Elizabeth pulled back into the garage after dropping Emily off at school and then quietly walked into the house and started to clean up the kitchen from last night’s dinner. She hoped her sons, four-year-old Thomas and eighteen-month old Henry, were still deep in sleep upstairs with their daddy who was getting ready for work. Her hands and body moved quickly to put all the dishes away but her mind was still deep in her little reverie about the perfect dream day with her daughter.
She reached for the towel on the counter and almost knocked off a book sitting next to it; The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. She read this to the boys yesterday after lunch and remembered when she read this to the kids at Emily’s school for a special project she helped them with. Elizabeth helped in Emily’s classroom about twice a month and enjoyed these times immensely. Naturally, she loved being there with Emily but she also enjoyed getting to know her classmates and teachers while working with them and the kids. Elizabeth thought about how much all the children had grown and developed since the beginning of the school year and even since last year when they all started kindergarten at the school together. Then she realized how much she herself had grown and changed since then. She was pregnant with Henry when Kindergarten started and he was born in the fall of that year so of course her body had physically changed during that time and since but she knew her mind and heart had transformed even more.
Before Emily started kindergarten Elizabeth was very anxious and reluctant about the whole school thing. She had fallen in love with the idea of home school and had many reservations about the type of education she thought Emily would receive in a school setting. Emily was a social butterfly so Elizabeth was not worried about her making friends only about the type of friends and the types of kids and influences she would be exposed to. Even though she herself had gone through thirteen years of Catholic school education, Elizabeth had been reluctant and convinced she could give Emily and a better education and a better life at home. However, since John, her husband, didn’t exactly share her enthusiasm and vision for this home school life, Elizabeth submitted and enrolled Emily in kindergarten at St. Gianna Beretta Molla Catholic School. The night before Emily’s first day of school, Elizabeth clicked through pictures of Emily on their computer and sobbed. She was not ready for her little baby girl to grow up. She wasn’t ready to let go. John had wrapped his arms around her and her bulging belly and assured her that everything would be ok.
Thankfully, that first year turned out to be a wonderful experience and by the time first grade started, many of Elizabeth’s worries had diminished. Much to her surprise, Elizabeth actually liked the school and appreciated how well they communicated between school and home. The teachers and staff of the school made it their priority to keep the parents involved and firmly believed what she did: parents were the first and primary teachers in their children’s lives. There was never a time Elizabeth went to the school and did not see other moms or dads there also. Most importantly, Jesus Christ permeated the school through their focus on keeping the lessons of the Catholic faith alive in every part of their academics and school activities.
Even while Elizabeth still clung to her fantasies about home school she had learned to let go of that as a reality and opened her heart to let God humble her. Through her time helping in the classroom she had gotten to know a lot of the kids and they were all good and innocent (for now). Emily had made some good friends and Elizabeth saw how well her and her classmates worked in class together and challenged each other. She knew she would not be able to protect Emily from bullying and peer pressure but had found friendship with the other families of the school who were just as dedicated and committed to teaching their children good morals and values. She also saw that the teachers and school staff were doing their absolute best to teach the kids in the way they knew how. Of course, if it was up to her, schools would still be one-room classrooms with no more than fifteen children (of different ages) per teacher. They would do lessons and class work only in the morning and reserve the afternoons for prayer and nature walks, free reading or art time and time for hands-on experiments and enrichment. They would never use textbooks but would learn about the world through living books and real world applications. The teacher’s focus would be placed on helping the children learn how to apply lessons to their everyday lives and not just how to memorize empty facts for the sake of achieving satisfactory or exemplary test scores in order to remain accredited. Competition would be encouraged by practicing self-mastery and self-reliance but without downplaying the importance of teamwork and humility. Elizabeth knew that she could not expect the school system to change to meet her own ideas. Instead, she was learning how to incorporate her own ideas and methods for education into their lives.
Emily was flourishing at school but her teachers and other parents reminded Elizabeth that this wasn’t only the school’s doing-it was because of the strong foundation she and John had laid down for her and a love of learning and discovery they inspired for her at home. She knew she could have done it all by herself at home only, and still would if it became necessary, but she had to admit that this form of education with the school and this lifestyle wasn’t all that bad after all and she enjoyed having one-on-one time with Henry and Thomas now that he was ready to start his own learning adventure. Sure, she did miss Emily while she was away and still wished they had more time together but she also was learning that life could still be good and they could still be a strong and happy family together even when they were not with each other all day long every day. She hated to admit this but she knew she could never replicate the classroom in her own home but was finding joy and goodness in continuing to learn together as a family at home and with the aid of the school. Life wouldn’t be perfect but they weren’t in heaven yet.
