Inspiration from Thomas Edison
Tonight, after a long-winded day, I sat down with the kids to read a story on the life of Thomas Edison.
I found several of his quotes very interesting. Here are a few:
“Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits.”
“Restlessness and discontent are the necessities of progress.”
“Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure.”
“Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.”
I especially love that last quote! Sometimes I ask myself why I’m spending the large amounts of time and energy that I do on this homeschooling stuff. I’m not sure I have a great answer for that one other than I just feel like this is what I’m supposed to be doing. Maybe you could alter that answer a bit and say that it’s important not to have any regrets. Do I want to look back at these very important years with my children and wish I had given more effort or thought to the tasks at hand? I can even go bigger with that for my own goals in life. There are things I want to do for myself, professional goals and such, that I hope to accomplish one day-seasons, I tell myself, seasons. So, yes, I routinely feel discontent in what I’m doing, and I’m assuming that’s pushing me to try harder in whatever has my focus. Maybe that will pay off one day, but for now, sleep calls my name.
George Dennison
Reading a short blurb on George Dennison…The below statements are taken from Wikipedia.
“As an educator he promoted the idea that relationships, not instruction, promoted real learning. As such schools needed to be places where freedom of choice created the trust that allows for a full relationship between teachers and students. These ideas were considered radical because they questioned compulsory attendance and the focus on external student behavior to enhance student management. Since the focus on controlling student behavior interferes with relationship, his work suggests a preference for small schools and an implied criticism of large schools, especially in their ability to be effective with high risk students. He believe teaching was an art, not really a science and, as such, it was never technique that caused learning to occur, but rather the full complexity of individual relationships between students and teachers that were not reducible to the predictability of technique. Further, he felt that much of significant learning occurs strictly within the students individual motivation and between students, when the teachers are wise enough to stand aside and allow it to occur.”
Ivy League Homeschooling 