There once was a young girl with hair styled in pigtails, who sat at a little pink, metal table at the edge of a family living room. In front of the girl on the table, lay an assortment of books, papers, pencils, and the scattered assortment of erasers. Across from the girl, sat her mother, a loving and patient woman who would carefully explain what was in the books to the young child day in and day out while still attending to household chores.
This scene may seem like the opener to a historical fictional novel, but for me, this was what my education looked like for as long as I could remember. My mother decided to homeschool my brother and me when he was just starting fifth grade and I, preschool. She was fed up with the public education system and had decided to go for it on her own and it worked out pretty well I would say. From those years watching my mother juggle both the responsibilities of being a housewife with the addition of teaching her children, I learned some valuable lessons, both in life and for education.
One: education is not a chore. It is a right and should be treated as such. Education is an important asset that can affect the rest of your life and thus, should be taken with great pride and care. Just like everything else in life “if you are going to do a job, it best be done right the first time.”- my mother (and probably a scholar at some point in history).
Two: sometimes education must be tailored. A great thing about homeschooling was being able to spend the necessary one-on-one time with a child when they were struggling or being able to complete work at a pace that suited them the best. Minds do not all work the same and one of the worst faults of our education system today is the ease with which children find themselves slipping through the cracks, mostly unnoticed. Teachers have too many students and too little time on their hands to individualize the lesson to suit each child’s needs and this inattention shows later on in life.
Three: this relates back to the young girl in the pigtails, nervously biting her pencil erasers to nubs as she mulled over her latest math problem. That young girl wouldn’t know it at the time, but looking back would see the care, dedication, time, and love put into every annoying school activity her mother put together for her. Those activities created with such care have shaped the person I am today, and have stuck with me even as I sit here today. That is what education is about in my opinion, teachers or leaders who put care, time, effort, and their hearts into imparting their knowledge to others so that their students may grow into the best versions of themselves.
As to the end of the story of that little girl in pigtails, her story is still ongoing. She may not have the pigtails she had over a decade ago, but the lessons she learned and the values her mother showed her will be with her from now until the end. She hopes to one day give that knowledge and those values to others who need the same care and attention her mother gave to her all those years ago in that small family living room.