Sydney, New South Wales

Some of the facts and/or theories uncovered (so far):

* Children are separated from their mothers at a younger age than needed;

* The ‘’state’’ or government replaces the ‘’family’’

* The amount of ones’ life spent in school prior to university is historically more than necessary, e.g. the school day, week and year is not structured efficiently for learning;

* There is evidence that the school system was designed to feed and grow a consumer driven, secular society;

* In the late 19th century until now, mass schooling defined children, e.g. the age that children become adults changed;

* The public school system culture conditions a child to a secular, non-religious environment

According to the book, Reliance of the Traveler, which is a compilation by Shaf’i school of thought: "The guardian must teach the child [what is obligatory for them after puberty] about purification, prayer, fasting, and so forth; and that fornication, sodomy, theft, drinking, lying, slander, and the like are unlawful; and that he acquires moral responsibility at puberty and what this entails. The evidence for the obligation of teaching a young child is the word of Allah Mighty and Majestic, ‘O you who believe, protect yourselves and families from the fire.’ (Quran 66:6). ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib (Allah be well pleased with him), Mujahid and Qatada say it means, "Teach them that with which they can save themselves from hell."

"As for knowledge of the heart, meaning familiarity with the illnesses of the heart such as envy, pride, and the like, Ghazali has said that knowledge of their definitions, causes, remedy, and the treatment is personally obligatory."

* [Sacred Knowledge]: "...the attainment of those Sacred Sciences which people cannot do without in practicing their religion, such as memorizing the Quran and Hadith, their ancillary disciplines, methodological principles, Sacred Law, grammar, lexicology, declension, knowledge of hadith transmitters, and of scholarly consensus and non-consensus."

* [Non-Sacred Knowledge]: "...what is required for worldly existence, such as medicine and mathematics..."

Ask yourself, are we living up to the above Islamic obligations or are we focused more on what we need to earn a living? Is the schoolyard teaching our children about moral responsibility?

According to my dictionary, in the 15th century ‘’educate’’ meant ‘’bring up’’ (children) so as to form their habits, manners, intellectual attitudes, etc. In 17th century, it meant rear by attention to physical needs. The noun form of the word, ‘’education’’ has similar roots.

So as you can see, education was something that was typically the domain of parents, especially the mother. The word’s meaning evolved as the mother began spending more time out of the home. Is our school system educating our children or is it schooling our children?

Barry Sanders (and others) have also made the observation that women were separated from their children in many ways, beginning in the late nineteenth century. Interestingly many early childhood innovations came from Germany.

Bottle-feeding was more common than breast-feeding in mid-twentieth century. This was propelled by a combination of commercial interests and an errant medical profession. Marketing of ‘’standardized, sterilized infant-food formulas" was first invented by a German chemist in 1860. In seeking to get the best for their children, mothers turned to bottle-feeding because the atmosphere motivated them to seek commercial products and medical advice on feeding their children.

Infant Formula

Barry Sanders writes: "The earliest commercial infant food products came from Germany, at exactly the same time that German educators began developing theories of early childhood education. These two areas — early education and formula feeding — reinforced each other, and represent a collusion of events that ultimately helped to undermine literacy."

"…An infant draining formula from a bottle is no longer being educated. He or she has begun to be schooled. Milk —fluidity— has become a commodity, disembedded from the intimate context of mother and child, and delivered back to that tiny consumer in carefully measured parts of this ingredient and that ingredient. Every mother’s milk varies in percentages of fat, protein, and other vitamins and minerals. Indeed, breast milk changes taste and content depending on the mother’s diet on a particular day. Infants nursed on Nestle’s, say, ingest the same precise formula each and every day. After a time, the infant comes to expect this sameness, perhaps developing in that tiny creature an initial preference for chain food — for uniformity and consistency."

Sanders goes on to argue that breast-feeding is important to establishing refined orality and leads to increased literacy. One observation is that the creation of kindergarten was part of a society trend, reinforced by commercial interests.

Innovative Furniture or Prison Cell?

In the late nineteenth century, Dr. Luther Emmett Holt, a physician, wrote numerous books on infant care. He was a crusader of sorts who argued for the independence of infants, free from the dependence of their mother’s breasts, etc. He created a new piece of furniture, a "crib’’ that represented his desire to separate the mother from the infant. This is another example of how the medical profession took license at telling society and mothers what was good for them, and where commercial enterprise filled the void to satisfy the needs. It is also another example of how mothers took the advice of "experts’’ rather than their intuition.

The Kindergarten

Has the "state" or government replaced the "family", when it comes to advice on rearing children?