Jul. 8, 2008
My Graduation Speech
Sorry it took me so long to get this posted, but here is the speech I gave at the graduation ceremony!
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The Funny Side of Homeschooling
There are three especially amazing things about homeschooling. One of them is that there is enough individuality in our education that we are free to excel in whichever field of study that we are most gifted in or find most interesting. Another is that we learn most of our best lessons through life, as opposed to sitting in a classroom all day. The last, one of which I am particularly fond of, is that there are no constraints to learning in the homeschool. I am sure that many will agree with me that we often find methods of education that the public school system would consider quite unorthodox.
Today, I would like to give you a few examples of all three points; individuality, lessons learned through life, and freedom of learning. I want to share with you some of the crazy, roll-on-the-floor-laughing moments of my homeschool life, because homeschooling isn't just about getting a better, purer education than the world can offer. It's about building strong family ties and learning in the way God intended us to. It's about understanding that we are so not perfect, and that we have days when school is considered impossible. And it's about cultivating the most important vocal expression in the world---laughter.
My brother Gordie was the quiet one when he and I were toddlers. He was the type of child that you could sit down in one place, walk away from him for fifteen minutes, come back and he would still be there. I, on the other hand, was the type of child that my mother did not take her eyes off of for more than thirty seconds. On the rare occasion that I did get out her sight, when I was about three years old, I managed to pull Gordie into my mischief as well. When Mom realized that the house was too quiet, she went looking for us. When she found us in the upstairs bathroom, she also found that we were perfecting the art of plastering the bathroom wall with wet toilet paper. Actually I was doing the plastering (I mean, dipping and flinging), but Gordie's gut laugh gave me away. I haven't attempted it since.
My mom likes to tell a story about me when we went to a fire department field trip, and the folks there put on a reenactment of a real live car crash, in which they showed how they saved the victims. As the car was engulfed in flames and the firemen rushed dramatically around, I turned to my mom and asked, "Where's the marshmallows?"
Danny has a lot of quotes to his name. Most of these happened when we was about five years old. Upon getting a letter from his friend, Katie, he declared, "Bills, bills, bills...that's all Katie ever sends me!" And we know he watched way too many episodes of Little House on the Prairie; when he got hurt one day, he cried, "I need Dr. Baker!" We still tease him about the time he knowingly declared, "God is bald...bald, bald, bald!" And we can't forget the summer he was totally paranoid at anyone touching pieces of moss, because a friend had told him that they were bear pillows and if he touched them, the bear would come out and eat him! Of course now, moss is affectionately known as "bear pillows", but Danny really didn't think it was very funny.
His absolute funniest quote, however, happened just about a year ago, when our Uncle Greg was visiting us and entertained us by telling a joke. He said "There was this magician, who claimed he was the greatest magician in the world. At one of his shows, he called for a big strong volunteer, and ended up getting the biggest, burliest guy he'd ever seen. The magician handed him a sledgehammer and said, 'This is the best trick ever! Now, I want you to hit me on the head with this sledgehammer as hard as you can.' 'Really?' the strong man asked. 'Are you sure?' 'Yes! I'm absolutely sure!' said the magician. So the strong man hit him on the head as hard as he could. The magician fell unconcious and was rushed to the hospital. When he woke up from a coma ten years later, he shouted, 'Tada!'" Of course we laughed, but Danny was literally rolling. We started laughing at Danny laughing! When Danny regained his composure enough to talk, he asked, "What's a coma?"
Last fall, it was my family's turn to take a treat to church. So amongst a few other things, we decided to take my all-time favorite food...popcorn. And to make it even better, we air popped it and seasoned it with our favorite toppings; olive oil, salt and pepper. That last ingredient was not a good idea though, because we ended up having half the church congregation sneezing!
My siblings and I competed in a youth archery club over the past two and half years, and were surprised to find that at least half of the kids participating were homeschooled. Once, after discussing several silly things about homeschooling, one of the public schoolers stated, "Homeschoolers are weird." We laughed, and eventually came up with the reply, "We're not weird...we're homeschoolers!"
And maybe it's true. Maybe we are weird. But truthfully, I just think we're blessed. We have the individuality to learn at our own paces, with our own caring parents choosing the appropriate learning material until we are old enough to help choose it ourselves. We have the ability to learn the most important life lessons through God's Word, through the examples of our parents, and through our own discoveries. And we have the freedom to learn whatever we choose, above and beyond the basics if we want to. My siblings and I have always had learning right at our finger tips. We have often read history, reading and literature books well before the school year starts. Librarians have always loved us, because, on average, we take out at least a dozen books apiece each time we visit a library.
And still people ask me if I ever wished I had gone to public school, or if I plan to go to college. That alone makes me almost want to laugh. My answer: Never. Never in a thousand years would I give up the individuality, the freedom, and the lessons of life, love and laughter that I have learned through God's precious gift of homeschooling.
~Hannah
Comments
Jul. 15, 2008 - Note from Brielle
Posted by BrielleCostumes
Greetings Hannah,
Thank you so much for your comment...and looking at my site.
Oh, yes I love Revolutionary War clothing..
actually is my very favorite, but I haven't had anyone ask about it before. (when I have time to sew my own costumes, I would like to make a couple dresses like that to wear around the house)
So you have 1770-80's reenactments where you live?? I would love that if you did those here, but I don't have those kinds...lots of Civil war and Pioneer ones though.
I would be happy to share some ideas on what patterns to use, or fabrics etc... if you would like to e-mail me at briellecostumes@yahoo.com, we can talk about ideas.
I hope you have a lovely day,
Sincerely,
Brielle
P.S.
I really enjoyed reading your post, I too have finished school.
Jul. 15, 2008 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Elliot
I love your speech! I can relate to most of those anecdotes in it. We have way too much fun.
Jul. 20, 2008 - Untitled Comment
Posted by AnAmericanGirl
Hey, my name is Hannah too. :D I'm not eighteen though. Come check out my blog sometime. I'll talk to you later.
God bless
Love,
Hannah
Jul. 20, 2008 - ECHSDA
Posted by Elliot
Did you do the essay contest for the diploma association? I did. Apparently I read too much satire. That's how I wrote and I was told I should "Be more respectful to the government." Hmm.
