Pro Creation
Annegret Hunter on Cardinal Truths Her Sons Taught Her About Genesis
Mothers are the ones who get their chief education through homeschooling. Of course children profit greatly, and some fathers might too, but in the case of our family I was the main beneficiary. Take, for example, the matter of creation. Before I homeschooled I had never given it a thought.
For sure I was brought up on Darwin’s theory. Since I found any religion to be a useless escape from reality, I believed creation to be only a myth like many others. And this was still the case when the beginning began: My younger son informed me that he wanted to learn how to read and write.
Arduous Writing
I thought I knew what to do. So first I got some books on how to teach phonics—all pretty straightforward, you know, the cat-on-the-mat type—then I found a perfectly darling little book, with only small words in it, and very cute drawings, called The Christmas Mouse. After three days of this, together with the painful printing of letters, the ardor of my inquisitive student was snuffed out: “Mom, I’m not really interested in reading and writing after all,” and he looked with loathing at The Christmas Mouse.
I nearly panicked. What was wrong? What to do to keep his interest? How did folks, young and old, learn reading in earlier days? Well, they certainly did not have The Christmas Mouse! What they used must have been much more memorable. All right, I thought, let’s go back to the beginning, to the most famous book of stories. And not just any watered-down translation of it either, but the translation that made English the beautiful language it is: the King James Bible.
Now what about the writing part? How ever did I learn that, being such a klutzy youngster? Then I remembered: I was not mechanized; printing was done by machines. I learned to write in big, rounded and attached, dignified, glorious letters, and to draw in preparation lots of tornadoes and wild waves, to loosen the wrist.
I conferred with the principal of our school, who seemed inordinately enthusiastic and found for me a beautiful copy of the Merian Bible in the King James version, and in large print.
“Son, we try again,” I told my young offspring, whose face fell, but then I presented him with the intricately illustrated Bible, a fountain pen, an exercise book, and a drawing pad, and he was awestruck. This was serious, this was cool, a real Bible with grown-up pictures, and a real pen. For the next month we worked diligently and joyfully, starting at “In the beginning God . . .”, working slowly through the creation until the summer holidays arrived and we rested on the fifth day.
I settled down to prepare the material for the next school year, congratulating myself on such a brilliant start, thanks to my ingenious idea of using the Bible. Not once did I realize the danger into which I had stepped, because, you see, you cannot open the door just a little and get away with it. The Light touches you even through the smallest crack. On the other hand, the door probably was pushed open a bit from the other side, just to let some rays of sense into the darkness.
Slow Learner
Annegret Hunter recovered after homeschooling two boys and was pleased to discover she was still a Christian, a wife, and a bookbinder. Her husband Graeme is a contributing editor of Touchstone.
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more from the online archives
30.2—March/April 2017
on Reading Don Quixote in Its Original Christian Context by Luis Cortest
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