Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

This week on Home School Heartbeat, Mike Smith will discuss the centennial celebration of the Wright brothers' first flight.

Mike Smith:


On December 17, 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright became the first men to design a flying craft that could be controlled while in the air.


As homeschoolers, you may have considered including the Wright brothers in a science or industry module of your curriculum. But the lives of these men include a broad range of lessons that are central to those of us in the homeschool movement.


The parents of the Wright brothers encouraged their children's academic curiosity by promoting self-teaching. Like homeschoolers, the Wright brothers were free to pursue the subjects that interested them. This led to their historic careers as engineers despite their lack of formal training.


The Wright brothers' father was a bishop in the United Brethren Church and the family was well grounded in theology. In fact, the household had two libraries full of books, one dedicated solely to theology and another for general topics.


We remember the Wright brothers as extremely successful people. Yet in 1903, their initial success was dismissed by most as a hoax. But the Wrights persevered. These two humble and brave young men are still a source of inspiration 100 years later. As Bill Gates wrote in Time magazine, "[The Wright brothers'] example reminds us that genius doesn't have a pedigree, and that you don't discover new worlds by plying safe, conventional waters." And until next time, I'm Mike Smith.