Homeschooling Thoughts

What we want to see is the child in pursuit of knowledge, not knowledge in pursuit of the child.
- George Bernard Shaw





Once all are comfortable with the idea that my kids can function adequately academically ("at or ahead of grade level" will bring on the knowing nods), the "S" word, as it had been skulking all along in a forbidding forest darkly draped in Spanish moss, like some huge, horrific toad, will suddenly leap out from among the stinging nettles and skunk cabbage to reveal its gnarled and grotesque, scarifying even if slightly ludicrous, visage.
-David Albert, in "And the Skylark Sings with Me"







We destroy the love of learning in children, which is so strong when they are small, by encouraging and compelling them to work for petty rewards--gold stars, or papers marked 100 and tacked to the wall, or A's on report cards, or honor rolls, or dean's lists or Phi Beta Kappa keys--in short, for the ignoble satisfaction of feeling that they are better than someone else.
-John Holt