Gregg Harris and Delight-Directed Study

We have been blessed to be able to borrow the "Households of Strength" teaching series by Gregg Harris. Dave and I listened to the CD "A Place of Delight-Directed Study" and appreciated its insights into home based education.

Key points

* Homeschooling is not a biblical requirement. It is what Gregg calls a "liberty garden" issue. Each person should be fully convinced in his or her own mind about what God's will is. To decide how to educate your children, you should look at the fruit of what others are doing. Ask yourself "What does the fruit look like in their liberty garden?".

* Leading children to delight in learning at home is important for all Christian families. All families can apply the principles of delight directed education.

* God calls us to delight in Him and in his works in the world. We can foster this delight through an appropriate mental hunger for good things. In order for this "hunger" to occur, we must avoid "snacking" on inappropriate mental food (e.g. trivial TV, endless pointless emails, formulaic novels). Instead, stock your home with excellent resources and get a library card!

* Appropriate companionship is vital. Foolish companionship hinders learning as children are taught that it is not cool to be excited about God and what he has done. Parents should seek out excellent mentors and companions for their children.

* There are two main questions worth asking about your child's education. How can I best foster delight in learning? How can I help my children have good companionship? After asking these questions, choose the educational setting which will facilitate these goals.

 Personal responses


* My parents are happy for us to have their piano, and we want to move it over soon so we can have musical instruments in our home. This may turn out to be a tool for delight in learning - we'll see!

* I personally want to exhibit greater delight in learning, and greater discernment about what is good.

* The fruit in some homeschooling families is not good (rebellion, discontentment, selfishness, pride). I have been asking myself what our response should be to this. If this was all we saw of homeschooling, should we reject it? This was my response for many years. Or is it a question of application? There are many ways to homeschool!

* I'll have to try out the principle of fanning the flames of intellectual hunger before having much idea of how it will work in practice.

* Our family needs to continue to seek God for good companions for us as a family. God is the one who provides helpful relationships. We are blessed in many ways, but we don't know what will come up in our years of child rearing and we need to be prayer for God's provision at every stage.

You can read more about Gregg Harris onWikipedia.

You can download Gregg Harris' seminars online.