Torah Unschooling Blog

shalhevet

Wed, Oct 24 2012, 11:33 am

Can I ask a serious question? This is not meant to be rude/ critical, it is out of genuine curiosity.

Why do you think teachers in a school who are yarei shamayim (we hope) are not a good influence on your children, but you think playing music by non jews (especially on Torah topics, even if there's nothing intrinsically wrong with the words) and/or children sitting in front of a computer screen, is a good way to learn? (obviously I realize you are not doing this for long periods).

Because I think the opposite - that doing exercises on a computer/ sitting in front of a computer/ being exposed to 'exciting' movies on the computer (as compared to a black and white chumash/ gemorra) damages our children. And this is not my theory - I have heard it from many sources.

I am interested if you have thought of this and what you think on the topic. How will you homeschool chumash-rashi, for example, in the future?

BTW, I think the blog is very nicely presented and you have very good/ original ideas.

Seraph

Wed, Oct 24 2012, 12:22 pm

shalhevet wrote:

First off, I dont think teachers who are yarei shamayim are a bad influence on children, or even that they're not a good influence, but that still doesn't mean them teaching my kids is the "best" for how I want to raise my children. Because I don't think yarei shamayim teachers would (purposely) try to not encourage them to have yiras shamayim, but sometimes even yarei shamayim teachers can make mistakes and do things that are detrimental and not conducive to growth in yiddishkeit (something both my husband and myself experienced). I don't equate frum schools whatsoever with non jewish public schools, and I accept that they're a decent alternative, but that doesn't make me think they're the best, and I want the best for my kids, or as best as I can give them anyhow. Don;t you? We just may differ in what we think is the best.
As for not jewish songs...
First off, I really, really don't believe that the composer of a song and his beliefs permeate a song to the extent that it can damage the listeners neshama, even if the song itself is totally kosher. I recognize that there are some shitos that hold like this, but we don't follow those shitos.
So, I don't see anything wrong with a song like "There's gonna be a floody floody". In fact, I think it can just promote a love of torah, because it makes learning torah fun. I believe in using songs whenever possible to teach things, even when my kids are older. Most torah learning is even done in a sing song and reading of the torah is done with a trop- tunes are very useful tools to learn things, at all ages.

As for why don't I have a problem with screen time?
Personally, I read a lot of what you have/had to say on this topic, and I hear where you are coming from, but in terms of videos, that was a difference of views between my husband and myself, and he won in this area, and though I would prefer they not, my kids do watch videos. So I try my best that when they do want to watch videos, its educational things and things that enhance their avodas hashem whenever possible, so they get their fill from that, instead of with nonsense. But I don't think that damages kids per se, but yes, you might need to work a little harder to get a boy interested in learning gemara inside. But then again, I'm not sure about that- we grew up watchitng movies, but that didn't make our love of "reading black and white books" any less- when a topic interests you, videos can be more annoying to watch than reading it inside. So the goal is to make torah interesting and loved, and thats what I try to do.

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How will you homeschool chumash-rashi, for example, in the future?

I'll respond to this soon.

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BTW, I think the blog is very nicely presented and you have very good/ original ideas.

Thanks!