Oysters of Learning

I have seen parents, both homeschoolers and not, search the library for optimal resources for educational enrichment. They look in all of the usual places -- study guides, shiny new canned curricula, classic stories, leveled readers, etc.-- to find those pearls of wisdom that will set their children off on the straight and narrow path to college, a "safe" career, and economic stability. 

I'm probably the wrong person to ask when they come up to the desk looking for a way to get their kids excited about the subject of the day.

  

Pearls don't come pre-strung. Every pearl starts its life as an irritation inside of an oyster. Oysters are not beautiful. They are rough and grungy gray. They don't move a lot. Think about it. They spend all their time in beds. And yet this very plain creature will take years building layer upon layer over a grain of sand until it carries a treasure within. 

That thing that irritates us might be building the pearl of our children's future.

I find learning in unusual, rough places. That movie that everyone panned might tell a story that was inspired by a classic. Watching it might make me curious about the original story, so I go and read it. That comic book that makes parents roll their eyes might show how very different people learn to work together and combine their strengths for a common cause. That video game kids spend hours trying to master might give more concrete lessons on physics, geometry, and strategy than a semester of science, math, and logic.

Just because you can't see the pearl, doesn't mean it isn't there.