A post from my mom's blog two days ago.

Interesting reflection on my conversation with the school psychologist at Lisa & Scott's wedding:

Not meaning to generalize unfairly, I will still say that most times when I encounter people who work in a public school setting they have a bias against homeschoolers, generally for what they think of as "social" reasons. (It's a wrong and unfounded bias, but that's not where I'm going with this today.) So, when I was talking to Liz, the psychologist Saturday night, I did sense some of that bias in her questions and responses to me. However, when she asked me why we began homeschooling and I told her that my four-year-old daughter insisted that her preschool teacher knew better than I did when she said that the man who dressed up in a suit and came to their classroom was truly Santa Claus (and I was tell her that Santa Claus is a story made up by people and the man in the costume was just that: a man in a costume). So the irony is that Liz couldn't fault me, whom she might see as a religious extremist, in this case because all I was doing was telling my daughter what even she, Liz, would have to admit was true! I think it is a very funny and ironic situation. And yes, we began homeschooling because we didn't want random people with all different viewpoints, all of whom would be told by the school to leave God very much out of the conversations, to be the ones who most influenced our daughter's development. We wanted that privilege ourselves! In fact, we (or rather I) believed it to be my God-given responsibility. So, if a four-year-old was going to take her cues from her teacher then that teacher had better be me! And those cues would sure enough be the truth, the Truth, and nothing but the whole truth, by God's grace. Amen!

I read this tonight and was horrified that my 4-year-old (I was the stubborn four-year-old in question here) self could have betrayed me so. Homeschooled for 12 years because I had to be right about Santa Claus??! OH woe is me. I was astounded and aghast. I'm just shaking my head over that epic life changing moment. I don't think most 4-year-olds have the power to make big changes in their lives. Somehow, I, of course managed to break that rule. This was just amazing to me. I remember my teacher, Miss Gail, I loved her. And I do vividly remember that day in preschool when Santa came. I was in awe. All us little ones sat in a circle on the floor and "Santa" read us a story and then we all got to go tell him what we wanted for Christmas. I climbed right on up onto his lap. What a little terror I was. Those brown eyes could hide a lot of mischief. Oh heavens.
It was time for food as I do recall. And I will feed Maggie too.