E is for Edison, Einstein and Education

Thomas Edison attended school for three months. His teachers considered him "addled" because he had such a hard time focusing. His mother, with great faith in his intelligence, withdrew him from the classroom and taught him at home.
Albert Einstein endured a mediocre education until he was a teenager, when he faked a doctor's note to escape boarding school and continue his schooling within his family's home. He was frustrated by the way the school's emphasis on rote learning undermined creativity and passion for knowledge. "Love," he said, "is a better teacher than a sense of duty."
Thank goodness we have better teachers than theirs today, though most of us know through experience that the really great ones are few and far between. The school systems' emphasis on test scores is forcing the good teachers to work twice as hard (at least!) to imbue their students with a love of learning and the freedom to create.
For this and many other reasons, I'm joining ranks with Edison's and Einstein's mothers and homeschooling my children. Since they're still preschool age, right now we're doing mostly nature study and hands-on math and lots and lots of reading. Because, as Einstein himself said, "If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales."
If you're interested, here's a list of other famous or historical figures who were home educated at some point in their lives. Many of my heroes, like Abigail Adams, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Agatha Christie, C. S. Lewis, and Mark Twain, made the list.
Whether you were homeschooled or traditionally taught, if you've had wonderful teachers, remember to thank them for all that they did.
(Thanks, Mom and Dad!)