Edward

This is a plan to home school Mr. Seibert’s son, Edward in his mother’s homeland, Ukraine. Character is key: if he is honest and dependable, Edward will be a success. Pride and respect for himself and his ancestors are essential inspirations to be a good husband, father, and provider.

Mr. Seibert's experience as a parent, private school trustee, teacher, and finally ed school student led to the strong conviction that, in educating a second family, he had to take full control of the process. This book describes why and how.

It is widely accepted that the United States and Western Europe are in crisis: unsustainable debt, failing schools, falling birthrates, and rising crime. At its core it is a moral crisis: a lack of belief in themselves, their traditions, and even their moral right to reproduce. Mr. Seibert does not accept their verdict. He left behind an America in which he had succeeded to start a new life in Ukraine. Under Communism the country was as tangled in its own lies as today’s West is in political correctness. That’s over. It is a homogeneous country of intelligent people, spared by its sorry history from most mistakes made by the modern West. There is a high level of social capital, a minimum of self-deception, and a maximum of freedom for a child.

Mr. Seibert starts from the same premise as Aristotle, Locke and Rousseau. Character is the cornerstone of an education. Other elements include the social skills necessary for marriage and family, physical training for a healthy body, enough knowledge of business to earn a living, and finally, a strong academic foundation adequate to support them all. Mr. Seibert lays out a plan which incorporates these considerations.

Christian, Darwinist, and liberal thinkers hold conflicting views of how we got here and our purpose on earth. The progressive/liberal view is that we are unworthy inheritors of a purloined patrimony. Christians take having children as a spiritual commitment; Darwinists state only the obvious, that without children, we die out. In teaching values and ethics, Mr. Seibert plans to draw on all three sources and look back to Aristotle for the resolution: well developed judgment. A student must develop character within an intellectual climate of acknowledged contradictions.

The Seiberts selected a country, a city and a neighborhood in which to build a house especially for home schooling. They will raise their children in Christianity, which weathered decades of communism amazingly well - Birthrates are rising in Russia and Ukraine. Just as important, Eastern European children are born into a culture, a tradition, that is sustaining itself. It encourages men and women to be comfortable with their identities, marriage and family.

This book describes the Seiberts’ plan, drawing on his experience and widespread reading about what has not worked. There is no blueprint here for public school education, a model which dates only from the 19th century. Quality solutions come one family, one child at a time. The key insight is that knowledge is built by the child himself. A teacher can only encourage the process. One must sustain the child’s own motivation, totally evident in a two-year-old, yet stifled in the average ten-year-old. Success comes when the student feels interested and in control… in his studies and all his life.

Mr. Seibert raised a family in Washington D.C. while consulting and writing four computer books. He divorced at the age of 65, moved to Ukraine, learned Russian and married. Edward was born in October 2011. Mr. Seibert teaches, writes, and is busy preparing to home school their children and seeking out others interested in home schooling.