And we are off!

"I wish to speak a word for Nature, for absolute freedom and wildness, as contrasted with a freedom and culture merely civil, ­­– to regard man as an inhabitant, or a part and parcel of Nature, rather than a member of society."

- “Walking" - Thoreau.

Today we are taking our newly acquired book, "Shrubs and Woody Vines of Missouri Field Guide - Don Kurz" out for a, well, field test. We are going to use it's simple categorizing style to find and identify all kinds of plants, and jot down in our sketch pads where they were at. Before we go out on the hike, we are going to check a small first aid pouch we will bring, fill our water bottle, grab a handful of nuts and ginger pieces and we already took our snake identification quiz! We are set. We will update after the hike to show pic sof our findings and tell stories of our adventure. be sure that Henry David Thoreau's words will be echoing through the trail this morning, and we may even sound our barbaric YULPS!

Good Riddance...or Great Riddance!

Today, we took Fair to her final day of school. We kept her home on Monday, to test the ground of this new adventure, and today we took her in for her goodbyes, and ours. Fair is one who becomes quickly attached to social situations, and school for her was just that, social. She made a stack of cards with her name and phone number to take to her school buddies, and asked if she could eat the school lunch "just this one time?". Well, one meal filled with corn syrup and wheat gluten won't kill her, right?

Angela took her in for her final day, and made the rounds first to her school teacher, who upon seeing Fair, in her eyes one of 30 numbers on a list, she quickly jumped into scheduling mode and tried to usher Fair off to the auditorium, where all the kids meet before class to say the pledge and well, begin their regimented days. Angela cut her off to say that the reason we are here is to say goodbye, and the teacher was, in her own words "taken off guard, shocked and disappointed to be losing such a valuable asset to the class". Well, it took only five years for her to form into this wonderful person. How long would it take for the schools to train that out of her?

Angela and Whitman then trekked to the office for the official crap, and Fair went off to her meeting with the kids, where she, by her own choice, stands silent during the pledge. Angela told me that the office workers were kind and quite helpful, even giving us a book of regulations for homeschoolers! More rules? Didn't we just say we were leaving? Back to a quick memory....

When we decided to send Fair to public school, the one thing that worried us most was the pledge of allegiance. This may seem trite to many, but to us, this is a huge symbol of the state's indoctrination of our minds and hearts, and a vicious plot of patriotic garbage that quickly becomes the nationalist fervor we saw on 9/12. On 9/10, if you had a flag on your car, your hat, your shirt, two on your porch, one on your debit card and one on your doggie sweater, you were a zealot. On 9/12, you were a "Good 'Merican". Garbage.

When we approached her soon-to-be teacher with our concerns, she turned to Fair and asked why she did not want to say the pledge. Fair responded "because it stands for war", her words, not ours. The teacher then turned to Fair and said, while Angela was standing right there, "maybe mommy should teach you to be more positive when you speak". Not making this up, this really happened. How exactly could anyone be positive in their reasoning for NOT wanting to do something? Exactly why should we be positive all the time? Why is it assumed that Fair did not come to this idea on her own? Are we not to foster in our children their ability to make decisions and formulate thought?

She then went on to say that maybe Fair should say the pledge "until she could give a good reason to not." Well, she just did, and no, she won't be saying the pledge. The teacher then said she should at least stand up because "it would be bad for a little girl to stand out like that in front of her peers". Okay, disgusted yet? What the teacher obviously meant was "it would look bad for us if Fair were to use critical thinking and act likewise, in front of the other kids". Fair said she doesn't mind standing, so that was that.

Let's look at the history for the pledge for a brief second. It was written by a Christian socialist, but interestingly enough, did not include any statement of God. This is from wikipedia:

Bellamy's original Pledge read, "I Pledge Allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all."

The word "to" was inserted between "...my Flag and" and "the Republic" in October, 1892.

The pledge was supposed to be quick and to the point. Bellamy designed it to be stated in 15 seconds. He had initially also considered using the words equality and fraternity but decided they were too controversial since many people opposed equal rights for women and blacks.

In 1923 the National Flag Conference called for the words "my Flag " to be changed to "the Flag of the United States ". The reason given was to ensure that immigrants knew to which flag reference was being made. The words "of America " were added a year later. The U.S. Congress officially recognized the Pledge as the official national pledge on June 22, 1942.

Students pledging to the flag in with the Bellamy salute. Does that look familiar?

A group of schoolchildren performing the Bellamy salute, May 1942

In 1940 the Supreme Court, in deciding the case of Minersville School District v. Gobitis, ruled that students in public schools could be compelled to swear the Pledge, even Jehovah's Witnesses like the Gobitases, who considered the flag salute to be idolatry. In the wake of this ruling, there was a rash of mob violence and intimidation against Jehovah's Witnesses. In 1943 the Supreme Court reversed its decision, ruling in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette that "compulsory unification of opinion" violated the First Amendment........
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It should also be noted that the use of the words "Under God" were later added after pressure from the Knights of Columbus and the Daughters of the American Revolution, two historically racist and imperialist organizations. When presented with this proposal, President Truman also suggested adding the word "Love" before Liberty and Justice for all... but apparently this just didn't match up to the nationalists ideas of what our country should stand for. Under god stayed, Love was left hanging.

That was the first taste of disgust. The second was when the school nurse felt "obliged to inform" us that vaccination was very good and should be done for all children, and upon "any national vaccinations, such as for the swine flu" Fair would have to be pulled from school. Yeah, but no.

There has been much controversy surrounding vaccines since they were first being used. This stems back, in our country at least, to polio vaccines, which were compulsory in all schools, and goes through the decades of experimental drugs being pushed into our lives through our children, and schools have been the target. In fact, we are made to believe that, legally, our children must be vaccinated to enter the school house doors. THIS IS NOT TRUE. You do not even have to claim religious exemption, you simply can say "I would prefer not to" and go about your day. That is, of course, kept as private knowledge, and the public idea is that we must do this, and therefore they must be safe. Who would harm our children? Certainly not our governments.

Well, it takes only 10 minutes to get the goods on who is profiting, form what and where and what their track records are. Just google H1N1 vaccine and maker. Baxter. Check that patent date: 7 months before "surprising breakout". Now, google Baxter and scandal. After all, should we not check the track record of any company responsible for chemically doping our children? Baxter's track record reads like the third page of the National Enquirer. Unbelievable. Avian Flu spread, governmental misappropriation of funds, toxic overload of soldiers, even the spread of HIV. These are not clips from conspiracy theorists, these are articles documenting irrefutable events. Of course, with Donald Rumsfeld on your side, you can get away with just about anything. Even harming our children. Don't believe me, ask a Tuskegee Airman.

So, no vaccines here.

Now we are in a scramble for knowledge here, and all of us are into it. Today we went supply shopping, for notebooks and such, and also for some books from the book store. We got a really great human anatomy book with a big skeletal puzzle, a poetry collection with audio CD, and I got a book I have been waiting for, A guide to shrubs and trees in Missouri Wildlife. We also connected with St. Louis Homeschool Network and planned a trip for Thursday into the city to meet up with some of them. Alright!

As for tomorrow, we are starting with our daily Yoga and heading out for a walk along the river, sketchbooks and field guide in hand.

Digestion, a lesson

Over breakfast, peaches and cream made with farm fresh peaches we got from the farmers on a family walk last night, we started talking about digestion. It mapped out our whole day.

Fair really likes peaches, and coupled with her excitement to start homeschooling, she was really digging through her food, hoping that we could get started with the school aspect of her day. I asked her to slow down and told her that she needs to let her food digest, something parents have said to me for years, and I never really cared about what it meant, I just wanted to get and go! "No swimming after you eat, let your food digest, you could get cramps and die!" (Then how do fish ever eat I would ask.) Now I am bringing down the senseless hammer of "because I said so" to my children. "Anyway, what is digest dad?", pipes in Whitman. I am forced to explain to my children how poop is made, but know that it won't fly, and would be missing it all, the whole lesson, the whole point of it all.

"Well, digestion is the process our bodies go through to turn food into energy." Eyes light up, they love energy. "Our bodies are like any other machine that needs fuel, and our fuel is food. the better the food we eat, the better our energy is, and like wise, the worse the food we eat, the worse we will feel." They are getting it, I can see it, and they start throwing out examples of good food versus bad food. After shooting down the great good candy theory of Whitman's for the third time, we start talking about our goals for the day. I grab a pad of paper and jot down our first idea, a blog. Okay, so it was my idea, but they liked it, especially when asked what a blog was and I said "a sort of digest of our lives", they snapped it together. "Our bodies, and our minds both need food, and when we learn information, it digests and turns into knowledge." This is coming from Fair, the 5 year old. "yeah, so the blog is where our brain poops. " Yes, Whitman, exactly.

Really though, this lesson is huge. How much time do we take each day to slow down and digest? Growing up without cell phones, I could have told you every kid in my class' phone number from memory (half because i prank called them so much) and now some of us have to check our phones for OUR OWN number. This automation of life has taken serious consequence in our bodies. We are unhealthier now than ever before, and we live in the most abundant period of human history, if you buy products as abundance (clearly it is not!), and yet we are cramping up in the pool of our days. We have the most open source information gathering tools in the world, not mention the world itself having 6 billion people with 7 billion life stories (i had to double up on the life stories for all the lying politicians and closeted priests who live double lives), and yet we are more disconnected now than ever in my lifetime. It is simple really. We are not digesting properly, and what we are digesting, is low quality, prepackaged garbage. From our food, to our information, our communication to our dreamlife, we have accepted and then become mediocre at best.

Well, we talked all about digestion while we made this blog together, getting consensus on every aspect of it, from the name to the color scheme to the photo we use and the words I write, all of it is together, or not at all. We decided to clean the house a little, and especially our space we would use for learning, because you eat better on an empty stomach and you learn better with a clear space and a clear mind. We found some old playing cards we decided to turn into a poster of numbers, rather than just throw them away. Collaged that, then did some yoga stretching and breathing, watched a pbs Nature show about skunks, made lunch, played on the scooters in the parking lot (which was a lot of fun and a big reminder what 30 years old means) climbed a tree, found a baby bird nest, decided to draw some pics of the nest in the tree, read a book about the structure of bee life and took a nap. The best part of it was, I never once said "okay, let's get serious, focus here, this is school it is important stuff."

Well, thanks for reading and I hope you like our brain poop.

If you are interested, last night I interviewed John Taylor Gatto on my radio show. He is a big whistle blower on the design of our school system to be oppressive and make weak kids who are submissive.

The end of schooling, the beginning of education.

Today we begin on a journey. No. That is all wrong. Today we continue the journey of life, uninterrupted. Today is our first day out of school. Let's lay this out, bit by bit.

The Franklin family, in the traditional sense, is comprised of a mother, Angela, a father, Michael, a daughter aged 5, Fair Ophelia, a son, aged 3 named Whitman St. Morgan, and a rough and tumble puppy named Gogol. The Franklin family, in our eyes, and in our hearts is a vast network of beloved people, and every tree we climb, plant we take fruit of, and cloud we see rabbits in. We are kin to the musicians who strum the sound of sorrow and joy, the poets who break the gates of heaven, the painters that steal the colors of the birds of paradise. We are livers and lovers of life.

Recently, Fair became of school age. This spelled out some pretty obvious and some oblivious obstacles, or rather, challenges. Do we enlist her in the state sponsored school compound? Do we shell out more money than we make for specialized school? Do we home-school? Obviously we chose the last, but not initially. We chose to enlist Fair in school. Notice I say enlist, not enroll. We will get that later.

Fair spent exactly 8 days in school, a total of 60 hours, with 4 hours of "free" time in those 60 hours, which included recess and lunch. That is a half an hour every day to perform two of the most important tasks of our day. Playing and eating. Notice that it mimics the 8 hour work day? This is not what we wanted, not what we believe in and not what we were going to do anymore.

On top of this regimented soldier curriculum, another great tragedy was unfolding. Fair and Whitman were separated for the first time ever. The two kids who were best friends (and of course, at times, worst enemies), the kids that taught and learned so much from each other, the kids that were a team of adventurers and spies and detectives and pirates together, were taken away from each other, and all so Fair could be stuck in a room with a stranger, coloring frog pictures. No good, and no thanks.

"I would prefer not to." - Bartelby the Schrivener

Now Fair is here, with her family. We have begun to home-school, and not just Fair, but also Whitman, and ourselves. We are on a grand adventure, where all of life is our teacher and there is no wrong answer, just different paths. This blog is our digest, our catalogue of turning food into energy. Let's see where this will take us.