Home > Gwinnett > Rick Badie / My Opinion > Archives > 2006 > January > 18
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Home schooling has strong draw for invested parents
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
You wonder what he’s doing on campus.
Maybe his mom or dad is a professor. Or he’s just waiting for a brother or sister.
It’s understandable why you’d think like that the first time you see Joshua Davis on Georgia Perimeter College’s Lawrenceville campus. He’s 15. Yet he’s a college student in his fourth semester there.
Before you marvel at his academic acumen, consider this: His two sisters, Hannah and Abigail, were 16 and 15 when they enrolled at Georgia Perimeter. Hannah, now 18, has her eye on nursing school. Abigail, 16, is a rising sophomore.
All three were home schooled, taught by mom. And Diane Davis plans to do likewise with the rest of the brood — Nathan, 13; Mary, 12; Catherine, 10; Joseph, 8; Sarah, 5 and Esther, 3.
Davis used to teach French at a DeKalb County public school. She quit, but not begrudgingly. She simply wanted to spend time with her kids and to infuse Christian principles into their education.
“They grow up so fast,” Davis of Lawrenceville told me via e-mail. “I love our children, and I love to teach, so home schooling is a clear fit for me.”
I support public schools wholeheartedly. My son is a fourth-grader at Nesbit Elementary, where Principal Cecilia Garcia and her staff do a jam-up job.
I still wish I could teach my kids at home. Too bad the commitment requires things I don’t have enough of — money, patience and strong organizational skills. But home schooling is compelling. The freedom, individuality and headiness attract. You and your child on a journey. Sweet.
And when you hear about kids like those of Tim and Diane Davis, you wonder what, exactly, you could do differently. If not better.
Joshua’s a B student. He likes to swim, play soccer and chess. Our local Doogie Howser wants to study industrial engineering at Georgia Tech.
Last semester, Joshua made a C in precalculus.
“My parents asked me if I had learned anything from making that C, and I told them that I had,” he told me one rainy Tuesday. “They told me to take that experience and use it to make an A in calculus.”
My money’s on Josh.
And I’m not even a betting man.
