When our younger son was a little boy, we sent him to school like good citizens do. We didn’t think the public school would be very scholarly, or up to the task of educating either of our boys at the level they were capable of. We felt like our children were a sort of gift we give to the world, and that we should share that gift with our neighbors.
That was back in Massachusetts, which I do not miss. Our younger son was hounded mercilessly by his public school staff, although he was a quiet, intelligent, well-behaved, cooperative little boy. Eventually, the school administrators wanted to essentially take him away from us. They said he was defective, and needed their careful ministrations, and maybe some drugs, and god knows what else. Finally, when our boy hugged one of his classmates because they were sad, they claimed he was violent. We learned later that the school system would receive an enormous extra sum for every pupil they could label as defective, and we suspected this was their true motivation. Or maybe their anthracite hearts were giving them dyspepsia, and their loose shoes were making their cloven feet itch. One or the other.
We went to meetings with the school administrators, where they relentlessly tried to make me lose my temper, so they could say I was violent as well, and they could no doubt call the cops on me to get their way. That didn’t work. Finally, exasperated by our reluctance to flip our lids while speaking to them, one snidely blurted out, “So, what are you going to do? Take him out of school?”
Well, that’s exactly what we did, right then and there. The administrators stamped and fumed while our boy’s teacher wept, because unlike the others, she still had a soul hidden in there somewhere. Shortly after that, we moved away to an unheated hovel in a mill town in western Maine, where my wife doggedly taught the boy his lessons at an ancient school desk we bought at a flea market for ten bucks, sometimes with his breath visible in the air in front of him.
I’ve been writing on the internet for a long time. Fifteen years ago I wrote down exactly what they said was wrong with our son:
[He is]unable to express ideas in front of a group, unable to selectively listen for sounds, follow multi-step directions, and unable to to complete assigned tasks in allotted time.”
Let’s take them one at a time, shall we?
Unable to express ideas in front of a group
Unable to selectively listen for sounds
Follow multi-step directions
That last video won him a Physics prize at his charter high school, where he graduated as the Valedictorian. He composed the music in the background, too, by the way, and cut all the floor tile in the bathroom on a tile saw while I mortared them in.
Unable to to complete assigned tasks in allotted time
Well, you’ve finally got me there. That’s him shaking hands with the President of his university today, graduating summa cum laude, I think, if they were still keeping score in Latin. He got a Bachelor of Science degree in Cybersecurity. He was on the President’s list for his entire tenure at college.
But I have to admit, he didn’t do it in the allotted time. It only took him three years.
23 Responses
OUTSTANDING!
Hi W walker- Thanks for reading and commenting.
Congratulations on raising a wonderful young man. The two of you did what was necessary to remove him from the maw of the evil government indoctrination/brainwashing center, and took the time and effort to keep his thinking capability alive.
It’s amazing what people can do when their priority is their children rather than status symbols or virtue signaling.
Your sons must be amazing people to know.
Bachelors Degree in 3 years? No wonder the Masshole school folks wanted to medicate this Enemy of the People! He was makin’ ’em look bad. (And stupid, and foolish.)
he’s a lucky (pronounced hard working) young man and you’re a very lucky dad. congratulations to you both.
Fantastic!
Outstanding, and well done to all. As a father of two boys that since gone on to plow their own furrows, I can say sit down for a bit and take a deep breath.
But don’t ever think you’re done. (BTW, having Paw-Paw duty is great.)
Here in MT we are struggling to make charter schools independent of the teacher’s unions. A R dominanted legislature passed the law and the D appointed judges went with the other side because those public schools “would lose money”. They passed another bill that said “ok you can have charter schools, but we have to have supervisory policing authority. So now we are all sneaking around trying to do “home schooling” without a well organized support system.
I have been impressed with your sons for several years now! Tell the kid “congratulations” from MT!
Very impressive. Congratulations to all!
Hi Sipp,
I’ve been a long time follower and have admired how you and your wife raised the heir and the spare. From the early musical forays to splitting and stacking wood to helping you with all of your projects and now this. I was disappointed when your site seemed to go dark but I can see you were pursuing the important things. Well done.
You are all amazing people!
Congratulations to the Spare Heir.
I had never heard the story behind your move to Maine. I hope you send this posting to the school district in Mass that woefully misdiagnosed the Spare.
Your blog has chronicled the growth of the Spare, from his drumming to his helping you stack wood, to now. Throughout the years of postings, the delight of his parents shone through. Congratulations to the Spare and his parents.
Last I read, the Heir got a job announcing on a radio station.
Congratulations, y’all done good.
I have always thought that the parents were the general contractors & the schools are the subs. You controlled the process and can be proud of the results. Good on you, and great on your son. Thank you for your blog posts. I always enjoy them.
Taking nothing at all away from the substantial accomplishments of your son, I’d have to say that he had some pretty good parenting along the way to set the tone. Congratulations to both ‘sides’. How’s the other one doing?
(Good thing they had a graduation instead of a protest)!
I have to ask:do you think Mrs. Sippican would be interested in helping us out here in MT? We need help understanding and organizing. She did a wonderful job with your boys!
As 1 of 10 children, I know everyone in the family had a hand in forming him, and like most team projects, it needed some sterling leadership to get the job done. Congratulations to all involved.
Hello everyone- Thanks for reading and commenting and saying such nice things about my son and my other son and my wife, and also for pretending I had anything to do with how they turned out. Other than serving as a cautionary tale, of course, at which I excel.
Congratulations to both of you this made me very happy to read. I went to the website and checked out the music on his website and it was very enjoyable. I thoroughly enjoyed minor swing by Django Reinhardt.
Hello Robert- Thanks for reading and commenting and your kind words. The kids used to perform Minor Swing when they played out at agricultural fairs and places like that. Here’s another version: Fryeburg Fair 2014.
Congratulations, and hearty compliments! I love nothing more than seeing talent in young people.
Casey!
Casey has actually eaten dinner with my family, when my kids were just younglings. I hope they didn’t get too much food on you.
For my other readers, Casey is a great artist who works in more or less the oldest medium in the history of drawing stuff: The Colorist.