It Starts At Home

I may have been ill-prepared for assimilating into the machinations of the public school system, but by golly I was advanced in liberal arts education by the age of six. Thanks to my free-thinking, almost bohemian parents, I was frequently exposed to travel (in and out of the U.S.), music (jazz, classical and popular), art (galleries and museums) and food (french, asian and mexican dishes were often prepared at home). I could read, quote poetry and paint with brushes. I could sing harmonies. I played (albeit poorly) an accordion and a recorder. I danced in ballet classes. I attended plays and musicals and concerts. I could shoot a gun. I swam, and was perfecting a racing dive. I was a bit precocious, admittedly, but I had all the skills - or so my family believed - to succeed in the world of academia. What went wrong, and why did I struggle so in school?

Perhaps it was simply my ramped up nervous system that was to blame, but I tend to believe it was the system that failed me. There was no way to gracefully ease this beatnik baby into the mainstream stodginess of Maricopa Elementary School without a struggle. How could a kid go from romping through the irrigated fields, catching and releasing crayfish while belting out show tunes, onto the asphalt blacktop and into the 'straight line, hands at side, no talking' model of 1st grade without feeling a great deal of resistance and downright dissatisfaction. Nope, I had experienced too much freedom, too many rich adventures and too broad a background of adventure to contain myself within the walls of Miss Sandoval's class of twenty-three students. I was a miserable girl from 8:10 until 2:30, each and every weekday.

So what if I had to be sad in school. Once the final bell rang, or Saturday morning dawned, or best of all Summer Break arrived, I could once again rush into the University of Life. My folks provided me SO much in the way of cultural and artistic experiences, and I am forever grateful. I am forever richer for their parenting style, which could have been riffed off the words of Ruth (1:16-17) ... for whither we goest, thou will go; and where we lodgest, thou will lodge: my people shall be thy people, and our life, thy life". There was no kid vs. grownup lifestyle. Looking back I realize I wouldn't trade my upbringing for the world.