Those of us who tend to be leaders, movers and shakers often believe we are on our own. That is, we are more likely to see ourselves as loners, as the people who are with us are usually following us rather than walking beside us.

While this may be the perception we have, it is actually not true. To start, scripture says there is one who stays closer than a brother. Assuming what we are doing is in keeping with God’s design and direction, we can take that to mean the Holy Spirit is always there not only to guide us but to comfort us as well.

We are also helped in a myriad of other ways by a great many people who may not even be aware of the part they are playing in the ministry God has given us to accomplish. Our facilitation travels have taken us to nearly every part of this province and in looking back, we can clearly see how our needs and comforts have been met in so many ways.

Not mentioning the countless number of gifts both of the non-edible and edible sort, we have been on the receiving end of many “services”. We have been billeted by people who made sure everything was taken care for us. We have been helped out of car and truck immobilizing situations. We have many times had our vehicle washed while we visited a family. We have had our vehicle repaired, or replaced so we could carry on with our duties until repairs were completed. We have had our clothes washed, too! The most common example of people taking care of us has been the multitude of meals we have had the privilege of sharing with our families. Even though we eventually came to travel with our infamous red truck and camper, we very rarely had to eat a meal other than breakfast in it. In the end, people have always had our backs.

Speaking of which, we have also been supported by parents believing we were doing something worthwhile as we battled our way past opposition and persecution. One particular example stands out as a rather funny episode of someone having your back: I was debating an opponent at a conference and was surprised by how quickly he backed down. When I turned around, I discovered why. There was a very big and tall man standing directly behind me with his big arms crossed. He had my back and my challenger quickly saw I had “backup”. No one is ever alone if they have God on their side.

Last time, we discussed how student records are handled and how one can see patterns of behaviour when studying the contents of those records. By that I mean not only a student’s behavioural issues, but also those of a school which is funded at a higher rate when students are deemed “special needs.”

The particular student being discussed in this episode had gotten to a point of no return at the school he was attending. He was so bad, the school had run out of possible issues for extra funding. In desperation, the boy’s parents removed him from the school, determining to educate him themselves at home, and enrolling him with us. As a result, we visited the family and got to know why this child’s student record was such a long “rap sheet”.

My immediate observation was that the boy was just another ordinary child. A bit chubby, but not outstanding in looks or demeanour. I also caught an attitude of defiance which seemed to have his parents baffled. The family had invited another family to join us for the facilitation meeting and what happened next was classic. The boy sat in the most prominent chair in the living room and quickly set about misbehaving in a young teen rebellious fashion and telling everyone what to do. What he and the others didn’t know was that I had a lot of experience dealing with exactly what we were witnessing. I verbally subdued this rebel and had him acquiesce to my authority so quickly that his parents and their guests were astonished.

That was the problem. No one had stood up to this fellow so he acted out both at school and at home. It turned out that while he was not an academic learner, he was not lacking in intelligence. He had been unquestioningly sent to school before he was ready and made to be a dummy. He had learned to play along with the school’s faulty expectations of him and he acted out, bringing his coping mechanisms home where his parents were also duped into believing he was a bad boy.

What the bad boy needed was two things. The first was quickly demonstrated by me when I verbally asserted my authority and put him in his place, something his parents had failed to do. The second was to inform him that since God had made him the way he was, he could learn things just as well as others, but in his way and in his time. He eventually found his place.

Once upon a time, all student records were paper. Thankfully that is now in the past. EU had many filling cabinets full of documents no one ever read or asked for. When a student left our school for another, we obligingly packaged up all the student’s records and sent them to the new school, which likely filed the documents in a new filing cabinet without ever reading the material either. Similarly, if a student came to us from another school, we had to inform the former school of the child’s enrolment with us and request the student’s records be transferred to us. We then filed them in our cabinets, usually also without looking at the contents.

(As an aside, all records generated by our school were digital from the onset of Education Unlimited in 1999. The only paper records we had were obtained from former schools and we were quick to digitize them. Digitization was mandated by the government in 2019, a full twenty years after we had implemented this technology!)

Student records were usually reasonable, containing a few dozen pages, but occasionally we would get a package of records so big it would cost the former school nearly $50 in postage. One such package contained over three hundred pages including endless test results for nearly every possible issue. My heart broke when I saw this. What were schools doing to this child? My cynicism wants to say “cashing him in.”

Students are usually funded at a base rate, with increased allotments for special needs. All that has to happen to increase the funding level for a child is to declare or generate some special needs requirement and presto, more money. To demonstrate how easy it is to take advantage of this funding arrangement, one need only see how many fully bilingual immigrants are placed in English as a Second Language programs they never see or attend, despite the receipt of extra funding. This is abuse of process.

In any case, we were wondering what this particular child was actually like, as his records made him out to be a complete basket-case freak. Once we met him we got a very clear picture of who he was and what had happened to him as a consequence of his “special needs”.

The interim moral here is: never assume things are as presented. People can and often do take advantage of others when money is involved.

A silly song we sometimes hear says, “Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.” As funny as this may seem, it is true. Similarly, everybody wants to be free, but nobody wants to exercise freedom. An interesting observation may help you to understand what I mean.

I have been a bird watcher and studier for as long as I can remember. I have always desired to have the freedom birds seem to have, even if most fall prey to something. As a consequence, I am very upset to encounter birds that have been pinioned, that is have had parts of their wings amputated to prevent them from flying. This is usually done to benefit the owners, whom I believe should consider what it would be like to have their legs amputated.

One day, my wife and I were visiting a Mennonite family that had gone against the standard cultural norm banning animals from the house. These folks had a budgie in a very well kept cage in the kitchen. We were surprised by this display of independence since this community is fairly tight and rules are largely adhered to even if occasionally strange or outdated. In any event, I shared how we had also had a bird in our house for many years. I then asked the dad if the bird could fly. He replied that he thought so, but he had never actually seen the bird fly. I was a bit surprised, as we let our cockatiel fly about the house when we had him. I then asked why he had never let the bird out of the cage.

What transpired next was simply incredible and instructive. The dad got up and opened the cage so the bird could demonstrate that he knew how to fly. But the bird didn’t. At first the budgie was perplexed by the part of his cage without bars. Then he poked his head out and eventually stood on the door sill. He eventually walked out of the cage to the top where we all thought he would take flight, but he didn’t. Actually, the bird was so traumatized by this new development that he quietly returned to his cage, taking refuge on his favourite perch.

We were all astounded by this event and quickly realized the lesson to be gleaned from what we had observed. Like the budgie, most people would rather stay within the confines of the bondage they know than take a risk in trying something new or different.

No one knows when Jesus was actually born. I cannot lay claim to having more information than the rest, but scholars think it was sometime in October. God’s incarnation on earth is the most significant event in all of history so the fact that He came makes His actual date of arrival of little significance.

History tells us that one of the first Roman emperors to embrace the Christian faith was Constantine. In a political attempt to normalize the faith and compromise with the religious systems of the day, Constantine created a Christian celebration out of a pagan festival of trees and declared December 25 to be the birthdate of Jesus. Christmas didn’t exist before this took place in 312 AD, but it has been an integral part of the Christian faith ever since. The point is, for almost two millennia, Christmas has been celebrated around the world and it was brought to Canada with its founding. Religious hair-splitters refuse to celebrate a holiday rooted in paganism, and the secular folk would love to eliminate it altogether.

In a superfluous attempt to avoid offending non-Christians, the school at which I worked determined to rename Christmas, Winter Fest. Begging an answer is why anyone would want to celebrate winter? Seems to me, celebrating the redemption of mankind carries a little more weight than celebrating cold, dark days!

In any case, when the school determined to rename Christmas in order not to offend the non-Christians, guess who took the greatest offence? You guessed it if you said the very people the administration wanted to avoid offending. My Muslim, Hindi and Jewish students were quick to condemn the renaming of Christmas, partly because they could see that picking on Christians today would likely lead to picking on others tomorrow, and the fact that they enjoyed taking part in the festivities.

So, I remain steadfast in wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, not because I believe Jesus was born on that day but because Jesus was born and that is worth celebrating. I refuse to water down or negate what God did for us on that day, whenever it actually was, by using rather dumb terms like merry winter fest or happy holidays, both of which mean nothing at all to anyone. Cultural holidays should be celebrated, not redefined.

I must admit, the young lady was very attractive. Not only was she pretty, but she had a confident demeanour that went beyond her good looks. She did not play the arrogant “aren’t I pretty” game, and most of the young fellows would have loved to ask her out on a date. However, she was so sure of herself, most of the guys thought she was out of their “league”.

At this point in the story, it is important to note that you can’t judge a book by its cover, although having a good cover does help. The content of the book or the person is what matters. I cannot say I knew what this young lady was like as a person, as our relationship was simply teacher-student. She was a good student, but that does not mean she was a good person. In any case, let’s continue with the story.

Wanting to somehow impress this young lady, a would-be suitor arrived in class early and loudly announced he was bored, obviously hoping to attract the attention of the only other student in the class, namely the topic of this story. I cannot imagine what was going on in this young man’s head or what he was trying to accomplish with such an asinine statement, but his comment hit its mark.

Remember this episode occurred in a high school classroom and involved young people who had yet to master the fine art of diplomacy. The young lady responded with a not-so-nice statement. She said, “Boredom occurs when someone does not have the brains to find something to do.” Needless to say, this statement completely negated the young man’s efforts to get her attention, at least from a positive perspective.

Despite the young lady’s lack of proper decorum in conversation, the point she made was valid. Productive individuals should not even know what boredom is. To be bored is indeed to lack the ambition to think for yourself or to contribute to a greater cause. This should not, I would like to say “should never”, be the case with the home educated. Home educated students should be encouraged to do something positive with their lives that goes beyond the self and includes serving.

There was quite a commotion in the classroom before class was to begin. A young lady, obviously of means, was showing off her new blue jeans. Other girls were oohing and ahhing over what was obviously something to be desired. The young lady with the new pants was enjoying all the attention her jeans were bringing her as she gyrated her pelvis to give all the onlookers a better view of her “clothes”. This exercise attracted the attention of more than just the girls who were present; the boys, who were obviously the target audience, turned their heads as well. But one lone girl sitting at the front of the class was clearly not impressed.

The contrarian lady was a bit older and much more mature than the other girls involved in the pant scene. It was also obvious she did not come from a wealthy family so could not have gotten a like pair of jeans should she have desired them.

Recognizing that there was more to this than met the eye, I determined to spike the situation with a question. I asked the jeans-admiring group of young ladies what made this pair of jeans so special and how much they’d cost. The reply was $70. Bear in mind this was around thirty years ago when decent jeans could be purchased for $20.

I then asked how a $70 pair of jeans differed from a $20 pair. As the group of admirers listed the cut, the styling and the additional adornments, the isolated girl at the front immediately suggested the difference was actually 50 bucks! She went on to illuminate us all with the obvious fact that both 70 and 20 dollar jeans provided the service of covering one’s backside!

I do not recall the reaction of the expensive jeans admirers, but I do recall the expression on the naysayer’s face. It was priceless. It said, “How foolish of you to think the pants covering your rear end are somehow important.” Her wisdom was not lost on most of the students in the class, but I believe the message was missed by the $70 jeans party.

The moral of this story is: you do not need to spend a lot of money to accomplish things, particularly when looking for curriculum and supplies for home education. Indeed, sometimes the best things are inexpensive or even free. More money spent does not mean better results. Sometimes the difference is simply $50.

I put one hundred and ten percent into everything I do. I say one hundred and ten percent because I have been blessed with an extraordinary amount of energy and I was taught to be dedicated toward excellence in fully completing any task. As a consequence, I really worked hard to be the best teacher possible. This required two very important things.

First, you cannot be a teacher if you are not first a learner. This may seem strange, maybe not, but there are people, even certificated teachers, who do not make learning a priority. Any person who fails or refuses to learn is bound to stay the same, as there is little possibility for growth. This explains why you can meet a school mate from twenty years ago who has not changed much over the years. Everybody needs to learn to grow. Having said that, not all learners are teachers, but every teacher needs to be a learner.

The next requirement to being a good teacher is having a goal. I was continually frustrated by colleagues who clearly demonstrated a lack of concern regarding their individual student’s accomplishments. These folks simply did their job in rote-like fashion, having students regurgitate what they had delivered. Students better at this process may have gotten the better marks, but would they make a better employee or citizen?

Unlike many of my professional colleagues, I simply refused to accept the notion that mastering half the curricular expectation was acceptable. I taught my students to put in their all and do the best they could in a quest for excellence. Most delivered as expected.

I certainly drew the attention of other teachers who would occasionally ask me for the secrets to my success. I am not sure how many got the lesson but the secret is summarized in one word… expectations. Students under the tutelage of uncaring teachers who expected nothing delivered as expected. Those guided by teachers with high expectations also did as expected. Students are not usually naturally lazy, but they will do as expected. Expect nothing and that is what you will get. Expect much and get much.

Home educating parents will do well to have high expectations. Strive for and demand excellence, but avoid unreasonable expectations of perfection.

Even though I had an advanced education in Biology, most of my teaching career was comprised of teaching French. I suppose this had something to do with me being bilingual because this was also around the time Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau declared Canada a bilingual country so every school was scrambling to make students speak both official languages.

It took years before I finally orchestrated my way out of teaching French and was finally able to teach what I really loved. But even then, I had to teach one of those “nothing” courses designed to help non-academic students collect enough credits to graduate. Science 24 was such a class.

There is very little to accomplish in these “nothing” classes other than encouraging attendance and making at least a nominal effort to help students succeed. In this particular class, I had a nineteen-year-old lady, who was always in class on time, sat at the front and did reasonably well on her assignments. Being quite a bit older than the rest of the class, she had a more mature demeanour. I enjoyed having talks with her, even if she was a bit reserved and slow to offer information.

When I asked her what she planned to do after getting her diploma, she refused to tell me. I found it rather strange that she would refuse to talk about this but I let it go and just lightly brought it up every now and again. Finally, she blurted out that she did not want me laughing at her career choice. I assured her that was definitely not part of my job description.

As I kept pestering her, she eventually saw I was genuinely interested in her future. After making me promise I would not laugh, she shared her future ambitions.

She was soon to be married. Her career aspirations were to be a wife, mother and home-maker. What broke my heart was that she was obviously not getting support in her choice from her peers and maybe not even from her family. But she sure got a lot of support and encouragement from me! What a pity that this young lady’s career choice was ever a laughing matter. In my opinion, wife-mother-homemaker is the highest calling for any woman and I told my student that. She was surprised by my enthusiastic support of her noble career choice. Remember, this was over twenty-five years ago. What would happen today? Encourage your young ladies to aspire to the highest calling on earth: Wife and Mother.

I have now told two of my favourite stories about having contests with parents as a teacher. I must admit I can only think of two more episodes where I found myself on the wrong end of parental anger.

The one is very easy to dismiss as a quirk. The only child in the family was promised a brand new Mustang convertible upon his graduation. Unfortunately, this young man believed he could succeed due more to his parents than of actual academic ability. He erroneously thought he could get a few easy credits by taking French. He was a nice kid, but he really did not have what it took to pass French class. In fact, he did dismally. His dad came to the school demanding I give his son a passing grade, which I could not for two good reasons. Firstly, grades are earned, not awarded. Secondly, his grade barely made the 30th percentile; there was much too much distance between where he was and a passing grade. When I refused to change the boy’s grade, the dad very angrily called me a racist, which made no sense as we were all of the same “race”. End of story.

One more story before coming to a conclusion. I cannot remember what led to the confrontation, but I can say the dad was very upset. Once again, I employed my old trick of asking how the parent would have reacted to what the child had done. This time the impact was such that I went from being Mister Bad to the best teacher ever! So much so, this dad went to the principal and insisted I receive merit pay, which I didn’t but I did get a very nice letter of commendation placed in my records.

In every case, when a parent came ready to defend their child, when the question was put to them about how they would have handled the situation, the tables completely turned. When I was eventually transferred from the far-away school, “Bob” started a petition to keep me in that community. What was it that caused parents to sign it? Another associated question, why was I so lonely during parent-teacher interviews? Simple. While I was very strict, I did not fight with my students. Nor did I fight with parents for I knew I was working in loco parentis, meaning I was always serving the parents in helping them to educate their children. Unlike those with extremely long lineups of parents waiting to confront a teacher, I was liked because I was never in competition with parents. They were the boss, not me. Just as you are the boss. Your children’s education is your responsibility.