I admit I was a little upset, the other day, when you spoke about how parents could impact their children's education. You forced me to face my childhood, which I always pretended didn't happen. You also made me think and become grateful for what my parents did do for me, even if they did not know it.
I grew up in the slums, my mother was an alcoholic and spent most of her time in her room. My father was a good man and taught us all he could, but he also had a dream to live on a farm, far from the city, so he worked all of the time. There were four of us children, before we moved to the farm, and Mom insisted on homeschooling us, even though she never wanted to leave her room. She would throw books at us and expect us to read, though at the age of seven I still barely knew the alphabet and let's not even go into math.
By some miracle and with a lot of help from librarians (my siblings and I would escape to the library during the day) I finally did learn to read by the time I was nine. I learned to be very resourceful and I learned how to serve others. I learned to ask the right sort of questions and how to find the right answers. I learned how to love and teach children (I am the oldest of ten children now.) I knew what it was like to starve and so I learned very quickly to make very little go a long way.
Honestly, I may have never learned any of these things much less graduate from Purdue University, if it had not been for the little bits of guidance I did get from my Dad, or from the situations I found myself in, as a child caring for other small children.
I am now very grateful and am finally more at peace.
Thank you Dr. Laura for all that you do so very well.
A.
