Education – Notes For My Kids

I was in college and was in a class with a very famous professor. He was very jolly, very deep, very challenging, and he rode a really cool black bicycle around campus. He and it together were amazing, almost mythical. It had this long banana seat and small wheels and was legendary.

Our class was meeting in a different building and the professor realized he needed something from his office. Rather than going himself, he asked me to go get it for him – of course because I was so responsible and wouldn’t do anything foolish.

I walked out of the building and immediately saw the black bike.

in a building and he realized that he needed something from his office. He asked me to go back and get it for him. I walked out of the building and saw the bike.

I knew I had the opportunity of a lifetime. I could walk to his office, or I could ride in style.

Because this is listed as a regret, you probably can guess what I picked.

To this day, I know I should have taken the bike.

Teach Your Own: The John Holt Book of Homeschooling by John Holt and Pat Farendga. Perseus Publishing, 2003.

“Why do people take or keep their children out of school? Mostly for three reasons: they think that raising their children is their business not the government’s; they enjoy being with their children and watching and helping them learn, and don’t want to give that up to others; they want to keep them from being hurt, mentally, physically, and spiritually.”

This pretty much sums up a lot of my motivations for wanting to do homeschooling with you guys. When I struggle to think of a good reason for the Why? behind homeschooling, this sounds right to me. I like you guys and want to spend a lot of time with you, I think you’ll get a better education with Mama and me than with our current system, and I want to be close to you when you get hurt.

At some point in the book, he talked about the bias that people have against children and that many people don’t actually like or respect children. Just today, I heard a guy talk about Job having a “juvenile” faith. What the hell is that? Jesus told us we need to become like children to enter the kingdom. He was using “juvenile” as a word to mean “not there yet”, but in a very pejorative sense.

If I like you guys so much, why would I be willing to give you over to someone else and to a system that took you away from me most of the day and didn’t do a great job doing what they said they would do?

Notes For My Kids

Category: Education

Regrets: 3

Teach Your Own – John Holt and Pat Farenga

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