Interview questions

Thanks to Sarah for another great idea. It's a way for us all in the blogring to get to know each other a little better. If you want to participate, look at the end of this entry to find out how.

1. Can you tell us something about your 'decision to home ed' process - formative books, influential people, that sort of thing?

I really don't know when I first heard about the idea of home education, or when it became attractive to me. It feels like something I've known about forever. I think it became much more focussed for me when I read John Holt, "How Children Fail" and "How Children Learn". I went on the web and found his Growing Without Schooling website, and since then, as is my way, I have read an awful lot, including "Free Range Education" by Terri Dowty, and several others. I would say I have been sold on the theory of home education ever since I heard of it, but unsure about my ability to actually do it in terms of having the commitment and energy for it. Then somebody gave me the very wise advice that it isn't an irrevocable decision - and just to take it a year at a time (or even a term at a time if necessary)!


2. How do you think you will measure 'success' in your family's home education? (Feel free to reword the question - I'm trying to get at what will make you feel that you've succeeded, as opposed to any 'success' on the children's behalf!)

I want my children to feel free to be interested in anything. At school, there were definitely subjects it wasn't "cool" to be interested in, e.g. poetry, classical music, maths, or in fact to be intelligent or particularly successful at anything (teenage years particularly). If my children have wide-ranging interests that don't just coincide with the current 'fashions', find their passion in life and pursue it, and are the sort of people who work hard in their chosen field, then I will be delighted. I also want them to be people of integrity, to aim for excellence of character, and full of care and compassion for others. If they are that sort of person, I don't mind what they're doing for a living!


3. What is your all time favourite book and why (adults or children's, doesn't matter!)?

This is so difficult, as there are so many books that I have found powerful and moving and have taught me something, but there are 2 books that have had the most life-changing impact on me (apart from the Bible), so I'm going to 'cheat' and tell you about both! The first is "The Continuum Concept" by Jean Liedloff. Not that I follow it very closely, because I now think it doesn't have to be an 'all or nothing' thing, but it is the book that turned me away from conventional parenting and gave me a greater insight into some of the problems of so-called 'civilised' societies. It gave me an awful lot of food for thought over the years, and has probably changed who I am quite noticeably. I came across it nearly 20 years ago, when I didn't have children and didn't intend having any, but felt it contained something of the absolute "truth" about life that I constantly seek and love.
The second book is "Stormie" by Stormie Omartian. This is the life story of a 60s singer and actress who was on the verge of suicide when she found faith in Jesus and gradually, over 14 years, was restored to full emotional health. When I have been barely clinging on by my fingernails, it has been this story that has given me hope and the strength to carry on.

4. If you could live anywhere in the world where would you live?

I would love to live for a while somewhere in the mountains, where I could ski a lot! I would adore living in Colorado (even though John Denver's no longer there) or somewhere like Switzerland would be great. I think I would also love the California coast for a while. Having said all that, I love living where I do now (North Cotswolds, Gloucestershire) and would probably be very homesick for the UK if I lived anywhere abroad, and would miss my friends and family, so I think I'll probably stay put!


5. What is the thing that annoys you above all else, and what is the thing that you love above all else? Interpret any way you like!!!

The thing that can get me angrier than anything else is people talking about me behind my back, in a kind of condescending way, "there, there, poor dear, we'd better discuss what's best for her because she's not capable...". This has a specific history, which I don't want to go into, but I know exactly where it comes from and I have been known to go incandescent with rage when it felt like this was what was happening to me. I hate, therefore, not knowing what official correspondence is saying about me (thinking of doctor's referral letters and the like) in case that's the attitude they're taking.

The thing I love above all else - well, I feel I ought to say here that it's Jesus since, based on my true beliefs, He is the one to whom I owe everything, but in simple 'feelings' terms, the winners are my children, particularly so because it's been so unexpected. I didn't want children when I was younger, thought I would never have any, and certainly didn't consider myself maternal at all. What a complete surprise and revelation it has been to me to have children and discover that my entire worldview has changed and my entire image of myself has changed so drastically. And I just love how my own children (most of the time) have to me a kind of 'Ready Brek' glow around them that just makes them the most beautiful things in the whole world. I do love my husband, too, but I 'expected' that, and it's the shock of loving my children so much that makes it seem so strong to me.


If YOU want to be interviewed:

1. Leave me a comment saying “interview me.”
2. I will respond by asking you five questions (not the same as you see here).
3. You will update your blog/site with the answers to the questions. (If you don’t have a blog, let this inspire you to begin one!!)
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions