Quote from Forum Archives on October 8, 2001, 8:17 pm

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THE HOPE CHEST: Ideas and Inspiration for Home Education
Issue #45 part 1 / October 2001
Justice and Mercy
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WELCOME TO THE HOPE CHEST!

The Hope Chest Home School News is a free bi-monthly e-mail
newsletter with encouragement and practical teaching tips. The
editor is Virginia Knowles, wife of Thad, and mother of eight, ages
baby to teen. Virginia is also the publisher of five books: The Real
Life Home School Mom, three volumes of The Best of the Hope
Chest, the Learner’s Journal lesson planner and record keeping
log. (Ordering information is at the end of the newsletter for these
resources and several by Cindy Rushton.)

If you like this newsletter, please forward it to your friends!
THANKS!!

Hope Chest contact information:
Web site:
www.hopechest.homestead.com/welcome.html
Resource descriptions:
www.hopechest.homestead.com/resourceorders.html
Personal e-mail:
mailto:[email protected]
Subscription address:
mailto:[email protected]
Unsubscription address:
mailto:[email protected]

This newsletter is currently sent out in a few parts per issue. This
is part 1 of 4.

This edition of the Hope Chest is dedicated to my mother, Mary
Quarrier, who lives in Columbia, Maryland. Today, October 8, is
her 63rd birthday! I am so grateful to have a wonderful mother,
who taught me the concepts of justice and mercy during my
childhood. She is one of the sweetest and kindest people I know!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Part 1
FROM MY HEART TO YOURS:
Justice and Mercy in the Home School
by Virginia Knowles

Part 2
DIGGING DEEPER: Justice and Mercy in Scripture
IN MEMORIAM: Dave Mankins, Mark Rich and Rick Tenenoff
TATTLE TAMING by Chautona Havig

Part 3
A JOURNEY OF THE HEART: A Chinese Adoption in Process
by Donna Wesenberg
THE HOME HAVEN: A Dream House in the Making
by Virginia Knowles
HOME HEALTH: First Aid Supplies
by Virginia Knowles

Part 4
NATURE STUDY: Botanical Gardens
by Virginia Knowles
ON OUR HOMEFRONT: What’s New at the Knowles House?
by Virginia Knowles
WHAT’S UP IN THE NEXT ISSUE?
RESOURCE ORDERING INFORMATION
REPRINT PERMISSION

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FROM MY HEART TO YOURS:
Justice and Mercy in the Home School
by Virginia Knowles
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[Virginia’s note: If you can believe it, I wrote this whole article, with
the exception of the paragraphs on fairy tales and games,
BEFORE the crisis on September 11. Now it seems that much
more relevant and important!]

One of the greatest privileges of educating my own children is the
opportunity to teach them about the themes of justice and mercy.
Whether we are studying classic literature, history, geography,
current events, careers, science & technology, health, home
economics, and even math applications, these concepts can be
woven through our curriculum. Take a few moments and think of
how you can do this.

Human nature being what it is, the drama of conflict and suffering
unfolds down through the ages and across the world. I want my
children to be able to respond not just with their heads, but with
their hearts. I want them to evaluate ideas and actions in light of
the truth of Scripture. I want them to be able to use their newfound
or transformed knowledge to make wise decisions about how to
live their own lives. Here are a plethora of ideas for incorporating
justice and mercy into your education program:

* For a Christian family, the obvious place to start is with a study of
Scriptural principles. I have included references for many of these
in another section of the newsletter, but you can use a topical
Bible, concordance or other study tool.

* How do justice and mercy work themselves out in your family
relationships? Are both parents and children learning to be kind to
one another? Do they respect the property and space of others?
Do your children honor you as their parents, or is there a lot of
back talk and whining? How do you handle conflict and tattling?
What system do you have to penalize poor behavior and reward
virtuous behavior? Is it firm and consistent enough to be effective,
yet still flexible enough to accommodate extenuating
circumstances?

* Children love to cry, “It’s not fair!” Usually this means they
haven’t gotten their OWN way. Life isn’t always fair, but a lot of the
time we just need to go with the flow, allowing someone else to go
first or get the bigger share. Yes, there is a time to stand up for
yourself and for others, especially in matters of moral conscience
or flagrant injustice, but much of the time we just need to yield
rights and show preference to others. Children cannot always see
or understand the “big picture” of why a certain decision was
made. We can smooth the way by teaching them how to make a
proper and respectful appeal. However, as parents, we aren’t
always at liberty to explain our reasoning. Often they just need to
accept it because “Mom says so!” A child who continually
challenges your decisions in a demanding way needs to be told, “I
do not answer to you. It is my job to make the decision and your
job to obey it.” Another important concept is that it is more
important to do right than to prove that you are right.

* When we observe other people who are different from us or who
disagree with us, it is easy to get judgmental, critical, and legalistic.

We need to learn to think from another perspective, to “walk a mile
in the other man’s moccasins”, and to “take the plank out of our
own eyes before we dig around for the speck in someone else’s
eye.” Recently I was confronted by a man who was angry about
the way I drove through a parking lot. I don’t think I had done
anything wrong, yet I calmly apologized to him. He kept yelling at
me, which shook me up. My children were upset about this, but I
suggested to them that the man was probably frightened,
especially since he was carrying a toddler. Maybe he’d had a bad
day, and this was the straw that broke the camel’s back. We
never know what someone has gone through. Mercy calls us to
give folks the benefit of the doubt, just as we want them to do for
us. As home schoolers, we probably look pretty strange to
OTHER people. We may be strange, but let’s be gracious, too.

* A great way to gain this kind of perspective is to read well-written
books about a historical period. Talk about how people made
good or bad decisions, how these affected other people, how they
responded to one another, what they could have done differently,
etc. If we are reading about slavery or the Holocaust or some
other time of great injustice, I want my children to think of how they
would have responded. My ten year old daughter Rachel recently
asked if I would have sheltered Jews during World War II. Yes, I
would have if I could have. I would have done SOMETHING in the
anti-Nazi Resistance movement if I had lived then. But that begs
the question: What am I doing about injustice now? How am I
living out justice and mercy in the 21st century?

* Reading about wars also provides many scenarios for
discussion. There are at least two viewpoints for every conflict.
No one is entirely right or wrong. Each side has reasons for acting
as they did. Innocent civilians suffer for poor decisions made by
their governments, and are not “the enemy” themselves. For
example, Patricia Beatty’s book, Be Ever Hopeful Hannalee, is told
from the perspective of a young Southern sister and brother cruelly
uprooted from their home and family during the Civil War. During
the Revolution, my own forebears were Patriots who fought and
Loyalists who fled to Canada. I try to imagine myself as each one.
We can discuss concepts such as “just cause” for revolt against an
unjust government, reasonable force, aggression vs. self-defense,
pacifism, etc. We should apply this to various conflicts, past and
present. This is excellent material for logic and thinking skills.

* For a civics class you can study your country’s executive,
legislative and judicial systems to discover how laws are made and
enforced. What does the constitution say? What checks and
balances are in place to prevent corruption? How are freedom of
speech and freedom of religion protected? How are criminals
punished? How are minorities and women treated? Next, do a
comparative study of various political systems around the world,
including republican, democratic, monarchy (with our without a
representative government like parliament), communist, socialist,
military dictatorship, etc. Find out what life is like in
Taliban-controlled Afghanistan or Castro’s Cuba. Talk about what
lead to the breakup of the eastern Europe’s Communist bloc in the
early 1990s.

* When you read the newspaper, talk about the concept of justice.
Was the court decision fair? Why is this person claiming
discrimination? Should the computer industry be regulated? What
programs should the federal government fund? How does the
welfare system work, and is it effective? Should the Boy Scouts be
able to set their own selection criteria for leaders?

* Discuss the persecution of Christians around the world today. A
very valuable resource is LINK, a children’s supplement to Voice of
the Martyrs magazine. VOM has also produced an excellent
children’s video, Stephen’s Test of Faith, which covers (without
graphic violence) persecution from the time of Stephen onward.
They also offer suggestions on how to help those who are
persecuted for their faith. One year we participated in their
Blankets of Love program by collecting blankets from our
neighbors to send to Sudanese refugees. Be sure to check their
web site (www.persecution.org) for information and
resources on the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted
Church in early November.

* Get involved in mercy projects such as packing a shoe box with
necessities and niceties for a child in a Third World Country
(www.samaritanspurse.org). I get so excited about this. It is
great fun for my children, and helps keep a Christmas season
focus on GIVING! As you select appropriate items, this will use
thinking skills and budgeting. And for geography studies, don’t
forget to learn about what the life of the receiving child might be
like. Our church sends boxes to Mexico each year, so we could
easily study about that.

* How about a missions trip? Many churches plan short trips to
other countries, or you can check into summer teams with Teen
Missions at www.teenmissions.org. I went on Teen Missions
teams in 1979 (evangelism in Scotland) and 1980 (construction in
Israel), and one of my daughters is interested in going on one next
year. It’s certainly an effective way to learn about the world. For a
high school student, this might even count for an elective half
credit in geography or construction skills or whatever.

* In our state, Florida, it is expected that teenagers will log 75
hours of volunteer work before graduating from high school. My
daughter Mary checks the web site www.handsonorlando.org
to find suitable volunteer opportunities in our area. Her first
official
volunteer “gig” was packing food for the homeless, but they also
have things like canoe trips to clean debris from the local rivers.
That one would be good for environmental studies and P.E.

* Go on walkathons for good causes. Spend a little time
researching which ones are worthy of your efforts. This will count
for current events and P.E. Our family did the Walk for Life for the
True Life Choice pregnancy center these past two years.

* For a nice addition to your home economics class, try cooking as
way to serve others. When you take a meal to a mom with a new
baby, let your child help prepare the food or arrange it nicely or
even just make a card. Make muffins for your neighbors. Go help
cook or serve a meal at a homeless shelter.

* “What do you want to be when you grow up?” As you talk about
career choices, think about how each one could implement justice
and mercy. I have one daughter who wants to be a journalist, and
another who wants to be a paramedic -- both great fields for
meeting the needs of real people! A research scientist could
come up with new ways to feed the hungry or heal the sick. An
engineer can make cars, bridges and buildings safer. As you
study math, and your children question, “Why are we learning
this?”, you can present several real-life scenarios. What if you are
a store clerk, and you don’t know how to count out the correct
change? What if you are a carpenter, and you aren’t careful with
your measurements, and someone gets hurt by your unsafe
construction? What if you are a nurse, and you give a patient a
wrong dosage of a medicine? Justice and mercy are made of
everyday integrity.

* You can discuss workplace ethics from your own family’s
experiences as well as news stories. Talk about how one person’s
actions affect others. If an employee embezzles money or is not a
good steward of company resources, it ultimately makes prices go
up for the customers. If an employer discriminates in hiring or
firing, or allows harassment, this reduces employee morale as well
as hurting the offended party. If an employee reveals trade secrets
to a competitor, he cheats people of the rewards of their own
initiative, creativity and hard work. My husband often has to go
back to work after hours to make sure employees are not
falsifying time sheets, which costs him free time with his family.
This brings workplace ethics to a personal level!

* Talk about boycotting and picketing as a means of non-violent
social protest. How have these been used throughout history?
What has been the result in various circumstances? Are there any
products or companies that you boycott? Why? Would you ever
picket? If you have a TV, watch the news for labor union disputes,
environmental activism, and other forms of protest.

* Biographies provide a very effective way to learn about justice
and mercy. Talk about Mother Teresa, Winston Churchill,
Pocahontas, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, Mahatma
Gandhi, Florence Nightingale, and others. You may not agree with
the ideology or actions of each individual, but there should be
plenty of food for thought! For girls, the new book Daughters of
Destiny by Noelle Wheeler (www.mantleministries.org) is an
excellent anthology of stories of worthy women throughout history.

* Talk about the ethics of education. What does it mean to cheat
on a test or plagiarize writing? I remember when one of my little
ones seemed to make a HUGE leap in her ability to do addition
using our homemade flash cards -- until I realized that the paper
was thin enough for her to see the answers on the back! With the
older ones, I need to teach them how to properly attribute a quote
to another source, and how much word for word excerpting is
appropriate in various kinds of writing. It is customary for home
school moms to help their children with schoolwork (duh!), but do
give some thought to how much is appropriate for each age level
and situation. At some point, children do need to think for
themselves. If they need to take a chapter test, go ahead and
prepare them ahead of time for it, but then just let them do it! They
need an honest appraisal of their performance. We shouldn’t
always shield them from that! As long as we are on this topic, are
you adequately complying with state requirements for home
education?

* As you learn about health, talk about ethics, technology, and
current events. Some topics may include: euthanasia, abortion,
stem cell research, cloning, substance abuse and treatment,
AIDS, medical testing on lab animals and humans, alternative
therapies, living wills, vaccinations, organ donation, HMOs,
insurance industry regulation. Talk about the sanctity of life and
then take a box of maternity clothes or diapers to a crisis
pregnancy center.

* Many organizations exist to promote justice and mercy. Find out
about the Red Cross and Amnesty International. Compare the
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) with the American Center
for Law and Justice (ACLJ). How does world-view shape what
positions an organization takes on an issue? How can faulty
assumptions skew your concept of what is right?

* Fairy tales often present a simplified view of justice. The lines
between good and evil are clearly drawn since little people can’t
always understand the nuances of more complicated characters
and plots. In the older versions, the villain (the big bad wolf, the
wicked witch, etc.) usually meets his or her doom in the form of
death. The newer non-violent-resolution versions have the bad
guy chased away “never to be seen again” or reformed due to the
innocent example of the child hero. Most times there still is that
sense of closure, the “happily ever after” that young children need
to assure them that all is well and the world is safe. At some point
in time, children need to mature to the point where they can
appreciate a more realistic story that may not have a tidy ending.
The Book of Virtues and The Moral Compass, both edited by
William Bennett, are essential anthologies of stories and poems for
all ages. These are a must for your home library. One of my
favorite fairy tales in the BOV, Diamonds and Toads, clearly extols
the virtues of kindness and mercy, and has a humorous and just
ending: the sweet daughter is rewarded with diamonds and flowers
which flow from her mouth when she speaks, while the malicious
one is punished with toads coming out of hers. Also in the BOV is
the story of Father Kolbe at Auschwitz. This is a tearjerker with an
ending that is decidedly NOT from a fairy tale: a Polish priest, in
the ultimate act of mercy in the face of injustice, takes the place of
a Jewish prisoner condemned to die, and does so with dignity and
grace.

* For language arts, you can study vocabulary (integrity, justice,
righteousness, compassion) and assign creative writing projects
relating to justice and mercy. “What would you do if you found $20
on the floor of the science museum at a field trip?” “If you had
$500 to give to five different charitable organizations, which would
you choose and why?” “Why should __________ be made
illegal?”

* Games and sports provide great opportunities to practice fair
play, good sportsmanship, following the rules, taking turns, and
being kind to someone who is less experienced or physically able.

* Who do you know who embodies the concepts of justice and
mercy? Find some way to encourage them by making a card or
gift, writing a thank you letter, or throwing an appreciation party.