Speaking up and Speaking out

I have been so saddened by the death of a 7 year old little girl, Lydia Schatz ,from California. She died after she was beaten by her parents for mispronouncing a word while reading aloud to her mom who homeschooled her. She was also an internationally adopted child. The story is here.

My heart is broken for a life that was never able to be fully lived and for a mom who is now dealing with the guilt and repercussions of listening to and following the teachings of Michael and Debi Pearl.

They are a homeschool family that founded No Greater Joy ministries and speak on marriage, parenting and family. The only books I have read by them were books I checked out at a library. It is frightening to me now, but I was on a wait list for a month for the book To train up a child. The very book the parents of Lydia Schatz were following.

It only took a few chapters in to know that their teaching were not for me and my family. Comparing the training of children to that of pets and tempting your child and then whacking them with plumbing posts just didn't line up as godly parenting in my opinion.

This circumstance has provided quite a bit of negative publicity from the home schooling community in general. I have found out in my 5 years of homeschooling that the jean jumper wearing, chicken raising, 15 kid having mom that beats her kids is thankfully NOT the normal homeschool mom! There is an extensive list of teachers, preachers , publishers and others that have spoken out about the situation. You can read those here.

Even though the entire situation makes me sick, Michael Pearl's letter to his critics is one of the most offensive, downright creepy response to a child's death I have ever read. If you would like to read it go here. I am ashamed this man is in the homeschooling business and I ever took the time to peruse one of his books.

A man that could talk of himself and use laughter as an example in light of a child dying based on his teachings is no man I ever want to follow, read or take advice from. If you have any of his books or follow his disciplines then I would strongly suggest that you research him and his methods, pray and then burn his books and boycott their 1.5 million dollar "ministry".