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The Homeschool How To
I don't claim to know anything about homeschooling, so I set out on a journey to ask the people who do! Join me as I chat with homeschoolers to discuss; "why are people homeschooling," "what are all the ways people are using to homeschool today," and ultimately, "should I homeschool my kids?"
The Homeschool How To
#89: An Inside Look Into the School System with Will Reusch
Join us for an engaging exploration of education and self-reliance with our esteemed guest, Will Reusch, a seasoned social studies teacher from Los Angeles. Get ready to uncover the innovative strategies Will employs to bridge the gap between students from varied backgrounds, and hear how his approach has resonated through heartfelt student feedback. As Will shares his experiences of having lunch with different students daily, discover how personal connections can revolutionize teaching methods and leave a lasting impact on young minds.
This episode ventures into the potential of scaling educational impact beyond the confines of traditional classrooms. We discuss how transitioning to online platforms can broaden reach and influence, drawing inspiration from figures like Jordan Peterson. You’ll learn about the rising appeal of homeschooling and the transformative educational resources like Will's online platform, Patterdox. Will’s insights reveal how homeschooling and platforms like his offer a personalized learning experience that addresses the unique needs of each child.
https://patterdox.com/
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Welcome to this week's episode of the Homeschool How-To. I'm Cheryl and I invite you to join me on my quest to find out why are people homeschooling, how do you do it, how does it differ from region to region, and should I homeschool my kids? Stick with me as I interview homeschooling families across the country to unfold the answers to each of these questions week by week. Welcome, and with us today we have Will Roosh. Will thank you for being here.
Speaker 2:Hi, cheryl, good to see you. Yeah, I think this is a really important topic.
Speaker 1:All right, so you were a teacher, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so my whole life I've been. It's kind of interesting, I'm 42. My whole life I've been in school, from like pre-K. It was like you go to school and then you have summers off and then all through K, through 12 and then college and then right from college I got a job at a school and did that for the last 17 years full time. So, uh, I've been a classroom social studies teacher at various schools. I taught all around LA, so I taught in what was at the time like the worst neighborhood in LA as far as like gang violence and stuff.
Speaker 2:I taught a 17 year old girl who was pregnant with her third kid and didn't know how to tell time on an analog clock or know who Abraham Lincoln was, all the way up to a hedge fund, billionaires, kids and people who live in Bel Air and then kids who live in their cars. So I've I've really seen like it's all high school, all teenagers, a little bit of eighth grade, but it was all just seeing like the diversity among among teenagers and uh, and it's given me a really well balanced understanding of education.
Speaker 1:And that's so important too, because, well, I recently had a post, um, where I was just kind of talking about what I've learned over interviewing homeschooling families since I started the podcast, and one of my slides was that don't listen to Instagram or Facebook. Like people really don't have it all together and they're, you know, parents don't. And then I said and neither do teachers. I might've even been more rude than that. Like, nobody knows what they're doing, but neither do teachers. And that's like the one thing that everybody gives me backlash on.
Speaker 1:But it's like there's no way to prepare you in college for the girl that is pregnant with her third kid and can't tell time. Or like my friend, uh, who's a teacher, a kindergarten teacher, and her student witnessed her sibling get shot, and so what kind of then that kid's going to go back into school? They've got trauma, and it goes from anything from not having a safe place at night to not having meals to my parents have so much money that they just stick me in front of screens all day, and you know, I've never been hugged by them. So there's so many things that we cannot prepare teachers for. So, yes, we can teach them. This is what I want you to teach and this is what will be on the test. But how to teach that to 25 different kids?
Speaker 2:that have so many different experiences is impossible, yeah, and what you end up doing is you aim right for the center. When I was teaching in East LA, I had 48 kids in my class.
Speaker 2:I mean 48 kids with you know 15 year olds 16 year olds with like neck tattoos, like a girl, would come up and she's like, hey, check this out, mr Roosh. And it says like whatever, like Jose or something like that. I'm like oh, oh, it's just like it just breaks your heart. You know 48 kids per class. So, and then even at like um, I taught in like a private school and my class was always the biggest. I was like like that, that was very expensive.
Speaker 2:Every teacher had their PhD and they were an expert in a specific area where I'm not like a history buff, I don't like dress up like a Confederate soldier on the weekends. You know, it's not like. It's not that I'm more just teaching. You know how to be resilient, how to understand life, uh, how to recognize patterns and stuff like that. So it's all directly applicable to their lives. So my classes were always bigger and they were always like 30 or so.
Speaker 2:So what you end up doing is you aim right for the center, which means you're going to lose kids at the top and going to lose kids at the bottom. So it was really important for me. What I did was, on the first day of school, I would pass around a calendar and they'd sign a date, and then I would have lunch with a different student every day. So I get to know like that personal connection was really really important to me. And then that way, if I knew I was losing a kid at the top or the bottom, I could relate the material directly to that kid in the class. A kid was in a skateboard, or I could explain it through skateboarding as like the vehicle for learning More, so than even, like you know, the Battle of Saratoga or something like that you know Well, I live right near Saratoga.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, I never learned about it in school. I never. Maybe a paragraph, that's it. What gave you the idea to even have that? Let's sit down with a different kid? Because I'm just thinking, like the backlash you might get nowadays, because it's like, oh my gosh, the teachers are all trying to sleep with their kids and you know you have all these affairs going on that teachers will probably shy away from that in today's day and age because of that reason. So what gave you even the idea and the courage to go forward with that Cause? I'm sure it impacted a lot of students.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean that's what I mean. I hear back from I've been doing it for so long. I hear back from students who are now like they're grown up with kids and everything. They talk about those meetings that I had. How it started was, I think my first year, my first or second year. I had a kid that was really really tough, you know tough background and just really aggressive and rude. And I went to my like kind of mentor teacher and administration. I was like this kid is a problem. And one of my mentor teachers said here's what I want you to do Take him out to lunch and then take him out to lunch tomorrow and the next day and just get to know him. And I was like I don't think you heard me, like I don't like this kid, you know, and he's like exactly, and it reminds me there's an Abraham Lincoln quote. That's so good it's. I don't like that man. I need to get to know him better, that's so good.
Speaker 2:And it's exactly what. There's a Mary Lou Nonaki quote. She's a nun, I think she has recently passed, but she said there isn't anyone you couldn't love once you've heard their story. So what I found? I found success with that one kid early in my career, you know. So I was like, oh, that there's something really important to that. Because then he saw like, oh, this guy actually cares about me enough to give up his time to ask sincere questions, asked sincere questions and it helped me understand him so I could relate the material to him better. So that was really really important.
Speaker 2:But as far as like the, the kind of a controversial element of that, you know, that was hammered into my head in like uh, in university is like you don't stay alone with the kids.
Speaker 2:So if we would meet in my room the door would always be open and I'd be in front of the door. You know, with male students, female students, anything, because anything could happen. You know. I mean you know you could have a female student, you know, make an attempt at doing something inappropriate and you say like, absolutely not, and they're embarrassed. And then they, you know it could get really, you know they could do something. So you want to really cover your bases with that At my last school I'm in California, so it's always fairly nice out so we'd always meet like outside in kind of the quad area, like the open general public area, and that's a way to kind of get around, that you know. And then when, if they talk about something inappropriate, you know we're the adults, so we can always steer it back to something that's more appropriate, without making them feel embarrassed, but letting them know that there are boundaries in our relationship.
Speaker 1:Essentially, yeah, it's a crazy world. And I say like, oh no, that never happens, but I'm pretty sure in my high school it did, but yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm kind of oh, like inappropriate things-.
Speaker 1:With teachers and stuff. Yes, guidance counselors too. It actually happens a lot.
Speaker 2:It's really disturbing. I mean it happened in my high school. Growing up I was working on cars a lot. When I was in high school I went over to borrow a tool from my friend's garage or something. I was like I have to use your bathroom, he's like, but don't go in my room because Miss Smith was in there. I was like what, miss Smith, the gym teacher? He's like, yeah, she's in my room. I was like what? This is crazy. So he was having an affair. He was a senior, I was a junior, I think he was a senior. He was having an affair with the gym teacher and then that gym teacher ended up marrying someone who was a grade below me and starting a family, so like that.
Speaker 2:And I also know teachers who were at schools that I was at that would like go to parties. Like kids party Like a kid would. A senior would have a party. He'd show up and he played beer pong with them and stuff. I think there's there's something to the cheryl that like um, I mean all I know I men and women, I suppose but there is something to. There are people who get into education for the, the drive to be like like they were never, maybe, popular this is overly simplistic, but maybe they weren't like popular in school or anything like that. And if they become a teacher and they're the cool teacher, then they can kind of fit in and get that like relive that experience that they never got in high school themselves. And I've seen that like several times with, uh, with, with adults who are around children and it's it's really disturbing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and as I count the reasons that homeschooling is a good idea, I guess I mean we'll add that to the list too. When you're a kid, you just think like, oh, teachers are just like so professional and would always do the right thing. And I guess as you get older and you think that of your parents too, as you get older, you realize these are just real people. They make real mistakes and they have baggage and emotional issues and mental issues. And yeah, so we're like sending our kids to this establishment with strangers, literally strangers. I mean, we're in a small town.
Speaker 1:My husband went to the school and you know a lot of the people that he went to school with did become teachers. But you still don't know them. And I wouldn't know them at all If my kid were in their class. You just don't know. Not only what ideas are they putting into their head politically or with beliefs, um of about other things, but even that sort of stuff it is, it's. It's something I've never really thought of until now, like, oh, maybe I don't want my daughter going into school with strangers.
Speaker 2:Well, you said it. I mean, they're just people. They're just people. So like, same with police officers, same with, you know, people in government positions. Like they're just people, so they're going to fall into the same proclivities and like and dark spaces and stuff like that that anyone else would. The person working at Starbucks, the person where you know building houses, like they all have these issues but we give a lot of power to certain people.
Speaker 2:I mean, these are the people that are around our children day in and day out and they probably, when it comes to political stuff, they probably believe this. You know they mean well, but they don't understand that what they're doing is not necessarily right, or they have a lot of blind spots about how, you know, their ideas aren't completely fleshed out. You know they might have an ideology that just isn't challenged at all. That happens a lot in school. And then there's also, like the the, the more darker stuff that people can have, cause it wouldn't be unreasonable to say, like you know, an Uber driver would have weird attraction to you know people that are inappropriate, so why would that be someone who dedicates their life?
Speaker 2:I mean, michael Jackson, famously, is like I just love children. I just love children. It's like, yeah, and he wanted to be around children all the time. So people that have that tendency to want to be around children would also pick up some of those predators. And it does happen. And I don't mean to like put fear in people's heads, but it's something you have to be watchful for. You can't be blase about that reality, that that exists, and I've seen it a lot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I. But I I'm gathering this is not the reason you left the profession. What actually cause you homeschool your kids now, right?
Speaker 2:Uh, my youngest, but no, my other ones are in, uh, like a Christian school that's like up the street, and then we're going to pull them out when it comes to middle school. So it's kind of like they're going to learn how to do basic reading and writing and then, when it comes to like what to read and what to write, that's where my wife and I are taking over and I'll probably do a lot of that.
Speaker 1:What made you leave your profession, though?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was a really hard decision but essentially I kind of for lack for like, just for lack of a better term, I kind of like got to the top. Different kinds of schools. I taught everything within my credential. So I've taught geography, sociology, psychology, world history, us history, civics, government, economics. I did really really well and I got just constant, constant feedback from kids after they graduated about the massive impact I had in their lives.
Speaker 2:So I'm someone who constantly seeks challenges. You know, whether it's like ice baths or like you know, long runs or jujitsu or whatever it is, I'm always looking for some sort of challenge. So it's like, well, what's next? I kind of got to the top here. I could, I could walk in the administration, just let me kind of do whatever I wanted. I had a reputation at the school I was at now this last school for almost a decade and it was like, well, what's next? What's the next big challenge? And then also it's an issue of scale.
Speaker 2:So the bigger reason why I went to an online platform was in education, like what do you do if you're the best teacher at the school? Like what, what, really? What are the? What do you get for that? It's like, it's like being the best nurse or the best firefighter. It's like, well, you just stay in your firehouse, you just stay in your hospital. Uh, same thing with a teacher. You go to any school around the country. Who's the best teacher at the school?
Speaker 2:Ms Johnson, okay Well, ms Johnson gets paid, gets paid the same as who's the worst teacher? You know Mr Blank. Okay, well, mr Blank gets paid the same. He might even get paid more if he has more like credits or a higher degree or more time. So, like there there was that like element of of benefit from you know know whether it's monetary as well as, as you know, just reach.
Speaker 2:But it was also I was kind of stuck in this. You're stuck in this geographic area of just this one community, in this one location, and if what I did was beneficial to so many students that I've taught, that I've had face to face with what if I could scale that to kids around the country. So it's just a way to get scale. You know, I think about people like that helped shape my thinking when it comes to education, like Jordan Peterson, like isn't it good that he left doing just counseling, or he left just his classroom at University of Toronto and Harvard to go out and make videos and kind of teach psychology to everybody and help everyone with whatever they're going through. It's that now for kids all across the country.
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Speaker 2:So on my platform I have kids from Ohio, from Minnesota, arizona, south Dakota, california, you know, like all over the place New York, so now I can reach these kids that I normally would not have access to, and the importance of having a good educator that knows who you are and knows how to impart knowledge in a really like specific way for you is so important.
Speaker 2:A lot of kids don't have that and I saw the trends of people moving into homeschool, especially after COVID, and I was wondering like well, where are they going for their education now? Like who's going to pick up the slack of these parents who are, like, pulling their kids out because they see the craziness in school but then they might be like I don't know what to do from here? So serving those families that are still a little lost about how do I get to to teach this stuff in a way that's going to be effective. So it was kind of all of those things kind of culminating all at once. I already had a platform for um podcasting and social media, so I kind of proven a model that I can teach remotely and through through video. So it kind of just all came together to build this platform that I have now.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's cool. So you're teaching social studies, or?
Speaker 2:I'll let you tell. Yeah, right now I have a US history class called Our American Story, which is it's like a Rube Goldberg machine. This leads to this, leads to this, so you kind of follow the whole trajectory of American history. And then I also have a civics class, which isn't a traditional. It's like here's how many people are in the Senate. It's what are the rights and responsibilities of being an American citizen. It's what are you going to do to contribute to making the world more efficient, more ethical, more beautiful, better? How are we going to progress as a country? And it's so needed right now. And I was just uniquely situated to be able to do that. But my US history class, again, is not just straight from the textbook. I talk about the War of 1812. No one cares about the War of 1812. You don't remember anything, except for, maybe, when it occurred, right?
Speaker 1:So I don't go over the Right because it's in the title.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't go over the details of the war and talking about all the generals and who flanked who at what battle. That's, I don't think that's what people remember and that's what sticks with them. It's more about conflict. I tell it through the story of like you get into a fist fight and you lose this kid who you should have beaten and now you have to sit next to him for the rest of the year in the class and you haven't really resolved anything. Like you're gonna fight again.
Speaker 2:That's the war of 1812. After the revolution, the, the brit British were still there and it wasn't really settled yet, so they had to fight. It's like round two. You know it's the rematch of the revolutionary war and that's something kids understand. It's like we don't just study global wars, we study conflict, conflict resolution. You know the same reason why you might fight with your brother or sister, with your parents or with your friend would be over things like scarce resources, different ideologies. You know, like the, it's the same reason why two nations will fight. You know it's. And then, once you want to stay in conflict, you understand the pattern of conflict. You can apply that everywhere and so you know I'll talk about like a big war, only in you know five or 10 minutes, because if you want to dive in more with the details, I give you the resources for that. But really, here's the big thing that you're going to walk away with for the rest of your life understanding. It's not the details of historical events, it's the big picture, it's the big patterns and that's why it's called PatterDocs.
Speaker 2:My platform is called PatterDocs. It's the docs being the belief of the world can be understood through patterns that the Great Depression is very similar to the 2008 crash, so you can start to see things coming and whenever there'd be like a tragedy or a big event, it could be like you know a disaster. It could also be like the you know a controversial election or COVID. People would turn to me on my platforms and be like help me make sense of this. And I was able to make sense of it only because my understanding of the past like well, here's what happened in the past, so this is probably what's happening now and here's where we can expect it to go. And that, I think, is really useful for young people to help figure out the world, cause they're like what is the world? I don't know. I don't know up from down. Here's some ways to help figure it out, and it's not. Again, it's not really about memorizing dates and facts, which so often history is, and I don't think that that's. That's why kids hate history so often.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's so true Cause every I feel like every kid says why do I need history? It's in the past, but you're right, it repeats itself. We don't need to know necessarily about the dates because the dates don't matter anyway. Because I remember thinking like America's been here forever. And even just talking to people now, when you talk about, like, the danger of our country going under, and everyone's like, oh, that would never happen. It's like, well, it really. It was like 250 years ago that it was formed. Why would you not think that that could be fragile at all? But so it's like we learned the war of 1812 and we feel like that's so long ago and it's just like yesterday really, when you look on a timeline.
Speaker 1:But it's so true, and the reasons for these wars. That's the important thing. And I love what you said about, like you, teaching, because it was the same for me in government work. I worked for 16 years in government and it was the same thing whether I did a good job or a bad job. I was paid the same as somebody else at my grade level because we, you know, a test was given and we took the test and it had nothing to do with our jobs, but I got this score and they got this score or they got that. So we both got hired at the job.
Speaker 1:Even though the job is nothing I went to college for it was just that was the job that was open, this was the test that was given and like so there you are, there's your career now, and you know, I, I it's funny because when I left my, my career and for me too, it was hard walking away from a pension and healthcare and all that stuff but I left and there were two people that worked underneath me and the one girl was phenomenal and the one kid, he just played video games all day, like we'd have, you know, during COVID, we'd have meetings on zoom or whatnot, or just, you know, on the on the phones he wouldn't say a word. I actually had to talk to him outside of the meetings and say you have to speak, like we have to know that you're there, you have to be able to, you know, tell us that you're somewhat engaged in this, even though I know you're not Pretend. And when I left he actually got my job not the girl that worked her butt off and did all the work because he scored a 90 on the test and she got like an 80. And the test again has nothing to do with the position, but he got a higher score and it just. That was just like the finishing, like you've got to be kidding me.
Speaker 1:And this is how our government is right, and this is the closest form of of being a socialist country, as we can see. And we can see the government is not working. And the same as you I mean you're, you were kind of a government worker too, because it you know, you you worked for the education system, which is a government system, and this is how it is like across the board, no matter you do a good job or bad job, you get the same rate. And then when you're tenured, you know, you can even mess up royally and it doesn't matter, you're not losing your job. So it's like that's what a socialist society is. It's not rewarded for hard work, and I think kids need to realize that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean when people say like teachers should be paid like actors or athletes, it's like how and what teachers to? Not all actors and athletes are paid equally. Most actors are broke, Some of them that are really really good.
Speaker 2:Like cry on cue or whatever they're Daniel Day-Lewis, you know, heath Ledger or Christian Bale or whatever Like they're going to rise to the top. But this idea of like what, how teachers should be paid better, it's like what does that look like exactly? And then how do you measure a good teacher? And a lot of times it is test scores. It's whatever scores your students get.
Speaker 2:And I was at a school I went to a bullet Bill and Melinda Gates school. Um, throughout my career, and the reason I went is because I was at that point. I was, I was great at my job and and they said that there were uh, monetary incentives, that the best teachers would get bonuses. And I was like, let's go, I got this, the best teachers would get bonuses. And I was like, let's go, I got this. And I got there and I realized what it was was strictly on test scores Some I shouldn't say strictly. It was like 90% test scores. There was 10% like student surveys and parent surveys and things, but it was mostly test scores.
Speaker 2:So what the teachers did was they just talked to the test, constantly talked to the test, and a kid would raise their hand and have a question that they were genuinely curious about and you'd be like I can't address that right now. We have to do this test prep and it's so opposite of what an education is. You know, like I have a student in Patrodox right now who says that he gets in trouble all the time for raising his hand too much. He's like he just has a lot of questions. And the way that school punishes curiosity, exchanges curiosity for compliance just do what you're told and that will get you to where you need to be. And there's some truth to that. Clearly, with the kid that was underneath you, you know, but that's not learning.
Speaker 2:And if school can't be the place where you have questions, then where is questions? Then where is? That's the institution that's designed to satisfy your curiosity and to to encourage you to be curious and ask questions and go on deep dives and learn about the world. And that institution that's why I got into teaching is. I was looking at my teachers and I was like there, I can do this better than them. Come on, like this is this is crazy. Like I can, I can. This is this is a situation where these teachers are very close-minded. I know that being smart is cool. I know that being capable is cool, but the building, the institution, the system that is designed to make you capable and smart everyone knows that it sucks. That's terrible. It should be satisfying what it's intended to do, and it clearly doesn't in so many ways.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think the biggest realization for me when starting this podcast interviewing homeschooling families and I really started it because I was like I can't homeschool, Like I'm not. I wasn't the smart kid in school. I was interested in learning things, but not what they were teaching me or how they were teaching me. So I was like I can't homeschool. And then when we kind of saw during COVID, like this is you know what's going on, we didn't want our kid masked. And then I started researching vaccines and I was like, okay, I'm going to have to see if I can homeschool and let me just start interviewing people. So I started interviewing people around my area, just in conversation, and then turned it into a podcast. But the biggest thing for me to realize was how many teachers actually leave the profession to homeschool their kids. Like I was shocked to learn how many.
Speaker 1:And, just like you were saying, I had an episode a couple of months ago I think it was Kiri Jorgensen and she really got into the funding behind all of it. And then the money goes to the schools that have the higher test scores. But who needs the money more? The ones who they're not reaching. The kids aren't doing well on the test because there's so much trauma going on in the kids' lives and there's not enough teachers in the classroom, or the teachers are just making you know they've got kids in the classroom that shouldn't be there because they need, you know, one-on-one assistance, like whether it's a even even um, you know kids that what's the word I'm looking for where they really like get out of control physically and they have to contain them, you know, and there's no help, there's no one to help them. So how are they supposed to teach to these other kids and then do well enough on a test score for all of them so that the school can receive the funding that's needed? It's, it's so backwards.
Speaker 2:It's really hard to measure.
Speaker 2:You know a good, a good or great teacher? It really is, because, like, what is the cause? It's you're, you're, you're satisfying something that's like almost unquantifiable, you knowifiable. Albert Einstein, I love the quote not everything that counts can be counted. We're in the long game, you should be in the long game, which is, I have students who are.
Speaker 2:I had a former student who graduated in 2000 and maybe 11, and she came over to our house for dinner and she walked graduation pregnant. Her dad was incarcerated her whole life and I really was a mentor for her, um, getting her into boxing and getting her life kind of together. And and she, like with tears in her eyes, was like you know, you had this massive impact on my life. She found a good man and she has two kids and um, and it's like that's what you're in it for. But how do you measure that? You know she's 30 now. You know, like, how do you?
Speaker 2:It's really hard to measure that in a way that then is directly linked to, you know, some sort of monetary incentive which we, you know, should live in some level of a free market economy. So it's really difficult to get those metrics where in business. In entrepreneurship, there is a metric it's dollars. It's like this person is willing to give you money for this service, and so that was. Another thing is I wanted to take what I was doing and instead of, I could get a job at a school. But again I'm back with the same issue. So now it's like if I build my own education platform and it fails, it's supposed to fail. Own education platform and it fails, it's supposed to fail, and if it succeeds, it's supposed to succeed because people will support it with their, their, their checkbook, like that's. That's that's, I think, the way that I tried to solve that problem. And if I can do it, then other teachers can do it too.
Speaker 1:And that's why homeschooling is so cool, because, like, parents want their kids to do well, not only because you want your kids to be able to make it once we're gone or once they leave the home, but also we want to show that you know, we did a good job teaching them too, or not even teaching them, but, like you said, it's a lifelong thing. We're setting them up for knowing how to find the answers. And that was another thing I was going to talk to you about, because we do live in an age where, like, everything can, should and is questioned. Like I never questioned stuff, I guess, before COVID, but, like I mentioned a minute ago with the vaccines, I was like, should I be looking into this or should I just? I assumed that.
Speaker 1:I assumed that pediatricians went to college and learned all about vaccines and their safety and and the studies that went into them and why we have them and what each disease, um, how many people died from each disease, and knowing that this is the best way to do it. And then I kind of realized, no, the pharmaceutical companies write the textbooks that they're learning from in medical schools. So how do you, how are you going to set it up for your kids and your students on your platform to question things and but. But then you don't want to be too overly questioned because then you're wearing your tinfoil hat, so you don't want kids to be, you know, crazy. But where does, where does that fall for you?
Speaker 2:I think nothing should be off limits to be curious about. So if you want to say the earth is flat, then we let's, let's go on a journey. If you believe the earth is flat, then what you do is you seek disconfirmation. You try and prove yourself wrong. Okay. If you believe the earth is round, you try and prove yourself wrong. I think you're going to have a tough time proving yourself wrong. That the earth is round, okay. Compared to the earth is flat. So you don't, you don't. What you don't do, or what I don't do, is say that's a dumb question, you know. You can't question that because, again in history, galileo was, you know, died in like, you know, basically like being imprisoned in his home for saying that the earth revolved around the sun, because that was anti-science, you know. So how many things do we know to be true that are no longer true? I mean, this is constant. Science is always updating with new information, so we should round our edges about being sure of what we know. And yes, so much came out in COVID about where funding comes from. The FDA gets 75% of its drug funding from the pharmaceutical companies. The school system was created by the Rockefellers, based on the Prussian model to build compliant, obedient workers and soldiers. Like this stuff is is real. You know you can put on your tinfoil hat all you want, but like it's, it's true, you don't. I mean there's, I don't I, we, we, just we just there's so much we don't know. So helping kids to say, like it's okay to ask these questions and you're not dumb for it.
Speaker 2:You know I posted something two or three years ago about Alex Jones. I listened to a long podcast of his and I was like I'd never really listened to him before. It was just that unread library effect of like he's a lunatic, okay, because he said the stuff about sandy hook which was clearly not true and things like that. But then he said a lot of things that were true. You know, whether it's like epstein island or whatever it might be um different. You know agent provocateurs and stuff. And I had some colleagues say, like you know, it's really uh, inappropriate for you to to even say that, alex, j might have some, some ideas. And I said here's what you they're like it's bad for the students. I was like here's what you do, you make an assignment that is, prove Alex Jones wrong, that's that. Then it's easy Like like you don't. You don't silence them from being curious. You actually like put rocket fuel into their curiosity.
Speaker 1:Do your kids know what to do in an emergency? Do they know how to call 911 from a locked cell phone? Well, if you've been listening to my podcast for any length of time, you know that I have been working for the last year on a book that talks about exactly this. I was going through homeschooling curriculum with my son and realized that, although they would brush over certain things that my son would need to know in an emergency, nothing really delved into it, and definitely not on a repetitive basis. I started reaching out to teachers and asking them what schools do to prepare kids for emergencies and, other than skimming the surface, they said that they really feel that this information is the parent's responsibility to teach. But do parents know that? It's not like there's a handbook where we talk about who is responsible for what?
Speaker 1:So I set out on a journey to write a book about exactly this, and it is finally published. My illustrator, cheryl Krauthamel, is a retired NYPD officer, so she was the perfect fit for this book. We have hidden a 9-0-1 and a 1 in each illustration so that you and your kids can have fun searching for these numbers. While solidifying for your kids what these numbers look like, I've put the steps for how to reach 911 on various cell phones, even if they're locked, and what that call will go like and what information they will be looking for. My book will help your child practice their first and last name, mom and dad's first and last names, their address, what to do if there is a fire. It goes over stranger danger, internet, water and gun safety and I have paired an activity book to go right along with it.
Speaker 1:To solidify these concepts, give yourself peace of mind and give your kids the confidence to handle the unexpected. By grabbing your copy of let's Talk Emergencies today, you can head on over to the link in my show's description or thehomeschoolhowtocom, and if you do purchase the copy, please, please, please, leave me a review on Amazon. The more reviews I have, the more the algorithm will push this book out there, so I would really appreciate it. Thank you so much for listening and for all of your support of the show.
Speaker 2:Because the goal isn't to prove yourself right. The goal is to get to the right answers. The goal is to get the truth. So if that means that, like I'm wrong about something, when someone's like Will you're wrong about this, my eyes light up. I'm like oh, please tell me how I'm wrong. I want to hear I'm wrong, because why would I want to hold on and defend bad ideas? That doesn't make any sense to me. I want to update my software and doing that in real time with my own children, with my students, to say, like I used to think this, now I think this because of this new information that came in here. It gives them permission to do the same thing.
Speaker 2:So it's not, you don't just dismiss these things and I think that happens way too much in education is like you can't question these narratives, whether it's about vaccines or race or gender or whatever these third rail topics are. It's like no, you have to be able to ask questions, because this is the stuff that's going on in our world and the way that we can get through this properly is by really understanding something. The only way you're going to really understand something is if you have curiosity to dive deeper. So I'm always just like.
Speaker 2:No kid can ask a sincere question in my class and I will knock them and say that they're terrible or they're dumb for asking that question. You know you only have to ask a dumb question once, so Ask it, remember the answer. Like oh my gosh, I can't believe you don't know. You know, is water wet? Like yeah, water is wet. Okay, good, now I'll remember water is wet, I don't have to ask that dumb question anymore. So I think just building a whole culture around asking questions, being curious, I love Socrates. He said you know, he's the smartest man because he knows he knows nothing, and I think that that's the proper approach that should be taken in school. And so often it's the opposite. It's I know, I'm the teacher, I know the information, I'm smart. You're children, you just need to listen to me because I know the right way, and there's an arrogance in that that I just never subscribe to.
Speaker 1:I think that's so true and just from working in the government for so long, the reason. I mean, I've just seen it Like these people are just so dumb and nor do they care about the work that some care about, the work that's being produced, but that's like on their day to day, like I have a project there and you know this mode I have to get it done to make myself feel good. But then, like the overall picture, I try to step back and look at that and I'm like, well, what's the agency doing overall? Is it saving anyone any money? Is it helping anyone out? No, then why are we doing it? And it's like I've just seen so many people with the tunnel vision. You know that just can't look at the big picture like that.
Speaker 1:For myself, I was like a bleeding heart liberal my whole life, going up into 2020. And then it was kind of like you were saying people were questioning things and I was like, well, let me try to prove them wrong. And in that I was like, oh, I think I've been wrong this whole time. So then I was like, well, let me kind of really look into both sides and see what makes more sense. And then I got into a whole level of like I joined the Trump train and then I got into a whole level of like, wait, wait, wait, no, there's even like more elites above that. So then, but needless to say, I I my views have changed very much from the you know 35, have changed very much from the you know 35,. I'm 40 now, so there's 35 years of thinking one way, and it's it's important that people do that. You, you're, you're growing as a person, I don't know what I know like 60, 80 year olds that are just steadfast in there. Nope, I'm a Democrat and so this is what I believe, because the guy on the TV says that and he wears the blue tie, or vice versa.
Speaker 1:It can be either, but it's like nobody wants to question anything anymore, and it's so crazy because we're at an era where, in our fingertips, we can get answers to anything or viewpoints to anything so easily, but people don't even want to be bothered with that Like where do you think? Where do you think we lost, like, the ability to just want to know stuff deeper? I mean, or have we never has this always? How do we look back on history? You're a history teacher, so this makes sense to ask you we're only hearing about the Socrates, the Galileos, you know, the people that made the difference. Were there so many underneath them that were just like, okay, where do we go today? Like follow that, you know? Is that why they, like, went into these battles and were all killed right away? Have we lost it? Have we? What do you see society as now, and especially with the next generation of kids coming up? Are we getting smarter?
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, well, not only were they, were they, you know, they people below them, but Socrates was killed. He was killed, ironically enough, for corrupting the youth is what he was charged with. So the people who question things, it's not just that people will look at you like you're crazy, they're going to come after you. I've had a lot of conversations, public conversations, that some went viral and things. But it's just me asking questions, but people don't like that, because you said that people are dumb. But I think really what it is department store and buy a machine gun. And I was like that would be crazy, cause you can't say what do you mean? I was like she's like you know, they have these semi-automatic rifles. Like do you know what a semi-automatic rifle is? She's like it's just one that shoots a lot of bullets. I was like no, like, so you don't know anything about guns and yet you're so confident and you go into your classroom saying this and that about guns, but you know nothing about guns. Like I don't have a strong opinion on racehorses, cause I don't know anything about racehorses. I shouldn't have a strong opinion on racehorses, but I don't. I mean, I don't know. Has your, have your core values changed? Probably not. You still have your same core values. It's just the policies that align with those core values seem to have changed because maybe they weren't aligned with those core values to begin with. But the propaganda machine, or whatever it might be, has kind of been doing that.
Speaker 2:But to answer your question about about like you know why, why are we in this spot and how do we get here, I think that ideologies, which is just like a system of beliefs, I think that that gives you answers. It gives you comfort to be like all right, I have this crazy simulation, wild consciousness, experience of life figured out. It's really hard for people to live in that uncertainty. They want some certainty because it's just too complex. You know it's too much out there that's unknown People talk about like smoking pot and getting paranoid. Part of what that is, I think, is just like a realization that there's a lot more going on than you might have been aware of under a sober mindset. And I think that having an ideology this is right, this is wrong political ideology they give you the answers, you know what is right or wrong it just gives you a sense of comfort and people don't like that discomfort of not knowing, of not knowing what's going to happen next, of not knowing right from wrong, and it's a lot of work to pull apart all of the nuance to figure that out and it's just easier just to have a system that's just plug and play. And I think that that's what people are doing.
Speaker 2:And in the modern world it's gotten worse because at least when you were listening to Walter Cronkite for one hour a night or something, he would kind of shoot for the middle and not go too partisan. But now, with social media and with 10,000 channels on television, you can watch exactly what will tell you that you're right and will give you that confirmation bias on your ideology. So your whole paradigm of understanding the world is going to be supported in this ideology where you're going to see completely different news stories. You're going to see completely different narratives than your neighbor next door who has a completely different social media scroll and has different channels on their television, and that's just going to cause you to have more, more like solid ideological beliefs. But that's not going to help you to understand why your neighbor sees things so differently. So instead you just go.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm constantly hearing that someone who thinks differently is a bad person. So then it becomes they're a bad person or they're a wrongheaded person. And that's where a lot of our divides are coming from, where what I'm constantly promoting in my classroom, to my students, in my household, and also what I try to model on my platforms, is like, sincerely, like how could you vote for this person or how could you support this thing? And it's not a rhetorical question, it's an actual question, like I really want to understand what am I missing here? This person seems so repugnant, or they seem so incompetent, but what am I missing, like, what am I wrong about? And then they can share, and you might not adopt their belief, but at least you can understand a little bit better why they believe, what they believe.
Speaker 2:And I just think that that's, that's the job of an educator. Not everywhere in your, in your, in your life, are you going to want to do that? But in school that's where you should be is trying to understand your fellow citizens and why they might disagree with you, instead of just saying that they're wrong and they're right. It's a controversial issue Guns, abortion, immigration, whatever. It's like a 50-50 split. So it can't be that half the nation is just immoral and your side is the moral one. It has to be more complex than that, obviously. So let's figure that out, let's be curious about why that might be.
Speaker 1:And you're so right, because in thinking about my transitioning from the liberal to the Republican to the oh my God, they're all trying to kill us it was like I had to get in an uncomfortable space and think like, well, how could I protect my family if this is really kind of how I'm seeing the world now? And it was like, okay, well, can I homeschool, can we, can we educate and do it so that my kids can still be successful and have great lives? And can we grow food? Can I actually quit my job? Can you know all the get guns? Can, are we? Am I now going to be pro-gun Because, just like the teacher, I, you know, had an opinion on something I knew nothing about? Well, yes, now we have guns. Do we have enough ammo? Do we? If?
Speaker 1:If and it's like it doesn't have to be the end of the world, it can just be a hurricane took a turn and went somewhere where people weren't expecting it, so they weren't prepared. So now there's looting going on in the streets because people don't have food and the stores don't have any electricity to even open up for the people you know that need food. So looting is going on. And now they're coming to my house and do we have enough to enough ways to protect our family? Like it's as simple as that? It doesn't. I mean, the last week, two weeks, can show everyone that things happen where you need to protect yourself because the government's not always going to be there to do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, 100% is like. You know, we've gotten very comfortable. You know there's food in the refrigerator not for everybody in america, obviously, but for a lot, of, a lot of people. You know there's food in the refrigerator, roof over your head, and things are fairly comfortable. But that can change. I can, and we know that through history, things can turn on a dime.
Speaker 2:During the great depression, the people that were the that lost the most were the people that had invested the most. They were the ones with the most wealth. They're the ones who are the one with the most that lost the most are the people that had invested the most. They were the ones with the most wealth. They're the ones who are the one with the most invested wealth, the people that put money in the bank. Cause you're supposed to put money in the bank, but then the banks you know, you know put that out there into the stock market, and then they had the bank runs. And then you go to the bank and say, can I have my money out? And no, we don continue to happen. I mean, people lost a ton in 2008,. You know, like, like, they lost their entire savings.
Speaker 2:So, learning from these experiences, you touch the stove. You burn your hand and you say, all right, well, hey, everybody don't touch the stove anymore. That's history class, you know. But but I think one of the fears and maybe you went through this is like, all of a sudden, when you start start buying a firearm, you go out to the range and all of your anti-gun more. You know, left-leaning friends are going to be like you change and you're not a part of us anymore and our brains are not actually wired to be critical thinkers because it's it's going to ostracize you from the group. We're wired to go along with the group like that. That's what's going to keep you alive and surviving. You, you know, going back to our caveman days. So you're actually, you're actually structured biologically to not question the people in your group. You know it's really hard.
Speaker 2:If you've been a vegan your whole life, then you, you learn about how monocrop agriculture is bad for the environment and you learn about the animals that die from. You know harvesting wheat and then you learn about, like, the health implications that maybe were not designed just to eat vegetables or something like that. Then you're, but your, your name is like vegan girl 35 on on Twitter. Well, now, who are you? It's like your sense of identity. Plus all your vegan friends are going to look at you like a traitor.
Speaker 2:So there's a lot of pressure on you not to become a critical thinker and I and you know something that I do all the time is just like I'm a critical thinker and I and you know something that I do all the time is just like try to elicit that courage to to go out and take those steps, because you're going to find a different community.
Speaker 2:Maybe you know if this friend won't be friends with you because you've changed your lifestyle a little bit and your friendship is only hinged on that, that commonality that you had and you change. You know, it's kind of like the advice I give for young people when they're getting married is find someone that's going to grow along with you, cause if you get married at 23, hopefully you're not at the same person at 43 and you are at 23. Hopefully you're going to evolve, you're going to get better, and so you want to. You want to be able to adapt and become the better version of yourself, and the people that are trying to keep you as your former person maybe those aren't the best people for you and you'll have to find a new community which you will.
Speaker 1:So true, and I did find a new community. And you know what? I think it might even help marriages, because the day I walked up to my husband I said those four magical words babe, we need guns. I think he fell in love with me all over again we need guns. I think he fell in love with me all over again.
Speaker 1:So it can even work out for the better, so Will. Where can people find you if they want to get in contact with your platform or just follow you on Instagram, because you have some great?
Speaker 2:stuff on there. Oh, thank you. Yeah, on Instagram it's just my name, will Rush, w-i-l-l-r-e-u-s-e-h, and my platform is called patter docs. It's P A T T E R D O X. Uh, it's a subscription with recorded classes and live classes, but it's also what I feel like I'm back in, like my first couple of years of teaching, before I had kids, before I was married, and like my whole life was just pouring into my students. I was the first one there, the last one to leave.
Speaker 2:Whatever these kids needed they needed help. You know working out. You know I want to lose weight or gain weight it's like I got you. You know they need to help. I want to learn math it's like I got you is really like a concierge teacher service so I can just pour into the families that are enrolled and just help them with whatever they might need. You know, cause it's always the same mentality. It's always about direct application. You know, if a kid says like I hate math, it's like I'm not a math teacher. But I can tell you why you should learn math. I can just help you with the basics, but I can tell you why you should care about math. You know, like if you, if you want to be, whatever, I'll rapper, so you don't care about math. It's like, well, then you're going to go broke because someone who does care about math is going to steal all your money from you.
Speaker 2:So you know, direct application for everything is really what it's all about, and I can help, uh, all of these families that are enrolled now you know they asked me all these just random questions my, my daughter's going through this. My son's going through this. Can you help? My son doesn't want to get out of bed in the morning. So I'll talk to him and I'll even do stuff that I've done with my students for years, which is like, all right, well, let's make a pack together, okay, we're going to get up. We're going to do a hundred pushups every day, okay.
Speaker 2:And then there's like a community hub and I'd be like hey, did you do your a hundred pushups? Now? Okay, at my job as a teacher, you know, not just teaching history and knowing history, but really like direct application. So reach out, go to paradoxcom, or contact at paradoxcom, or paradox at gmailcom there's all these different ways to get in touch with me or over Instagram, and we'll just talk about you know, what are you looking for what are the needs that you have, and then ways that I can help, and that's that's. I'm just so fired up to be able to do this and you kind of lost the passion a little bit the last two years that I was in the classroom, cause I was like I kind of kind of got this down, I want to do, I want to do more, and now I'm like all fired up so anyone listening can just click right there and easy get right to you and check all that out.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you so much for joining me today. This has been so fun. I can tell that you're passionate about it, so I hope people do check it out.
Speaker 2:You know, reach out. I'd love to connect with people in your audience. I really would Thank you for having me on.
Speaker 1:Thank you for being here today. Thank you for tuning into this week's episode of the Homeschool How-To. If you've enjoyed what you heard and you'd like to contribute to the show, please consider leaving a small tip using the link in my show's description. Or, if you'd rather, please use the link in the description to share this podcast with a friend or on your favorite homeschool group Facebook page. Any effort to help us keep the podcast going is greatly appreciated. Thank you for tuning in and for your love of the next generation.