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    Theresa Lode or, simply “T”, had her world turned upside down and inside out when her son was diagnosed with ADHD and a few other goodies. Her choice- follow the doctor's orders....or trust her heart and delve into the world of Free Range Education. She chose the latter...

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The nonsense of earning a living

Posted on September 7, 2010 by therealmotherlode

Leave to my good friend and mentor, Chris Davis to drop this bomb of a quote on Facebook:

“The youth of today are absolutely right in recognizing this nonsense of earning a living. We keep inventing jobs because of this false idea that everybody has to be employed at some kind of drudgery….The true business of people should be to go back to school and think
about whatever it was they were thinking about before somebody came
along and told them they had to earn a living.” — R. Buckminster Fuller

Here’s some bits and pieces of the conversation that followed. (It’s too long to post in its entirety.  If you wish to read it click here.)  Kathy Clement is another jewel of a mentor.  Her help and wisdom guided me through my early days of homeschooling.

Theresa Lode: Chris that sounds wonderful but….what does the alternative look like?

Kathy Clement:You need a wealthy patron to live that life. I think the window of opportunity for this exercise is during childhood. Because we focus on school instead of education, it doesn’t happen… But we do have to earn a living…. Sometimes I think our generation is so focused on the pursuit of happiness that we miss out on experiencing the joy of the present moment. The generation that invented the concept of finding oneself is still looking.

Chris Davis: I partially agree. The job Adam and Eve was given was to work in a garden God had already planted. The question I ask is, “Did their provision come from their employment or from the Lord?  Can a person’s employment merely be what god has given him to do separate from God’s provision?

I pose these questions because, when we tie a person’s provision to his employment, we create a situation in the mind where a person thinks his needs will be met only through his job rather than being able to believe what Jesus said, “If you seek first the Kingdom and His righteousness, all ‘these things’ will be given to you”….

Can employment merely be that which God has created for a person to “tend”and then that person can look to God to give the person what he needs?

In school, individuals are constantly given the message that their future bliss depends on what kind of job they will end up with and they are promised that education will find them much better jobs which will entitle them to a much better life. What if what God wants them to do has nothing to do with a good life or lots of stuff?

Kathy Clement: Agreed. However, if you take this point of view, you have to ask yourself some pretty serious questions. Like, do I want to marry? If so, you need to find an individual who will be joyful in sharing that type of journey. Then, do I wan…t to have children? Because if you do, you have a responsibility to provide them with basic care. And that calls for resources…

I think of Paul. He had a trade. He was a tentmaker. Probably not his passion, but I bet he made great tents. His trade was a vehicle for him to interact with his passion….preaching the Gospel. I think this is a great model for our lives.

I think of my mom, probably the most truly godly person I have ever known. She found joy in the most mundane task. She lived in an almost streaming relationship with the Lord. He was her passion, and that passion spilled over into everything she did whether it was putting up applesauce, teaching Sunday School or managing the small town credit union.

So, while I think we are saying the same thing, I am saying it from this angle: The greatest gift my mother gave me was the model of living passionately. That’s what I think we need to give to our children. And to do that, we have to model it. When that fire has been lit, it consumes everything around it. This is what you have been saying ever since I first met you.

Our children are not projects to be successfully completed. They are relationships for us to nurture and enjoy. You’ve had it right all along. Relationships first. Skills second. Academics last.

Go read the rest of this great conversation…there’s much more!

Filed under: education, homeschooling, Individuality, parenting, Personal development, Public schooling, The Mother Lode Project | Tagged: , , , | 3 Comments »

A radical idea

Posted on August 16, 2010 by therealmotherlode

Today I participated in a ritual celebrated by parents all across the country this time of year.  The weeks prior to the Blessed Event are spent in a shopping flurry with much joyful anticipation, or dread, depending on one’s perspective.   Women will fling back the shutters on their windows and step blinking onto their porches into the sunshine.  It’s a new day!  Order and peace in the universe are restored.

The kids are back in school. (Two of them in our home, anyway.)

But I’m far from doing the Snoopy Happy Dance because I really miss them.  Yes, I am looking forward to some rare “me” time while they’re in school.  And I am a big fan of schedules; I’m just wired that way.

The other day, I read a thoughtful article entitled, “Imagine Teaching Your Kids At Home.” I appreciate the guy’s honesty- he and his wife aren’t so certain they’re willing to sacrifice the income and time freedom to home educate their kids.   Homeschooling ISN’T for everyone.

But it made me consider once again how radical compulsory schooling is.  150 or so years ago an article entitled “Imagine Sending Your Kids To School” would have been considered insanity.  Families lived, worked and learned together.

Like the frog in the heating pot of water, over the years, we’ve accepted our radical schooling models as normal…even healthy.

Yes, I know, times change.  Which makes it even more imperative that our current factory-based models for education get a complete overhaul.   Our kids are not prepared to enter today’s redefined (and outsourced) workplace!

The government sure as hell isn’t going to fix the problems; they created a lot of this mess.  And even with great people on local school boards; their hands are tied too. (Remember the words of that sage, Mark Twain, “In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards.”)

It’s going to have to start in the home. How’s that for a radical idea?


Filed under: education, homeschooling, Public schooling | Tagged: , , | 1 Comment »

I’ve outted myself

Posted on July 22, 2010 by therealmotherlode

It’s been a struggle for a long time.  I’ve never quite felt right.  Fear and shame have kept me from admitting who I am.  Christian circles in particular don’t know what to do with people like me…overall a good gal who loves God but…geesh….there’s those differences.

Initially I thought it was just a passing stage.  Certainly everyone experiences those, right?  But then I realized I was born this way.  Wired differently.  But I’ve been keeping it a secret because I know even those who love me…sometimes don’t know what to do with my differences.

I am an unschooler.

Those are the words that could suck the air out of the Abeka conference.  Bob Jones acolytes would politely clear their throats and discreetly seek the closest exit.

I am an unschooler.  I see educational opportunities everywhere and I chose real life over a text book.

I am an unschooler.  The words of Robert Frost buoy my spirits when I read the words, “I believe in education, I don’t believe in school.”

I love open source education and believe the WalMart clerk is just as qualified to teach me something as a pedigreed professor.

I draw courage from great men like Louis L’Amour who dropped out of school at the age of 15 because he felt school was interfering with his education.

Do I believe every child should be bounced out of school?  Not on your life.

But as I have watched my nearly 16-year-old unschooled son grow and develop into a skilled worker and a confident young adult…I am convinced that sometimes the best educational model isn’t a model at all.

I am an unschooler.

Filed under: ADD/ADHD, education, homeschooling, Public schooling, Special Needs' Kids | Tagged: , , , , , | 9 Comments »

Better than a diploma?

Posted on June 22, 2010 by therealmotherlode

The diploma is heralded as a rite of passage in our culture.  It says “I completed four years of school!”  For those who excelled academically, doors to higher education will be opened.

But for many kids, a diploma is irrelevant.  It says “I warmed a chair and regurgitated information for four years.”  (Or in my case, three.  I could hardly wait to get out of there and get on with what I wanted to learn.)

What if we sent out young adults off into the real world using a different measure?  What if instead of a diploma, we sent kids out with a deep sense of their giftings and a sense of who they are?

What if we sent them out with boots-on-the-ground, money-making  skills and the good sense to know that to make a lot of money, you start out making a little. And you work hard to get there.

What if creativity and problem solving were deemed as important as algebra and kids were graded on their questions and not the right answers?

I think of these things when I see the bored faces and dulled eyes of young people punching time clocks at jobs they hate. What a terrible waste of our greatest resource.

And I know there are no easy answers for complicated social ills.  But I wonder still…

Filed under: ADD/ADHD, College education, education, Goal Setting, homeschooling, Individuality, Personal development, Public schooling | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

Two years Spanish….in one month!

Posted on May 5, 2010 by therealmotherlode

I always cringe when I hear of a kid going to school for a degree in a foreign language IF they’re doing it simply to “learn the language.”  Sure…some fields are going to require a degree but if learning the language is the objective why not try something like this?

Instead of spending thousands of dollars on a university program, this family offers a unique opportunity for teens to learn Spanish while spending a month in a cozy town in Ecuador.  I’ve been chatting back and forth via email with the mom, Chelsea and am so impressed with the amount of research and time that has gone into the program they have developed.

This is a fine example of real world education!

Filed under: education, homeschooling, Personal development | Tagged: , , | 1 Comment »

Perhaps the box is the problem

Posted on April 27, 2010 by therealmotherlode

This past week Molly and Caleb took their first ever standardized tests.  It was the TCAPs- Tennessee’s way of measuring our kids, their teachers and their school administrators.

The testing protocol was quite rigid they reported.  Don’t look around.  Pick up your pencil when told.  No coughing or nose blowing allowed.  And when you’re done- sit and wait.

Molly told me how hard it was to just sit their and stare at her desk for 30 or more minutes since she finished the tests rather quickly. And I feel bad for the teachers.  I can’t imagine that when the teachers envisioned their future as educators, this is the picture that came to mind.

What’s more disturbing to me is how we have come to accept this as normal, yea verily, even healthy for the kids.

High performance on a standardized test is no indicator of future success.  But yet in all the smoke and mirrors and gobbly gook of academic yabber, we’re led to believe this is a good thing.

True indicators of success include: Perseverance, good relationship skills, curiosity and resourcefulness.  Stuff that can never be quantified on a test.

This compelling desire to box up our children and quantify them like some sort of factory widget has been around for a long time.

Theodoris Van Gogh had this perspective.  He felt that if his son didn’t fit the mold…his son was the problem, not the mold. Tsk, tsk.  I’m grateful his boy followed his heart; how about you?

Do you suppose Vincent would have done well on the TCAPs?

Hey! Be sure and join Deb Ingino and I for a chat about learning differences THIS THURSDAY at 9:00 pm cst.  Cut and paste the link in the right sidebar for all the info.  We’re going to have a lot of fun!

Filed under: ADD/ADHD, education, Individuality, Labels are for Soup Cans, parenting, Public schooling, Special Needs' Kids, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Why teaching is ‘not like making motorcars’

Posted on March 21, 2010 by therealmotherlode

I absolutely love Sir Ken Robinson’s thoughts on education.  Using the factory approach to educating children—the approach used today—is a broken, outdated model that needs to be razed. This video is only a few minutes long and I urge you to watch it.

With the dramatic changes in the job market, it is incumbent upon parents and educators to rethink how we’re doing school if we’re going to prepare our kids for a happy successful future.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , | 4 Comments »

What if college just isn’t for everyone?

Posted on March 16, 2010 by therealmotherlode

My public school teacher friend in NY sent this link to me.  I’ve been having interesting emails chats with him and have learned a lot from his perspective from over 25 years in the system.

I’m learning from him is that teachers today have an enormously difficult job–more difficult that I could ever fully appreciate.  The requirements and constraints placed upon them in the name of No Child Left Behind are mind boggling.  (I joked on Facebook that I think the Federal Government needs to mandate magic wands for the teachers along with their “every child ready for college” goals.)

But I digress.  This article, entitled “What if a college education just isn’t for everyone?” is from USA Today talks about the apprentice model for education and also quotes one of my favorite thinkers in the education field, Dr. Marty Nemko.

Filed under: education, homeschooling, Public schooling | Tagged: , , , , | 1 Comment »

“The class had to move on…”

Posted on February 3, 2010 by therealmotherlode

Learning differences aside, sometimes it’s the pace of the class that can be detrimental to a child.  I’ve been thinking a lot about a comment a mom made on my blog.  This courageous mom withdrew her 8-year-old son because he wasn’t fitting in in the classroom.  The child, who has won awards for his creative writing, told his mom that he was no longer good at writing.   He deduced this because in school he was always last to finish…or, not at all.

As his mom put it, “The class had to move on….”

Mom could have insisted that her boy buck up. Pick up the pace!  She could have pressured him, after all…this is the “real” world.  He’s going to have to face it sooner or later, right?

But she did something a cookie cutter system will never be able to do: She treated him as an individual.  And he is flourishing once again and writing creative stories.

As the pressure increases through standardized testing and No Child Left Behind, I would imagine there are many, many more children like this.  Will they be labeled as “slow?”  (Of course, the moniker would have to be much more scientific sounding than slow.)

Certainly, the child is aware  and ashamed of their “slowness” like this poor kid was.

A factory approach to educating children is detrimental and assembly lines are best utilized in factories.  Well, sometimes.  Even Lucy had a hard time keeping up.

Filed under: education, homeschooling, Labels are for Soup Cans, parenting, Public schooling, Special Needs' Kids | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

Your child is deficient!

Posted on February 2, 2010 by therealmotherlode

For many children, today is a tragic day.  They and their parents will be informed that they are DEFICIENT.  They are beyond FLAWED.  (Which is worse than LIMITED.)

Because ladies and gentlemen, today is the day they give the TCAP Writing Assessment at Molly’s school.  This standardized test is the ruler by which your 5th, 8th or 11th grader will be measured.

Last week Molly brought home an informational flyer on it and I’ll be honest with you, I have lost sleep over this.  The 8th grade will be given an expository essay to write.

Here’s a brief snapshot of the criteria and ratings for the “Tennessee Scoring Rubric*.”

A score of 6- OUTSTANDING (And yes, it is in capital letters.)  The essay is well organized, grammatically accurate, etc…

5- STRONG.  Same stuff as above but less so.

4- COMPETENT.  Ditto above.

3- LIMITED. Some proficiency but clearly flawed.

2- FLAWED.  Need I expound on this?

1-DEFICIENT.  Serious and persistent writing errors.  This is probably the score my son would achieve.  He prefers working with his hands and will read only if he’s going to gain instruction on telephone switching.  (Or other areas of interest that are WAY beyond my area of comprehension.)

Am I advocating that we cultivate a bunch of anarchist dolts by throwing standards to the wind?

Hell no.  I’m a professional writer and am of the opinion that clear communication, both written and spoken, is imperative.

But I’m not so LIMITED to think that this is the only measure of success.  I think of the future diesel mechanics.  The dancers.  The poets.  The leaders.  All of whom will never become what they were destined to be.  Because they were labeled DEFICIENT and shamed and shut down long before they were given the chance to grow and flourish as individuals.

I think of the boys especially– the ones who learn best when they’re moving—sitting, confined to little desks,  knowing they will be weighed in the balance and found wanting.

Rubrics are best used in evaluating factories.  Not children.

PS I find it interesting to point out that in the book “On Writing Well,” one of the barriers to writing well is identified as SCHOOL.  (Author William Zinsser notes that the kids know how to construct a grammatically correct sentence but there is no creativity.)

*Rubric-noun – a title, heading, direction, or the like, written or printed in red or otherwise distinguished from the rest of the text.  A class or category.

Filed under: education, homeschooling, Individuality, Labels are for Soup Cans, Public schooling, Special Needs' Kids | Tagged: , , , , , | 4 Comments »

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