Natural Education:

About math, writing and the basic education. Before public schools these things were learned at home. The child would be asked by the mother to get 5 carrots, 1 cabbage, 4 onions, 2 tomatoes, out of the garden for dinner that evening etc. This was a natural way to learn how to remember items, to count, to gather, to feel wanted, worthy, and to be responsible.

Other math, such as dividing wood lengths or fabric in half or quarters etc would be learned in daily life, including subtraction and multiplication. Items would be put into sets etc as well, and if the need was more complex math them it wild be applied and the children taught.

Science is taught at home in the art of gardening, metals used for making one’s own tools and sharpening tools etc, shapes for cutting and materials like wood and fabric-materials when they are in season, and how to use them for the best advantage of what it is intended that they be used for, and natural things like the study of the sky, stars, health of plants, animal health, human health, plants and such for medicines and natural painkillers, and the study of the human body for health reasons. Nature and useful science is all around us and used on a daily basis. A child needed to learn about the plants and what they were used for. For instance what roots could be ground down to make flour for baking, and what plants made the best ingredients for certain meals and drinks. They need to know at what time of year the plant or tree grows, and what to use for the same food in the other seasons when the plant is not available. Also certain plants can be used for clothing and when they are old they rot and go healthily and naturally back into the soil encouraging more growth.

Children naturally want to help out in the home. The love to mimic the adults. They naturally want to fit in and to be an important part of family life. If encouraged they will become an asset to the simple family life, and the child will be appreciated, his or her confidence will grow and a healthier mind will be the result.

Writing was taught by the parents. For instance notes were left when the family went out, and the note was to tell another family member what time that they would be back. Here we see that the parents taught the child about time and how it is measured, or they may just talk about noon, afternoon, evening, and morning etc. The days of the week are taught so that the children can prepare for events, and maybe for trade etc.

The seasons were noted and had to be prepared for because wood needed to be gathered, food harvested, seeds planted, soil prepared etc. The children did their part and felt like an important part of the family. This was all good confidence building experience and taught the importance of preparation, and the value of good honest unselfish work.

When the mother made homemade bread she taught her children about measurements so that the food would be nice and edible. The father taught about measurements when mending a fence and cutting posts to fit, or when fixing a chair, or when building a new dinner table or bench.

Hand, body and eye coordination came from this hands on experience. Learning to lift, hold, carrying etc came from this useful work that was designed to help the family survive. Measuring distance with the eyes or hands (sometimes without measuring equipment) was learned from experience.

And another important skill was learning to smell rain and storms before they arrived, and to trust ones own senses in the country or wilderness. One would be taught by parents about local animal life and what animals were dangerous and for what reason, and what to do if attacked or injured, and how to help others if they were attacked or injured etc.
All the basic first-aid skills were taught by the parents. For example how to set a broken leg, what to do if a local poisonous plant was accidentally eaten, or what to do in an accident etc. Also were taught what plants etc were dangerous and what was safe to eat etc.

Parents took this kind of teaching to their children in their stride, because it benefits everyone and it furthers the child’s life education.

Basic discernment skills were developed watching ones parents and how they dealt with strangers. Learning who to trust, what characteristics to look for in dishonest and honest people all came from living at home while young with our own parents, and learning from how they dealt with people and the world.

The importance of work was installed deep into the minds of the child, because this work meant survival and comfort (like getting the firewood cut and stacked to keep the family warm even the cold seasons arrived).

Math is obviously needed for cooking and working with wood, metal, and general work around the home. Math is also used when making clothing, for measuring out the sizes of the materials and writing was needed to record it all.

Art is part of the family life. Children when left to their own imagination will create and make things, they will sing, draw, run, climb, jump and in general have lots of fun and all without any teaching from adults. Adults can join in as well. And the parents to teach art. The father may need plans drawn for a chair and ask the children to put forward a drawn design. The mother may have dress patterns to design and draw. She and the children may design all sorts of creative things, as well as teaching flower arrangements, etc.

Children will test themselves by taking small risks in general play, and their confidence grows from that. This is the natural way that children have learned since the beginning of the human race. Trial and error. Discovering for themselves what is the right way to do something without help from adults. This is how lessons of life sink in permanently in the child’s mind. If they get hurt they tend to either not do it again, or the child will be much more careful in the future.

The best way to learn a lesson is by trial and error, not in the perfect non-risk setting of the modern classroom. School classroom teaching breeds children who have “coping issues, and lack of confidence and a lack of true courage”.

The physical exercise from gardening, cutting wood, walking, running, working around the home is the exercise that brings for natural muscle mass, strength, and confidence in the persons ability to function physically in the world. This kind of exercise keeps one fit and healthy and sets up the natural body structure for the life of the person. Living like this takes away the need for diets and gyms, because all fitness is natural and healthy for the body.

Because the farmers brought tractors and rotary hoe type machinery they had no use for horses anymore. But horses provided a natural daily source of compost, and so did the other animals on the farm or backyard of the home of the past. For example the horses waste was used in the country gardens and that brought forth large healthy crops. When the horses plowed the fields the horses naturally went to the toilet and that added natural compost to the soil. Today the farmers use tractors and buy a mix of chemicals and other materials to fertilize the soil. This is unnatural and unhealthy for the soil in the long run.

It is only in modern times that we decided to grow worthless well trimmed lawns, and try to make our yards look like “perfect homes” etc. And in doing this we traded away our source of fresh, clean, non-polluted, and chemical free food for looks. In need of food we came to see the Supermarket as the correct source of nutrition for our family, after all the authorities told us so (to promote spending, and the result is growth in the supermarket industry) . But what we really got is food with chemicals in it to preserve its shelf life, and to cause us health problems.

Modern wood is preserved and is often called Treated-Wood, to make it last longer. But this makes the once healthy wood a poison. Preserved wood should not be used around vegetable gardens because it let’s off poisons into the soil, and the plants eat this and we eat the plants. By preserving wood we removed many jobs because there was less need for replacing rotten wood, and we are destroying the environment because eventually this wood will end up in the soil. The ashes from preserved wood is poison and shouldn’t be put in the gardens. Wood that is not treated is healthy and rots, and broken down (rotted) fertilizes the ground and new growth comes from it.

The whole world is based on living-cycles. All things that live, are born somehow and grow, then die, and when they die they go back into the soil to promote new growth. It is the original natural process that brings fourth new life, feeds it, and starts all over again.

When society becomes greedy and selfish, shortcuts are taken to bring in more money, the waste (plastics, rubber etc) goes back in to the soil and kills everything around it.

As you can see schools are not needed for children up to 14 years old. They learn all that they need to learn at home with their parents. This is how it had been done since the first humans, except very recently.

Children learn best from those who they love and respect. Children need their parents so that they can learn gender identity, manners, and now to react to life, and how to cope as a parent, and person.

The outside influence of schools and many hours with school friends confuses and influences the young mind. Often this leads to unwanted peer pressure, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, gangs etc.

The social structure that is weak is not going to give our children a solid foundation to live by. So we need to remove our children from a weak failing society and teach them how to live as children have been taught successfully going back to the first humans.

All the best from
James M Sandbrook.
‎Sunday, ‎20 ‎September ‎2015, ‏‎9:05:12 PM.