Change

Stephen and I have finally come to a more in depth research point in something we have been talking over for almost 3 years.  The education of our kids.

What do we do?

Because of Stephen's amazing company, we have been led to something called Thomas Jefferson education.  Honestly, it kinda freaks me out.  A lot.  So I have been reading as much on the subject as possible.

We just want to do what is right for our kids, and right for our family.

In the research phase, I am currently reading a book about Thomas Jefferson's ideas on education.  It is a bunch of compiled letters written by Jefferson edited by Gordon Lee.  Gordon Lee writes the beginning of the book in an effort to help the reader understand where Jefferson is coming from.  At one specific part, Lee writes about Jefferson's belief in God in relation to our freedoms.  I am going to quote him, but be warned, it is long and difficult to interpret at first glance.

"As man came more fully to recognize and appreciate his essential humanity--his rights and liberties--it followed for Jefferson that man's conception of his nature and his life's role would develop and change.  Of necessity, the very framework and circumstances of his life would be altered.  The fulfillment of human destiny, therefore of the divine purpose for man, involved a process of continual development, of ceaseless change.  Change, then, was to be welcomed, prepared for, indeed sought after....

Experiment and change thus become the signs and agencies of the fulfillment of the divine purpose for man.  To block or thwart such development or innovation, especially in the name or interests of tradition, the status quo, or custom, was anathema to Jefferson.  It was his fundamental conviction that each living generation must be free and autonomous that led him to propose the legitimacy of revolution.  "Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God."  Only as men were free to think, test, decide for themselves were they behaving truly as men "endowed by their Creator."....In the words of Clinton Rossiter, "man without liberty was a contradiction in terms.""

This range true in my ears, but also came as a warning to me.  I loathe change.  I fight it with every bone in my body.  However, after reading this section I realized that change is what allows us to grow and be what Heavenly Father wants us to be.  I need to be like Jefferson and welcome it.

Also while reading, I realized that just because this is how 'everyone else does it' does not meant that it is the right way to go.

I still have a lot of reading to do on my hands, but I am very grateful that I am not doing this on my own.