Homeschooling: A Liberal's Defense

I'll start off by saying that homeschooling is not always the best option. Often, it's not even an option. Also, if we were to initiate sweeping public education reform that did a better job of assessing kids' academic progress on an individual basis, including improved special needs and gifted education; protecting kids from bullying; encouraging creativity, including more funding for the arts; preparing children for the future, including better technology in every classroom and coding as a fundamental part of primary school education; and granting them more free time to be kids by assigning less "busy work," I might be a bigger fan of the public education system. However, I have to point out that, were it not for homeschooling, there would have been no ACT-taking three years ago, almost certainly no college enrollment now, perhaps a few hundred books I'd have had to leave unread, and thousands of words that would never have been written. I would have hopefully at least ended up in gifted classes, assuming that the local school had them, but I still wouldn't have been challenged. Maybe I would have been discovered by some gifted organization, but probably not.

Homeschooling, say what you will about it, was by far the best option for my intellectual development given the state of American public education, yet even it gave me a hard time. My family and I decided, when I was around ten, that I should try online high school classes, but my charter school only submitted to allow me to take two classes and patted themselves on the back for it. I was not that thrilled with this arrangement, but eventually I realized that online high school classes weren't all that fascinating or challenging for me. Meanwhile, grade-level (well, a grade level above my age, as I skipped one) standardized testing was initially fun for me, but grew more and more torturous over the years as I continually had to recall concepts I'd learned years ago and not really needed since. Nevertheless, I soldiered on, packing books and sketchbooks for the inevitable time in which I'd have to wait around for the next portion of the test to start and even inserting a (supposedly) witty remark or two into the essay (which upon my last year of taking the test I was able to finish behind only one or two other students in the room, whom I later overheard talking about totally slacking off on it). I came to loathe the so-called "iReady" online test that I habitually hit the "ceiling" of (in language arts, at least), even though it claimed to assess students at their individual level. If it weren't for my bizarre innate enjoyment of test-taking no matter the difficulty of the test, I might not have survived. Basically, standardized education and standardized testing was a walk in the park for me, but not a nice park.

I am not against public education. I just can't bring myself to accept the system as it currently stands. Maybe I should indulge that West Wing-encouraged fantasy of becoming a politician; the only trouble is that polarization makes me want to punch something, and a strong urge to punch something would probably end up being a minor issue on the Congress floor...

The Portrayal of Giftedness in Children's Literature

Gifted kids can be seen throughout the literary world. There's at least one of them in most of the books I write, and the main one I'm working on has them for main characters. Here are some brief little analyses I've come up with from my survey of giftedness in children's literature. I'll try not to be too critical...

Harry Potter

Hermione, Hermione, Hermione: my childhood hero(ine), imbued with a profound love of learning and sense of justice - and literal magical powers. There's practically nothing to criticize here. Hermione is a genius who feels utterly real, and she's also super cool. Maybe she has a little trouble casting a Patronus and sucks at knitting, but aside from that she is Superwoman. Thanks for being you, Hermione!

A Wrinkle in Time

Meg Murray is probably one of my favorite literary characters. Whip-smart and motivated by love for her dad and brother, Meg has the makings of a great heroine, but seems so human through her obstinacy, her impulsivity, her insecurity, her appearance as a kid with glasses and braces. Not necessarily so much anymore, but there was a time where I felt like I practically was Meg Murray (except my dad never went missing, and so I never traveled the universe to find him).

The Mysterious Benedict Society

(Spoiler alert!) I was around 9 when I read this book, and if anything could come close to Harry Potter in my mind back then, this was it. I practically worshipped it. Now, I haven't read it in a long time, but from what I remember and from how much I loved it, I can reasonably conclude that I was able to connect to these kids despite unrealistic aspects of their intelligence (i.e. a two-year-old is so intelligent as to be able to pass for a very small and immature tween for most of the book). Maybe realism isn't the most important part...Then again, though, maybe I liked this book so much just because of the puzzles and the spy stuff. Probably.

Matilda

(Vague spoilers here, I guess. Read on if you dare.) The giftedness poster child of literature, Matilda is a classic Roald Dahl character. I won't read into this portrayal too much because a) it's classic, b) I love this book, and c) all of Roald Dahl's characters are on the eccentric side anyway. There seems to be a trend of gifted kids in literature having superhuman abilities. (I can't complain about that, really, can I?) I learned to read at age 3 just like Matilda, though I definitely wasn't reading Dickens at 5 and I've been privileged with parents who are happy that I exist.

Ungifted

Okay, while this book was a really fun read overall (I like Gordon Korman's work - Restart is great and he is a former fellow child author), there are some issues here. A main thing that bugged me, which I believe a Goodreads reviewer was kind enough to pinpoint for me, was that there is an inverse relationship here between intelligence and creativity - the supposedly "normal" kid has to show the gifted characters what it is to be creative. (I mean, none of you thought to name the robot before this guy showed up? Seriously? You're embarrassing me, people!) Additionally, a few of the characters long to mingle with the "normal" kids, who attend a different school. I guess maybe we just all want what we've never had, but the opportunity I had to attend a college early entrance program with kids like me is one of those opportunities I most regret passing up, even with the knowledge that I would have had a full time honors schedule and little time to socialize anyway. Plus, while we hear from the smart kids throughout the story, the main character is this everyman (boy?) Donovan who mysteriously becomes their hero. Now, he's a nice kid and all, but I just don't quite see why they love him so much.

Millicent Min, Girl Genius

(There are spoilers for this one - read on if you dare.) Like the previous one, I might have read this book with a more critical eye due to my being older and "wiser" at the time. I looked up this book on Goodreads (as I am wont to do) and realized that many reviewers complain that the narrator (the "girl genius" in question) comes across as snobbish and annoying. That kind of hurts, given that I felt this narration from the point of view of a gifted kid was, if not photorealistic, a pretty valiant attempt. Sometimes "normal" people get on our nerves, you know? But I really try to be patient, I do, and not seem too self-important. The author wrote two more books from the point of view of two other characters (telling the same story, might I add), but I don't plan to read them - although maybe I should to get an "outside perspective?" The story was OK. Millicent's frustration with the lack of enthusiasm of her fellow college students and efforts to hide her intelligence from her newest friend Emily are things I can identify with. However, Emily's angry reaction to Millicent's eventual confession seemed unrealistic. I had a pen pal whom I spoke to for over a year before mentioning my college attendance. Granted, maybe she would have reacted differently in person, or if she had a different personality, but she basically said that was "flipping awesome," and our relationship didn't change as a result. Millicent's tendency to spout random facts, a trait common of fictional geniuses, seems slightly exaggerated, as does her use of advanced vocabulary, but it felt good to read something that felt pretty close to the real thing.

An Abundance of Katherines

I know, I'm definitely crossing into YA territory here, but bear with me here. Look, I unabashedly love John Green. Crash Course US History was my best friend throughout my history class a few months back. I plan to check out his and Hank Green's podcast, which looks hilarious (Dear Hank and John). The Fault in our Stars is one of the most amazing books I've read in a long time. This book, though, while funny and candid and clever, feels just a little iffy at times in its portrayal of giftedness. While the main character Colin, a "washed-up child genius," seems way smarter than I am, it's basically stated that "he wasn't one of those college-at-11 types or anything." Maybe I'm just being too humble? Or maybe the world is just a little confused about how smart you have to be to go to college at 11.

Of course, there are other books out there that talk about this. I'm sure that I have yet to read some of the best ones. However, though, these are the ones I've highlighted, and I hope this is revealing about giftedness both from the point of view of the gifted and others. Not that anyone will necessarily read this, though, as this blog only gets so much traffic...

School is now moving entirely online due to the coronavirus outbreak. My church has cancelled all of its meetings and activities, including Sunday worship service. The opening of a movie my cousin really wanted to see (A Quiet Place 2) is being delayed. From my perspective, these are not overreactions, but it still feels like ordinary life is fading away by the day. My fragile sanity is only being preserved via online communication and creative endeavors (and watching a lot of TV). One thing's for sure, though: COVID-19 is a total buzzkill.