Weekend Edition~Lessons from Great Grandfather

My Grandmother, two older sisters, little
brother, and Mammy and Pappy as
she always lovingly referred to them.

One objection to homeschooling I hear time and again, is My children won't obey me. I have to send them to school so they will learn to obey. OR Children need to learn to obey other people, not just their parents.

One thing that always comes to my mind when I hear this objection is a little story about my Great Grandfather.

I am not saying children are the same as animals. But, he had very special relationships with his animals. He raised cattle for a living. He had a dog and a horse that were extraordinary in their relationship with him. He could tell them to do certain task that you would not think a animal could understand. Yet these animals would do it to the letter with out wavering no matter how others would try to get the animal distracted. He could tell his dog, exactly which cow to go get out of the field and the dog knew and would go and get the cow and bring it to him. He could tell his horse to go get his children at school and bring them home and the horse would.

My grandmother, his daughter, said, that many of their school friends would want the horse to take them home too and they would tell their friends the horse will not, it will only go to our home. But, the friends would not listen. And they would get on the horse with my grandmother and her siblings any way and then try to get the horse to take them home. But, it would not, the other children would just have to ride home with my grandma or jump off the horse. The horse would not stop til he took my grandmother and her siblings home! haha

These things about his dog and horse, became known to the people who lived around them. Many people would come to my great grandfather and ask him to train their dogs and horses like he had his own. They would beg, plead, offer lots of money or anything to get my grandfather to train their animals. However, my grandfather always explained to them, he could train their animals. But, then they would only be trained to listen and obey him and do what he told them. He could not train their animals to do what the people wanted them to do, or to listen to them. That each person has to develop their own relationship with their animals and train them themselves if they wanted the animal to obey their commands.

To me children are very similar in this manner. People expect to send their children to "school" to get them to be trained to obey at home, but that does not work. All that it does is train children to obey the authorities at the school. Not the parents at home. If you want a child to obey and be trained at home, a parent has to form a relationship with the child at home, and train them themselves. You can not hire that out.