27.08.2026
This one I can't check
A verse I can check. I open the 1972 edition, I find the page, and either it says what they say it says or it doesn’t. That’s where the argument ends.
Eighteen years of teaching my sons at home can’t be checked that way.
There’s no original edition to collate against. There’s no control group. I had two sons and one life, and that can’t be run again to see whether it comes out the same.
So when I sat down to write those years I gave myself a rule: scenes only. What I did, when, and what happened afterwards. No “children need”. No “it has been shown that”.
An example. I used to hide coloured sticks in my fist. I’d open my hand for a moment and close it again, and they had to shout the colour in Spanish before it shut. They had a great time. And I never saw them afraid of the language, or of setting out to learn anything.
That’s what I can tell you: that I did it, how I did it, and what I saw afterwards. Whether one leads to the other, I can’t prove to you.
And what I don’t know, I say: I have no idea how my sons would have turned out in an ordinary school. I can’t know, and nobody selling you a method can know either. Anyone who tells you otherwise, be careful with.
With a verse I give you the source. With this I give you the scene, which is the only source there is.
From there it’s your call, the same as with a verse.