November 16 ....Education (and yes I know I skipped one)

I didn't mean to skip a day.  I just wasn't home all day  I should have written something the night before.  But plan ahead?  Me?  You gotta be kidding...

A few weeks ago, the story about a Pakistani girl named Malala broke.  She had been shot by the Taliban for standing up for a girl's right to an education.  She is 15 years old.

Aside from the fact that I know very few fifteen year olds with convictions this strong about anything other than Justin Beiber or One Direction, I'm homeschooling a 15 year old who hates everything about getting an education.  (She dislikes Justin Bieber too, to her credit.)  She says that she thinks that History is pointless, Math is too hard, English is stupid. I may have those mixed up, it could be English that's stupid.  At any rate, it's a battle to get any schoolwork done at all because she'd rather be doing just about anything else.  I showed her the story about Malala, hoping to at least make her grateful that no one is shooting at her while she does her schoolwork.  She thought the girl was very brave and all, but it didn't change her attitude about the stupidity of whichever subject we're working on.

My mother in law was the daughter of migrant farm workers.  When she was very small, her Oklahoma family packed up and headed to California a la Grapes of Wrath . She was picking peas at 5 years old, her moonshiner dad and older brothers spending more time in jail than out.  She and her mom were left to make their living, so she was needed in the fields.  She got the opportunity to go to 3rd grade in Arizona when her parents were working there  She learned to read, and then read every thing she could get her hands on.  She still loves reading, and you rarely see her without a book in her hand.  She is very well-read, self educated,  and one would never guess that she only had one year of formal education.

I'm grateful that we live where the opportunity for education is now available to all.  We can argue about how good an education it is, but at least no one is shooting our kids when they want to learn. And, we don't have to be rich to pay for it; public school, such as it is, is open to all.  It's a privilege that many kids, including my own, don't appreciate.  But, one for which our family (my daughter excepted)  is very grateful.