19

This is where it all started 19 years ago today in a church in a small town with 2 young people.  We knew it all and nobody was going to tell us what to do.  With a whole four months behind us and a whole lifetime ahead of us, we set off on our journey.

There have been many times when our journey has taken us down a nice straight tree lined road.  Things made sense and fell into order.  

More often than not, our journey has taken a meandering path that would wind back and forth and even double back on us.  The trick to this has been to learn how to find enjoyment along the way, slow down to enjoy the scenery, and to laugh often.

I wouldn't trade our years together for anything!

Education Commentary

I just saw this on Facebook and had to share.  I think it is so sad that this is how our education system is.  I have volunteered at my kids schools over the years and it has broken my heart to see smart kids who think they are stupid because they can't express themselves the same way as other kids.  Not every child is the same, not even siblings, but we need to have more options for children in education. Even with the we have, there needs to be some way to help our children understand that if they are learning in a nontraditional way that it is okay.  It was hard when I was homeschooling my boys and they fought me almost the whole time because it was different from what their friends were doing.  

Right now I am volunteering at one of our local schools and one of the teachers have opened up to me and explained how he has lost dozens of days of instruction because of standardized testing and assemblies.  He can't get through all of things that he is supposed to teach to his students because they keep taking his classroom time away.  How can we expect our kids to succeed on these standardized tests when they don't can't receive all the lessons that they need.  In our situation one of the things that took away instruction time was an assembly for cheer-leading; in fact there have been a couple assemblies involving extra curricular groups from the high school that come to recruit for new members for their groups.  I am happy that the principal has stepped in when he can and moved some of these would be assemblies and moved them to little demonstrations during lunch.  While these events can get kids excited for their next year in school, they are not educational.

I love the schools that my boys are attending now and they are now excelling in school.  They also have some of the toughest teachers now than they have ever had.  I think the one thing that has helped is those teachers pushing them and having them learn that they are capable of doing this harder work.  As I have watched my children grow and see how they learn this topic has become more and more important to me.  Now that I'm in school to become a teacher I am even more aware of how our educational system works.  I hope I can continue to volunteer and learn so that I can be the most effective teacher as possible for my future students.