Posted on 12/10/2015 7:51:53 AM PST by Sopater
As a natural beneficial principle applicable to human action.
Division of labor is simply a technique in the service of an end or a goal. The extent to which or the ways in which “division of labor” serves your family depend on your goals or vision for your family.
My goal for my family has been one of the family members doing important and valuable things together. That goal is not especially served by the economic concept of division of labor. There are certainly times when that concept is in play; for example, my daughter wasn’t going to learn auto mechanics from me or her father. She took Auto Shop at the local community college.
However, our deeper view is that “childhood” is about 25% of a person’s life, and that spending it largely in the company of one’s parents and siblings is to be valued above other options. This doesn’t preclude a science lab or a language class or dance lessons or horseback riding, but the guiding principle is that the life of the family *together* is the key value.
Thanks for you thoughts.
You are probably right to note that the division of labor depends on the end or goal. After all, it applies differently, depending on the social context—family, city, nation, etc. There is a point where the family unit is dependent a larger social context, and although at this time in our society a massive defection from public education is exactly what is needed, this movement can also show the deficiency of our social life and social trust. I think it a worthwhile discussion, but it requires a lot of effort—I used to give that effort a lot here on FR, probably too much.
It is curious that the word economy is originally from the Greek, meaning “rule of the household.”
Single parent homeschooler.
My son graduates next week with his Bachelor’s in Computer Science and will start his Master’s in January. He has been on the Dean’s List every semester. He found an internship where is he helping to upgrade a program for modern operating systems. They have liked him so much they converted him to an employee, working around his school schedule.
His boss, from China, likes him so much, he has my son tutor his highschool son.
Wow. And what would you do different?
Nothing in regards to having home educated. Things that I would have done different are outside of that aspect of our lives.
I wish I could convince more conservatives that by placing our kids in public “indoctrination” centers, we are destroying our future. I see so many times on here people defending their local public schools: that won’t happen here. Well, actually it will and does happen, even in the best of schools. Incrementally.
I attended a small, rural, public school; what my parents thought was best. It nearly destroyed me. It has destroyed my nieces and nephews; my brothers thought the schools were OK.
“I attended a small, rural, public school; what my parents thought was best. It nearly destroyed me. It has destroyed my nieces and nephews; my brothers thought the schools were OK.”
We had one do public school fine. The other we pulled out and homeschooled and he flourished in every way. He really appreciates that we did that for him. As a young adult, college grad, he told me, “you and dad saved my life.”
The public school guy was kind of jealous in the end but he did not want to do homeschool at the time. He’s done well, so he’s fine.
C'est la vie.
Yes, there’s much more that could be said, but one does have a Real Life.
I’ll just add that goals are influenced by environment. In a survival-oriented environment, where it’s uncertain whether we’ll take in enough calories today to wake up tomorrow, the perspective would be very different.
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