The devastating destruction resulting from a violent storm that struck our farm last week has caused me to think of how quickly life can change.
On Thursday afternoon, our crops were healthy and growing. My garden looked beautiful, full of well-tended plants, already yielding produce.
On Thursday evening, all was destroyed. Our crops were decimated. My garden was devastated.
What does this have to do with homeschooling?
As I consider the hard work and effort that went into the planting and care of my farmer husband's crops in the field and my own garden in our yard, I can easily liken it to the hard work and effort that has gone into homeschooling our nine children over almost 30 years.
We started homeschooling when home education was not even formally recognized in the Iowa Code. We, along with many others, spent countless hours at the Iowa Capitol, at the Iowa Department of Education, and elsewhere advocating for homeschool freedoms in our state.
Yet, just as our crops and garden plants were wiped out in a few minutes of a violent storm, so too can our homeschool freedoms be quickly destroyed.
Can it be that the freedoms won through years of dedicated effort have resulted in complacency?
Have we begun to take them for granted, assuming that they will always be as they now are?
Take another look at that devastated tomato plant.
On Thursday afternoon last week, I never dreamed it would be so instantly reduced to shreds. I took for granted that it would keep growing and thriving as it had since I planted it.
While one cannot protect field crops and garden plants from ferocious straight-line winds and hail, one can guard against the loss of homeschool freedoms won over many years through diligent efforts.
Please consider joining NICHE as one way to do just that.
Our board, volunteers, and legislative liaison work hard to advocate for and protect homeschooling freedom in Iowa.