Category: Learning Lifestyle

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Stand Up for Children

This mom is standing up for her children:

Letter to the Editor: U-CF board avoiding parents

Posted by ChaddsFordLive on September 17th, 2021

After the August school board meeting, the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District board members decided to retreat to a virtual format in order to avoid having to face parents who could not be trusted to act with “civility” and, in the words of Board President Jeff Hellrung, because there was a controversial topic “likely to spark even more parent anger than masks” on the September agenda.

There were other reasons given, such as fear of Covid spread and “fears for their safety” due to the behavior of parents in other districts (the worst thing they could say about our parents were that one parent “refused” to stick to his three-minute time limit, and they were interrupted in their business by some heckling which they shouldn’t have to tolerate).

Clearly, at this point, there is no legitimacy to their “fears of safety,” and it was clear that the primary reason they retreated to a virtual format was to avoid having to deal with or be interrupted by angry parents as they conducted their business.

I’ve engaged in a lengthy email exchange with Mr. Hellrung, at first inquiring why the board changed the September format to virtual, then informing him of his legal and moral obligations under the state Sunshine Act to the parents of UCFSD to allow them to attend and face the board in person. But I have been stonewalled.

Although at the current moment, the October board meeting is still scheduled to be held in the auditorium, Mr. Hellrung has made it clear they reserve the right to move any meetings to a virtual format, so clearly, we cannot trust that the October meeting and others on the future docket will not be moved to virtual as well.

Lori Peters
Birmingham Township

The following was my response:

Rules for thee, not for me.

The Board is clearly willing to break the law in order to protect itself. Is there no law enforcement official willing to stand up to protect the rights of children and parents?

The lack of transparency and backbone in these politicians may be criminal.

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Texit

In this episode of The Tom Woods Show, Woods talks to Daniel Miller of the Texas Nationalist Movement.

There’s a lot to learn here about how the United States of American have grown and may now be too big for the modern world.

Disclosure: The link below is an affiliate link, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

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To The New Home Educator

Take a break. Take a breath. The process for enrolling your homeschool in Delaware seems more stressful than it is. Once you get the paperwork sorted…just stop.

Spend time with your kids. Find out what they want. Get outside and take long walks. My boys taught me how to wander a trail and discover all the pieces of magic along the way.

There’s nothing taught in school that children can’t figure out for themselves. God has given us amazing brains designed to survive and thrive.

Watch what they can learn without a workbook, teacher, or homework. Watch for a while. Watch until you get uncomfortable. Because the journey will get uncomfortable, but you can engage that with intention instead of being broadsided. Then, when that inevitable difficulty comes, you will know the feeling and know you can get through it.

You have a lot of support in Delaware, don’t get overwhelmed by the suggestions. Go play with your children. You are doing the right things.

If you want in-person support and an amazingly fun group of families to socialize with, check out Allschoolers Park Days in New Castle County.

Disclosure: The links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. 

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Slow Start

When we started our older son homeschooling in K we intended to reevaluate after a year. Within a month we were wondering if our adventure was over. It was tough those first years, but every time we sat down and discusssed our challenges, we saw that the blessings were greater. The horizon grew a little farther each discussion. By the end of our second year (younger son entering K) we were all in.

I try hard to be a voluntarist and leave the option for schooling open to my sons, but I have a hard time seeing us going that way now (they would be in 5th and 7th).

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School is the Wrong Place

Be assured that school is a terrible environment for providing a healthy, social atmosphere for your child.

Children are grouped by narrow, arbitrary metrics of birth date and geography. Where else in life do you only socialize, work, or play with people your own age who also live in close proximity?

Every relationship with an adult in school is authoritarian. They are large humans who assume the authority of parents, yet have none of the care for, nor knowledge of, the child that a parent does.

Independence is discouraged in every policy. What you will do, when you will do it, and how you will do it are micromanaged. Your success is measured by your ability to conform. Once they determine your level of compliance, you are separated from classmates of different abilities. IQ tracks closely with social status. Separate students by IQ and you will inevitably separate them by social class. In practice, homogeneity is valued over diversity.

When you are allowed to eat, speak, move, go to the bathroom, or even ask for these things is dictated. I got in trouble in school for raising my hand too often. Curiosity and independence are disruptive to their power.

Ideological conformity is increasingly enforced in schools, students have very little ability to explore their differences. This is not new, none of it is, but it is getting worse.

I don’t like being so negative. I understand that this has become a norm in modern society (compulsory education is only 100 or so years old) and the home education path is foreign to most.

What you have been seeking in a school environment is all but impossible. With homeschooling, you can now access a much wider and deeper interaction with humanity.

We have a weekly park day group that illustrates this perfectly. We’re a group of families of all educational stripes. We formed in 2020 with the backdrop of virtual-, crisis-, pandemic-, home-, hybrid-, and other “school” models. We welcomed everyone who wanted to respect individual choice and created a social atmosphere where every other opportunity to congregate had been banned.

We started as just two families, one Christian anarchist (mine) and the other left-leaning atheist. A year later our membership has exploded and we had more than 20 families from all over New Castle County, and beyond, show up last week. I’ve never been around a kinder group of people with a wider set of perspectives and experiences. Most don’t mask, but some do, some are heavily vaccinated and some are not, and they are all welcome. Neither the adults nor children question each other’s medical choices without an invitation to do so (folks know no topics are off limit with me).

We meet for at least four hours and the children are entirely self-directed. The parents circle up to share frustrations, funny stories, resources, and so much more. We do not set up games or activities. The children run from age one to teen and break into groups based on interest. That can be a softball game, video game discussions, a walk in the woods, or whatever their imaginations come up with.

Without adults watching their every move, the kids explore their differences in meaningful ways. I have been told of passionate and challenging, often compassionate, conversations between children of different faiths and beliefs.

We don’t segregate the children from us, but they generally don’t want anything to do with the parents. Occasionally, and this happened with me last week, a kid will stop for a snack and be excited to tell an adult about their discoveries or interests. They have the expectation that if they are polite, a non-parent adult will take time to listen sincerely. Home educated children are much more likely to look an adult in the eyes while they speak. I’ve observed that school children often gaze away or at the ground. The relationships that children build with adults in this environment are natural and can lead to voluntary mentorship. Voluntarism and boundary setting in relationships is a skill that is critical in developing healthy adults and families.

Home education and a learning lifestyle can provide a real world atmosphere of collaboration and manageable confict in which your children can thrive and realize their best potential selves.

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White Belt Thoughts

I learned a lot tonight and was able to implement a couple tries at escapes. The format of the Elevated Studios Fundamentals class is about half technique drills and half rolling (Five 5-minute matches to submission).

I still have zero attacks from side mount, this week’s focus, but I’m learning to defend from that position.

The physical and mental challenges of each training session are immense. As difficult and draining as these sessions are, I can see why some return again and again to the jiu-jitsu mat. It is a place of constant learning under fire.

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Gratitude Central

There has been a permanent shift in home education.

Last year, schools did not know how to accommodate parents and many families were forced into “crisis,” “virtual,” or “pandemic” schooling. Some families chose to try homeschooling or found this moment to dive into a lifestyle they were already considering.

In raw numbers, it was the biggest boost in homeschooling in US history. We all knew that the numbers would not hold at the peak, but I took heart in knowing that the home education community would be larger and some families would discover that homeschooling was the right path for them going forward.

We have grown in permanent ways and the energy of these new families is exhilarating.

Now again, parents are faced with schools changing the rules just before students are to return. Moms and dads are understandably upset that our elected officials appear to be manipulating families by not giving them clear guidance in a timely manner.

Given the timeline, families are placed in a position of chaos as they expected one educational picture and are getting another.

When we founded Allschoolers Park Days, it was in that first wave of confusion and we wanted to welcome all types of families to come and play and get a break from the madness.

After one year of weekly meetups, and innumerable side adventures, I’m learning that we are much more than a weekly playdate.

This week we had many new families join and I had strangers thanking me. I didn’t really understand why. We post dates, places, and times for the meets and that’s about it. Many of us bring snacks to share, but no one notices if someone doesn’t. We don’t plan activities for the children or guide them much at all. Several of us wave our children away if they utter the dreaded, “I’m bored.” It rarely happens, but the responsibility for their entertainment falls squarely on them.

It’s all very hands off.

The parents sit around and share our frustrations, confusions, resources, quagmires, victories, funny stories, and encouragements. We listen to each other.

Sure, I may break off for a wrestling match with a half dozen kids, or a mom might turn a water gun fight into a woman-made monsoon, but generally we help each other go home with a greater peace than we arrived with.

The “thank you”s make more sense now. This group couldn’t be simpler, but the world craves complication. It demands rules, guidelines, orders, and a watchful eye on those who hand down dictates. We choose to exist with trust in ourselves and each other. No rules or judgment, just compassion and kindness.

To think of compassion as rare is heartbreaking. To hold one of these precious places for people to gather is healing.