George Washington: “My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. All I am I owe to my mother. I attribute all my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education I received from her.”
This is what our first national leader states about his mother and implies about home education. It speaks volumes to the effects mothers at home have on their children's characters and intellectual development. My mother heard on the radio today a remarkable story about Thomas Edison. I researched him and found a website with his biography. Apparently his teacher decided his broad forehead showed his brains were scattered or "'addled'" (Beals). The youngster according to the radio broadcast said he would never go back to school again. And he didn't. Rather, his mother took him under her wing and taught him "'the three R's'" and from Bible. with this he took off. Soon enough he'd surpassed his parents and began learning from a tutor. This didn't go so well and he began to teach himself. Everything he did is remarkable for a boy his age. This illustrates the principle that education doesn't depend on the teaching system of today. A child can excel outside of the system and expand his own learning through independent work.
Talking to a classmate on homeschooling, she commented how one must be textbook savvy. This is true, often homeschooling depends heavily on textbooks given the parents limited knowledge on every topic needed to learn. But this develops in the child great work habits... learning to take information from the book and working on his own to gain knowledge. It builds self-initiative skills as well. Also a child can develop without peer pressure and can focus on studying instead of complying with the pressure from his classmate.
To conclude, homeschooling has deep history roots and recommendations from men as fine and as far back as George Washington. It raises the mother in the eyes of the child, she is not only their mother she is their educator as well.
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/g/george_washington.html Retrieved April 30th, 2008
http://www.thomasedison.com/biography.html Retrieved May 3rd 2008
