On the Shoulders of Giants

Issue #9
June 16, 2009

On The Shoulders of Giants
By Dr. Jay L. Wile

It's that time of year again. For someone who has spent most of his life in academic pursuits, that means it's graduation time. As a university professor, I donned my academic regalia at least once each year and sat through interminable speeches given by people who were mostly trying to impress the listeners (and decidedly not succeeding). I obviously didn't do it for the entertainment value of the commencement ceremony. I did it because I loved my students and wanted to share in their joyous occasion.

Surprisingly, now that I work mostly with home educated students, I attend even more graduation ceremonies. That's because I speak at conferences which often have commencements associated with them. In addition, I am sometimes fortunate enough to be asked to speak at these momentous events.

This year, I was given the privilege of speaking at two commencement ceremonies, both in the great state of Indiana. It is difficult for me to express in words what I feel at these events. It is an odd mixture of thankfulness, awe, and genuine hope. Let me elaborate a bit.

As an assistant professor at Indiana University and Ball State University, I taught "our future leaders," and the majority of them were nothing more than hedonists. They were attending university so they could get a good job so they could make lots of money so they could buy lots of stuff and have lots of parties. That's not the stuff of which great leaders are made. As a result, while I was in "academia," I was a dyed-in-the-wool pessimist. I saw the future of this nation (and the world as a whole), and it wasn't pretty.

Then something happened. I started experiencing homeschool graduates. I didn't know anything about homeschooling at the time. I didn't know how it could be legal, and I certainly didn't know how an untrained mother could produce a physics student who could ace all my tests. Nevertheless, these homeschool graduates were my best chemistry and physics students.

Not only were they academically superior to their peers, they were just plain different. They were at university because they believed that they had been given talents and that they shouldn't squander those talents. They actually came to university because they wanted to make a difference. I can't tell you how rare that is among university students today.

As I started working with homeschool graduates and then later with homeschooling students, I started experiencing a new sensation. I later learned that this sensation is called "optimism." I now believe that there is hope for the world, and that hope rests squarely on the shoulders of homeschool graduates. Excellence in your profession, self-sacrifice, and dedication to the Lord are what we need in our future leaders, and I see those characteristics in most of the homeschool graduates with whom I share commencement ceremonies.

So what of this mixture of emotions I experience at the homeschool graduation ceremonies I attend? Well, the hope that I experience rests in the students that I see graduating. Homeschool graduates are simply a cut above. They are spiritually, morally, and intellectually better prepared than their peers. I see in them a hope that the future will bring leaders who truly can make this world a better place. The thankfulness I experience is directed at the students who are graduating. It was students like them that turned me from a pessimist to an optimist. For that, I am immeasurably grateful. The awe is reserved for those who made the event possible to begin with: the parents of these amazing young men and women.

In the words of Sir Isaac Newton (arguably the greatest scientist of all time), "If I have seen farther than others, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." By this he meant that he was able to do such incredible work because of the scientific research of those who had come before him. They built for him a platform that allowed him to see where others could not. However, this can also be said about homeschooling parents. Homeschooling parents are giants. They build a platform for their students, and from that platform, their students can see more, do more, and make more of a difference than the students who are on the ground.

In the midst of the daily "battles" that inevitably come as a part of the homeschool experience, it is important to stop every now and again and put it all in perspective. You are a giant. On your shoulders, you carry those who will see farther, accomplish more, and make more of a difference than most of the others around them. The next time you and your homeschool student are both in tears over the day's math lesson or the latest breakdown in discipline, just remember that it is very difficult to carry someone on your shoulders for 18 years or more, but you are a giant, and that's what giants are made for.

Dr. Jay L. Wile

http://www.apologia.com