Yesterday, I wrote about the War Between the States (the “Civil War”), and I promised another post about slavery.  This is that post.

The problem with slavery in the mid-19th-century South was not slavery.  It could be readily argued that slavery, in and of itself, is not wrong.  Now, if I’ve ruffled your feathers, please hear me out.  I may not be saying what you think I’m saying, but the whole post is necessary to convey the whole thought.  Throughout history, throughout the world, nations have conquered other nations and taken their people as slaves.  Even the ancient Israelites did so, with God’s blessing!  Even today, the Constitution does not forbid slavery in certain circumstances.  (Bet you didn’t know that!)  It permits slavery in instances of debt (for purposes of “working off” the debt, essentially).  Slavery was not the problem.

But there was a problem!  So, if it wasn’t slavery, what was it?  Wrong attitudes/wrong thinking.  See, the institution of slavery in the American South was not like slavery in, for instance, ancient Israel.  We did not have slaves by conquest.  (It could possibly be argued that the slaves held here were conquered by other nations within the continent of Africa, so it’s “still the same thing,” but if we argued that, we would still be missing the real point.)  We had (as a whole, at least) slaves by ethnicity, based on an incorrect understanding of personhood.

The general belief at that time was that those with “negroid” features were somehow less human than their more European counterparts.  Let me state unequivocally that this is absolutely, completely false!  This incorrect belief was the real problem with the institution of slavery in the American South.

Now, it may seem like a minor distinction to say that this was the root problem, rather than slavery itself, but it’s not.  This distinction has tremendous bearing upon the failure to properly integrate all members of society when emancipation actually did take place.  How?  Because we fixed the symptom, not the problem. We did away with slavery (apart from that debt clause), but not with the incorrect beliefs and wrong attitudes.  As a result, dark-skinned Americans had a hard time finding people who were willing to employ them, befriend them, or even live near them.  In the 1960’s, we still had separate water fountains, schools, and seats on buses – all because we never fixed the underlying attitude.  (I would venture to say that most people in the 1960’s wouldn’t say that darker-skinned individuals are inhuman, but there were still – and, in a few instances, still are – vestiges of this idea in the mistaken belief that we are fundamentally different.)

We need to all recognize that people are people, period.  The difference between your dark skin and my light skin is no greater a difference than the difference between my hazel eyes and my daughters’ blue eyes.  God made us all of one blood. There is only one human race – the human race.  To believe otherwise is the very definition of “racist.”  (So, Uncle Sam, stop asking me for my “race” on all of your forms.  If I’m filling out the form, it’s “human.”  Any further distinction is racist.)

Filed under: Deep Thinking, Hard Topics, History and Geography, Politics/Current Events, Theology & Spiritual Growth by Rachel
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In a little more than a month, I will turn thirty.  I wasn’t bothered by that – didn’t really feel like I was getting old – until I looked in the mirror the other day and saw wrinkles! Ahhh!  Where did those come from?  lol  Note to those who are younger: consider using anti-aging types of facial cleansers, or eye cream for wrinkles, or whatever, before you think you need them, because when you see those first wrinkles, you will feel old overnight!  lol I think I will be looking for some Olay or something next time I’m out shopping. 

As I am getting old, my children are shooting up, as well.  It seems like just yesterday that they were nursing infants and now I feel like I am already running out of time to train up Ariel.  Sometimes time just seems to drag and drag, but our lives truly are just a vapor.  We really have to make every moment count – redeeming the time.

Filed under: Deep Thinking, Personal and Blog News by Rachel
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I found this quote in one of the Montessori books I was reading yesterday.  It’s talking about incorporating your children into the work of the home, but it spoke to me, for myself.

Work should never be thought of as a chore, but as an activity that leads to a sense of order and completion.

(from How to Raise an Amazing Child the Montessori Way, by Tim Seldin – which, by the way, has a lot of good stuff in it, but also some typical-of-the-Montessori-community antibiblical views of child-rearing, especially where discipline and obedience are concerned)

I think that part of my difficulty is that I have a very goal-oriented personality, and it seems that none of the “activity” around the house ever does really lead to “order” or “completion.”  The house is always still a mess, nothing is ever finished, etc.  So it begins to feel pointless.  But even the difference in connotation between “chore” and “activity” is significant.  And maybe I need focus more on figuring out how we might actually be able to achieve the goals of order and/or completion.

Filed under: Cleaning & Tidying, Deep Thinking by Rachel
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I would never have expected to find great spiritual inspiration in a Montessori text, but I was surprised today by an observation which I found fascinating.  I’ve been reading The Montessori Method, which is a collection of Maria Montessori’s own writings about her “Children’s Houses” and how they do things.  In one particular chapter, she discusses the importance of the sensory training.  (For the youngest children in Montessori schools, these are the primary occupation.  Through a particular set of didactic materials, the children learn to use all of their senses quite precisely and accurately, to differentiate between varying weights, colors, sizes, etc.)  Montessori says that

The education of the senses must be of the greatest pedagogical interest….The development of the senses indeed precedes that of superior intellectual activity and the child between three and seven years is in the period of formation….This sense training will prepare the ordered foundation upon which he may build up a clear and strong mentality.

A page or so later, she goes on to describe the basic concept of this sensory training, and the proper progression from sensory to theoretical.

We have always started from ideas, and have proceeded thence to motor activities; thus, for example, the method of education has always been to teach intellectually, and then to have the child follow the principles he has been taught.  In general, when we are teaching, we talk about the subject which interests us, and then we try to lead the scholar, when he has understood, to perform some kind of work with the object itself; but often the scholar who has understood the idea finds great difficulty in the execution of the work which we give him, because we have left out of his education a factor of the utmost importance, namely, the perfecting of the senses.  I may, perhaps, illustrate this statement with a few examples. We ask the cook to buy only ‘fresh fish.’  She understands the idea, and tries to follow it in her marketing, but, if the cook has not been trained to recognize through sight and smell the signs which indicate freshness in the fish, she will not know how to follow the order we have given her.

Such a lack will show itself much more plainly in culinary operations.  A cook may be trained in book matters, and may know exactly the recipes and the length of time advised in her cook book; she may be able to perform all the manipulations necessary to give the desired appearance to the dishes, but when it is a question of deciding from the odor of the dish the exact moment of its being properly cooked, or with the eye, or the taste, the time at which she must put in some given condiment, then she will make a mistake if her senses have not been sufficiently prepared.

She can only gain such ability through long practice, and such practice on the part of the cook is nothing else than a belated education of the senses — an education which often can never be properly attained by the adult.  That is one reason why it is so difficult to find good cooks.

Something of the same kind is true of the physician, the student of medicine who studies theoretically the character of the pulse, and sits down by the bed of the patient with the best will in the world to read the pulse, but, if his fingers do not know how to read the sensations his studies will have been in vain.  Before he can become a doctor, he must gain a capacity for discriminating between sense stimuli.

While many homeschoolers will recognize here the idea of progressing from concrete to abstract, rather than the other way around, something more specific jumped out at me, largely as a result of the wording used.  This idea of “training” or “preparing” the senses, of developing a capacity for discrimination, is not new!

Hebrews 5:14 says

But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

(Some translations render it “trained,” rather than “exercised.”  Apparently, the idea is that of being trained through exercise – that is, through use, or practice.)  I knew this verse (obviously, or it wouldn’t have come to mind!), but I hadn’t ever broken it down to the specifics of the individual phrases.  In relation to spiritual things, Hebrews is saying the exact same thing Montessori is saying:  until the senses are trained, the “superior intellectual” teaching is too much.

This is why it is beneficial to train our toddlers in obedience, even if they don’t fully understand the “theory” behind it yet.  It is enough that they are trained to recognize “good” and “evil.”  This ability to discriminate between good and evil prepares them to accept deeper, more abstract teaching later.

I wonder, though, if examining the Montessori method, and how this educational philosophy plays out in the natural, academic world, might give us some insight in how to better train those adult Christians who still lack the ability to discern good and evil.  What might this progression look like in the life of a physical adult who is a baby Christian?  What insights can Maria Montessori’s sensory training offer us?

Filed under: Deep Thinking, Spiritual Journal by Rachel
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There is a question that has been on my mind lately.  An important question, but a difficult one to articulate.  I mean, I can give the right words easily, but they could be easily misinterpreted.  The question is: “How does one ‘walk with God’ or ‘fellowship with God’?”  See the difficulty here?  There are several ways this could be taken.  I am not asking about how we get to know God (i.e. salvation), or about general Christian disciplines, like reading our Bibles in the mornings or attending church.  I’m talking about in the day-to-day living of our lives, as we go about our business.

See, I tend to slip into feeling like everything is sort of aimless.  We raise our children to love the Lord and raise their children to love the Lord and raise their children to love the Lord, ad infinitum.  And of course that’s important.  But why?  Why keep producing new generations of people just to perpetuate this?  There must be more, right?  And there is – or at least there should be.  “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”  And here is the heart of my question.  How do we “enjoy” God?  It is important for us to trust Him, and to teach our children to trust Him, but as long as we (or our children) are only trusting Him, and not experiencing companionship with Him, we’re not really living.  But the question is, how do we do that?

God walked with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day.  Noah walked with God.  Enoch walked with God and was not.  How?

Filed under: Deep Thinking, Spiritual Journal by Rachel
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