By Jeff Benedict in the Deseret News
"I have a confession to make. A couple of weeks ago, my 15-year-old son, Tennyson, published his first piece of writing online, a wonderfully written essay on global warming. Well researched. Compelling. Hard to refute.
"I was so proud I emailed it to colleagues and posted it to my Facebook page. Instantly, people started congratulating me for doing such a terrific job teaching my son to write. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, one friend said.
"I hear that a lot. Here's the problem. As a professional writer, I'm usually too busy to teach my son to write.
"There. I said it.
"The one who deserves the credit is my wife. I'm not being modest. Just honest. I'll explain.
"By fifth grade, our son was far behind and fading fast when it came to reading and writing. At the same time, his overall enthusiasm for learning had all but died. Drastic measures were in order. We removed him from public school and Lydia made it her mission to help him become proficient with the written word. She graduated at the top of her class at Northeastern University with a degree in English and a 3.97 GPA. She put that to use as our son's personal tutor.
"It was a grind, especially at first. There were hand-wringing, tears, second-guessing and disagreements. It was brutal. Then came the writing assignments. Over time, Lydia and Tennyson went through a small tree farm in the editing and rewriting process.
"Fast-forward five years. Lydia is still his teacher. Yep. He never returned to public school. Since coming home he has read more than 140 books — from biographies on Charles Lindbergh, Abraham Lincoln, Ben Franklin, Andre Agassi and Dick Van Dyke to novels like 'Gulliver's Travels,' 'To Kill a Mockingbird' and 'The Hunt for Red October.' And he writes as well as my college students. Seriously. Last week he took the ACT and he's applying for early admission to college.
"That just shows what a devoted teacher can do, especially one with a vested interest in the future of the child...." Read More: Deseret News
