Of Mice and Men

Seriously, I have to finally respond to negative comments on homeschool. It almost makes me laugh, while at the same time frustrates me, that people take things I say or photos I post, so literally!! When my son was playing outside with his brother, I got a comment that it looked 'provocative' - like a lynching or a beheading. (I am not speaking to the comments who recognized it as play).

Honestly, my children were playing. Simply boys being boys and doing what boys do best - roughhousing, goofing off, and using their imaginations. Actually, something that sadly has gone by the wayside since TV, video games, Nintendo DS, Playstation, and other electronic gadgets have become the stape of children's imaginative diets.

It is different in our family though, as our children watch little TV; what they do watch is harmless compared to what we know is available on television! Daniel Boone, The Waltons, Little House on the Prairie, and other timeless classics are among favourites.

And then, of course, there are the occasionally more parent-guidance type movies that the older ones watch that are fast-paced and exciting. These are movies that little ones wouldn't be allowed to watch, but these films are viewed with content in mind. They are not intended to exploit the boys' minds, but to enhance learning, such as in: Shooting Dogs - when learning about genocide and Rwanda, or Rabbit Proof Fence -when studying Australia and the "Stolen Generation", or The Children of Huang Chi - the rescue of orphans in wartime China.

Video games, computer games, DS - these are all doled out in very moderate amounts. What our children do with their imaginations mostly comes from good living literature, old TV series, history reads, and other 'normal' avenues. Yes, boys will be boys, (said with a smile!) and they do choose to do some things that I would rather they didn't, as in play army - but if you give a boy a piece of toast he will turn it into a gun! So what can you do?

I am not going to take away my boys masculinity by getting all bent out of shape when they play games that bring out the lion in them. A woman becomes a mama bear when her little ones are in danger; well, a man becomes a lion - or he should - when his family needs protecting. When boys are not allowed to be physical, adrenaline-filled, and play rough, we are risking turning them into boys that won't know how to raise up and fight for their family when the need arises!

Here is an excerpt from the book Wild At Heart by John Eldridge:

Beginning of quote:

The way a man's life unfolds nowadays tends to drive his heart into remote regions of the soul. Endless hours at a computer screen; selling shoes at the mall; meetings, memos, phone calls. The business world - where the majority of American men live and die - requires a man to be efficient and punctual. Corporate policies and procedures are designed with one aim: to harness a man to the plow and make him produce. But the soul refuses to be harnessed; it knows nothing of Day Timers and deadlines and P & L statements. The soul longs for passion, for freedom, for life.

As D.H. Lawrence said, "I am not a mechanism." A man needs to feel the rhythms of the earth; he needs to have a in hand something real - the tiller of a boat, a set of reins, the roughness of rope, or simply a shovel. Can a man live all his days to keep his fingernails clean and trim? Is that what a boy dreams of?

Society at large can't make up its mind about men. Having spent the last thirty years redefining masculinity into something more sensitive, safe, manageable, and, well, feminine, it now berates men for not being men. Boys will be boys, they sigh, as though if a man were to truly grow up he would forsake wilderness and wanderlust and settle down, to be at home forever in Aunt Polly's parlour.

"Where are all the real men?" is regular fare for talk shows and new books. You asked them to be women, I want to say. (bold emphasis mine) The result is a gender confusion never experienced at such wide level in the history of the world. How can a man know he is one when his highest aim is minding his manners?

End of quote:

I am thrilled to know that my boys are real boys. They know how to use chainsaws, skilsaws, build foundations and frame houses, hang drywall, are training to jump out of airplanes, can cut down trees and buck it for firewod, rappel down cliffs, and yes, use guns and bows and arrows!

I am proud to be the mother of six young men! Young men who at the same time as being encouraged to be warriors, are being taught how to cook and clean, take care of babies and children, to open doors for ladies, help them with their coats, offer their seats to older people, and protect women. In other words, be chivalrous!
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