Going through boxes and files at the Home Education Magazine office, I found the original notebooks and edited manuscripts of several books we published, by Linda Dobson, Agnes Leistico, Cafi Cohen and others. I found photos of Mark and I speaking at conferences from New York to California, and marveled at how young we looked two decades ago. I found our complete collection of Homeschooler’s Weekly, a popular little publication we produced for a couple of years in the early 1990’s.
A discussion of the reasons to homeschool, asking questions such as: How does a person learn to think clearly and effectively and to make reasoned decisions? How do you learn – or teach someone else – to gather enough information about a situation to become familiar with the pros and cons, the advantages and disadvantages, and then, being informed, make a decision about the best course of action to take?
My kids taught me to listen with an open heart, and to see without making judgments. They taught me patience, and perseverance, and persistence , but they also taught me to know when to quit. They taught me that love does not bring conditions with it, but just is, and they made me a much better person than I’d have ever been without them.
The wonderful world of poetry is fun to explore, and most of us have many good memories relating to poetry in some way or another. Remember The Cat in the Hat, The Highwayman, The Raven, The Ants Go Marching, Paul Revere’s Ride, Jabberwocky, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Trees?
The calls for more accountability in our education system promise a better educational system. Yet, I have to wonder if there isn’t systemic corruption inherent in the way we choose to measure success? As homeschoolers are being pushed to be more like schools, can we challenge the measure of success for our kids? Is our goal raising kids or raising test scores?
