And here we are, once again looking at the letter to his sons that Michael Pearl included toward the end of his abusive child-training manual. This week Michael touches on the sort of education they should give their sons.<\/p>\n
As the boys get older, make sure they are not too much confined to studies. By the time they are twelve or thirteen, they should be pretty well through with school and involved in an occupation with you. Continue to expose them to concepts and ideas; but, above all, provide real life problems that they must solve\u2013bicycle, small engine, or appliance repair. All forms of building and maintenance are essential training.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
And there it is\u2014an open endorsement of educational neglect. And no, Michael is not suggesting that homeschooling should speed things up such that boys will be finished with high school level algebra, chemistry, history, and English by seventh grade. Instead, he\u2019s simply flat-out stating that boys shouldn\u2019t receive more than a seventh grade academic education. He makes this very clear when we go on.<\/p>\n
So on top of advocating child abuse\u2014advising parents to sit on their children and whip them until they are \u201ctotally broken\u201d\u2014Michael also openly and brazenly advises parents to educationally neglect their children.<\/p>\n
Michael would probably take issue with the idea that he is advocating educational neglect, arguing perhaps that he\u2019s simply advising a different sort<\/em> of education\u2014working with one\u2019s hands\u2014that is in fact better for boys\u2019 temperament and their longterm job prospects. (There is absolutely a class difference going on here.) But part of the point of compulsory education is that the parent is not the one who gets to decide for his sons what sort of career they will be able to have; ideally, school should prepare a child to embark on any<\/em> career path, leaving their future open.<\/p>\nThere\u2019s one more issue here\u2014Michael isn\u2019t just endorsing educational neglect, he\u2019s also advocating child labor violations. He\u2019s advocating putting boys of 12 or 13 to work full time in an occupation.<\/p>\n
Michael then follows with this:<\/p>\n
The concept you are seeking to convey is one of independence and confidence. A child who can do it, fix it, make it, will try new things and expect to succeed. The confidence in work will translate to success in education.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
This entire book<\/em> is about squashing independence and confidence. This entire book<\/em> is about rendering children submissive and obedient. Giving kids\u2019 access to a giant outdoor maker space doesn\u2019t change that, particularly if that access comes hand in hand with having to work for a living at 12 or 13. If Michael gave a whit about independence and confidence he wouldn\u2019t lean so hard on literally training children like animals<\/em>.<\/p>\nFor example, Michael advocates setting up scenarios with a toddler where you put something interesting in a room and tell them \u201cno\u201d and then smack their hand every time they try to touch it. \u201cSome people say, \u2018Child-proof your home,'\u201d he wrote. \u201cI say, \u2018Home-proof your child.'\u201d Way back when I was a brand new mother I thought this made sense. It would certainly make life easier to not have to move things out of the baby\u2019s reach! But I very quickly realized that I wasn\u2019t training my daughter to obey my voice, I was training her out of her curiosity<\/em>.<\/p>\nMy experience trying to train my crawling, furniture-creeping daughter out of touching things I didn\u2019t want her into is what first sent um warning signals about the Pearls\u2019 methods and promoted me to investigate further. Curiosity is a good thing, I told myself aghast, and here I was trying to train her out<\/em> of it. I should want<\/em> her to explore her world. It\u2019s an important stage of child development! And how hard was it to move things, really?<\/p>\nIf Michael cared about installing independence and confidence in children, he would have written a very<\/em> different book.<\/p>\nHere, by the way, is his defense vis a vis educational neglect:<\/p>\n
Remember the twenty-seven-year-old Amish fellow, with his first car, going off to college in a far away city, leaving all the things that were familiar, facing challenges never before considered. I was apprehensive about his ability to succeed in this new environment. He had none of the necessary skills. His educational ability was about equal to a sixth-grader.<\/p>\n
When I tried to warn him of the difficulties ahead, he said, \u201cI have always been able to do everything I tried to do, I can do this also.\u201d It was hard on him, but he got a \u201cB\u201d average the first semester. Whether it was the product of his hands or his head, he had learned to succeed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Yes, that really is his defense\u2014that if you give your kids confidence instead of, you know, actually educating<\/em> them, they can totally go to college and do just fine even if they only have a sixth-grade education.<\/p>\nI know someone who went to school until sixth grade and was homeschooled after that. She had a fairly pleasant experience, but received almost no instruction in math and science. She had to spend years at a community college making up for this lack before she could then transfer to a four-year college. It set her back years. I know someone else who wants to study a subject that requires math knowledge, and is currently stuck in community college trying to learn the math she didn\u2019t get while being homeschooled, wondering if her dream is attainable.<\/p>\n
In other words, I call bull on Michael\u2019s story about the \u201ctwenty-seven-year-old Amish fellow.\u201d For one thing, what year did this happen in? Maybe way back in the 1970s when things were a bit more in flux, sure\u2014but times change. For another thing, what about all the Amish kids with a sixth-grade education who have tried college and failed? The fact that this one<\/em> succeeded despite his lack of an education does not<\/em> justify educationally neglecting kids on purpose<\/em>.<\/p>\nAnd yes, plenty of kids go through the public school system and come out unprepared, or have to spend time in community college. But we generally recognize that as a problem,<\/em> and try to fix it. Michael is saying it\u2019s not a problem<\/em>. If your kids want it enough they\u2019ll make it happen, so don\u2019t worry about providing them with an academic foundation.<\/p>\nOh look, here\u2019s more:<\/p>\n
If you take a young child and burden him with studies to the point of making him feel inadequate, you are building a principle of failure into him. Teach your children to work with their hands first, and the education of the mind will come more readily. Don\u2019t leave your boys at home with Mother and the girls in a classroom setting. They should be out with the men.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
So I\u2019m confused. Are boys supposed to be educated at all?<\/em>\u00a0Clearly Michael doesn\u2019t mean boys should get a solid academic foundation by age 12 or 13 that puts them in good stead later and then<\/em> head outside to work with father. Boys are supposed to be taught manual labor first,<\/em> they\u2019re not to be burdened with studies, and they\u2019re not<\/em> to be left inside with the womenfolk in a classroom setting. Are they to educated at all?<\/em><\/p>\nActually. Much of this book is an exercise in the child psychology of Michael. We already know that his principal beat him, and that proving that he\u2019s the biggest and asserting his dominance is very important to Michael. But I think we now know that Michael did not have a good experience in school.<\/p>\n
Michael advises parents not to \u201cburden [a son] with studies to the point of making him feel inadequate.\u201d I totally agree! But what\u2019s interesting is that while Michael argues that manual labor can inspire a child\u2014showing him (and he does mean him) what he is capable of doing\u2014he does not seem to realize that education can be the same way. To much education, Michael indicates, makes a child feel inadequate. Um, no\u2014not necessarily.<\/p>\n
There are all sorts of different school experiences, and our schools aren\u2019t always set up to support every child effectively. But my own two children have had an excellent school experience\u2014they come home confident, excited, and sure in themselves and what they can learn and do if they just put their minds to it. Education, done right, can<\/em> do the sorts of things Michael sees manual labor doing\u2014inspiring, building confidence, opening the world.<\/p>\nMichael, however, appears to associate education with feelings of inadequacy. As problematic as that is for this section\u2014where he\u2019s openly endorsing not educating boys\u2014it\u2019s fascinating from a psychological standpoint, and actually leaves me feeling like I understand Michael (and what drives him) slightly better.<\/p>\n
Also, remember that this book was for years incredibly popular in Christian homeschool circles, and still has its loyal followers. How many Christian homeschooling families used this passage (and others like it) to justify not adequately educating their child? Even parents with good intentions might remember paragraphs like these when things got tough and their homeschooling wasn\u2019t going the way they wanted it to.<\/p>\n
There are lots of kids who receive a solid academic education in Christians homeschooling families\u2014I count myself among them. But it\u2019s worth bearing in mind that there are also<\/em> Christian homeschool leaders (Michael Pearl foremost among them, but certainly not alone) openly teach that educationally neglect your children is okay. Until children started dying, there was no denunciation of Pearl in Christian homeschooling circles, despite\u00a0<\/em>passages like this.<\/p>\nI have a <\/b>Patreon<\/b><\/a>! Please support my writing!<\/b><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael, however, appears to associate education with feelings of inadequacy. As problematic as that is for this section—where he’s openly endorsing not educating boys—it’s fascinating from a psychological standpoint, and actually leaves me feeling like I understand Michael (and what drives him) slightly better.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Click through to read more!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":34959,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[335],"class_list":["post-34903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-to-train-up-a-child"],"yoast_head":"\n
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