Light the fire

"Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire." William Butler Yeats

I know all of you Charlotte Mason fans are nodding your heads. If you think about it, that is such a true statement. Have you ever been so excited about something that you had to buy a book on it or go read everything you could find on the internet about it? The fire was stoked and you had to learn more! That's the kind of education I want my children to have. I don't want to be the type to continually "dump" on my kids (fill the bucket). What's the point of that? So they can go "dump" on someone else? I want to see that spark, nurture it and then watch it grow. I want them to be excited about what they are learning. Will it always be that way? Probably not. Sometimes you have to try several times to get that spark started. Then there are the times the spark gets started but the wind blows it out and you have to begin all over again. Don't forget, when the wind is blowing, you have to protect them a little to allow that spark to catch.

So I don't know why I was feeling a bit philosophical about my children's education but there it is for now. That little phrase was in my notes from convention and I forgot to even mention it. I had such a little amount of time to teach on WA State Homeschool Law so cool quotes were left out. That being the case, you have to hear it. Lucky you.

Okay, now that you know, light the fire!