Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Holly A.J.'s avatar

As a homeschooled child, I think watching my two older siblings learn to read gave me a headstart. When my mother sat me down at age five to teach me to read, I learned within a week. I was soon devouring full length chapter books, often within one day. When I read, I was utterly lost to the world - my family had trouble getting my attention when I was focused on a book. We not only had many books at home but my mother was also working at a library. My mother steered us toward age appropriate material in the library - and I wasn't intrigued by the dull covers on the grownup categories. After I unintentionally frightened my youngest sibling by recounting a Sherlock Holmes mystery, 'The Speckled Band', my father placed his more mature books on higher shelves. That was only a partial deterrent - I learned not to repeat all the stories I read to my youngest sibling but I still wanted more to read - as I literally climbed the bookshelf to reach books that intrigued me.

Expand full comment
John Mitchell's avatar

My parents would have resonated completely with these approaches to learning. Although I didn’t study Latin, my father put me to reading the greats of Science Fiction from a young age. To show that critical thinking was not limited to such forward thinkers, he gave me the works of great philosophers and scientists. When he did his class work for his PhD in communication theory, I was in 8th grade and he had me read his texts and papers. I later did my Freshman year at the same University. I had my father’s dissertation advisor for a class in communication theory and he was shocked at my essays. I was able to use work that had recently been published and back it with solid scholarship rooted in the classics.

Expand full comment
18 more comments...

No posts