Home life...and college

HUZZAH! I took a break from Chemistry to eat some cereal (drat...my food schedule is all messed up, thanks to insomnia) and bum around the internet. I found this FANTASTIC essay by some lady somewhere who teaches something (Jean Humphreys, Assistant Professor of Sociology @ Dallas Baptist University). Honestly, it's a great essay. READ...it's about women getting a Liberal Arts education even though they may spend part or all of their lives living at home and raising children. This really affirmed for me why I do what I do, even though many people have discouraged this path for me and have hinted at cooking and quilting classes.

http://www.leaderu.com/humanities/libmom4.html

This is my favorite quote in the essay, and the first part is from a lady named Joy Davidman (sound familiar?):

"Let us drop the disastrous cant that persuades women, often against their won hearts, that they have a "duty" to neglect their children for civic affairs, or broadening cultural activities, or even heaven help us, for "realizing their creative potentialities through self-expression in a rewarding career." Let us drop too the curious theory that the care and teaching of children are entirely women's work, and that their father should have as little to do with them as possible. Most of all, let us remind the innumerable Americans who don't seem to know it that begetting and rearing a family are far more real and rewarding than making and spending money (pp. 66; 69)."

A liberal arts education prepares a parent for a rich home life, where children can learn to ask questions and seek understanding. Again, one of the primary duties of a parent is to educate the child, and in that education teach the children to question. Through a true liberal arts education the child will be able to weigh anything that the world has to offer in the light of God's truth. In the Presence of the Kingdom, Jacques Ellul (1989) speaks of the practice of Christian hospitality in the details and the household. Ellul states "absolutely everything, the smallest details which we regard as indifferent, ought to be questioned, placed in the light of faith, examined from the point of view of the glory of God" (p. 122).

The home needs to have the atmosphere, the "homemaking" that creates an environment where children are able to ask questions. The home should be full of books and conversation and time for work and play.