Since we started schooling using Tapestry of Grace, I’ve particularly enjoyed the literature discussions. Big surprise, right? Although my degree is in English, I never felt like I had the literary analysis skills to lead a literature discussion. Teaching through these past three years, particularly at the Rhetoric level, has been an additional education for me.
One of the concepts that I have found particularly helpful in guiding my students through discussions is “experiment in living.” I searched for the term online to see if it appears anywhere else and why I hadn’t learned this in my literature studies in college. Other literary analysis sources have similar concepts, but this particular terms seems to be Tapestry’s own. It refers to “the choice a character makes to act and live according to particular beliefs.” It may or may not be an experiment to the character, as in, “Hmm, I think I’ll try to live this way and see how it works out.” No, it is an experiment to the reader, who is wondering how the character’s particular choices are going to play out.
When introducing the concept to my students, I try to make it concrete by asking them, “What is your experiment in living? What is your family’s?” Homeschooling is often the first answer. Others usually include music instruction, church, youth group (or not), and sports/dance/drama. I love the discussion that follows from this so much that I usually introduce the idea before we begin reading a book, so that we can spend as much time on our own experiments in living.
Home schooling is an experiment in living. Ray and I have made this choice to act and live according to the belief that God has given us these children and called us to disciple them, to teach them about Him and his glory as it is revealed in the world, in science, in history, in the words that people have penned throughout the ages.
Just like any experiment, we can’t be sure of the outcome. We can’t guarantee that my children will follow him. We can’t be sure that they will be missionaries, doctors, lawyers, literature teachers, or anything else. However, just like any scientist knows that experiments must follow certain procedures and have specific environments for them to work, we pray that the more time we can spend with them teaching them the ways of God, loving them, letting them see us fail, asking them for forgiveness, the more likely they are to have a heart for the things of God.
We are sure of our beliefs, because we are sure of the One in whom we believe. And we know that others are watching to see how our experiment turns out. Whether or not we are successful in the eyes of the world isn’t important. At the end, when I’ve graduated my last (and that’s probably 16 more years), our experiment will be a success when we have been faithful to disciple and pray and love.
