For the Beauty of the Earth . . .

I read a simple biography today. One of those meant for a child in 3rd or 4th grade, you know like six chapters and a very basic overview of someone's life. It was about Rachel Carson. I know, who???? That was what I thought when I wrote down my school plans for this term and decided that she was one of the scientists I would learn about. I had absolutely no idea who she was or what she had done that was biography worthy. Usually people do great things and help others before everyone wants to write a biography about them, but then I have seen biography books about Orlando Bloom in the children's section of the library as well, so I guess you never know. Anyway!

After reading this I realized that Rachel Carson was a rather important person who in a way saved many lives. She was a scientist in the 1940-50 time period and worked on books and papers about the environment. Mostly she focused on the sea and the life therein, but she also wrote another book about protecting our environment. She found out through a friend about the damaging effects of DDT, a chemical pesticide that was being used on lawns all over the country, but was killing animals and doing who knows what to people. The companies that made the chemicals and the government both tried to keep her quiet about the whole thing, so she secretly wrote a book exposing the situation. Once it was out in the open, JFK had it investigated and found out that she was right and then laws were passed to protect the environment and people from these chemicals.

One one hand this seems like a small thing, but on the other hand, maybe not. I realize that I was not the best science student back in the day, but I graduated high school and I don't recall ever even hearing her name. I have come to learn in recent years about a ton of things they didn't teach in school. But I am sure that if I really needed to I could figure out which train would use the most coal when each one is going in opposite directions and traveling at two different speeds while carrying the same weight, but one is surely facing a head wind and the other will need to stop for 27 mins for the herd of sheep to graze past the tracks. Sound familiar? That is sadly most of what I remember from math classes in school. Now in all fairness I know they taught more than that and I may have exaggerated a tiny bit, but really who made up math problems like that and when is an ordinary person every going to need to figure out something like that?!

I think I have gotten rather off topic here. All I really want to say is that I am thankful everyday that I get to educate my children at home and share with them what is really important to learn. I am also very glad that I am getting to learn so much in my attempts to set a good example of self education for them. They do love reading and Mark and Anya both are now into reading short chapter books (7-8 chapters). I remind myself how lucky I am to have smart kids when I have to say for the fourth time "Mark, put the book down and get changed for bed!" And when I have to pry the flashlight out of his sleeping fingers because he fell asleep while reading under the covers, again. Deep down a part of me really loves that.

The other point I wanted to make was about our world. Our Father in Heaven gave us this world to live in. Like so many of my millions of gifts I have a tendency to take it for granted most of the time. The beautiful complexity that is nature is astounding when you stop to actually look at it and think about it. From the beauty of a flower to the intricacies of the human body, we are so blessed to have the opportunity to be here on this earth in mortal bodies experiencing LIFE. I am going to try harder to appreciate the world we live in and share with other living creatures, even bugs and snakes which I really don't like. Let's keep the earth beautiful.