HomeSchool | Thomas Edison Muckers: Your Blog for Everything Edison, Everyday

By: Nicole Peregrina (Guest Blogger)

You probably already know that Thomas Edison was the world’s greatest inventor. However, he was quite the character too! In fact, his daughter, Madeleine, said that the books written about her father weren’t satisfactory because they made you think “he was sort of a robot and never stopped working.” Below are some things about old Tom that make him a little more human, and a lot more relatable!

1. He loved to play checkers.

While the downstairs living room in Edison’s Glenmont Estate was used mostly for formal entertaining, the one of the second floor was where the interesting things happened. He enjoyed playing board games with his children in this room, particularly checkers. He is among many other notable historical figures that played this game of strategy such as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, and Edgar Allen Poe.

2. He preferred the country over the city.

When Edison moved from Menlo Park, the story goes that he gave his wife, Mina, the choice of whether to live in a NYC townhouse or a country home. She chose the country, much to Edison’s liking. He was once quoted in the NY Herald saying, “Oh, I don’t like the city. There is too much jar and excitement there for me. I love the country and quietness. I never go into the city if I can help it.”

3. He had a fear of public speaking too!

Edison had multiple business, was close friends with the celebrities from all over the world, and was interviewed countless times for newspaper articles. However, when it came to public speaking he was just like the rest of us when he said, “Please do not expect a speech from me, as public speaking is entirely out of my line.” He chalked this fear up to his “tendency toward stage fright” and “extreme deafness.”

4. He was homeschooled.

Although Edison received an honorary Doctorate from Princeton University, he never attended college nor high school. When Edison was asked about his education by Harper’s Bazaar, he responded, “School? I’ve never been to school a day in my life! D’you think I would have amounted to anything if I’d gone to school?” For most of his young life, Thomas Edison was homeschooled by his mother, Nancy Elliott. In fact, he credits him becoming an inventor to her and the “good effects of her training [he could] never lose.”

5. He secretly loved sweets!

Edison was as technical with his meals as he was with his inventing. He believed that eating should not be a pleasure and that every recipe should be based on scientific experiment. However, he admitted to his weakness for cookies in a diary entry 1885, “I do believe I have a big bump for cookies. The first entry made by the recording angel on my behalf was for stealing my mother’s cookies.” He also said that pastries, particularly apple pie, rejuvenated him!

6. He wasn’t a very good driver.

Have you ever noticed that many of the photos of Edison riding in a vehicle show someone else driving? There’s a reason for that. He rationalized this away by claiming he used the riding time to think. However, legend has it that when one time Edison was forced to takeover driving for his son who had gotten a bug in his eye, they ended up in a ditch that a horse and buggy had to pull them out of.

7. He always had an excuse to leave formal dinner parties.

According to Edison’s daughter, Madeleine, he liked being around children but hated formal entertaining. He preferred to use his time for inventing! Before most of his wife’s dinner parties, he always conveniently didn’t feel well. Madeleine said, ““He would feign indigestion and skip dinner … being the only man to get indigestion before dinner!”

8. He co-wrote a sci-fi book.

He is much more well-known for his 1,096 patents and well versed in chemistry, however, he did have a hand in writing a science fiction novel too (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/thomas-edisons-forgotten-sci-fi-novel-180967672/)! Although he didn’t finish the novel before he died, George Lanthrop went on to complete their collaboration called In the Deep of Time, which featured Edison’s ideas of the future!

9. He was quite the romantic!

When it came to his wife, Mina, Edison had a soft spot. He taught her Morse Code just so that they could talk privately when they were around her family. Eventually, he would propose to her in Morse Code too! Can you say -.– . … (YES!)?

Edison’s Deep Dive:

http://www.usacheckers.com/originofcheckers.php

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/thomas-edisons-forgotten-sci-fi-novel-180967672/

Anecdotes About Edison

The story of the growth of home schooling has been nothing short of amazing. Starting in 1985 when only about 50,000 students were home schooled, that number in the last few years has been rising about 8% per year. The US Department of Education estimated that as of 2007about 1,500,000 students were home schooled. Dr. Brian Ray, President of the National Home Education Research Institute, believes that as of the Spring of 2008, that number was over 2,000,000. There also are some very serious local benefits with home schooling as well—savings to local school construction and operating budgets, probably measured in billions of dollars. With this in mind, let’s talk about another home school success.

The world’s greatest inventor, Thomas Edison, was home schooled by his mother, Nancy Elliot Edison. After performing poorly in the traditional one-room schoolhouse of yesteryear, his mother refused to believe the teacher’s assessment that young Tom’s “brains were addled” (mentally slow). Clearly Tom was experiencing the world quite differently from his classmates, and mother Nancy knew her son had quite a bit of capability from the things he was doing and experimenting with around the house. Through a great deal of nurturing and leadership, she gave him the basic tools to learn, both in the form of process and content; and empowered him to learn.

Nancy Edison encouraged her son to have both a head and hands approach to learning, allowing him to have his own laboratory in their small basement-a place where his father became quite concerned as various small explosions emanated, along with strange smells. Nancy endured over dad’s protests and imbued Tom with four life-long pillars of learning:

Do not be afraid to fail, keep trying, learn from your mistakes
Read across the entire span of literature, not just what you like
It is OK to work with your hands and learn from life, not all important things come from books
Never stop learning, keep improving yourself.

In later years, a grown and very successful Thomas acknowledged that his mother’s discipline for a focused life was responsible for his great success. Today we hear a great deal of classroom interest in involving children in a head and hands learning environment. Renovated and new museums almost always involve head and hands exhibits or hands-on themes for learning.

Tom obviously learned differently from the standard rote learning and recitation of the day. It was fundamentally necessary for Edison to have a visceral feel for the information he was learning, especially for a need to experiment and react to the results of those experiments. Throughout his life Edison developed a love for literature and could quote many great poems and passages.

His life-long learning style motivated his strenuous recording of experiments, thoughts, and observations in thousands of detailed laboratory notebooks, which scholars are still mining today, 79 years after his death. So intense was his love of information, communications, and learning that he placed his own corporate office in his beautiful and well-stocked library. To him, a corporation was a continuous learning environment. In our Information Revolution today, symbolized by the ubiquitous Internet, Edison would be one very happy fellow!

Many modern-day home schoolers who visit the Thomas Edison National Historical Park in West Orange, New Jersey agree whole-heartedly. Young Edison fans come to the site to see and hear first-hand the story of the great inventor, responding very well to hands-on activities at the site. A recent summer camp for young folks ages 4-11 drew many home school parents and children. As they were making wet cell batteries in response to that morning’s program, I could not help but remember Edison’s famous quote….”Fail Your Way to Success!”

For you home school parents out there, check into our website at www.thomasedison.org where you can find lots of information about Edison and plenty of educational resources as well. Let us know what you think about Mr. Edison and the educational tools we have made available.

“To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.” ~ Thomas Edison Quote