Unleashing Your Voice

Chances are that your schooling included a lot of memorization.  You might be familiar with the cycle of cram-regurgitate-forget.  In my 19 years of formal education I know I did my share.  I don’t like to brag (which always indicates there’s a brag coming…) but when you combined my cram-regurgitate-forget methodology with my ability to see through the test question, it was championship level.  The problem with this brag is that it doesn’t seem like anything to brag about.  But come on, Kathy, you have those shiny diplomas to show for it!  Sorry, alternative voice but I’d give away those diplomas, if such a thing were possible (and if I knew where they were…).   All this memorization exhaustion might make you, as a parent, reluctant to require memorization from your kids.    I know the feeling, you want all the joy of learning to trump the natural desire to avoid difficult things like memorization. If you just show enough reasons...

I sat at a luncheon where my 16 yo daughter was going to  speak to over 200 people; she was literally going to be displayed for her poise, confidence, insights, and eloquence.         The interchange with our delightful neighbor inevitably turned to homeschooling and then began “the conversation.” Once again, I slowly explained: no I was not particularly patient, actually some of my kids are extraordinarily social, it’s quite legal in our state to educate without oversight by the school district, every day is different, I skip foreign language but my son ended up fluent in Russian, college is quite possible if that is what they choose, etcetera etcetera etcetera.  I know this conversation intimately because, you see, I am a homeschool advocate and educating people on this choice is what I do.  It was a relief when the program started and I could watch the magic of my daughter with a microphone while simultaneously putting to rest the well-mean...