Please, Mrs. Mitchell!

PLEASE, Mrs. Mitchell!  Homeschool Dennis!

Today's Dennis the Menace cartoon has me buzzing, if you can't tell. The idea that education, or life, is all about sitting still and conforming chaps my soul. There is a time and a place to be still, and children can and should learn, but being forced to sit still and stand in lines and sit still for 6-plus hours a day is abusive, plain and simple.  I can't do it, and don't know many adults who can. Why do we expect it of children? And to imply that a lack of focus is the fault of a child and not in any way the result of being in a stuffy room with 30 other children... all day... being tested, tested, tested instead of engaged in something worthwhile and interesting... at what point did simple sense escape Earth's atmosphere?  For my part, I often think and focus better when I'm... MOVING.

So I say to all the Mrs. Mitchell's out there, get your boy out of the classroom and outdoors. Don't feel badly. Edison's and Einstein's mothers were also told their sons weren't fit for school. Hallelujah that they weren't!