#1 - Jesus The Christ
This is an amazing book!!!! I have wanted to read it for years, but this year I buckled down and finally started to tackle it. I haven't finished it yet, but the first half of it has changed me! When I say that, I mean it really has given me a perspective change on how I view life as a whole. It has taught me so many things about different aspects of life, but most of all it has really made me feel like I know my Savior on a more personal level. I feel like I understand more about him, which in turn has helped me understand more about who I am suppose to be. It's not a light read, but it is worth the effort!
#2 - A Thomas Jefferson Education
After hearing so many people in the homeschool community recommend it, I picked this one up from the library and knew right away I needed to buy it! I couldn't take enough notes! I needed my own copy to underline and reference for the future! The ideas taught in it by Oliver DeMille resonated with me, and I kept thinking it just all made sense! It introduced me to a different way of looking at education. Not just for homeschooling, but the education of human society as a whole; from birth to death. It taught me just how vital classical literature is, and why Jesus primarily taught us through parables. There is power in learning through stories!! I learned that no one can force a person to learn. "Great teaching inspires students to educate themselves." You can force a person to repeat formulas, to memorize dates and equations to pass tests, but unless you inspire a person, they will either not understand what they've been told, or that information will be lost as soon as it's not needed anymore to pass a test. Therefore we need mentors who guide and inspire, not professors who just lecture, if we want to truly educate the masses. I also learned a good deal about the history of education from this book, how the "greats" in history were taught, and how to inspire students to their full potential. "Is the education our children are receiving on par with their potential?" I'm now half way through his second book, "Leadership Education", learning how to apply these principles to a home education. So far it's all really resonating with me as well!
#3 - This blog post: Education Manifesto
Through this blog post, I started my look into the history of education. It inspired me to find out more about what kind of schools people used throughout the world in the past, and what they use currently. I also looked into the history of education in the US, when the Department of Education came into existence and what it's effect has had on education, what curriculum they used to use and how it's evolved, and also what education looked like to the early Latter-day Saints who settled in Utah. It also opened my eyes to how much I wanted God and my religion involved in my kid's day-to-day education; of all subjects! I mean, when we have stories about General Washington being a modern day Samuel the Lamanite and we can't tell it in school because it acknowledges God... that doesn't sit well with me! If it's part of history it should be told, and we should be building up our children in faith in all that they learn! Another thing that I started looking into after reading this blog post was the subject of Humanism. I wasn't very familiar with what that was before. I now am. The prophets of old and the modern day prophets have had a lot to say about that subject, and I had no clue! I feel like my eyes have now been opened to what that is, and just how prevalent it is today! It is the teachings of Korihor, and has deep-rooted power in far too many things today; things that I didn't realize before!
It all started with reading this one blog post. That is inspirational!
#4 - This YouTube video: A Celestial Education
This video is very long! I watched it in pieces over the course of a week while I was cleaning. While I don't agree with everything this lady, Michelle Stone, says, I found a lot of what she said to be inspiring and eye opening! Just like #3, it inspired me to look more into all sorts of subjects! I wasn't planning on it, but shortly after she started speaking I had to grab a notebook to write down some of the things she was saying, and I ended up taking 6 pages of notes! After she goes through a bit of the history of education she goes into her theory of different educational models, using degrees of glory. She uses them to reference the degrees of light and truth. Telestial Education still has lots of light. Lots of good things to it, but it has the least amount of light (or truth) than the three. Terestial Education has more light and is very good, but is still lacking the full truth. Celestial Education has the full light, or the full truth. One thing that stood out to me more than anything else was how we compartmentalize so many things that don't need to be with the Telestial and Terestial educational methods. For instance, history. There are textbook historical accounts and then there are biblical accounts. I always knew they went together, but it was hard to clearly see how, because they weren't taught together. It wasn't until a history class I took from BYU when I was 23 years old, that brought them together and taught them at the same time, that I really had an "ah-ha" moment and figured out exactly how they fit together and had a better view of history as a whole. In a Celestial Education children are taught right from the start these sorts of things! They will know from the start, for instance, that the dark ages came after the gospel was lost from the earth, and we had an enlightenment period as it was restored to the earth. Everything points to Christ in a Celestial Education. "And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins." Very interesting points to consider in this video. It inspired me.
#5 - Sir Ken Robinson
Oh man, this guy has been a wonder to listen to! He has several YouTube videos that he's done that I just eat up! I started watching one out of pure accident and I, again, had to stop and grab a piece of paper and take notes like crazy! There's this one, Do Schools Kill Creativity (don't be put off by the name) where he gives an amusing talk about creating an environment that fosters creativity in our schools (and homes). Then he did a follow up to that one that I really enjoyed called, Bring on the Learning Revolution, where he continues to talk about ways to help kids' natural talents flourish. And there's this one, How To Escape Education's Death Valley, where he outlines 3 principles crucial for the human mind to flourish. Another amusing and interesting watch! And finally, there's this animation of a talk he did called, Changing Education Paradigms. It's been awhile since I watched it so I can't remember what exactly it covered but it had to do with improving education and it was entertaining. All of his talks were excellent! He's a really fun guy to listen to, and I think he has great thoughts!
I'm sure I'm missing lots of things. There were many, many LDS General Conference talks that were very inspiring to me, and lots of scripture studies that led me on good discoveries, but that's not knew to this year. They inspire me on an evolutionary plane year to year, helping me go step by step on the path I'm already going. The things mentioned above are just what have been inspiring to me this year, and this year alone. They were revolutionary in the inspiration I received, taking me on a completely different path and opening my mind up to concepts I hadn't embraced or even considered before!
Clearly, my life revolves around education these days. ;)
I love it!
Clearly, my life revolves around education these days. ;)
I love it!
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