Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

Mike Smith:
Americans know Abraham Lincoln as one of our greatest presidents—a strong leader, powerful writer, and persuasive speaker who guided our country through a civil war and the end of slavery.

We might expect such a man to have come from a privileged background and studied at prestigious schools. But Lincoln’s education didn’t look anything like this.

From a very young age until he was about 15, Abe Lincoln attended school intermittently, walking several miles each way to learn the basic lessons of reading, writing, and arithmetic. He said later that “all his schooling did not amount to one year.”

He went to what’s called a “blab school”—a noisy place in which the students read their lessons out loud all at the same time, to prove that they were really studying.

Despite these less than ideal circumstances, Lincoln applied himself to his studies. He used his rudimentary school lessons as the basis for a lifelong education. Fascinated by writing, the young Lincoln practiced it everywhere—on the back of a shovel, in dust, and in snow. He read every book he could get his hands on, carefully evaluating the ideas they contained.

Like the young Abe Lincoln, homeschoolers have realized that learning opportunities don’t have to be expensive or complicated to bring results. Students learn best when they have an attitude that values education and is determined to benefit from it.

And until next time, I’m Mike Smith.