Biography

Born in 1978, raised on a West Texas ranch, my interest in all things educational began when my mother pulled me out of the local public school after First grade to take me under her own tutelage. I didn't KNOW that a seed of fascination with education had been germinated. I was just a happy kid on the ranch, soaking up plenty of sunshine, enjoying my freedom, being washed by the great outdoors all while recieving a timeless classical education from the mind and heart of my mother. We read only the best books and never looked at computers and all the while I learned what it meant to be a pioneer - in every layer of life. I returned to Texas' schools in 8th grade to be able to take part in sports and music. That I got in abundance! I even graduated near the top of my class! I was accepted into a leading university with no troubles and graduated with smooth sailing. But as REAL life began, I soon realized with a creeping sense of dismay, that I - as well as all my schoolmates - had been betrayed by the state when it came to our education. How could I have graduated near the top of my class and yet be so woefully under-read? Have so little sense of study skills? (They were never needed in high school. Last minute cram sessions sufficed.) College came and went. Marriage and career came. I taught for two years in a public school and saw an awful lot of over-promising and under-delivering. I saw an awful lot of time-wasted, bad books recommended and read, flimsy class discussions about nothing real and realized all the fifth grade boys knew who Paris Hilton is, but not who Patrick Henry was.
My own children came, teaching went, and REAL life began. The part where you're forced to grow up like never before. The part where you truly care about what happens to other people more than to yourself. I made the decision to follow my pioneering mother into the Western sun and homeschool my own children. We have read nothing but the best books, played together, worked together, grown gardens together, prayed together, discussed Truth, Goodness and Beauty together. Because of these small people who have been entrusted to me, interest in education has become a consuimg fire. A fire because I have realized that knowing and loving God involves not just the heart, but the mind as well. And if the mind in essentially pickled in the brine of failed philosophies and a growing medium of mediocrity -- it can't really be used. It might not die altogether, but like that corner of my garden that gets NO sun - things may survive, but they won't GROW and the certainly won't PRODUCE. AND -- when it comes to the heart and mind working in tandem... if the mind is stymied like that sunless corner, the heart is easily persuaded into oblivion. Or outright evil, for that matter! Only the best is acceptable when it comes to our children's minds.
I care not only about my own children, but find myself drawn back into the world of schools to have a part in the fight for the mind, heart and soul of other little people. Now that all of our own children are school-age, it is time to spread our wings a bit. We're ALL going back to school in the Fall - to a tiny private, Christian school. I will teach, the children will attend and it is onward and upward - looking backward for guidance.
Enjoy reading along as I tell you what it has been like to be: homeschooled, teach in a public school, homeschool my own children, have our children attend a little private school, TEACH in a little private school. These are all my own thoughts. About all things educational. "All thoughts Mary."