We are moving.  After job hunting off and on for over 2 years Dh has a new job with a stable company making much less money.  It means life is about to change in so many ways.  We are leaving our home and trying to short sale.  We are upside down with the economy tanking.  We aren’t alone in this fate.  I just never thought we would have to navigate these waters.  The interview, acceptance and move date have happened in less than a month.  It’s daunting.  We signed the lease on our new rental just as my best friend found out she had breast cancer.  I am devastated for her and her family, but I feel so badly about leaving at just the moment she really needs someone she knows well to spill out her heart to in the worst of times.

Life is changing so much, so fast.

So moving is first up.  Tomorrow we pack, Saturday we drive and unload.

Then Dh starts the job while I get the house in order and somehow find a way to organize in time to start school in August.

While the August calendar is wide open I know it will not be all free time.

The mortgage fun we are having is beyond words.  The phone calls are….interesting.  The paperwork makes me scream.

And then there is life.  It’s precious.  And we all take it for granted.  I had to hug my best friend today and say goodbye not knowing when I will be able to come down to see her.  I have to hope that others will step up and help her out.

I am not alone.  My life is not miserable.  It’s heavy right now.  I am on the brink of stress

(The following was read as the valedictorian’s speech at Coxsackie-Athens High School in recent weeks, creating quite a stir among administrators, to great applause from students and many of their parents)

There is a story of a young, but earnest Zen student who approached his teacher, and asked the Master: “If I work very hard and diligently, how long will it take for me to find Zen?” The Master thought about this, then replied, “Ten years . .” (The student then said, “But what if I work very, very hard and really apply myself to learn fast – How long then?” Replied the Master, “Well, twenty years.” “But, if I really, really work at it, how long then?” asked the student. “Thirty years,” replied the Master. “But, I do not understand,” said the disappointed student. “At each time that I say I will work harder, you say it will take me longer. Why do you say that?” (Replied the Master, “When you have one eye on the goal, you only have one eye on the path.”

This is the dilemma I’ve faced within the American education system. We are so focused on a goal, whether it be passing a test, or graduating as first in the class. However, in this way, we do not really learn. We do whatever it takes to achieve our original objective.

Some of you may be thinking, “Well, if you pass a test, or become valedictorian, didn’t you learn something? Well, yes, you learned something, but not all that you could have. Perhaps, you only learned how to memorize names, places, and dates to later on forget in order to clear your mind for the next test. School is not all that it can be. Right now, it is a place for most people to determine that their goal is to get out as soon as possible.

I am now accomplishing that goal. I am graduating. I should look at this as a positive experience, especially being at the top of my class. However, in retrospect, I cannot say that I am any more intelligent than my peers. I can attest that I am only the best at doing what I am told and working the system. Yet, here I stand, and I am supposed to be proud that I have completed this period of indoctrination. I will leave in the fall to go on to the next phase expected of me, in order to receive a paper document that certifies that I am capable of work. But I contest that I am a human being, a thinker, an adventurer – not a worker. A worker is someone who is trapped within repetition – a slave of the system set up before him. But now, I have successfully shown that I was the best slave. I did what I was told to the extreme. While others sat in class and doodled to later become great artists, I sat in class to take notes and become a great test-taker. While others would come to class without their homework done because they were reading about an interest of theirs, I never missed an assignment. While others were creating music and writing lyrics, I decided to do extra credit, even though I never needed it. So, I wonder, why did I even want this position? Sure, I earned it, but what will come of it? When I leave educational institutionalism, will I be successful or forever lost? I have no clue about what I want to do with my life; I have no interests because I saw every subject of study as work, and I excelled at every subject just for the purpose of excelling, not learning.

John Taylor Gatto, a retired school teacher and activist critical of compulsory schooling, asserts, “We could encourage the best qualities of youthfulness – curiosity, adventure, resilience, the capacity for surprising insight simply by being more flexible about time, texts, and tests, by introducing kids into truly competent adults, and by giving each student what autonomy he or she needs in order to take a risk every now and then. But we don’t do that.” Between these cinderblock walls, we are all expected to be the same. We are trained to ace every standardized test, and those who deviate and see light through a different lens are worthless to the scheme of public education, and therefore viewed with contempt.
H. L. Mencken wrote in The American Mercury for April 1924 that the aim of public education is not to fill the young of the species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence. … Nothing could be further from the truth. The aim … is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. That is its aim in the United States. (Gatto)

To illustrate this idea, doesn’t it perturb you to learn about the idea of “critical thinking.” Is there really such a thing as “uncritically thinking?” To think is to process information in order to form an opinion. But if we are not critical when processing this information, are we really thinking? Or are we mindlessly accepting other opinions as truth?

This was happening to me, and if it wasn’t for the rare occurrence of an avant-garde tenth grade English teacher, Donna Bryan, who allowed me to open my mind and ask questions before accepting textbook doctrine, I would have been doomed. I am now enlightened, but my mind still feels disabled. I must retrain myself and constantly remember how insane this ostensibly sane place really is.

And now here I am in a world guided by fear, a world suppressing the uniqueness that lies inside each of us, a world where we can either acquiesce to the inhuman nonsense of corporatism and materialism or insist on change. We are not enlivened by an educational system that clandestinely sets us up for jobs that could be automated, for work that need not be done, for enslavement without fervency for meaningful achievement. We have no choices in life when money is our motivational force. Our motivational force ought to be passion, but this is lost from the moment we step into a system that trains us, rather than inspires us.

We are more than robotic bookshelves, conditioned to blurt out facts we were taught in school. We are all very special, every human on this planet is so special, so aren’t we all deserving of something better, of using our minds for innovation, rather than memorization, for creativity, rather than futile activity, for rumination rather than stagnation? We are not here to get a degree, to then get a job, so we can consume industry-approved placation after placation. There is more, and more still.

The saddest part is that the majority of students don’t have the opportunity to reflect as I did. The majority of students are put through the same brainwashing techniques in order to create a complacent labor force working in the interests of large corporations and secretive government, and worst of all, they are completely unaware of it. I will never be able to turn back these 18 years. I can’t run away to another country with an education system meant to enlighten rather than condition. This part of my life is over, and I want to make sure that no other child will have his or her potential suppressed by powers meant to exploit and control. We are human beings. We are thinkers, dreamers, explorers, artists, writers, engineers. We are anything we want to be – but only if we have an educational system that supports us rather than holds us down. A tree can grow, but only if its roots are given a healthy foundation.

For those of you out there that must continue to sit in desks and yield to the authoritarian ideologies of instructors, do not be disheartened. You still have the opportunity to stand up, ask questions, be critical, and create your own perspective. Demand a setting that will provide you with intellectual capabilities that allow you to expand your mind instead of directing it. Demand that you be interested in class. Demand that the excuse, “You have to learn this for the test” is not good enough for you. Education is an excellent tool, if used properly, but focus more on learning rather than getting good grades.
For those of you that work within the system that I am condemning, I do not mean to insult; I intend to motivate. You have the power to change the incompetencies of this system. I know that you did not become a teacher or administrator to see your students bored. You cannot accept the authority of the governing bodies that tell you what to teach, how to teach it, and that you will be punished if you do not comply. Our potential is at stake.

For those of you that are now leaving this establishment, I say, do not forget what went on in these classrooms. Do not abandon those that come after you. We are the new future and we are not going to let tradition stand. We will break down the walls of corruption to let a garden of knowledge grow throughout America. Once educated properly, we will have the power to do anything, and best of all, we will only use that power for good, for we will be cultivated and wise. We will not accept anything at face value. We will ask questions, and we will demand truth.

So, here I stand. I am not standing here as valedictorian by myself. I was molded by my environment, by all of my peers who are sitting here watching me. I couldn’t have accomplished this without all of you. It was all of you who truly made me the person I am today. It was all of you who were my competition, yet my backbone. In that way, we are all valedictorians.

I am now supposed to say farewell to this institution, those who maintain it, and those who stand with me and behind me, but I hope this farewell is more of a “see you later” when we are all working together to rear a pedagogic movement. But first, let’s go get those pieces of paper that tell us that we’re smart enough to do so!

Erica Goldson
Athens, NY

Lots going on right now, so I am taking a break.  Yes, we are still doing math and should finish this month.  I will return to regular postings in August!

Personally, I am ready for Saturday.  But we did have a great week and I shouldn’t focus on the horrible dentist/cavity filling experience from this morning.

We keep working through math daily.  Bugaboo is doing long division now!  Cutiepatootie is working on pictographs and multiplication facts.  Both are also doing logic puzzles and love them.  We are finishing up two books from our history curriculum that revolve around missionaries in different time periods/locations and are enjoying reading about other people in this world.

We went bowling twice this week and to the pool.  Plenty of time playing with neighbor kids and water guns too.  It’s going to be a fun summer

Happy Father’s Day!  We hope to surprise Daddy this year with a gift…we just need to go shopping

It’s FRIDAY!  It’s homeschool convention weekend!  We are heading up today as a family to view the vendors and see if anything new has hit the market.  We are set for fall and anything I find today would be ‘gravy’ for our studies.  I have a few things I am looking for though such as logic workbooks or software.

We have had a great week in our studies.  We wrapped up the history reading portion of our curriculum and now have two books to finish reading.  Both are about missionaries so the kids really enjoy them and I don’t think we will wait all summer to read.  A  little each day and before fall we will finish.  Math is consistent with one lesson a day.  I wish they would want to do more to get done but honestly, if they keep at this pace they won’t have the long break and I won’t have to reteach things come fall   They also do logic every day.  Once they finish…which could be 30 minutes or HOURS depending on the day/attitude/lack of sleep/stubborn will, they are off to play.  They are also watching Avatar:The Last Airbender from Nickelodeon on Netflix/Wii and are happy it’s been hot or rainy to get an episode in each day.  Dh and I loved the series and now the kids are enjoying as well.  Cutiepatootie commented, “The world would sure be different if we had airbending or waterbending.”  Yep, it sure would be!

We went bowling this week, to the pool, to the park with friends, to music lessons and had outside play time with the neighbor kids.  Summer is shaping up to be a fun one.

Have a great weekend!

It was a short school week but we have gotten a lot done!  We are moving ahead in math….finally at lesson 120.  We have to get through to 160 though, so lots more to learn!  Bugaboo is adding fractions now and doing division with remainders.  Cutiepatootie is in the thick of multiplication facts and graphs.  In History we have moved through World War I and II very quickly this week.  We are also trying to wrap up our Aesop Fables and poems.  We plan on doing all the history readings and then finish the read alouds we have left.

Music lessons continue going well.  Cutiepatootie has to practice on her recital piece and Bugaboo is learning the music notes now instead of playing from tabulature.

We went to the pool once this week but I expect it to be more often in the future.

The kids had dentist appointments today.  Bugaboo has a cavity.  One of his sealants had fallen off at some point and the tooth will be filled in two weeks.  Even with insurance it’s almost $200. 

We plan to do the Home Depot Kids building event tomorrow and kayak some.  Church Sunday and maybe the pool.  Going to relax!!!  Have a good one!

It’s FRIDAY!  I am so glad.  Not glad about cleaning bathrooms and the floors but glad the week of catching up is over!  We somehow managed to get the laundry caught up and have more to do.  We actually cooked all our meals this week and did not have to go out.

In school we moved past the Industrial Revolution to touch on American Native Americans in the Great Plains and how their land was lost.  We also started reading a book set in WWII in Holland.  We are going through math one lesson a day now and hope to get a few extra lessons in here and there.  The pool opens this weekend so we expect to be there a LOT this summer.  Motivation to get things done

Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend! Thank you servicemen and women!