The Days Are Long, But The Years Are Short

Don't miss the moments that make them both unforgettable.

Apparently, I blinked again, and another year slid by. Actually, my eyes were wide open throughout 2024, but the speed at which it passed is still astounding. It was a year of personal and professional challenges, successes, adventures, and opportunities. Cautious optimism was a theme, and hope in the good, true, and beautiful carried me throughout.

The year began with a bang when I was invited to be a visiting fellow with the Independent Women’s Forum. What I thought would be an excellent opportunity to learn and grow as an education advocate and writer provided me the unexpected honor to testify before Congress on behalf of parents and students negatively impacted by Covid school closures. Four years after being ignored and dismissed by my local school board, it was gratifying to be heard by such prominent officials in April 2024. The highlight of that experience was having my daughter accompany me.

While I was plenty busy perfecting my blogging skills and learning from seasoned education advocates, the nonprofit organization Freedom In Education, which I helped co-found, was taking off. We officially celebrated our one-year anniversary on Sep 6, 2024, and had much to celebrate indeed. We knew there was a growing appetite for solutions to the myriad of education issues in America today, but we had no idea how robust that appetite was. Parents, teachers, and policymakers were all eager to hear our ideas or share theirs with us so we could amplify them.

Beginning in January, we launched our most courageous endeavor: writing new K-12 Science Standards to replace the current standards used by most states. I had the honor of sitting on the Executive Committee of the Franklin Science Standards project and watching the amazing process unfold. Since their publication in June, it has been a privilege to promote those standards that restore rigor and content while depoliticizing science education. The teachers, education leaders, and industry professionals throughout the country have praised them, and our organization looks forward to further discussions with more states in 2025.

A significant benefit of my education advocacy efforts this year has been meeting other educators, parents, and advocates who genuinely care about high-quality education. It has been a privilege to host several of them on our Freedom In Education Founder’s Podcast and boast about their efforts in our blog. The network of like-minded education advocates is growing daily, encouraging me on those days when things seem bleak.

Outside of my official advocacy duties this year, I have enjoyed contributing to my substack when time allows and challenging myself to craft articles worthy of publication on other platforms. Of course, to become a better writer, one must become a better reader, so when I was not writing or hosting a podcast this year, I often caught up on one of the many books in my stack. 2024 was the year I learned more about what makes classical education so different (and in my opinion) so much better than progressive education. I also assimilated what I’d learned about E.D. Hirsch, Jr. in recent years with a new knowledge of Cognitive Load and Direct Instruction.

My reading list didn’t just consist of books related to my work. I challenged myself to tackle some of the classics that had previously intimidated me. I didn’t set any records for speed reading, but I finally stumbled through The Odyssey and The Iliad. This experience boosted my confidence and motivated me to read as many “Great Books” as possible. I thoroughly enjoyed Oliver Twist, Silas Marner, Huckleberry Finn, and Romeo and Juliet, among others. My list for the coming year is already quite extensive.

Woven throughout my reading, writing, meetings, and interviews, I enjoyed special moments with my beautiful, crazy family that I will treasure forever. Our grand adventure out West was terrific, but the unexpected visits to say hello, impromptu weekday dinners, and lazy days at the lake were pretty spectacular, too.

As the year ended, I ran my first half marathon in ten years (winning my age group). I needed to prove something to myself before celebrating a milestone birthday the day before Thanksgiving.

It is true that “the days are long, but the years are short.” The moments that make up both are what make this life so unforgettable. I’m grateful for the moments that made up 2024 and look forward to what 2025 has in store!