier families might have a slave, usually a Greek one, who was very well educated and would become the pedagogue for the sons of the family. Pedagogue comes from the Greek and more or less means “walks with boy”.
So we walk with our children, learning alongside them and lead them out. At least that’s what we hope.