family education

It's the day before thanksgiving and many families will gather together for a huge meal and to acknowledge the gratefulness that they feel for having one another in their lives. (For me, Thanksgiving come in Oct, when Canadians celebrate it. But we do eat our share of turkey at friends' in Nov). It seems a good time to think a little bit about what our families teach us and also the extent to which our families may have laid the ground work for our interest in learning and for becoming educators.

I find it remarkable that in families, the positive example of life-long learning has very little to do with the actually achieved levels of official education. For example, my paternal grandmother did not attend any high school, since she was needed on the farm and to care for her invalid mother. Her "school" learning was therefore minimal. She did not necessarily know a lot about traditional subjects like science or math. But she was a clever, involved, enthusiastic person who had a vast knowledge that she loved to share with her family. Regarding anything about farming, gardening, pie-making, local history, regional politics, the church and its history, and so forth, and she was a walking encyclopedia.

This grandmother's style was not so much about book learning. But my maternal grandfather, who also left school very young, at age 15, to become an electrical apprentice, was always reading. He was a highly self-schooled man, who made it his business to learn about history, government, geography, and was very well-traveled (all 50 states and all 10 provinces) with his motor home as his means. He really knew a lot about the US and Canada and was always eager to talk about his knowledge.

I go back to these two grandparents, because I have them to thank for the children they brought up, who in turn brought me up. My dad and mom modeled learning for me.
They both were the first in their families to attend college and did so at the best university in Canada. My dad has gotten 3 masters degrees and is now continuing with a doctorate as he approaches his 60th year. My house was one where reading the afternoon away was normal and encouraged. My dad is the king on non-fiction and my mom the queen of mysteries. (They have their different interests!) But I know that my book-a-day reading habit in the summers of my early teen years did not happen by accident. Now I wouldn't say that reading alone makes you an avid learner, but it certainly helps. For me, I know that my love of reading led me to other great loves: my husband who shares the passion (an English prof), my education through the PhD level, and to my choice now to become a high school English teacher.

I am proud to say that my boys are following suit. The only time they played gently and nicely with one another yesterday was when we made a point of finding all the "Thomas the Tank Engine" books in the house (there were 11), piled them on the living room rug and proceeded to go through and read most of them. James at 3 years old and 9 months "pretends" to read the books to his brother, and Liam, age 19 months, asks excitedly "Name? Name? Name?" at every character and object he sees.

We've observed that for both me and my husband, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree with our career choices. He teaches college English as did mom, and I have pursued music, as did my mother. bell hooks includes an autobiographical essay in Teaching Community, called "Progressive Learning, A Family Value." I will quote her here: "Irrespective of class or educational level, families that support children and adults who are seeking to educate themselves provide a positive foundation." The family is the first community that a child has, and if this community is not supportive of a child's learning, that may have problems their whole lives through in their educational journey.

I don't want to push my children (that is a topic for another day), so for now I will just try to show my enthusiasm for their learning, engage them whenever I can, model reading like crazy, and enjoy their growing minds. I think that this is one of the family traditions that I am most thankful for this thanksgiving season.