Homeschooling: A Family’s Journey

Today marks the second anniversary of the passing of Dr. Raymond S. Moore, one of the early guiding lights of the home schooling movement. Dr. Moore and his wife Dorothy wrote several of the earliest popular books about home education—Home Grown Kids, Home- Spun Schools and Home Style Teaching. Dr. Moore also wrote School Can Wait.

I was extremely fortunate in that Home Grown Kids was one of the first, and among the few, books which I took to heart as our family began our homeschooling journey. The Moores advocated so many approaches which have worked so well for our family. Chief among these is the delaying of formal education, even until the age of twelve (we didn’t wait quite that long).

The Moores advocated waiting until the child is ready to learn something before forcing the teaching of that something. In our case, the critical something was reading. This approach has also worked with music, penmanship, composition and driver’s education for various members of our family. Looking back at the book now, especially after having worked on our own account of our home schooling experience, I recognize that there are many points in this book, published in 1981, which are not politically correct and probably weren’t in 1981. Some people turned from them years ago because they were Seventh Day Adventists, Others may find their adherence to traditional values off-putting. It is a shame if any of this keeps parents struggling with issues of delaying education, and of trying to find what is best for each child, as an individual, from becoming familiar with the Moores’ work and experience.

Today, as the emphasis on testing and meeting academic benchmarks beginning in the early grades has become entrenched in the schools, the Moores’ advocacy for children, rather than for the system, is more important than ever. From page 193 in my 1981 copy of Home Grown Kids If even one of the senses—vision, hearing, touch, taste, smell—is underdeveloped, formal learning to that extent is handicapped…..Before this maturity has been reached regular schooling has negative effects even beyond poor achievement….generally poor attitudes towards school and general maladjustment…some cases of so called “dyslexia” or “minimal brain dysfunction” are likely caused by nothing more than such pressure on the unready organism to function beyond its ability.

This book is available for one penny plus shipping on Amazon. Although the Moores have passed from this earth, may their ideas live on. We salute them.

(Martine)

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