Are we raising kids who won\u2019t fit in? I have asked this of myself regularly over the past few years. My wife and I are educating our three boys at home. We don\u2019t watch television (only an occasional video). We emphasize books. We read to the kids and make them memorize poetry. We pray together on our knees. In many ways, our kids are culturally ignorant. They don\u2019t know about Disney World. The other day, my five-year-old asked, \u201cWho is Mickey Mouse?\u201d<\/p>\n
So I guess the answer to the question has to be yes. But the \u201cyes\u201d is a qualified one, for when one considers the concept of \u201codd,\u201d one should ask, \u201ccompared to what?\u201d This moves us in a helpful direction, for if \u201cnormal\u201d is merely what everyone else does, then what is normal changes with the times. What is odd in one time might not be odd in another. On the other hand, if \u201cnormal\u201d refers to a proper way of being human, and if human nature is unchanging, then what is odd, in the sense of being opposed to the majority, may in fact be normal.<\/p>\n
As we consider exactly what, in our culture, sets the odd kids apart, it seems to me that the clearest and brightest line can be drawn when we ask the following question: Will your kids be raised primarily on books or on television? To put it another way: Will your children be educated in a logocentric environment, where the written and spoken word is the primary conveyer of meaning, or will they ingest most of their information through electronically generated images?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Read more . . .<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mark Mitchell has a superb essay on\u00a0developing in children a logocentric view of reality: Are we raising kids who won\u2019t fit in? I have asked this of myself regularly over the past few years. My wife and I are educating our three boys at home. We don\u2019t watch television (only an occasional video). We emphasize […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1213,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education"],"yoast_head":"\n
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