Education
My sister wrote about a new blog that she has been reading about homeschooling. Obviously, Cambria is too young to be schooled in much yet. But looking back on the education that I got in public school, I feel like we are probably headed in the direction of homeschooling ourselves.
This article could have been written by me.
I didn’t feel challenged in school for most of my life. The only thing I felt I learned was how to jump through other people’s hoops. There is so much that I wish I had learned about, but no one introduced it to me.
Why is it that everyone learns their multiplication table in 3rd grade, learns about California missions (or state history) in 4th grade, goes to science camp in 6th grade, etc? What if I was ready for all that before then? What if I could have learned all of that by 4th grade and learned a great deal more than what the public school regimen required?
Why didn’t I know anything about medieval history until college? I remember dressing up as a princess for a 4th grade party after reading Castle in the Attic. We all made tall thats with ribbons. I knew that castles had moats. Wow! Now that is education, huh!?!
I know that I had a hunger for knowledge when I was young. I still do. But I don’t think that public education fostered that in any way. I think it was my family who gave that to me.
My Mom was always the fountain of knowledge in my family. I never went to an encyclopedia first. I went to my mom because she always had the answer. Even today, if Ryan and I are driving around and have some question like,”Who was the general for the North at the Battle of Shiloh?” (Yes, we do have such discussions while driving.) I know I can call my Mom and she will know the answer.
My parents were always reading a book instead of watching television. Nearly every evening, you could find them in the living room, sitting in the blue chairs with the side table covered in books.
Hopefully, Ryan and I will be able to nurture a love of learning and encourage creativity in our family.
