Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

Every family who has chosen to homeschool knows how much hard work is involved in the process of home education. This week on Home School Heartbeat, host Mike Farris provides some encouragement for homeschooling families by telling the stories of several famous men and women, whose home education allowed them to accomplish great things for God and for those around them.

Michael Farris:
On May 12, 1820, a baby girl was born in Florence, Italy, to wealthy British parents. Named for the city in which she was born, Florence Nightingale was brought up to be an intelligent woman of good society. Both her mother and her father contributed to her academic and social training. While Mrs. Nightingale instructed Florence and her sister in social graces and the skill of running a large household, the girls' father taught them English grammar, history, philosophy, Latin, French, Greek, German, and Italian. Florence also received biblical training from her parents, learning to read the New Testament in its original Greek.

When she was 16, Florence heard God's call to a special life work: easing the suffering of the sick and dying. She began withdrawing from society life to concentrate on studying health and reforms for the poor.

Florence Nightingale did much to introduce sanitary nursing methods to the whole world, especially to the battlefield. Among her many public honors, she became the first woman to receive the British Order of Merit.

Florence Nightingale is just one example of a fertile mind and a pioneer spirit developed by homeschooling. We have yet to see how today's homeschooled children will change the world.

I'm Michael Farris.