THE EDUCATION REVOLUTION!
DFO 371
11/75
1. (Maria: How much formal education should we give our children to enable them to live within our communities in our present day society? How much education do our children need to be able to understand the MO Letters & the Bible, the basics of our spiritual education?)
2. Little children should have a little history, geography, general science, basic math, basic reading, be able to read & to write & to figure & to understand the basic scientific principles.
3. We should have a basic education for our children: Reading, writing, arithmetic, the old 3 R's, plus geography, World history & one year of general science.
4. I think the equivalent of a year of basic general science, a year of geography, a year of basic World history & enough math to be able to go to the grocery store & figure out the cost of groceries or count up their litnessing money is enough.
5. In just one textbook they could get all the history they need from ancient history right up to present current events--a basic general overall view of World history since Bible times. If they want to go & study something special, they can get themselves a book on it & read it on their own just because they're interested.
6. Our children need to know simple arithmetic: Counting, adding, subtracting, multiplying, division & decimals. They need to really know their decimals & their percentages, as that sort of thing is very important.
7. They only need all these little basics that are useful for everyday life & living.--Figuring out, for example, how much water there is in a tank or how much cubic feet of space & so on. This is all in basic math & that's all they need.
8. They need the practical knowledge of practical everyday living--how a pump works & how a motor works & all the little practical things that most everybody has to deal with--what makes the weather, how the weather works, all these very simple things. That's all the scientific education they need outside of what they want to read on their own.
9. (What about geography--should that go along with history?) Most of your new books on history & geography & the peoples of the World are combined now in what they call "Social Studies," & often they're combined in one textbook in which you learn about the World in general, its countries, its geography, its history, its peoples, its products, its economics, etc.--a general combined knowledge of the whole World in just one textbook, a one-year course.
10. [Y]ou spend the first four or five years doing nothing but learning how to read & write your own language, basic reading, writing & grammar, learning to read & write, & some arithmetic. Then, depending on the school you're in, a year or two of some history &/or geography &/or basic science.
11. (What about current events & the political situation?) When I was in high school we used to get a little weekly newspaper, a current events paper in World History class which kept us up-to-date on current events, applied World history today, which was good. But daily newspapers, or news magazines--or even recent MO Letters--could be used. (--Or the WND!)
12. Physiology & biology, the life sciences, were fascinating, in which you learn about life & plants & animals & your own body. We need a good textbook on that that doesn't have all that damned evolution in it! It really has been a helpful basic thing to know about your body & diet & your stomach & lungs & how your veins work & your eyes see & your ears hear, etc.--everything you need to know about your own body, basic simple things. Sometimes they called it Health Class.
13. You only need about three basic textbooks to sum up all the World's knowledge that you really need to know after you've learned to read, write & figure: Social Studies, General Science & General Biology. What else is there to know?--A grand total of only six basic studies!
14. We don't need to get into literature except as each individual person is particularly interested. We've got enough literature in the Bible & MO Letters to keep them busy with all the literature they'd ever need to read! If they're interested in poetry or various other kinds of literature, you could let them read it if they want to, the writings of various famous Godly poets & authors like Shakespeare, Sir Walter Scott, etc.
15. (Maria: There'd be enough special projects just stemming from the MO Letters, things that they'd want to learn more about.) That's possible, because we mention an awful lot of famous people & places & things & sciences, etc., so if they find any of these things particularly appealing to them or interesting, they can always get books at the library or somewhere on these various subjects that they can read on their own.
16. (Maria: In some countries it's very very difficult to get books in the English language, so it's difficult to have reference books & they can't just go to any library, because so many of our people are English-speaking.) So they should have a good representative English library in their Home & a good set of English encyclopedias, particularly a children's PICTURE encyclopedia like the Book of Knowledge. These are usually rather expensive, so provisioning might be necessary, but people like to give to children.
17. You need a good set of children's encyclopedias--not too low a level--I'd say on the level in which they're going to be really interested & investigative, at about the 6th or 7th grade level, when they'll want to look up extra reading & study on their own. I think that's a very worthwhile investment where they have very many English-speaking children.
18. Their spiritual education they'll be getting from the MO Letters & the Bible as their spiritual guides in their studies in religion & psychology, etc. They cover everything else that they need to know. (Maria: Hopefully the MO Letters & the spiritual can be completely intertwined with the basic secular education.)
19. Our kids shouldn't have to spend [years and] years in school, especially if we start them learning to read & write at the very early ages of two & three, as is possible, so they're reading well by the time they're four or five. As soon as they've got the language skills developed to where they can read & write well, we might even be able to teach them these final three general subjects--General Science, General Biology & General Social Studies--at the time most kids are just STARTING school, at five, six or seven years of age!
20. In a very simple basic form we could possibly teach them these things at a very low grade level, the first, second & third grade level! If they can learn basic language skills & mathematics by the time they're five or six, to learn how to read & write & simple figures, the rest will be easy going. They could spend the next two or three years developing those skills a little more as they learn these other general subjects.
21. What else do they teach you in high school that you need to know? They have a lot of practical things that our kids already learn in their Home. You can learn typing from a textbook, sewing from somebody or even a textbook, music or guitar--any of our practical daily living skills. Of all the places to learn these practical things, the ideal place to learn them is in the Home.
22. But I don't think that our kids need to learn all the worldly arts & worldly music & all that sort of thing. If they're interested in that, they can study it on their own. I'm just saying what are the BASIC ABSOLUTE NECESSITIES. (Maria: I think the major emphasis on an arts & music class ought to be practical, like learning the guitar or learning to paint.) Yes, absolutely! (Maria: Or a little drama, in the little skits that the children put on, they're already starting their appreciation of drama.)
23. I think it's far more important to learn to play the guitar simply yourself than to study Bach & Beethoven & the Beatles! It's far more important to learn to make some little paintings yourself like I used to do when I was about five or six years of age, than it is to study who were the great art masters & what paintings did they paint & blah blah blah! About the only reason you did that when you were in school was to show that you weren't dumb, that you knew a little something about music & art & the people that were in it.
24. But we're not worried about our kids being dumb about unimportant vain worldly knowledge & worldly artists & worldly musicians, a lot of whom were inspired of the Devil anyway, so why should they know them?
25. The school education of our children should be able to be accomplished within six or seven years at the very most, by the time they reach their teens. By the time they reach 12 or 13 years of age their education should be complete.
26. I'd just sum it up simply by saying we only need the 3 R's & the 3 G's: The 3 R's are Reading, 'Riting & 'Rithmetic, & the 3 G's, General Science, General Biology & General Social Studies. (Maria: And their current events should be taken from the WND & the MO Letters & things like that.)--Amen! They can study that in connection with Social Studies, & there are always new current events about science, etc.
27. So that ought to do it to give our kids all they need to know. If they want to study anything beyond that particularly, they can do it on their own or with a little help & encouragement from their teacher in their own individual research & reading. By the time they've learned to read enough they can read anything that they need to know. Then they have enough basic knowledge of all the main things about life & this World that they need to know.--And if they want to learn anything more they can read it on their OWN--WE don't have to teach it to them.
28. Outside of that, religiously they'll get all they need from the Bible & the MO Letters plus a lot of other stuff. You need Phys. Ed., too, of course, as our kids need to know how to play too.--And they get some art & music & so on--all this in their basic form--right at home! Thank You Jesus! It's an EDUCATION REVOLUTION!--Amen?
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