Two developmental truths we have messed up in modern schooling:
1- Young students should be focusing on play for much longer. We push academics too early.
2- Teens should be focusing on hard work and massive responsibility much earlier. We delay real work for too long.
“I would die for my child”.
I believe you. But, would you live for them?
Would you get yourself healthy?
Would you eliminate distractions?
Would you lead them more intentionally?
You’d only have to die once. You have to live every day.
Do that.
Degree Required?
Give me a hard working, no drama, emotionally stable, physically fit young person with ZERO experience over a “qualified” college grad who is apathetic, tired, entitled & emotionally/physically fragile.
All day long.
I know many employers who say the same.
High school kids took the
@garyvee
flip challenge to a different level today. 6 groups; each starting with a paperclip in the local mall. Within 2 hours, each group had secured items valued between $50 and $180 (a functioning cell phone). One even got a customized item engraved!
Many parents fall in love with safety, but the factory setting of kids is to fall in love with wonder.
That’s why conveyor belt schools will always be the religion of the fearful parent and a total disappointment to the kids who refuse to give up on dreaming.
@benshapiro
Fantastic news that they have a vaccine that’s more than 90% effective.......you know, almost as good as what the immune systems of all of humanity have already been doing.
If you sent your kids to a free culinary school for 12 years and they came out being able to answer multiple choice questions about food, but couldn’t cook a single meal that wasn’t a microwave dinner…
You wouldn’t just call it a waste of time.
You’d call it a scam.
Talked to a Harvard grad w/a Yale MBA yesterday. His words:
“I could have gotten 95% of the same education on YouTube and by reading books for free in the library without the price tag.”
A true education is always in reach.
What’s lacking by most is the desire to grab it.
I don’t co-parent w/the government.
I don’t take medical or financial advice from the government.
I don’t have blind faith in the government nor do I blindly obey the government.
Why on earth would I send my kids into a system for 12 years to be trained by the government?
If you aren’t concerned about the physical health of a young person, don’t pretend that you are concerned about their mental health.
Physical health precedes mental health.
Exercise, sun, and real food are not negotiable items.
They are foundational.
Our society has decided that we’re more comfortable forcing reading on kids as early as possible, even if they hate it, than we are waiting and ensuring that they love it.
Parents have been filled with a fear-based narrative by schooling, and close their eyes to the obvious.
Yes, I worry about socialization for kids.
The ones in public school, that is.
They spend all day sheltered from the real world - all of their decisions made for them, caught in a cycle of being like everyone else.
Socialized to fit right in to a society that’s struggling.
Imagine a person sending their child into McDonald’s to eat for 13 years straight.
Now imagine that same parent protesting that the restaurant should stop feeding their child garbage while they keep sending them there for most meals.
Silly, right?
Now let’s do schools.
Dear Parents,
You are only qualified to raise your child until he/she is about 5.
At that point all “learning” shall be applied by professionals. You may still have nights and weekends, but no learning will go on unless assigned by the pro as homework.
Sincerely,
School
“My kids are being poisoned 5 days a week at the restaurant I send them to.
They also have to bring some of the poisoned food home, but I try to give them good meals sometimes, too.
Also- they get a prom & can play sports, so that’s why they go.”
Would that not sound crazy?
My kids have days full of responsibilities, interaction with the community, self-driven/self-directed projects & challenges, fitness, hobbies, real food, & enough unstructured time to get creative.
Their life is considered “alternative”.
Imagine what it’s the alternative to.
We have a small home. We grow food. We don’t eat out. We don’t vacation. We don’t buy excessive clothing. We don’t have cable. We have 1 vehicle. Our kids share rooms. I work 7 days a week on the business & we work 7 days a week on the land.
That is how we “afford homeschool”.
Video games give the illusion of purpose.
They make a young person feel like he/she is good at something.
They provide an inspiring narrative & a mission to accomplish.
Parents- Take those lessons & provide an environment that does the same in real life & see what happens.
Start school at 5 & add 4 years of college. What do you get?
A 22 year old who has spent 80% of his/her life in school.
The problem?
Being good at school makes you good at...school.
Unless you intend to do school the rest of your life, time could be used much more wisely.
Being good at school means being good at school.
If it doesn’t also mean that you can use your mind, engage in conversations, lead other humans, create impactful art, make hard decisions, be courageous, give back, or write your own script..
..then, what is school really for?
JOB POSTING
Work on things you may or may not like. Switch activities every hour. Walk in straight lines to each activity. (Quietly). Only work with people of your exact same age. Ask permission to use the restroom. Take work home every night. Evaluated on compliance.
No pay!
If you put school on a pedestal, you analyze “curriculums”, test scores, grades, grade levels, & college entrance rates.
When you switch to wanting an education, you analyze the individual child’s needs & gifts, real-world experiences, & how to maintain inspiration & curiosity.
People can be EXTREMELY good at something by the time they are in their teens if they’ve been focused and diligent on the work.
The biggest problem is that they’ve usually wasted all of their time on school work and homework, delaying the real work by years.
My thoughts on Liver King, Kanye, Twitter allowing or not allowing something, and The World Cup all wrapped up in one:
Don’t care.
Lead your family. Play with your kids. Learn more about your faith. Get in better shape. Help more humans.
That’s always the news of the day.
As we drove by a school, my 6 year old sons asks; “What happens when they finish their work for the day? Do they just go home?”
Me- “No, sir. They stay until they are told they can leave. All at the same time.”
Him- “Even if they are done? That’s like kidnapping, sort of.”
It’s heartbreaking to see the videos that circulate every day of all of the fights between school-aged homeschool kids.
Brutal violence. Bullying. Other homeschool kids standing around filming.
Truly the epitome of unsocialized.
Wait….
If you take jiu-jitsu lessons, you don’t expect to come out of them being better at basketball. You’d be better at jiu-jitsu.
Obvious statement.
It’s as obvious as saying that when you practice school for 16 years, you don’t come out better at life.
You get good at school.
Adults celebrate a child with straight A’s no matter how broken, & cast doubt on a family with a strong child, yet no grades to show.
We praise anyone who chooses debt for a degree, but talk about “risk” for he/she who wants to start a business.
Conformity is the religion.
Interesting paradox.
You don’t feel qualified to educate your own children so you answer that fear by putting them in the same system that left you feeling unqualified.
Adults- if you are 40+ & not making at least $250K a year, you are BEHIND.
You need to double the most boring tasks at work & take extra work to bring home each night.
Catch up, or else.
Ridiculous, right? Made up.
A 5 year old who can’t read yet isn’t “behind”, either.
Kids aren’t practicing to be people, they are just people with less practice.
Give them the gift of experiences and conversations that allow that practice to be meaningful, and you’ll find a budding adult far sooner than average.
Why are my kids so happy & healthy?
Junk food isn’t a “treat”.
Chores & responsibilities are not optional.
Exercise isn’t a four letter word.
Screens aren’t prevalent.
Education is self-directed & looks nothing like school.
Freedom isn’t a “goal”. It’s a standard.
@MikeDelMoro
@TODAYshow
Until then, wear AT LEAST 14 masks and stay inside multiple jackets inside a box inside a closet inside the basement inside your house. For safety.
World: I will require resilience, self-direction, creativity, self-knowledge, mastery & competence.
Conveyor Belt Schools: We will require obedience, conformity, & a narrow scope of “knowledge” that’s disconnected from application.
Home Ed/Microschools: What the world said.
A man’s duty doesn’t stop at being faithful to his wife.
He needs to be faithful to his kids, as well.
That means taking ownership of his own health, putting away childish distractions, pursuing a greater purpose and giving them the gift of seeing a competent human.
Absolutely heartbreaking.
We have a “young men without solid leadership” problem.
We have a “fatherless homes and weak parents” problems.
We have a “lack of a sense of a greater purpose” problem.
We have a “schooling” problem.
All are being disguised as a gun problem.
Govt: Mind if we take your kids til they’re adults and kill their love of learning?
Probably throw in some indoctrination, anxiety, and apathy along the way.
People: No way!
Govt: But it’s free babysitting! Also, everyone else is doing it.
People: Sign us up!
Schooling for a world that no longer exists is a scam.
Educating for the future is hard to predict.
The answer has always been to educate the individual to become inspired, resilient, self-confident, and self-aware, so that he or she creates the future by design.
Stop asking kids “what they want to be when they grow up”.
It’s a question born out of cultural habit that perpetuates childish thought, delaying adulthood.
Ask them who they want to be now, and what problems they want to help solve now.
Ask yourself the same questions. 👊🏼
Parents: you are currently raising your kids.
You are also raising your kids’ kids.
You are also raising your kids’ kids’ kids.
See the pattern?
That requires attention and intention in spades.
Let’s pour into this generation, because we are impacting multiple.
If someone was cryogenically frozen 100 years ago and was awakened today…..
Wow. They wouldn’t recognize the world and what it has become.
Oh- except for schools. Those look the same.
#notanaccident
Elevate your marriage.
Become a superhero to your kids.
Put your faith into action.
Make more $ than ever.
Get in the best shape of your life.
Improve your communication.
Increase your presence.
Serve like never before.
Learn from legends.
Change your family bloodline.
Slavery starter kit:
Endless “well baby” visits brought to you by pharma $cience.
Gov’t schooling, processed food, & screen addictions in childhood. Add prescriptions.
College debt for a job you hate.
Endless distractions & shallow relationships.
Taxes through it all.
My 8 year old broke his arm.
Here’s a direct quote shortly thereafter:
“I guess my workouts will just have to be a bunch of squats for awhile”.
That’s called WINNING.
JOB POSTING!
Sit & listen to lectures about things you don’t see as inspiring or relevant w/others your exact age.
Ask permission to speak or go to the bathroom. Walk only in straight lines. Be medicated if you don’t fit in.
Do more of the work when you get home.
No pay.
Recent numbers I’ve seen:
25% of kids in fatherless homes
80% of kids dislike/bored by school
30% of kids on prescription meds
50% of marriages fail
42% of American adults & 20% of kids = obese
90% of kids play video games > 1 hr/day
90% of kids in public school
Step. It. Up.
Imagine if society was forced to adopt a protocol of the gov’t giving kids daily processed food until 18.
Imagine it went on for 100+ years, & parents grew up with an expectation of that free food.
Going back to real food would be called risky, experimental, & alternative.
“Parenting” becomes difficult the minute we start to look at it as separate from building a strong relationship.
Our role as parents isn’t to “create” future adults, it’s to meticulously maintain an environment that allows us to uncover a person that the world has never seen.
Our offer is simple.
We want to give your whole family the opportunity to earn a real education that ultimately leads to your sovereignty and freedom.
While you are at it, you’ll be around other like-minded people who are doing the same, and become lifelong friends.
Govt: Hey parents; would you send your child to our religious institution that’s completely against your own beliefs and ideals for 40 hours a week for 13 years, as long as you got to see them on weekends”?
Them: “No way”.
Govt: What if we called it, ‘school’”?
Them: “Deal”
If someone left a cult, society would say they were brave.
If someone escaped an enemy indoctrination camp, society would call him/her a hero.
Managing to break free from slavery is always celebrated!
All true, unless the cult, enemy or captors are called, “school”.
Hey Parents-
Kids being perpetually anxious isn’t normal.
Kids being depressed all the time isn’t normal.
Kids being sick most of the year and out of shape isn’t normal.
Kids questioning reality because it’s a trend to do so isn’t normal.
Let’s turn this ship around.
Top ways you’ll change your son or daughter’s government school for the better:
1:
2:
3:
4:
5:
You won’t.
There are great people there as teachers and admins, but the system is an unchanging enemy to your children.
Pull them out.
Emotional regulation is a skill we all want for our kids. A couple of tips:
Only real food
Daily sunlight (no sunblock)
Consistent exercise
Cut out toxins
Cut out distractions
Drop bad relationships
Be intentional with screen time
Oh- and be an emotionally regulated adult.
Here is a list of all the Netflix, YouTube, and Disney shows PLUS video games that your young heroes CAN’T miss!!
1.
2.
3.
Books. Conversations. Play. Projects. Chores. Responsibilities. Sunlight. Time spent being physical.
Those are the things they can’t miss.
The gov’t prescriptions for how you should school kids, medicate kids, take jabs, mask up, kill stoves, & endlessly obey other crazy rules, are always disturbing.
What’s more disturbing is the obscene number of people who beg for this instruction.
Take ownership of your life.
Leaving the cult traits of a schooling mindset is liberation.
You realize:
1- Your education is 100% your own duty and responsibility for the rest of your life. You have to own it.
2- You don’t have to answer to any “school gods”, ever. Growth is on you and for you. Always.
Question from a parent:
What’s the easiest way to get your kids to stop playing video games? Mine play all day!
It’s one of the most common questions I get. Rarely do they love the answer.
My answer: Don’t have the systems in the house.
They aren’t “just” drawing. They are learning to foster creativity.
They aren’t “just” playing outside. They are learning risk & reward.
They aren’t “just” asking endless questions. They are learning whether they’ll always be able to come to you with anything and everything.
Your superhero status as a parent isn’t earned through planning amazing surprises and over-the-top experiences.
It’s in making the normal day something easy and joyful to wake up to.
It’s making the ordinary inherently extraordinary.
It’s everyone at home being at peace.
Tragedy in Texas.
This is not a political issue, it’s a cultural one.
We are FAILING our young men in this country.
-Lack of male leadership.
-Weak and/or absent parents
-Conveyor belt schooling
-Excessive escapism
-Immorality on a pedestal
Men.....Fathers.....STEP UP.
Dads,
What if school “standards” were around physical fitness or good character?
Would your young man be at “grade level”?
Can he run a mile, do 50 push-ups, open doors for his mom, and shake hands with a stranger?
Pro tip: all of those are more important than calculus.
“Just because you are doing a lot more, it doesn’t mean you are getting more done. Don’t confuse movement with progress”. - Denzel Washington.
Hard to find a quote that does a better job explaining the difference between a school mindset and an education mindset.
Be careful of the trap of thinking that consuming knowledge is the same as moving forward.
You can read all the books & listen to all the right podcasts, but if your relationships are out of whack, health isn’t dialed, & emotions are unchecked, there is plenty of work to do.
School does a great job at getting you ready for more school.
Education does a great job and keeping you engaged in and ready for life.
Don’t confuse them as the same thing.
Spanking your kids is not “disciplining” them.
It’s showing that you lack discipline as a parent, and that you aren’t able to teach them how to be disciplined humans.
It’s ok to know that you messed this up. It’s not ok to know it and not fix it.
Parents:
What curriculum are you using at work? Is it age appropriate & the right level? How do you know you learned if you don’t test? Are you socializing with adults your age? What grades did you get? Don’t you have homework?
Silly, right?
Just as silly for young people.
TV series shoot over the next few days around home educating.
Some of it will be on the street, asking questions to strangers about their take on homeschool. Going to have some fun with it.
Let’s hear the questions you’d like asked. Ready, go!
We found a crazy hack for monitoring and limiting screen usage in our house.
It’s made it to where our kids only use screens for work and research, and only during certain times of day.
It’s called parenting.
We lead by example, have a family contract, and all live by it.
I know 12 year old men and I know 40 year old boys.
The difference is in the choices.
Boys choose distractions that allow them to avoid duties. They choose the coffin of comfort.
Men choose responsibility and growth. They choose never to play the victim.
They choose life.
Unpopular opinion: We have a people issue disguised as a gun issue.
Let’s-
Have good fathers in homes.
Pull kids from conveyor belt schools.
Stop mass distractions.
Put morality back on the table.
Get off the abundance of meds.
My bet: we’d see the change we say we want.
Dads:
I don’t care how rich you are, how many followers you have on social media, how many people know your name, how much of a physical specimen you are, or how “mentally tough” you are.
If your wife and kids aren’t THRIVING, then you have a ton of work to do.
#realwealth
Shout out to the teachers who forget about test scores & systemic handcuffs to create inspiration within the system.
Shout out to parents who sacrifice to not recreate the school system at home.
Shout out to the edupreneurs creating entirely new education systems altogether.
I know intelligent men who are out of shape.
I know ripped men who are bad fathers.
I great fathers who are horrible husbands.
I know amazing husbands who are weak leaders.
Success in one area of being a man does not equate to success in all areas.
Cultivate them all.
Parents and educators: we are far better off creating brave spaces, physically capable spaces, and thick skin spaces than “safe spaces”.
Creating brave young people who are physically capable and intellectually curious makes EVERY space safe.
At the end of today, your kids will have watched you live, or they will have watched you exist.
Your intentionality around remaining inspired, tackling challenges with grace, remaining calm in chaos & spreading positivity WILL be noticed.
Or, it will be missed.
Be noticed.
Men- I am a fan of the cold plunges, healthy eating, & jiu-jitsu.
We should be in shape, grow our beards, & make money for our companies.
If our marriages and relationships with our kids aren’t solid, though, we’ve lost.
It’s not one or the other. It’s all of the above.
A good man provides for & protects his family because it’s the right thing to do, & because he takes pride in doing so.
Love your family so intensely that you can sit and binge watch THEM, not Netflix.
Home is the only place where you should care about likes and followers.
Schoolings, systems, politics, and media will have you believe it’s all about:
Left vs Right.
Conservative vs Liberal.
Us vs Them.
Education, critical thought, freedom and bravery will make you realize it’s all about:
Good vs Evil.
Right vs Wrong.
You vs You.
Thinking is hard. Most men parrot.
Being proactive is hard. Most men react.
Writing your own script in life is hard. Most men let someone else tell them what their story is.
Being a man is hard. Most men stay perpetual boys.
Raise your sons to avoid becoming “most men”.
Want confident kids?
It’s far less about “boosting” their confidence than it is about not stripping it in the first place.
Same for their physical health.
And their curiosity.
And their resilience.
And their determination.
Get the picture?
Unpopular opinion:
If we really wanted to help our students in schools, we’d be better off cutting current academic time in half, eliminating 90% of academic focus from anyone under 7, and doubling time on true physical education, health, and exercise.
Talked to a young man with a ton of potential today.
His day: computer, eat, sleep, occasional jiu-jitsu.
He’s depressed.
Talked about joy being a byproduct of a very different schedule, and he was admittedly hesitant about the work involved.
Your turn. What does he need?
I can respect a human and his or her right to hold a set of beliefs.
I am under no obligation to respect the belief, itself.
If we could learn that difference as a society, we’d potentially begin a civil discourse that could benefit all.
Until then, we stay divided.
You don’t practice blind obedience, mass conformity and mental slavery in order to get proficient at self-direction, sovereignty, and freedom.
That should be an obvious statement, alas….
We go through a school system that leaves us feeling ill-equipped to educated our own children.
The irony, then, is that because we feel incapable, we put our children through the same system that left us feeling ill-equipped.
It’s a brilliant scheme.
Break out of it.
What’s the biggest obstacle for Apogee?
It is the belief of the masses that says what’s familiar is what’s true.
We want to build sovereign families through education, but the very people we want to help often believe schooling = education & that a defined slavery = freedom.
Is there an app for parents to arrange marriages for their kids in 10-20 years?
-unschooled
-unjabbed
-physically fit
-love of reading
-love of serving
-love of God
-not raises on social media or video games
-not default anxious
-understanding of biology.
Kidding. Sort of.
Priorities, gentlemen.
Your child’s mindset > performance on an arbitrary math test.
Your financial house > your appearance of wealth.
Your physical health > your fantasy football stats.
Finding out who God is > worrying about politicians.
Mental peace is rooted here.
Be the man that your friends can turn to for advice.
Be the husband that your wife can turn to for support and understanding.
Be the father that your kids can look to as a superhero.
Be the leader that the community can look to for honor and class.
Earn your reputation.
We have a lot at our fingertips.
We can and do customize everything. Cars, restaurant orders, music playlists, tv shows & when we watch them, clothes, gifts…
Yet somehow, most people still believe that they can’t customize their own lives, or the education of their children.
If you don’t like a restaurant, you stop going.
If you don’t subscribe to a specific religion, you don’t attend those services or celebrate it’s holidays.
If you’re saying that you don’t like what’s happening in schools, but STILL send your young one, where is the disconnect?