William Marvel: The Virtue of Skepticism

Kennett High School's steamy indoor graduation of 2009 included a young lady whose education her mother and I had monitored closely. We homeschooled her through the seventh and eighth grades, when Kennett Junior High seemed dysfunctional. She was a diligent student, maintaining a stellar grade point average when that still meant something, and she belonged to the National Honor Society. She secured enough scholarships that she might have graduated from college completely debt-free had she not taken an extra summer semester at the Sorbonne.

At Kennett High she had some wonderful teachers, such as Lindsay Cole in the science department, Colleen Hill in English, and John Allen in math, who all proved engaging and demanding. There were also some veteran teachers she found boring, and while she may have liked them personally, boredom in the classroom is pedagogically deadly. Her mother paid close attention to her studies in math, science and music; I kept an eye on her progress in French, social studies, and English.