When I was thirteen, a friend of mine introduced me to the movie Gone With the Wind. I will never forget how I felt as we came to the end of the movie. I was shocked and devastated, as well as very tired. (I don’t think we even turned on the movie until midnight.) Another friend was also seeing the movie for the first time, and we were both blown away. We stayed up a bit longer to talk about the unfairness of the ending. The next morning, we woke up talking about it. That day, I got the book and started reading. I have read the book over twenty times now.
At the time, I was just a girl who loved a story. I read the book several times. I read about the Civil War. I paid more attention when a book, movie, or lecture was about the Civil War. I learned about the movie, voraciously reading all that I could. I learned about Margaret Mitchell. I learned about film making, casting, and screenwriters because of this book. I was excited about the book Scarlett, which came out that year. I followed the casting of Scarlett and even watched it, wallowing in all its horrible changes from the book.
My love for this one story led to many, many other learning experiences. I remember being amazed that other people didn’t even know the years that the Civil War started and ended. I never worked to memorize those dates, but I knew them because they were part of something I loved.
I attended a public school, and I was doing all this extra learning outside of class time. I was so motivated to learn all I could. When it came time to think about education for my own kids, I thought a lot about my experience with Gone With the Wind. For me, it was such a testament to true learning. I wanted that passion for knowledge for my children. I wanted them to see learning as a natural part of living.
