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Process is more important than the results

by Mary Ann on December 7, 2010

Perfect pies are a learned skill!

Recently I taught a class on pie making to a group of adults. One mother brought her 11 year old daughter and they worked together.

When I teach someone how to make pie I know for sure that their pie won’t look like mine. I have been making pies for fifty years and when I roll out a pie crust it is round and beautiful. When I put it into the pie pan it is as smooth as butter, most of the time; no cracking, no tearing. When I crimp the edges they look so taste tempting. It is all because I have had so much practice.

The people that I teach to make a pie for the first time, no matter their age, have had very little to no practice. Rolling a pie crust out so that it is round is a skill that has to be learned. Picking up a pie crust and fitting it into the pan without tears and cracks is a skill that has to be learned. It is a skill to make the crust just right, not to dry and not to wet.

Now I have taught many people to make pie and so I know how it is going to go and I want to avoid as much frustration as possible. I want my new pie makers to go home feeling like they just accomplished something magnificent, that they have made the pie of the century and that their families are going to be so happy about it.

So I tell them “You are just learning this new skill. It is like riding a bike, it won’t be perfect right off the bat. Your crust might not fit the pan perfectly, it might even crack. Just piece it back together. You are making this pie because you love your family and they are going to be so blessed to have it. You aren’t entering a contest. Remember that it is going to taste wonderful and how it tastes is what is going to count not how it looks.”

Well, all my pie makers got to work, including the mother daughter team. The pies were turning out just as you would expect beginner’s pies to look. Everyone had taken my counsel and was feeling really successful except Rosemary, the older half of the mother daughter team. She wanted it to be perfect, she wanted to be able to do it better on the first try, how a thing turns out is what matters the most.

Ariel

She was fretting and stewing because their dough was a tad dry and it was breaking into pieces as they were putting it into the pan. Her daughter was just busy piecing away. But Rosemary kept fretting over the fact that it hadn’t been very round, the dough was dry, it broke into a couple of pieces and had to be pressed back together. Finally Ariel looked at her mom and said “Remember mom, it’s how it tastes that counts.” Her mother looked at her for a bit and then replied, “Oh yes, thanks for reminding me.”

Teaching adults can be difficult. They worry about not knowing the material already or not having the skill. They are embarrassed that their results don’t look like yours. They worry.

Teaching children is a joy. It always amazes me that my pie looks perfect and theirs is crumbling on the side and they don’t see the difference. They look at the pies and say, “Wow, look at my pie.” They are proud and excited about what they have done.

I was reminded by this experience why children are so wonderful to work with.

1. They love learning new things.

2. They aren’t intimidated that don’t already know how to do something. They are just excited to learn.

3. The process is more important than the outcome and

4. They are so easy to please.

So stay out of your children’s way. Let them learn and take pride in whatever they do. Don’t see their end result through your eyes. See it through theirs. The process is what counts for kids. Aren’t kids amazing!!!!

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Roosevelt (Teddy) Theodore, was home schooled too

by Mary Ann on December 3, 2010

“Home schooling has a long and successful tradition. Actually, it has two traditions: First, the very wealthy have always educated their children at home, some through tutors and others, themselves; and second, most of the greatest thinkers, leaders, statesmen, entrepreneurs, scientists and artists of history were self-educated.” Oliver DeMille, A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the Twenty-first Century.

Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt, Rough Rider

Theodore ”Teddy” Roosevelt was the 26th president of the United States. He had an energetic personality and a “cowboy” image.

Teddy was an unhealthy child suffering from asthma who stayed at home studying natural history. In response to his physical weakness, he embraced a strenuous life. He was home schooled and became a passionate student of nature.

During the Spanish American War he led a small regiment in Cuba known as the Rough riders.

In 1901 as vice president of the United States, he became president when William McKinley was assassinated. He was 42 years old, the youngest president in history.

Teddy was the first American to win the Nobel Prize in any field.

Brigham Young, Colonizer

Brigham Young became a Colonizer, territorial governor, and President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Brigham was the ninth of eleven children. When Brigham was three years old his family moved to central New York state and later to Smyrna, New York. Brigham helped clear land for farming, trapped for fur animals, fished, built sheds and dug cellars, and helped with planting, cultivating, and harvesting crops. He also cared for his mother, who was seriously ill with tuberculosis. He did not attend formal school.

Brigham’s mother died in 1815 when he was fourteen. A couple of years later Brigham decided to leave his home and live for a period with a sister. He became an apprentice carpenter, painter, and glazier. Over the next five years in Auburn, he assisted in building its first marketplace, the prison, the theological seminary, and the home of “Squire” William Brown (later occupied by William H. Seward, a governor of New York who also served as Lincoln’s secretary of state). As a master carpenter, Brigham built door fittings, louvered attic windows, and carved ornate mantelpieces for many homes. Many old homes in the region to this day have chairs, desks, staircases, doorways, and mantelpieces made by Brigham Young.

Brigham had a nickname, “American Moses”, because, like the biblical figure, he led his followers, the Mormon pioneers, in an exodus to what they saw as a promised land.

John Jay, statesman

John Jay was an American politician, statesman, revolutionary, diplomat, and founding father of the United States, and the first Chief Justice of the United States.

He was born to a wealthy family of merchants in New York City. He was the eighth child and sixth son. He was educated by private tutors until he was eight years old, when he was sent to New Rochelle to study under Anglican pastor Pierre Stoupe. After three years, he returned to homeschooling under the tutelage of George Murray. In 1760,John went to King’s College. When he graduated he became a law clerk.

Having established a reputation as a “reasonable moderate” in New York, Jay was elected to serve as delegate to the First and Second Continental Congresses which debated whether the colonies should declare independence. He attempted to reconcile the colonies with Britain, up until the Declaration of Independence. John became an ardent separatist and attempted to move New York towards that cause.

He co-wrote the Federalist Papers, along with Alexander Hamilton and James Madison

John he became the New York’s leading opponent of slavery. His first two attempts to pass laws for the emancipation of all slaves in New York failed in 1777 and in 1785, but his third attempt succeeded in 1799. The new law that he signed into existence brought about the emancipation of all slaves there before his death in 1829.

Another world famous politician who was home schooled was Woodrow Wilson President.

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Painter grandma Moses and home school arts

by Mary Ann on December 2, 2010

Grandma Moses, painter

Anna Mary Robertson was called Grandma Moses by the press when she began a painting career in her 70’s. Anna had a happy childhood and worked hard on the family farm. Her father enjoyed seeing the children’s drawings and would buy them large sheets of blank newspaper upon which they could draw. The young Anna Mary loved to draw happy, colorful scenes. She only attended school in the summer due to the cold and her lack of warm clothing. At twelve she stopped going to school and she began earning her living as a hired girl at homes near the family farm.

It was on her farm in Eagle Ridge that Grandma Moses painted her first painting. She was wallpapering her parlor and ran out of paper. To finish the room she put up white paper and painted a scene. It is known as the Fireboard, and it hangs today in the Bennington Museum in Bennington, Vermont.

As she aged and found farm work too difficult, Grandma Moses took up embroidering pictures in yarn to fill her spare time. At the age of seventy-six, because of arthritis, she gave up embroidery and began to paint.

In 1938 a New York engineer and art collector, Louis J. Caldor, saw some of her paintings displayed in a drug store window. They were priced from $3 to $5, depending on size. He bought them all, drove to the artist’s home at Eagle Bridge and bought ten others she had there. The next year, three Grandma Moses paintings were included in an art show in New York.

She was soon world famous. During the 1950s, Grandma Moses’ exhibitions were so popular that they broke attendance records all over the world. A Mother’s Day magazine article noted that despite her fame “Grandma Moses remains prouder of her preserves than of her paintings, and proudest of all of her four children, eleven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.”

Sir Walter Scott,Historical Novelist

All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education. – Sir Walter Scott

Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet, popular throughout much of the world,because of his talent in arts, during his time.

When Walter was boy he suffered from a bout of polio which left him lame. To cure his lameness he was sent in 1773 to live at his grandparents’ farm. Here his aunt Jenny taught him to read and he learned from her the speech patterns and many of the tales and legends that characterized much of his work.

When he was seven he returned to Edinburgh for private education to prepare him for school. When Walter was 8 he began at the Royal High School of Edinburgh. He could now walk and explore the city and the surrounding countryside. His reading included chivalric romances, poems, history and travel books. He was mentored privately by James Mitchell in arithmetic and writing.

When he was 12 he attended the University of Edinburgh. At 15 he became an apprentice in his father’s office. During this time Walter had many private mentors.

Scott was the first English-language author to have a truly international career in his lifetime, with many contemporary readers in Europe, Australia, and North America.

” Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. “– William Butler Yeats

Sir Noel Peirce Coward

Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, and flamboyance. Noel’s father lacked ambition and industry, and family finances were often poor. Noel was bitten by the performing bug early and appeared in amateur concerts by the age of seven. He attended the Chapel Royal Choir School as a young child. He had little formal schooling but was a voracious reader.

His mother sent him to a dance academy in London,seeing his enthusiasm for arts. His first professional engagement was as Prince Mussel in the children’s play The Goldfish. In Present Indicative, his first volume of memoirs, Noel wrote:

“One day … a little advertisement appeared in the Daily Mirror…. It stated that a talented boy of attractive appearance was required by a Miss Lila Field to appear in her production of an all-children fairy play: The Goldfish. This seemed to dispose of all argument. I was a talented boy… and, when washed and smarmed down a bit, passably attractive. There appeared to be no earthly reason why Miss Lila Field shouldn’t jump at me, and we both believed that she would be a fool indeed to miss such a magnificent opportunity.

I had written a post earlier on some other home schoolers and there you can find the world famous scientist Albert einstein and his home school story.

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