Latest / Beyond Labels Premium / Episode 25: The Power of One (with Robin Shirley & Joel Salatin)

Transcript

Episode 25: The Power of One (with Robin Shirley & Joel Salatin) · Beyond Labels Premium

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Young adults now don't know how to take care of themselves and they don't know how to take care of a family.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_01: And people in my generation, in their late 20s, early 30s, mid-30s, early 40s, are finding themselves in a family situation where we don't have the emotional maturity or intelligence.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: We don't know how to um to uh integrate chores into our daily life, our day-to-day life.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: We don't know how to cook for ourselves or our family, we don't know what to eat to keep ourselves healthy.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: We're ready for the authority to tell us where to walk and what classroom to go to next.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: We need to really look at the way that the authoritarian environment or relationship that a parent has with a child or that a teacher has with a child might be influencing the ability of that child later on in adult life to make decisions for themselves and to be a contributing, creative, vibrant member of society.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: Hi everybody, welcome to another episode of Beyond Labels.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'm here with my co-host, Joel Salatin.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: How are you doing, Joel?
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_02: I'm doing great, Sena.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_02: Great to see you again.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Joel, I am so excited about this episode.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: This is the episode that you need to watch if you need a pick-me-up.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because, Joel, I think this episode is going to exemplify the power of one, the power of the individual.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you and I are constantly encouraging people to harness their power and to become the change that they want to see.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Well, our good friend Robin Shirley has done just that.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: In response to the collapse in health, community, and family values, Robin has created the Compass Center for Learning and Exploration.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: It is a biodynamic farm offering enrichment programs for children ages three to eight.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: She hopes to create a living, working template that others can actually recreate in their own communities around the entire world.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: Robin, welcome to the show.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, Christina.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, Joel.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for having me.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: Now, and before we jump into this, I just want our listeners and our viewers to know that Robin, she's been very busy not only with this center, but she's also just put together an online event called Raising Free Range Kids.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: She's co-hosting it with Holistic Hilda, another one of our favorite friends.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: And Joel and I are both speakers in that event.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's February 27th through the 25th through the 27th.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: And in the show description, we're going to include a link where you can access that online event.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: Again, it's called Raising Free Range Kids.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: So, anyhow, thank you, Robin, for putting on that too.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's also going to be just a phenomenal event to look for.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: So, my first question for you, Robin, is why?
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: This sounds like such a huge undertaking, right?
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: You're creating this entire center.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: It is a paradigm shift, right, for childhood education.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: So, why did you feel compelled?
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: You have two young children at home.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I know how busy you are.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: What compelled you to do this?
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my goodness, so many things, Cena.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: I just um I'll start with, I guess the most obvious and on everyone's mind, what's happening just around the world with um with mandates and with um the breakdown in our relationships amongst uh, you know, even within the families, with our neighbors, our communities, in the school system, the way that children are what they're being taught.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I mean, there's so many politically charged topics around that.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: And um, I'm not happy with any of the options for my children.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: So um, you know, I'll just tell the like brief story that was really the biggest trigger.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: I found, you know, there's this amazing, wonderful um school near me that I had been looking at for 10 years.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: Even this is before I had children.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: My oldest is four years old.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: So I had wanted to send my children to this school in central Virginia even before I knew I was gonna have kids.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: And when we finally got the, you know, the uh to the moment where it was like, it's time, it's time for preschool.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I we enrolled her, she got accepted, and um, and then this pandemic, this pandemic, this craziness happened, whatever everyone is calling it now.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_01: We we shouldn't even give it the power of calling it a pandemic anymore.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: But it's just um like uh all these mandates and protocols went into place with the schools, and the school sent an email, and in that email it said parents will not be allowed out of their cars when they're dropping their children off.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I got chills.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: I just thought this is my daughter's first experience of school.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: I will be dropping her off for her very first day of school, and I will not be allowed to get out of the car and walk her to her classroom, shake her teacher's hand, see the other kids' faces, look at where she's gonna spend her most her first, most significant chunk of time outside of my home.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I just couldn't do it.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: That was the biggest reason for me.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, uh the masking, the temperature checks, all that aside, I just couldn't leave her at the parking lot and say goodbye.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I I we waited.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: We waited six months, everything was still the same.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: We waited another six months and it was still the same.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I finally had the nerve to say something.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: I looked up the Virginia health code, I looked up all the mandates written online and like in the um Virginia State like health department website and everything that they required.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: And it I saw children under the age of five, it was an option for the parents to put masks on their kids at school.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: The parents had the choice at this moment in time when I was about to send her.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: And I emailed the school and I said, Look, this is what I found.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: I'd like the option to not have burn a mask for a preschool.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: And they replied and said, you know, all this gobbledygook about their protocol and the Blue Ridge Health Department protocols and the team they put together.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: And and they said, uh, we assume the anti-masking families will send their children elsewhere.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: So the division there.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: And so, really, for me, it doesn't come down to the right or wrong, the good or bad, the who's, you know, who what should who should be doing what?
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: It was about not being able to be involved in my children's education in a physical way to be there, to not be allowed into the doors of the school, not even be allowed out of my car.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: And then um, it just it didn't, it's not right.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's not right.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: And the second thing was the divisiveness language coming from the administration of that school.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, for me, it's really important that my children are surrounded by adults who share similar values as me, that I want my children to um learn growing up and quality adults who have rational thinking, critical thinking, you know, and and this just clearly wasn't the right place for us.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I thought if this school isn't the right place, I couldn't find any preschool where the teachers weren't masking.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: How are those kids going to learn how to how to communicate properly?
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: So so many issues, you know.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: I'll I'll pause, but I could go on.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_02: So so Robin, I I I get the I get the pushback on you know the mandates and and the the dehuman the dehumanization of you know of all this.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_02: Totally, totally get that.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_02: But but why the why the farm element?
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you can you can still have an unmasked inclusive type, you know, uh celebratory uh academic environment without planting tomatoes and and and uh and feeding chickens.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_02: So uh I'd like to hear your why on that.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so when when this all happened, I went home and I immediately called a friend who and I just it blurted out, I'm gonna start a school.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_01: It was it just came out and and it and it wasn't it wasn't anything I had thought about.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: It just came out.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: And so um I had to rewind from there and I had to ask myself these questions, well, what would a school look like for me and for my children that I would want?
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: And so I mean, you guys know me, I'm all about holistic health.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: That has been my my life since I was 10 years old and diagnosed with systemic juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, you know, like not even able to attend school for months and months at a time.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and re-entering into school as someone with chronic illness gave me this perspective of school and how it shapes a child's foundation of um their health, their awareness of their body, their intuition.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, my own holistic health journey alongside my journey through public education and higher education was a really interesting perspective into how um how childhood education sets up a child's health for life.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: And um and so that's another big aspect of this.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I thought, if we're gonna, if through my work with holistic health, if we're gonna set up um, well, as through my work with holistic health and as a mother, I said, it's not just about my health anymore, it's about creating um the most nurturing and intentional environment for my children that I can that will set them up for health and well-being and joy later in life.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: And so for me, parenting is very much centered around that focus.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: If we're gonna create a campus or an environment for children who are going to be away from the home and in a school setting for a significant portion of their childhood, um, it needs to facilitate the the best and highest outcome for their health and well-being mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: So when when you think about that, um, and you think about, well, we need to connect them back to their the roots, their where where that health comes from.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: And it comes from their food and the air that they're breathing and the water they're drinking.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: How can we how can we create that um for them every day when they're there at school?
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_01: And a farm setting, a biodynamic farm that's biodiverse and has access to fresh spring water and lots of sunlight and outdoor space for the children and shows them where their health comes from through letting them live that every day.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: That feels like the most healthy environment for a child to learn in.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_02: So, Robin, Rob uh C and I are gonna fight over who gets to ask the question here, but but but this is I have to ask this question because I've been I've been in this space all my life.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_02: And 20 years ago, 20 years ago, I was doing a fair amount of uh of presentations at very um academically elite, like boarding schools, you know, private, you know, private endowed high school, you know, uh uh well one through 12 schools, very elite, you know, uh what are called college prep, college prep boarding schools.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um and and and when I go there, of course, you know, the environmental sciences department would ask me to come and do a presentation about how to make a sustainable campus and involve the kids in in connecting to their, you know, to their uh whatever, their ecology.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and and so I'd go and and I'd meet with the you know, with the headmaster of the faculty, you know, and and of course I'd do student assemblies and things.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_02: But then when we get back in the in the inner sanctum with the the powers that be, the admissions, the admissions people would say, Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute, wait a minute.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_02: We are not gonna have sheep grazing the lawn, we are not gonna have apple trees to replace the you know the ornamentals, we are not gonna have worm beds, you know, composting the kitchen scraps.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_02: If our parents drive up and see that, they're gonna think this is a redneck hillbilly place, and we're gonna lose all of our students.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_02: In your mind, what in 20 years that that was caught that happened to me over because I had all these ideas about how you could, you know, incorporate the kids into their learning.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_02: And and a lot of these were very old schools.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_02: You'd have these legacy black and white pictures down the halls of the students making cheese, milking cows, gathering eggs, you know, uh working in the dining hall, making egg omelets and you know, breakfast, and and you had all this stuff going on.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_02: And none of that was happening because we've got a we've got to stay on the computer all day, we've got to prep for our SAT scores and college and and dah-da-da.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_02: And and so, what do you think that has changed in 20 years?
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_02: That mentality among parents who are willing to to be poor themselves to invest in their children's future, has that mentality changed?
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_01: That is such a big question, Joel.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I think I have to kind of rewind and set the stage a little bit for my vision, if you'll let me, just so that it can inform my answers to your question.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: But um, I will start by saying, and Cena, when you introduced this, we we will become a biodynamic farm campus offering enrichment programs for children and uh teenagers.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: And this is um right now we are using farmland and and private land from generous friends and donors for our courses and classes and programs.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: So we haven't actually found the right land yet.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: We're still in the in the fundraising process for that.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: So um on compasscenterlearning.com is where we've really explained the vision and where we're going and our current offerings here in the Charlottesville, Central Virginia area.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_01: But Joel, as you're describing of the sheep grazing the lawn, the composting, the kids in the kitchen, that is that is without a doubt what I want, what the vision is going to become, and in so many other areas too.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: This is um the paradigm shift in education that I want to create where it's, you know, and I'm not doing this to please parents.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_01: I'm doing this really out of what my what my truth, what I believe the truth of what children need right now at this point in time in the world history that we're in.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: And this is something that not that won't fit with every parent, every family won't resonate.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um and and the other aspect, Joel, is like function, but also the beauty uh of our surroundings is so important to me.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_01: So when you describe the admissions officers and the admissions team say, well, we can't have parents driving up and seeing this happening and and it being a rednecky thing, and I do feel really strongly about um about children being in surrounded by natural beauty.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: So like um I grew up in a family of architects and landscape designers and gardeners, and um I want the campus to have all of that um function and and biodynamic and regenerative farming aspect, but I'm also really passionate about having beauty and having the the ornamental mixed with the functional.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: So we'll have edible landscaping, we'll have ornamental mixed in, we'll teach them both, show them both, and show how um, you know, there there is the ugly side, the, but it's there's beauty in it, you know, and change the perception and see how there's really a purpose and a reason for everything.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I it's yeah, there's a lot more to say, but I I get where you're coming from.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: And it's it's unfortunate that some that some schools really, you know, feel that way to impress the parents, to depoor themselves, you said, in the parents that are really interested in the college prep will be sending their children to schools where they're sitting in front of computers, unfortunately.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I do know that college prep is important and we will have offer college prep classes, but there'll be you know there will be some separation between what a child focuses on in their day-to-day time at this learning center, and then a time for college prep that is set aside for them to understand that this is the purpose and the intention of this time with the computers and with the you know the books and everything.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: And there's um there's gonna be a lot of crossover and integration, but there's definitely gonna be the hands-on and outside away from the computer time.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: And parents will will resonate with it or they won't.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_02: Sina, your turn.
• 17:36
  unknown: Yeah.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm chopping at the bit over here.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_02: No, this sounds just I know, I know.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_02: You look you look like a racehorse there.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: I know, I'm like, I gotta get a question in.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, no, I am um I was mentioning to Joel and Robin before we started this recording that um, as Joel knows, our family's been looking for a community.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: And when I read Robin's website and I read some of your blog posts about this school, and I said to my husband, okay, I think we need to stay here and go to this school or the school that's not really a school, um, because it does sound like this amazing environment that matches what the environment that we have created in our home.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to get into that in just a minute because I want to expand on the vision that you have for this school.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: But first, I I read something on one of your blogs for on this school, uh, on this center's website, where you said disease starts in school and unhealthy habits are reinforced in schools.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: Can you just briefly touch on those two?
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like, why do you think disease starts in school and why do you think unhealthy habits are reinforced in schools?
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_01: Oh boy, that's and that's um it's a it's a loaded statement for me to say something like that.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I understand that you know it's my it is my unique perspective, and I do want to share more of that so that so that everyone understands where I'm coming from by saying that.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_01: So um I mentioned before my work with holistic health began at 10 years old.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: And um I founded a company called Take Back Your Health.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_01: We hosted conferences, retreats.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_01: I've learned from dozens and dozens of amazing health experts like Joel and yourself, Cena, and been in this world of natural health for over a decade, two decades now.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_01: I'm 20 years plus into it.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_01: And um I when I started that backtracking from the moment I said I'm gonna start a school to my friend, and I backtracked and I said, Well, what what does that mean?
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_01: And part of it was exploring my own experience in school.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_01: And so for me, um, there were a couple things that really stood out.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_01: School, um first of all, um the schedule.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, just let's start with the concrete things, the schedule is completely against our our circadian rhythm in a way.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, every school district is different, but mine, I had to wake up at 5:30 in the morning to make it to the bus stop at 6.15, to make it to school by 720.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_01: To so the bell rang at 720, which in the winter is just a few minutes after the sun rises.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_01: So how is that healthy, first of all, for a child?
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: You know, that is just the one biggest thing I'll just say like you can't, you cannot start your day off right if you haven't had a chance to hydrate, eat, eliminate your bowels, get dressed, communic, like be with your family, see the sunshine, you know, for a few minutes in a relaxed way.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_01: So there's stress right out the bat to make it to that bus stop.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: And not only that, on top of that, there's the pressure of making sure you have the homework, there's the textbooks that they're lugging back and forth.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, the this is the physical health aspect.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_01: I haven't even touched on emotional or spiritual health, but um, this the food that we're feeding kids in school is just chemical based, pretty much.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I know you know, Joel could harp on that for a while.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, the lighting in the school, the environment, the unnatural position that the kids are sitting in for 10 hours a day.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um and, you know, all of that kind of just contributes over time to putting the child into unnatural physical and health habits that I think they're gonna, that it sticks with you for life and it adds up over time.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, the stress, the stress from getting good grades, from impressing your peers, from impressing your teacher, impressing your parents, all the pressure of succeeding in a way that is one size fits all.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_01: This is not a new um conversation around public schooling or even private schooling.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_01: So there's this one size.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: fits all system that kids feel the need to identify with and conform to when in reality we're pulling them away from um the whole the important piece of childhood of discovering who they really are what's their purpose in life what are they passionate about because every child is going to have a unique reason for being here on this earth in this time this brings in the spiritual health aspect but if we make a child learn something that we've said is important but they don't find is important that completely disconnects them and misaligns them from the get-go with their spiritual um connection and throughout life and so we end up with an with an adult a young adult at age 20 who is going through a a quarter life crisis not knowing who they are what they want to do with their life or what they can contribute to the world.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: I completely agree not to mention the cell towers that seem to always end up like almost on top of the schools right I mean have you driven around and seen the schools that's usually where they put the cell towers at least in our area so now they're being exposed to the you know man-made EMS too um but I completely resonate with you know everything that you're saying we have also a very different way um here in my hand in my family that we teach our children you know we also don't call it school or our children don't even think they go to school right even though um and it works when you allow your child to pursue what they're passionate about they are these sponges and it's amazing how much intellect they can actually develop in a short period of time.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like my 12 year old he loves science probably because of the way we taught him like through play it was through experiments through you know building things you know with my husband with engineering he's 12 and he's at um the level of a freshman in college in his science so they really can excel when you kind of get out of the way with your checklist of these are the things you need to do because the government or whoever says that these are the important skills that you have to have by a certain age, you know, and then we harp on them and put them down when when they don't have those skills by that certain time period, right?
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: Well instead of doing that, if you just build them up right and let them pursue what they're passionate about, it's remarkable the achievements that they make.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I that definitely resonates with me.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I think another thing I like about what you're doing is that on your webpage you have this our vision for children.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: And the first thing you say is we want children to answer the calls of their curiosity.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: We want children to run and jump and yell when they need to and I think this is just so wise you know just this is the first time I've ever seen somebody actually say things like this about a learning environment because like you said, usually it's so structured you have to be you know sit in your chair you got to line up and go this way it's like little soldiers you know and what I found even amongst my many of my fellow homeschool families uh home homeschool friends what I found is that when you are so structured and you have so many requirements of your own that you're placing on the children, they lose their love of learning.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the real tragedy I think is is that loss of love of learning.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: So when my husband and I um had our children uh you know and we were like okay now we're starting on our homeschool journey you know the age of two or three right and we're thinking okay what's the goal?
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: So what I said to my husband is I gave him a couple questions like what is our goal for homeschooling and what's our vision, right?
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: What does this actually look like?
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: And we went into separate rooms to come up with our answers and then we came together.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: I was still on this other track.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: I was like they're gonna do college prep work they're gonna graduate by the time they're 16 I'm gonna get them in this great college and he comes back right and he goes and yeah this I mean hilarious right because he's the one that's a PhD in chemical engineering very logical in his mind he comes back and he says our goal as parents is to instill a love of learning and I was like what like they got to go to college and da da da da you know and so we had this great conversation and I realized he's right all the other things on my list are all things that I felt in my own life pressure from society.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_01: And by that I also mean my parents right all this external pressure to meet these boxes to be a certain way in order to be loved and accepted by society when really what we want is to train up a generation of kids who have a love for learning right I mean what else can be better than that to inspire to allow them to be curious like you said to use their imagination those are the kids that are going to come on and be entrepreneurs for instance and have these innovative ideas that will propel um our neighborhoods our communities and our country up instead of down which is in the direction we're going now right yeah oh my gosh so you just reminded me of this really important aspect of um yes the the desire that children have to I mean it's it's the growth is natural it's there because if you watch how much a child grows physically from you know the embryonic stage to age four, five, six, I mean humans are built to grow and to develop and that not just physically mentally emotionally spiritually.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_01: So it's there it's going to happen.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_01: Our job as parents is to introduce them to a healthy um diverse uh lifestyle that they can then latch on to what resonates with them and they can connect and and and find that resonance and and pursue it um for example just introducing the idea of um of nature and and trying to like you know understand or even just science or one little one little conversation about um about uh leaves or or baking or cooking can inspire something um my daughter yesterday said mommy I'm gonna go do a science experiment outside and I was like oh cool what are you gonna do she says I'm gonna make the green water like you made the other day I was doing I was doing like a food dye little raindrop thing with them just for fun to check it out for a a program we're working on and she went took a bowl in the kitchen she's pulling out all the stuff put it in water went outside and picked up like a bunch of herbs from our garden and like um leaves and everything and mixed everything up and then next thing I know my son is joining her and they're just putting everything from the yard into this bowl mixing it up and that is the beginning of them understanding the scientific process of asking a question and setting up a little like a little process and seeing what happens.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_01: That's the essence of it and science is such a loaded topic right now but if we do distill it down to like what it is and its essence is asking a question making a hypothesis and just finding out what happens when you try it out that's what they were doing.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I never really taught them that at all.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: So they have it in I bet they also didn't think they were doing school right like they didn't feel they were just playing right and and that's the difference that's what you're bringing with with this um center that you're starting is that it is through play and imagination it's a totally different way to teach children.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_02: So Rob and I we're we're almost out of time here boy it's gone gone fast but um I I would like you're certainly familiar with the work of uh chon taylor john taylor gatto the you know the new york uh teacher of the year who wrote uh dumbing us down and uh a lot of what you're describing is like that I would like to go back historically uh let's say to the one room schoolhouse the Laura Engels Wilder uh schoolhouse and um and it it it in it I mean that was fairly rigid but um could you it's gotten way worse don't you think I mean the the at least those kids they they went home and they all had gardens they all had the milk a cow they had chores to do before they went to school when they came home they were still very interactive um could could you speak to like today's Amish school okay for uh uh for example uh there are are are are there are there levels of hybrids i mean there is a movement right now to bring back one room schools and pod schools um uh you know talk a little bit about how how pure or uh how pure you have to be to get what you're looking for it did i make my question real enough i mean the yeah the the the one room school they sat behind a desk too but my sense is that being multi-age and the older ones helping the younger ones that there was a lot of yeah the kids had to recite lessons but it somehow it seems like it wasn't as bad as it is today and so where are where are we on this this echelon this spectrum uh and how pure do you have to be to get to get what you're trying to get right right um you know Joel it's a really good question and all that I can do is really comment and and give my thoughts on that because there I don't think is there isn't one right answer and that's kind of the beauty of what we're seeing happening right now.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_01: We're seeing the forced school movement blossom we're seeing we saw the Waldorf education blossom and we saw Montessori schools and we're seeing the charter schools and the homeschool movement grow.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_01: And the really the truth is that there's not going to be one right method for every single family in the world.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_01: And so um when you talk about going back and looking at what we've done and where we started with compulsory education and where we are now um I, you know I love looking to the past for what worked and what we liked about it and bringing it into what's relevant today.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_01: I see that the idea of going children leaving the home and going to this place where school is happening as valuable.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_01: But it's really important to me that we have options for children and it's not a requirement for children to be away from the home from 7 a.m to 5 p.m depending on the age range kids can be away for 12 plus hours because of extracurriculars and extra study time and um disciplinary stuff or whatever it is that is happening in that child's schooling experience but it's just too much for me it takes um it goes back to we really want our the children to get an experience of life um life skills so what you're saying with the the one room schoolhouse they learned from each other from different age groups they helped each other they walked to school they were out in the sunshine they were um you know they were home doing chores they probably did chores in the school to help keep the schoolhouse running you know um this movement of passing on all of those life skills and life tasks that keep our lives um running so to speak like passing them on to other people to making jobs out of them and careers out of them the janitor the lunch lady all of this there's there's a need for that and a time and a place but we can't remove children so much from all of that which is what we've done now with compulsory education that that that young adults now don't know how to take care of themselves and they don't know how to take care of a family and people in my generation in their late 20s early 30s mid-30s early 40s are finding themselves in a family situation where we don't have the emotional maturity or intelligence we don't know how to um to uh integrate chores into our daily life our day-to-day life we don't know how to cook for ourselves or our family we don't know what to eat to keep ourselves healthy we're completely um uh we're in line we're ready for the authority to tell us where to walk and what classroom to go to next and that is um I had a really lovely conversation I was so lucky to talk to Kelly Brogan this morning for our Raising Free Range Kids conference and we spoke about how um we need to really look at the way that the authoritarian um uh environment or relationship that a parent has with a child or that a teacher has with a child might be influencing the ability of that child later on in adult life to make decisions for themselves and to be a contributing creative vibrant member of society that can bring our country back to the amazing optimism and outlook and hope that we once had.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_01: So when we look at that one room schoolhouse that I think was the beginning of that setting the children up to be um listening to the authority a little bit too much and giving away their power a little bit too much.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_02: You know we uh we homeschooled both of our kids and uh back you know back when it was before it was in vogue um when you pulled the drapes you didn't ask you didn't tell and you know you didn't say anything to anybody that you were doing this and uh our son Daniel I'm su both of you know our son Daniel he now pretty much run runs the farm and I just run around and um and you know he was a he was a late reader he didn't read till he was 10.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_02: And um and and we had a family of school teachers in our family and boy Teresa and I took a lot of heat for what's wrong with him you know you should you should be blah blah blah.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_02: Well you know we got him involved he started this rabbit project he wanted to join the 4 H club so we started taking the 4 H club he goes down there and he gets the first meeting he gets elected you know historian of the 4 H club he's sitting in the backseat coming home he's 10 years old he says well I'm gonna be historian I guess I better learn how to read and he he went from zero basically to 12th grade in about four weeks and and and and I think I think that that what you're describing Robin is is an environment in which parents uh you know the the the problem of our day is that parents have been so far removed from from from from anybody having faith in them that they would that they would do that we have that we have lost our faith in our own children that they will do on their own and um and so this this offers a place for them to do and and puts faith back in the children that that they they will do if we if we provide a a curiosity habitat a learning embrace and um and and encouragement and and they will they will do they they will just do fine.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah can I before we wrap up here can I add like a one more comment about the farm setting being the perfect environment so we have you had that question for me why is the why a farm setting for the campus and bringing now our conversation like full circle back to that um the farm and I know you know Mark McAfee from organic pastures um and from my experience visiting your farm and and several other farms and and just exploring that concept and that environment um there is Mark said once to me he said our whole family works for organic pastures because there's an opportunity for all of their interests and passions.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_01: With a farm you have the entrepreneurial aspect you have marketing you have design you have agriculture you have design um architecture building construction health wellness cooking um veterinary you know medicine all of that it's all there and so if we have this rich diverse environment for children to see all of the opportunities available to them they can plug in to one piece of it that really speaks to their heart and in that way we bring in the core subjects so if someone latches on to the medicine aspect you can bring in the reading you can bring in the math you can bring in the science all into medicine if someone latches on to the graphic design or more like on entrepreneurial side of it again bring in all those core subjects in a way that speaks to them.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_01: So it's gonna be completely different learning experience and it's um you know it's not something that is going to happen overnight.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_02: So again that's why we're on this long journey I say this is like a a one or two decade you know journey I've just launched myself into but yeah that's the first it's just it's it yeah it's it's just wonderful and uh and you couldn't um well you couldn't be more right and more right in timing right in concept and right in vision and so we applaud you and we congratulate you and we thank you for leading in this in this space Cena you want to close this out sure okay I wanted to close out by reading something that you wrote um on the website for this center because I just love it it made me want to just get up and take action so this is from your website some people call me a visionary some people call me crazy some people live in the reality of this world and can't see an alternative but I can see it and I'm going to show you all what it looks like.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_00: This is my mission this is my purpose I invite you to come along and watch a beautiful new world unfold for our children.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's beautiful it gives me fusebumps I almost cried just reading that so Robin if people want to come along with you where can they find the center how can they connect with you and how can they help thank you thank you for reading that out loud it's nice to hear that coming back to me.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_01: The website is compasscenterlearning.com we are the compass for the children to use to guide them um on their educational journey so it's compasscenterlearning.com and on the home page you'll find um a tab to contact us you'll find signing up for our newsletter you'll find a button to donate to help us find our permanent home and I will be blogging updates thoughts all the the whole process it's gonna be it's gonna be a journey Siena and Joel and I really appreciate you guys sharing this with your audience.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_00: So I hope everyone will visit compasscenterlearning.com and um plug into our our process and see where we go thank you Robin for coming on the show and sharing your vision with us um we're definitely going to be following this and we would love to have you come back on the show uh you know a few months down the road once you get the center up and running and give us an update.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much guys okay thank you all for tuning in and we will join you again next week.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_00: Bye bye