A Girl's Curriculum Part 2
In Exodus 4, Moses' failure to circumcise one of his sons almost leads to his death, but his wife Zipporah steps in to do his job. Then, she very explicitly expresses her disapproval of him having put her in this position.
"And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the LORD met him, and sought to kill him. Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me. So he let him go: then she said, A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision." (Exo 4:24-26)
Yes indeed, Zipporah's courage saved Moses' life in this situation, but the incident shows her anger at Moses for not fulfilling his role quite clearly. So when we educate our own, the goal should not be to prepare them to fulfill their spouse's role gladly - that would be educating them to commit Adam's or Eve's sin respectively - but to enable them to fulfill their own role to the best of their ability, and to rely on the other members of the family to do the same. This way, they will also learn the value of a strong family, and their own responsibility in keeping the family strong and godly.
So what should a curriculum for a little girl contain ?
First of all, she will be taught, by example, that a woman's sphere of action is the home. She will accompany her mother in her daily routine and be included in what goes on around her, well before any explicit home schooling will take place. She will also see what her father does, gradually becoming aware of the differences.
As she grows up, she will be taught, step by step, all the things that are done by her mother. We all know that children enjoy copying what their parents do, so if you work in the garden, let her hands get dirty too, if you hang laundry, let her fasten clothes pins too, if you bake bread, let her knead dough too, if you clean the floors, let her have her own cloth too, and on and on it goes.
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