Mom was certainly well educated. Adopted by a Cleveland lawyer and his wife, a fact she only learned as an adult, she attended law school at Western Reserve University (later Case Western Reserve), the only woman in her class. She dropped out in 1940 after two years to fly to California and marry my dad, a recent graduate of the Naval Academy. She followed him to Pearl Harbor where they lived through the Japanese attack that got the U.S. into World War II. She was pregnant with my oldest brother when she was evacuated from the island.
Having an incredible memory, Mom could recite poetry by the hour and had many classics stored up in her mind. Once, when she was in the hospital, several of my sisters and I were visiting and had a contest reciting poetry. We were reduced to nursery rhymes while Mom was still reciting Shakespeare, Wordsworth, and Longfellow.
What a blessing it is for a family to have an educated stay-at-home mom. Every mom is a teacher, but the more she knows about the liberal arts (and I'm not talking about degrees), the better off her children are. Think of growing up with an imagination driven by Bible stories of heroes and heroines, the Greek and Roman myths, epics like the Iliad and the Odyssey, stories from Shakespeare and the Canterbury Tales, beautiful art, classical music (My dad liked to listen to opera on Sundays.). What an advantage those kids have going forward.
Many of today's children are drunk on screens. Instead of using their imaginations: building forts, having snowball fights, playing Red Rover and Simon Says, searching for the most colorful fall leaves, examining bugs and flowers with a magnifying glass, practicing a musical instrument; they spend hours sitting motionless in a chair the only activity their fingers on keyboards playing mindless video games. What a great way to destroy a generation!
I homeschooled my youngest for five years and my second youngest for one. What great times they were. We had cooking day listening to a book on tape. My youngest and I volunteered at a nature center running their pre-school program. We had field trips to the beach when everyone else was back in school. We went to the art museum with a scavenger hunt to find angels and the fly on the bishop's cassock. We participated in the Folger Shakespeare Theater's school program putting on a shortened version of The Tempest. Every minute was a learning experience and since I planned the curriculum, I could relate everything to what we were studying.
Moms don't need to have education degrees or PhDs to teach their kids. They have the most important thing -- love and a desire to do what's best for their children. Parents can learn along with their children if they missed a lot themselves growing up. I had two great books that became staples in our school day: a ten-minute reading of a classical myth or classical story. I'd read it out loud and we'd discuss it.
The best thing families can do is read good books. And what a great place to discuss them -- the family dinner table. Can you imagine a lively discussion about which author you'd like most to meet in person...or which fictional character.
For years my husband has tutored math -- our own children and now our grandchildren. Yesterday two of our grandsons came over books in tow. Larry generally tutors one while I play games with the other and then we switch. "After school" we went in the pool for what was likely the last swim of the season. Next week the highs will be down in the 70s and the 50s at night making the water suitable for polar bears.
Learning isn't a chore; it's fun. And every household has teachers: parents and older siblings. And the little ones can be teachers too showing us all how to grow in innocence and trust. Even if you don't home school, parents, you teach every minute your children are in your company. So think about what you are teaching. May those times be a joy to everyone. Happy schooling!
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