For the next several weeks, American parents will be hearing this question more than usual. The new school year is starting and not all the students are eager.
I would guess that since formal schools began – a few thousand years ago – a certain percentage of the students were reluctant. Do I need to go now? Can I wait? Again–I went all last week. Why does a farmer, or a stonemason, or a blacksmith need to learn to read and figure? I can learn how to keep a house from my mother — can’t I?
Adults can be stubborn — and most of them understand the value of education. Reading enables a person to learn about things without having to experience them. Math enables a person to keep accurate business records and limits the possibilities of getting cheated at the marketplace.
Joseph Black was not an eager student. But his mother dressed him in appropriate clothes and walked him to the schoolhouse on the first day of 1851’s fall term. She was a little concerned about his lack of shoes…but she had a plan.
Check out the story of Polly Black and her son, Joseph in the sweet historical romance, Stitching a Dream. People are always arriving and leaving on the steamboats in the fictional town of Elm Ridge, Illinois. What, or who, will the packet bring today?
Here’s a link to the Kindle edition: https://amzn.to/3VwoeFh
