Letter to Mom and Dad
Dear Mom and Dad,
Greetings from La Herradura, Spain. So many details of my life’s journey have passed since we last spoke. I left Fairchild Garden, taught at Gulliver, left Gulliver, we moved houses and I can actually see your old apartment from my new kitchen. Mom, it rejuvenates me knowing that my current “playground” was your view for fourteen years. Dad, you’ll be happy to know that I’ve been practicing my guitar fingerpicking. It’s starting to sound pretty good and I’m getting that “thumb thing” down.
“Tulip” and “Lucky Penny” are doing great and they miss you both enormously. You would be proud of their approach to life, learning and growing into their own. Since we last saw you, Mom, we also lost Phyllis, Dad (as you know), Frank and even Bella. It was a hard chapter and a crash course in “life lessons” for us all, especially for the girls. As some windows close, however, others open.
Long story short… I quit my teaching job, Carrie stepped back from Lowell and we pulled the girls from school and we’re “worldschooling.” It’s like “homeschooling” but not in our hometown. As you may remember, “traditional” school didn’t work too well for me. Who would have guessed but it’s still not working for me, or our family. The power to make a change was within our grasp so we grabbed it. Our window was/is open and we’ve jumped through it.
Dad, the New City School planted a seed in me years ago and I’m feeling empowered by that movement you began. I always admired the creative approach to learning and agree that education is the first step to most of the world’s challenges. That reminds me of a story I have to tell you at another time. It involves the Central West End, Betsey’s funeral and you on TV. It was a haunting, rainy, late, teary and beautiful night.
The first chapter of our “worldschooling” journey actually took us on a six-week roadtrip through the States and into Canada, camping most of the way in National Parks, State parks, parking lots and campgrounds. We purchased a pop-top trailer, called it home and drove up through NY and into Ontario. We hit all five Great Lakes, Ephraim, great music festivals, fishing, camping, history lessons, historical spots, sunken ships, Fairyland, caves, huge trees, huge mosquitoes, bears, cliff jumping, new friends, old friends, bee farming, lots of laughs and a few tears. It was a roadtrip for the books, for sure!
Since “Sister Sue” (Carrie’s sister) had never visited Europe, we then decided to invite her on our first European leg of the worldschooling odyssey. We flew to London and did some of the sites including the Tower of London, double decker bus, ferry on the Thames, fish/chips, Stonehenge, the Roman baths in Bath, we saw “Everyone’s Talking About Jamie,” the British Museum, Postal Museum, enjoyed Tea and lots more… We then trained through the “Chunnel” to Paris and covered much ground there too (Eiffel Tower, Champs Élysées, boat tour on the Seine, Arc de Triomphe, Le Marais, The Louvre, Musee d’Orsay, Versailles, countless cafés and too many crepes. We covered lots of ground, learned a ton and had a blast with Sue. She now wants to learn French and move to Paris.
After we parted ways and Sue flew back to Miami, we spent a week heading south, via train, then car, train, car, then train then another car. We stopped in Bourges and slept at Carrie’s old roommate’s home in Saint Amand-Montrand. Her husband’s grandfather lived in the house and was, at least, the third generation blacksmith and lots of the heavy tools are still hanging around. It’s a very cool spot and her daughter, Lucy, is our girls’ favorite new French best friend. Experiencing a few days in the life of a “real” French family was a refreshing juxtaposition to our previous tourist-heavy gig. We also spent five days at Torre Laurentii in Sant Llorenç de la Muga, Catalonia. Our old Ransom/Miami friend, Stephan, runs the boutique hotel with his Catalan wife. It’s an amazingly, magical and beautiful spot, nestled in the middle of a Medieval fortified village with a population of 100. Although our upland river, treasure-hunting expeditions didn’t yield any swords or Medieval helmets, we did find lots of loot, including masks, goggles, jewelry, keys and Piper’s favorite new sunglasses. You two would have loved it!
Finally, we arrived in our temporary home at La Herradura, Spain. The reason we chose the southern coast of Spain is primarily that a healthy worldschooling “hub” exists here, thanks to the great efforts of a particularly enthusiastic British expat. Families from all over the world pass through or decide to move to the area in search of a better way to educate their children. There is some frustration with the “system” at “home” but mostly, we all share enthusiasm, energy and optimism for what lies ahead. I guess we’re one of them!
Although our “blog” is slow to launch (we’ve been on the road for three weeks now), you can see lots of updates from our earlier travels on Instagram. Just follow “NextFooteForward” and peruse my meandering thoughts and lessons. I and the girls will be updating periodically on this blog (NextFooteForward.org) so stay tuned and feel free to “comment” and/or ask questions of them and me.
We miss you and we love you!!
Hasta pronto!
Thad
-Thad