Saturday, July 07, 2012

Robert Frost

Robert Frost: Image Source

This morning, I read an article on celebrities that homeschool(ed) their kids. And while it was interesting, the section on Robert Frost was the most fascinating!

To quote from the article:
"Poet Robert Frost, winner of four Pulitzer Prizes, was a staunch believer in homeschooling (he was homeschooled himself), saying, 'I still say the only education worth anything is self-education.' For Frost, this meant convincing the authorities that he and his wife could educate their children at home, which was taboo during the early 1900's."
"Visitors to the Frost home can see the parlor where Elinor and Robert homeschooled their children and spent pleasant evenings reading together as a family before the children were tucked in for the night." 
Compulsory Education was the newest, greatest thing at the turn of the 20th century, so the Frost family was REALLY going against the grain to keep up the "old idea" of homeschooling for their family. I can see more and more that "The Road Not Taken", while not an easy thing, really can "make all the difference."


Thanks for the inspiration today, Mr. Frost! :-)


The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. 


Love, Mama Rachel

3 comments:

  1. Thank you for sharing that poem! I haven't read it in years and years, and it has taken on an entirely different meaning in my adulthood.

    The next time I feel weary from taking my own road less travelled, I will think of Mr and Mrs Frost and their family.

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  2. I didn't know this about Robert Frost. I love hearing about home schoolers throughout time that put in the effort and enjoyed the results.

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  3. Very interesting! I bet they did have an uphill battle to educate their children at home. I'll add him to my list of homeschooled successful people.

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