Mt. Sophia Ideas

I am running this post concurrently at 7sistershomeschool.com. I thought it would be a good review for us all.

Now for a little review before the test. Oh, wait- no test.

Just the review. Why on earth do you give up your freedom to do what you want  in order to homeschool your kids? Here are my top 10 reasons:

10) Fashionable- 1,500,000 current homeschoolers in the US! According to the US Department of Education that’s our number.

9) Individualized- Each student can learn according to their style and needs.

Self-concept development- Research shows homeschooled children feel better about themselves than do their other-schooled peers (see research at National Home Education Institute).

7) Inoculation vs Immersion- Homeschooled children have less exposure to the damaging influences in society. We give them appropriate doses of what they need to deal with at the right time rather than immerse them in a culture that has values far different than ours.

6) Anti-ageism- Our children live and learn with various age levels rather than being segregated with only their age-peers. They grow up talking to and feeling affinity with those older and younger than themselves.

5) Socialization- The definition of socialization is: “The passing on to the next generation the culture, values, and ideals that are important to the present generation.”

Our kids catch our values rather than that of the “crowd”.

4) Great peer group for the kids- My kids have grown up being active in our homeschool community. Even as adults, some of their best friends have been from their homeschooling days. (And some spouses as well.)

3) Great peer group for me- My closest friends are the moms I have homeschooled with over the years. Nothing like co-oping and praying together to form great bonds.

2) Faith- I get to pass my faith onto my kids, not just as lectures but as lifestyle.

1) Successful education- Our kids are prepared for life. For instance, at our umbrella school, Mt. Sophia Academy, the 13-year record of placement is 100% for the college bound. For career bound students, apprenticeships, character development, and good education have opened the doors to the job market.

Those are my top 10. What are your top reasons for homeschooling?

MSA has sponsored 2 speech competitions in the past couple of months. The winners of each of these competitions will now go on to state level and compete against peers from numerous schools.

Poetry Outloud winner: Noah Taylor

English Speaking Union’s Shakespeare Competition: Keri Betters

We’re proud of all the students who participated in the competitions and rooting for Noah and Keri as they move on the states.

Did you know that philosophers rule the world?

Really, they do. (However, the poor things usually don’t get to experience their reign because their philosophies catch on 10 years after they die.)

Every day, you are influenced by what philosophers have philosophized into place for you.

1) How did your doctor tell you about the virus you have? (and who else did he tell?)

2) How did the federal government decide whether to remain in Afganistan and Iraq?

3) How your local government officials decide about who and what to tax?

4) How did the local radio station decide which music to promote?

There is a philosophical thought pattern that underlies each of those decisions.

You have personal philosophies that drive you, even though you might not recognize it:

1) Who do you choose as friends?

2) Where do you go to church?

3) When do you loose your temper?

4) With what charities are you involved?

5) Where do you shop?

6) To what do you read/watch/listen?

I have been reading Hamlet’s Blackberry (developing a personal philosophy about intentional engagement/disengagement with the digital world.) You see- EVERYTHING has a philosophic underpinning.

If we are wise, we will examine our life, our ideas, our choices- and choose/be intentional about what we believe and do.

Socrates first said it: The unexamined life is not worth living.

Philosophers rule the world. How do you rule yourself?

On Monday, the new semester begins for us college people. Starting a new semester here in the new year. I’ll begin by teaching my students about Descartes, who thought of himself as starting philosophy over. Things were going to be new and different and better, Descartes hoped.

And things definitely were different because of Descartes. Philosophers before him thought you should start your explanations (of science, or theology, or art, or whatever) by beginning with God, or by beginning with the world. Descartes, on the other hand, thought you should begin your explanations with yourself. You’ve got to figure yourself out, and why you believe what you believe, before you can come to any firm conclusions about anything else. That’s what Descartes thought, anyway.

In many ways, all philosophy today comes from Descartes. It’s not that all philosophy today is Descartes’s philosophy, mind you. It’s that all philosophers have to respond to Descartes in one way or another. Even if you disagree with Descartes — even if you’ve left him behind — he is where you’re coming from. You only understand where you are and where you’re headed by pointing along the path back to Descartes, and ahead, away from him. As a philosopher today, you are part of a tradition, and that tradition, in many ways, begins with Descartes.

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Before I get to Descartes, however, I’ll be starting a new Sunday School series for the adults at my church (and our sister congregation across the street) on the book of Genesis. What better way to start the new year than with the book that starts the Bible? Before getting to Descartes on Monday, then, I’ll be talking about Moses on Sunday.

Genesis, of course, has had a bigger impact on the world than even Descartes. While all philosophers (and scientists!) today have gotten to where they are by “coming from” Descartes, most of the planet’s general population has gotten to where they are by “coming from” Genesis. They’ve gotten to where they are by accepting Genesis, or rejecting Genesis, or by reading it in one way rather than another. They’ve gotten to where they are by growing up in a culture whose main historical figures thought about the world as coming from — or as explicitly not coming from — the Creation that Genesis describes.

Wherever you turn, the idea that God created the world and humans — and therefore the idea that God should have some kind of say in the world and human life — is lurking in thebackground. Many people accept the idea. Many people reject it. But either way, we’re all responding to it somehow. We’re all part of a tradition, and that tradition begins, in many ways, with Genesis.

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What this means, of course, is that we’re all part of many different traditions all at once. I come from the Christian tradition, and within that, the Anabaptist tradition. But since I now study and teach at a Catholic university, I am in some important ways now part of the Catholic tradition within Christianity as well. I come from the American tradition, and within that, the “backwoods”/”country folk” tradition. But now that I work (and, for all intents and purposes, live) in our nation’s capital, I am also part of the city-living tradition.

And I could go on and on, naming the various traditions from which I come and of which I am now a part. For each of these traditions, I could ask, “Who started it, and where did it start?” In tracing the path of the tradition, back to its beginning, I might gain a little insight into the position I currently occupy. What does one have to do to get to where I am now, forming as I do a kind of intersection point of all these various traditions?

But I also might want to ask myself: What traditions do I want to start, here in this new year, and in what ways do I want people to be “coming from” me? That is, what kind of impact do I want to have on the people around me, such that they will have to respond to me? I mean, the people around me already do have to respond to me — but I have a choice about the occasions I provide for their responses. And I want to be the kind of person who provides good occasions (whether they be in the form of comments, or blog posts, or lectures, or smiles, or whatever).

Happy New Year!

-Micah Tillman

^{[Micah is a Mt. Sophia graduate who is working on his doctoral dissertation at The Catholic University of America. He also gets to teach philosophy (as a "teaching fellow"), which he loves.]}

Again this winter, we will be sharing stories of Mt. Sophia students or alumni who are working to change or create culture. This is the first post of the season.

Karen Medeiros is a graduate of Mt. Sophia Academy. Her first children’s book has been published:

The Christmas Lights ( penname Jobiah Kit) through Amazon or Barnes & Noble. ISBN-10: 1456008986.

Here is her story about the book:

I started out looking for a way to symbolize the meaning of Christmas through some routine Christmas tradition not necessarily associated with Christ.

I love Christmas and I’ve often thought that to keep the celebration of Christmas pure, every tradition could be symbolic of Jesus or one of His values or gifts. Why lose the spirit of Christmas as we grow older when God’s miraculous power never weakens with age?

Christmas lights are such an eye-catching, celebratory tradition well adopted by both Christian and secular families, so that was an easy choice. As far as choosing what to compare them to….my own journey with God always draws me to thinking about how He has healed, protected, and, especially, created a new person in me.

For instance, I came from a very dark place spiritually when I became born-again but the depth of the darkness allowed me to appreciate the brilliance of God’s light….as the dark basement where the father and son in my story find the box of lights is such a beautiful contrast to the lighted tree on the last page.

I know so many of us can identify with these themes and life lessons from God- our Father in Heaven who works on us, never leaving our side.

Kyle Thorp is a Mt. Sophia graduate, student at Grove City College, and son of Allison Thorp. This post is running concurrently on www.7sistershomeschool.com.

It’s Christmas Eve. For many years this was a day of torturous anticipation for me. I would be waiting eagerly to see what was in those boxes under the tree. But it wasn’t just the presents that mattered. I got to spend time with all of my cousins, aunts, and uncles. Yes, I actually enjoy spending holidays with family. I just happen to have the best family there is.

Christmas was always full of fun times! But the worst part was that it always had to end. I had to start school again. And the toys I got were never fun to play with for more than a week. My excitement was built up then brought down. I didn’t feel satisfied.

Then last year the Christmas cheer in my house was overshadowed by the death of a family member. I wondered how we could celebrate Christmas after the tragedy that had taken place. During that season, God taught me a lesson. We expect so much out of Christmas. We expect our families to come home. We expect to get a day off. We expect to get everything on our list. We expect everyone to get along. We expect the food to be good. We expect perfection. How many Christmases have we gotten it?

You see, our attitude toward Christmas is one of the signs that we were made for something better. We have this idea of the way things are “supposed to be.” Apples are supposed to be crisp and sweet. Steak is supposed to be tender and juicy. Christmas is supposed to be joyful and peaceful, and there’s supposed to be snow.

Naturally, when we place such high expectations on everything, we are constantly met with disappointments. The steak is overdone. The apple is soft and mushy. It sleets instead of snowing. What are we supposed to do about it? Just accept that life sucks and resolve to be miserable? Not at all! That’s not the way God wants us to live.

The proper attitude toward life in an imperfect world has two parts. The first part is found in Colossians 3: “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” God has a wicked awesome home prepared for us. It’s called heaven. If you want to know what it’s like read the last chapter or so of Revelation. Yes, it’s poetic language, but it gives us an idea of how wonderful our next life will be. Everything you didn’t get in this life will be repaid tenfold in heaven. You’d have better luck trying to find all your gifts on Christmas eve than you would trying to find heaven on earth. As I learned in one of my college classes, this is called over-realized eschatology. If your wish is for “no more lives torn apart, and wars would never start, and time would heal all hearts” you’re going to have to wait for heaven.

On the other hand, we can still have joy now while we’re on the earth. The second part of our attitude is to appreciate the blessings we have in life. Sometimes we bite into an apple that’s just perfect, or we open a gift that is just so special. These are reflections of heaven. We tend to miss them because they are usually swallowed up by the worries, tragedies, and disappointments of life. Life is not joy-less. To think so is under-realized eschatology. We need to take note of the simple pleasures in life, and thank God for them. As Paul says in 1 Thessalonians “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

So what are we made for? According to my professor, we were made for “now and not yet.” We should appreciate the gifts God has given us now and eagerly await the gifts he has yet to give us. I hope you get a chance to think about this during your Christmas festivities.