Latin at 6? Writing?

I have been assigned to write a Research Paper for 2 of my classes this semester, and the topic is Jonathan Edwards. It is safe to assume that for the next few weeks my blog readers will be hearing about him from time to time.

My first post about him is the education that he received from his parents. At age 6, his father, the Rev. Timothy Edwards, began teaching him Latin. Now, I'm not so impressed with the idea of learning Latin. It would be fun to do that some day (this is the part where all of you start making fun of me), but imagine starting with Greek with your 6 year old. I mean, my Timothy is 5. I guess he better watch out when September comes around and he turns 6! Sure, he can't read a whole lot of English yet, but that's ok!

Something else I learned about Jonathan Edwards' education was that his parents made him write. He would write letters to his sisters (poor guy was the only boy with 10 sisters!). He even wrote an essay on spiders at the request of his father who wanted it to send to a friend of his over in England. This English friend was interested in learning more about America, and so Mr. Edwards sent him this boy's work on spiders. They suppose that Jonathan was only about 12 when he wrote it.

I guess the moral of the story: Go ahead and teach them real stuff while they're still young - I suppose less video games and movies would be a good idea for everyone. And make them write! That's something I hadn't thought about before.

Oh, and lastly, the benefits of a godly home. Jonathan Edwards' dad was a pastor. And his mom was a pastor's daughter. It was a large family with godly parents directing their children to Christ early. It figures that Edwards would go on to be one of the most respected American theologians of all time.

Anyway, just a thought...