Day FIVE - Phillis Wheatley

Friday, August 26, 2011

The day was choppy with a morning doctor's appointment and lunch at the school. The staff at the school have seen our children all summer as we attended the free lunch provided there. Several of the ladies have asked which of our children are going to be attending school there this fall. It has been a bit awkward. At first I simply explained that our daughter would be entering 1st grade. Well, that opened the door. Then more questions came and along with further discussion of her future at the elementary school and how delighted they are to have her as a student. Then I had to explain that we homeschool our children (if only I had said that first).

However, today a lady approached us and she knew from a previous conversation that we homeschool. Today she said,

"Really, Mom? Do you have to homeschool? We would love to have them in our school."

Compliment? Yes. Did she intend any harm? No. My immediate thought to asses the notion... why would I want to send my children to public school? My immediate conclusion; we have a purpose in homeschooling our children. We are raising leaders. There are specific things we want them learn and know and develop. Each family is different and has different needs. It has been decided within our family that the best choice is for us to instruct our children at home. This dear woman does not know that. So, despite the fact that she would love to have our darling children attend their school, and that it is a good school, we are not sending them.

Just with our lesson today about Phillis Wheatley I questioned, are they going to teach my daughter about her rich African American heritage? How will they portray our past? Then the confirmation came again. You are the most qualified to teach her these things. You have been prepared to raise up this great generation. Take courage in knowing that you have made the right choice.

This is so critical for me because yes, I still have doubts on occasion. On a day like today when while at the school lunch and after this lady approached us DC looked at me with sad eyes and begged, "Mom can I please go to school here. Just for a little while to see what it is like. It would be so fun." My heart! It's not that I want to deprive her of her fun. And I am sure that she will have fun in 1st grade (sigh). And then, the day was choppy as we returned home from the doctor and lunch and were expecting a property manager who never showed up at the scheduled time (sigh again). I was distracted which meant the children were distracted which meant it was not a productive school day (sigh AGAIN).

Hold on... keep moving... Pray... and get to work, Nicole!

Here is how our day unfolded:

To The School Room! 12:35
The Pledge of Allegiance
Unit Study: US Presidents - Phillis Sings Out Freedom The Story of George Washington and Phillis Wheatley by Ann Malaspina
HandWriting Without Tears - The Letter "B"
Saxon Math - Lesson 5 -The Calendar and Pictograph of our family

People read Phillis's poems in newspapers but not everyone believed a slave girl could produce such great work. In 1772 Phillis stood before eighteen prestigious men including the governor of the Massachusetts Colony to answer questions that would prove she was the poet of this fine work of poems.

This is the document those men signed in Boston in 1772:

"WE whose Names are underwritten, do assure the World, that the POEMS specified in the following Page were (as we verily believe) written by Phillis, a young Negro Girl, who was but a few Years since, brought an uncultivated Barbarian from Africa, and has ever since been, and now is, under the Disadvantage of serving as a Slave in a family in this Town. She has been examined by some of the best Judges, and is thought qualified to write them."

October 26, 1775 Phillis wrote a letter to General George Washington which included the following poem:

"Proceed, great chief, with virtue on thy side,
Thy ev'ry action let the goddess guide.
A crown, a mansion, and a throne that shine,
With gold unfading, WASHINGTON! be thine."

Phillis was freed from slavery in 1773. She tried to sell her poems for a living but, during the war, people were saving their money for food and clothing. She worked in a hotel. She married a freed black man named John Peters. They had two children who died. Phillis died on December 5, 1784. She was about thirty-one. She had a newborn baby prior to her death and the two were buried together in an unmarked grave.

FREEDOM
and
THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST
bless the Freeman Family in these Latter-days