Two topics that are really interesting me at the moment (and do most of the time) are home education and homesteading. So when I found out about Hard Times in Paradise, which is a memoir about both, I knew I should read it. The authors, David and Micki Colfax, are famous for raising and home educating their four sons on a hard-scrabble goat farm, with those sons all going on to successful careers, including in some cases studies at Harvard. However, this is not a ‘how-to’ about homesteading or home education. If anything, in many places it is a lesson in how not to do things. But that is part of the appeal of this book – the willingness of the authors to share how inept they were in places!
The Colfaxes started out as academics who, due to their political convictions, find that their career options become severely limited. After a disasterous move to Africa (they were meant to take up a post in Uganda, then Idi Amin came to power; they spent time in Morocco thinking it would be a cheap place to live but it wasn’t) they end up buying a patch of land in California’s redwood mountains through a mix of necessity and misguided plans. Through the following years they build somewhere to live (often with many mistakes and mis-steps), slowly develop a farm, and raise four sons. One of the surprising, and actually heartening, parts of the story is the fact that there was no real plan to home educate the boys, rather it just evolved. The story is told from multiple viewpoints, and at all times is honest and often self-depreciating. Which is such a relief – so many ‘new’ books about moving back to the land continually rhapsodise how wonderful life in the country is, how great living simply is, how having to do something different automatically means ‘finding yourself’. The Colfaxes are honest about how having to live a simple life is often harsh, uncomfortable and un-wanted; how the country can be unsafe and full of strange people; and how working with your hands is not always about finding your bliss, but can be about mind-numbing boredom. And while the authors often acknowledge how they wouldn’t have made it without friends and neighbours, they are also give many examples of how they were let down by others.
Above all, the message I got from this book is that while sticking to your principles can mean material difficulty and hard times, sticking to what you believe in is the best thing for your health and family, no matter the hardships. Another message was that allowing children to follow their interests and take responsibility can be one of the most effective ways to raise capable, intelligent, interesting people.
I have ordered a copy of the Colfax’s other book Homeschooling for Excellence, which I am hoping is just as an engaging read, even if the resources are out-dated by now.
