Beyond the Rubicon

Posted: April 4, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Child Centered Activities, Chronicles of a First Time Parent | Tags: , , , , , , | 2 Comments

And so it came to pass, on the 10th day of March I delivered to the Superintendent my Notice of Intent to Home School.  Life’s newest adventure began with a flurry of last-minute decision making. 

On that same day the local School Department announced a $5 Million budget shortfall, and the Department of Education began to be decimated.  Change abounds; our timing providential.  

There is no turning back.  

A world of materials is available online.  Khan Academy is one not-for-profit free site with a goal “to create online tools that help educate students.”  The site has 168.7 registered users, 58.7 Billion total learning minutes, and annual revenues of $107.3 Million.  My son had used the platform at school, so we adapt that to our needs.

With DOGE-like efficiency, we pare the day down to its most basic form.  The result is productive.  The conventional middle school day lasts 6.25 hours, of which half is spent in homeroom, lunch, recess, “Jobs For Maine Graduates,” plus walking the halls between classes; thus about 3 hours for straight line study of Math, Science, and Humanities but a portion of classroom time is lost in the quotidian, explanations and questions, the general bustle.  The essential learning reduces further toward 1.5 hours.  At home we easily do that much, then add in outings, exercise, and hands-on experience.  Bottom line: my son is engaged.  

For Science, we have been using the Periodic Table of Elements to learn welding.  I hired a friend, the “Pema Professor,” a journeyman philosopher/carpenter to teach this course.  We drive to his home in Lyman, Maine.  The first week’s homework was to circle the elements Hydrogen, Helium, Argon, Iron and Carbon.  We also discussed the Noble Gases and Noble Metals.  The practicum was MIG welding, an electric arc between a continuously fed wire electrode and the metal, melting both to create the weld – a pool of molten metal – protected by a shielding gas.  Argon prevents water from entering the weld, which would lead to rust, to failure. 

The second week focused on the difference between an element and a molecule.  My son used an acetylene torch to bend metal.  Acetylene gas is mixed with oxygen to create a high-temperature flame, reaching well over 1,000 degrees.  The metal turned cherry red then bent as the heat increased the energy, electrons moving freely, expanding, creating a pliable rather than rigid structure.  My son held the torch, set hot metal into a wooden jig, his weight laid against the rod, it bent. He is forming the letters of his name.  Making his mark. 

For math we are doing online exercises and learning the Pythagorean Theorem.  Hidden in plain sight, Pythagorus resides in every corner of every room.  As we design and build a trapezoidal bookcase, he can measure and calculate the legs and hypotenuse, help prepare the measured drawing and then build.  Stay tuned on that one!

He has asked to be more challenged, and so I expand our repertoire; more math handouts and more reading materials to come.  He is cooking meals, which brings a chance to study weights and measures, even converting metric to standard.  As the growing season erupts we will dig into the earth at friends’ farms.  My son helps with repairs at the Friends School of Portland; as a private religious school OSHA and Child Labor Laws do not pertain.  

To assist in our holy experiment and to handle the annual assessment I have hired a State of Maine Certified Teacher.  Alexander the Great, at the age of 13, was tutored by Aristotle; I shall refer then to this teacher as “Our Aristotle.”  A young man, he was my son’s student teacher last year in the 5th grade; a keen and passionate observer, dedicated to his students’ needs.  He was fired when the Assistant Principal told him – at the last hour of the last day – to change classrooms.  “Our Aristotle” declined, reasoning that his students would benefit from closure, while an abrupt change would abrogate their experience while giving worthless time to engage new students.  The Assistant Principal issued an ultimatum but “Our Aristotle” called the bluff; escorted out of the building, his dignity was in tact.  The Administrator lost on all counts and all the students were left wanting.  

My son, born of the “Anxious Generation,” comes of age during an epidemic of mental illness and teen suicide.  Social media is a black hole, its focus upon other, not self.  Grounding must come from within.  Such is the tradition of New England: Henry David Thoreau, “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined,” or the Bard of Concord, “Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.”  Our Aristotle exemplified same in his refusal to acquiesce.  He spoke truth to power.  

Such then is the temperament we want to shape our son’s bearing and so our team grows.  Life has no dress rehearsal.  My son comes of age now, I am charged with his education.  Schooled to the standards of the state, he will be educated to all of life.  

In March we crossed the Rubicon.  Now we go forward daily.  We shall see where all this leads.

God and Caesar at Middle School

Posted: January 10, 2025 | Author: | Filed under: Child Centered Activities, Chronicles of a First Time Parent | Tags: , , , , , , | 1 Comment

John Stuart Mill has been much on my mind, of late.  This 19th century English philosopher – called the most influential thinker in the history of liberalism – advocated proportional representation, the emancipation of women, and the development of labor organizations and farm cooperatives.  More importantly, he was home schooled by his Father.  

During the midwinter holidays, I pondered home schooling my son.  We talked, I read the Maine statute on home schooling and wrote a “Letter of Intent to Home School” for submission to the local Superintendent.  In the end, we deferred to our Son, who decided NOT to homeschool now, but to remain in the Middle School.  I stood down but my thoughts once written stand as a manifesto of my son’s education, at his time coming of age.  

William F. Buckley then came to mind.  The Yale educated public intellectual, considered the founder of the modern conservative movement, he – of my Father’s generation – criticized Yale for “forcing collectivist, Keynesian, and secularist ideology on students…denying any sense of individualism by teaching them to embrace the ideas of liberalism.”  Buckley’s “God and Man at Yale: The Superstitions of ‘Academic Freedom’” has endured and became a central pillar of the American conservative movement.  

I am no Yale man.  At Northwestern, I read the Classics and advocate not individualism but that all life is one; neither Caesar nor religious dogma are my Master; consciousness in the whole of the divine feminine grounded in the compassionate masculine, be that my polestar.

Here then is my manifesto on the education of the young man who must need find his own path, while following my footsteps.  Lacking any formal title, I call this “God and Caesar at Middle School.”

Dear Sir,

Respectfully, I write to inform you that [my son], age 12, shall be withdrawn from SoPo Middle School effective 4 January 2025.  Pursuant to M.R.S. 20-A §5001-A(3)(A)(4) this is my written notice of intent to provide home instruction. 

My approach to pedagogy combines the intellectual rigor of John Stuart Mill’s education grounded in the emotional intelligence of a 21st century global citizen. The classical tradition shall be paramount as we look to the future. 

Geometry and physics shall be taught in the applied sense.  Our Greek Revival Farmhouse requires extensive renovations, and working with me, [he] shall learn both the practical skills of building and the mathematical truth that Pythagorus resides in every corner.  “Measure twice, cut once” goes the maxim; the 3-4-5 triangle every carpenter’s adage.  Thus he will learn.  

There is a tradition of a carpenter’s son becoming a leader.  As I teach the practical, so too the mystical; Pythagorus also taught of celestial harmony – the Music of the Spheres – and so [he] shall learn the broad plain of Athenian philosophy.  

We shall ponder both God and Caesar, the twin domains of the Western Intellectual tradition.  “Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam” may be our motto, and we would begin with John “Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ Λόγος” but translate “Λόγος” in all languages, all cultures: Allah, YHWH, Elohim, Bhagavan, Iraivan, Gitche Manitou, Xu, Unkulunkulu, to name but a few. There is no monopoly on the truth and in the comparison he shall learn critical thinking, and respect for other points of view.  

If we read “Percy Jackson” then also Ovid’s “Metamorphosis.”  To my mind mythology is not mere childish fiction but the symbolic language of archetypal truth. Carl Jung, a man of science who studied the mind – the “logos” of the psyche – wrote that religions perfectly coopted the archetypes onto their narrative. “Percy Jackson” may be an engaging fiction but also something deeper.  So shall I teach literature. 

When Persephone returns, come spring, [he] shall labor in the gardens of our Art Farm in Sopo, and at Frinklepod Farm in Arundel, and also the Cold Brook Farm in Sherman, Maine.  [He] shall drive and maintain heavy equipment and work with his hands, in the dirt.  I shall teach connections, that all life is one. 

We have taken classes in welding, and shall now learn wood turning, and [he] will learn the practical art – literally “art” in Latin means “skill” – both of Hephaestus, of Prometheus and of Daedalus.  Art making predates agriculture, which is to say it predates civilization. It is a priori. It is hard-wired in our DNA. So then shall we build skills, both practical and conceptual. 

Life itself will be [his] classroom.  He will both be schooled at least 175 days per annum but educated full time;  I vouchsafe that your metrics will be met, which I shall report annually, in arrears on 1 September, in writing as required by law. 

My full time job is parenting and my bread labor is maintaining – part time – the physical plant and property of the Friends School of Portland.  Through that school I intend to hire a certified State of Maine teacher to oversee my pedagogy. 

Finally, for his socialization I expect [he] will continue to participate in extracurricular activities at the Sopo schools. I understand this is permitted under Title 20-A, Section 5021. 

We have crossed the Rubicon. Let the new year begin!

Please confirm acceptance of this missive.  I shall be happy to discuss this at your convenience, but our decision has been made. 

A copy of this written notice has been hand delivered to the Middle School Principal. 

Best regards,

David