One of our close neighbors from Ursulo Galvan (our home in Mexico) called from Las Vegas. By close I mean he is a friend as well as being close in proximity to our small casa there in the ‘burbs of Xico, Veracruz, MX.

This fellow who is highly educated by Mexican standards is washing dishes at a restaurant in Sin City.

It was good to hear his voice. But in that voice I could hear he was not happy living in an apartment with four or five other border crashers. He is greatly missing his two children and wife. He sends money back home every week.

He left Mexico right about the time we did in April of this year and will return home in July because he finds that he is lonely, unhappy and not really amassing as much money a he hoped because of the high cost of survival in Las Vegas.

In March we had offered him a ride to Matamoras, MX. – He would have to find his way over the border without us. He had a more westerly route planned out as his Las Vegas destination would be easier accomplished crossing over the border at Arizona.

Don’t be shocked that we would assist one of these “illegals” getting into the U.S. If you read here regularly you know I hate borders and don’t have any respect for them. Also, understand that we are NOT coyotes paid or not. Our position was to give a friend a ride to the Frontera – period.

We had a nice conversation. It was really thoughtful of him to give us a call. I think it made him feel good to be speaking to friends here in the lonely U.S. Of course he mostly spoke to Anita since he speaks NO English and my Spanish is, well, no es bueno.

We would help this fellow out any way that is legal not wanting to get caught up in aiding and abetting the criminal character of his mission.

I understand people can get into legal trouble merely giving a glass of water to a parched border passer – grrr.

Today is the ‘big’ immigrant vote in Congress – a bunch of second, third, or fourth generation immigrants voting as to whether others have the same rights their ancestry had. Frankly from what I understand I don’t like the bill much – it isn’t as if they are voting to open the borders – but if it makes it a little easier (and I am not sure this is the case) then it is better than nothing. I will wait to read the tome if it passes through all the hoops and becomes the current law(s) of the land.

The other day I read this letter from a U.S. citizen. It was left on Congress.org where people can leave letters to the government. This letter pretty much says what I am thinking today.

June 19, 2007

Dear Mr. President and Members of Congress,

I just want to say thank you for choosing to allow another group of immigrants feel at home in our great country. Because of the United States, my great-grandparents came here from Ireland, had my grandmother, who met my grandfather, who came here from Canada and had my dad who met my mom, whose grandparents came from Germany, who had my grandparents, making me French Canadian, German, Irish, and American.
If the United States had never allowed these people to migrate here, my parents may never had met and I may never have been born. (some people would be saddened by that thought.)

And to think, it was all because we stole this entire land off the Indians and pushed them further and further away so we could own it all. And that wasn’t enough, to just chase them off–we tried to kill them off, too, by offering them nice warm blankets contaminated with small pox, purposely, just to end their tribe. But the Blackfeet tribe still exist in a very small, poor reservation in Montana, in Hud housing, which was severely damaged by the wind storms this past year.

Well, I think we’d need to push ourselves all out and leave it all to the Indians if there isn’t room for any more–because we’re intruders too, and robbers–because we wanted America to be OUR home, too, and thought we had the right to even kill others that were here first, to lay claim to it.

We need to stop blaming “illegal immigrants” for wanting to be here, and start blaming ourselves for being selfish territorial hogs.

This letter is in response to one I read on Congress.org which made me realize how haughty, self centered selfish a people in such a vast and plentiful land have ever exemplified themselves as being.

You want it all–hand out blankets infected with small pox on them at the border.

Thanks, Congress and Mr. President, for acting in an exemplorary manner.

gloucester , NJ

Perhaps the U.S. could have water fountains spiked with poison to assuage the thirst of the border crashers – I don’t think any of them will be looking for blankets.

I don’t understand a lot of the cultural differences between our two societies (U.S. & Mexico). My manners are mostly predicated on what I believe to be right rather than how I am supposed to behave in one place or the other. I am a damn stubborn individual – I know it.

I certainly am a member of a very small minority of Americans who believe the illegal immigrants have as much right to be here as we do – a tough argument you can be assured.

Looking past color and borders is not an easy thing – perhaps for me it is looking at life through rose colored glasses – but hey I come by it honestly being a child of the ‘60’s – Peace.

Stay Tuned!

Caught these sheep a few miles from Rancho Calypso

CHEYENNE, Wyo. – More than 150 American pronghorn fawns were captured on F.E. Warren Air Force Base and shipped to Zacatecas, Mexico, as part of a program that seeks to revive Sonoran and peninsular pronghorn populations.

The fawns will be kept in wildlife preserves or other protected areas while scientists determine how closely the DNA of American pronghorn match that of Sonoran and peninsular pronghorn. If they determine that the DNA is suitably similar, then the American pronghorn will be released in the wild with the Sonoran and peninsular pronghorn to breed.

“Wyoming is lucky to have a wealth of pronghorn,” said Jon Stephens, the state Game and Fish Department warden who organized the capture. “The pronghorns indigenous to Mexico haven’t fared so well, and Mexican biologists were looking for a way to help stabilize their pronghorn populations.”

Stephens said the project benefits Wyoming, too, by helping control the pronghorn population through nonlethal means.

This is the fourth year Wyoming has sent pronghorns to Mexico for the recovery effort; in all, the state has sent more than 300 American pronghorn to Mexico.
The Associated Press(AP)

I wonder why they couldn’t have evaluated the DNA before sending the fawns to Mexico? It seems as if this would have been a better process in the event that the DNA proves their release to not be a good idea.

Then I hope there is some way to manage them from being killed and eaten before they can multiple. There is a distinct lack of wildlife in our part of Veracruz. Obviously wildlife management has a value; Mexico needs more. Stay Tuned!

For some reason the marketers and spin doctors have chosen 1967 as the Summer of Love. Wikipedia describes it as: “The Summer of Love refers to the summer of 1967, particularly in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, where thousands of young people from all over the world loosely and freely united for a new social experience. As a result, the hippie counterculture movement came into public awareness. “

Personally I think it started several years before that. And as the description implies “…[the] movement came into public awareness” By the time LIFE magazine and mainstream America picked up on all of it – it was on its way out. By the early ‘70’s the Beatles were split up and much of the spirit of the times was lost due to mass interest and mass spoilage.

It was interesting to see Paul Kanter and my good friend of that era David Freiberg (former Quicksilver bassist) on the Saturday Today show this morning. Of course Diana Mangano is belting out Gracie Slick’s vocals. She wasn’t even born during the Summer of Love – if she had been believe me she wouldn’t be sporting those pipes.

On the Today show they asked Paul Kanter if it is still true that all you need is love – he said no. I say yes.

You see having been there I can tell you that if we hippies of that day had our way and made our beliefs a reality we wouldn’t be reliving Vietnam getting a death count each day of the Americans dying in Iraq. Environmental concerns wouldn’t be just a fad it would be a reality. Corruption, cheating, and greed would not be the dominating qualities of business and governments. Today’s music would be better; and more would be very different.

The velvet bell bottoms and granny glasses (I still have mine) may have survived, but the real values of the Summer of Love was lost a long time back.

For me 1967 was a turning point in many ways. I started working for Capitol Records in November of the previous year. I got to that point by facing a crossroad in October of 1966; the month of my turning 20 years old – do the math – yes I am now 60.

When I turned 20 I started a ritual that continues. At every ten year increment of my life from then on I have done a major evaluation of where I have been and where I am going, last October was no exception – but this is about then.

The self inflicted cross road was whether I was going to drop out (I had already tuned in and turned on) or not. After a lot of introspection I decided it would be better to master the process, succeed in their game, before I could tell my parents and previous living generations why we were more right about peace, love and even rock ‘n roll.

So I chose the path of business and success to prove I could do it. The resultant problem was this: I did become successful but I had to become so much of what I was against to master the game that by the time I was at a successful point wherein I could say, “Now that I have your attention, let me tell you why you are so screwed up – you couldn’t tell me from the rest of them – so what was I going to tell them? I had become so much a part of what I was against that the chewing gum of the summer of ’67 has lost its flavor.

Unfortunately, too many of us did that and we moved on to become yuppies and hushed puppies rather than howling wolves decrying the mess the system was – too sad.

Now at 60 I still remember parts of the Summer of Love. I thought this morning where would John Lennon be right now at 66 years old? Where would Jim Morrison, Janice Joplin, and Jimmy Hendrix be? I’m still here trying to reason with violent, greedy, self absorbed people to less avail than my chances 40 years ago – but at least I am back on the right path.

I now know I don’t have to be one of them to get their attention.

Today I am my own person – love it or leave it. My evaluations and reflections at 60 have us heading to Mexico full time. I have been lucky to have a great support system in Anita and a terrific experience in raising Julian our way. Life is still good and 2007 is still the Summer of Love for our family – as for the rest of you – well I am less likely to try and make you see it my way – but then here I am still singing that song with less air in my lungs…Stay Tuned!

This past weekend we visited friends. I engaged in a conversation with our friend’s twenty-seven year old son. He still has a couple of years of college to complete. He is an intelligent boy who in his defense was slow out of the starting blocks.

In as much as his major and major interests are a combination of advanced culinary skills and business administration with a bent towards International finance, I asked him if being nearly thirty years old when he will be ready to enter the ‘real’ world might not be a major negative.

I thought back to my own working life – at thirty I retired from the music business in Los Angeles after nearly fifteen years working in that arena. I entered into the entrepreneurial world at that point. A transition I euphemistically often described by stating, “I am not unemployed. I am unemployable.”

While my son Julian’s name and situation had not come up I assume our friends had told their son about him. My young verbal combatant suggested without provocation that my son’s case is extremely unusual implying that everyone can’t start off in life’s working world at 12 years old. I don’t disagree. But there is a large gap between these two youths lives. I mean it wasn’t so very long ago that by thirty one had expended nearly half their life – still not possessing a working identity at nearly thirty – hmm.

I find it humorous that when Anita and I embarked on the challenge of self educating our child that virtually everyone warned us about the pitfalls; the hardships placed on ourselves and our child socially, economically and practically. The lack of governmental authoritarian intervention, part of our plan, would surely place us in hot water; the lack of socialization – all the peer pressure he would miss, all those school gangs and shootings that he would miss. The warnings were many and almost unanimous.

Now it is suggested that Julian’s success thus far in life is an anomaly, a result of an unusually gifted child with a set of eclectic parents to guide him. I have to take exception to this. Usually I just let it go. But, honestly it isn’t a fair assessment of how the three of us got to this point.

Let me get this out in front, I love my son and he certainly is an intelligent young man. But, like his dad, we are not geniuses – simple independent guys with a definite obstinate streak wherein we are likely to operate outside the box to a great degree.

I am convinced it is less us then the luck of having made the decision to avoid the antiquated educational system that this society is feeding way to much money and ego boosts. Lets take the last part of that statement first and get it out of the way; isn’t a lot of the reason that we want little Johnnie or Mary to go to college about our ego? Other than Bill Cosby in a comedy skit or two don’t all of us think our kids are smart and good looking – better looking and smarter than most? This is as it should be; otherwise no one would even want the critters.

I use to marvel at how lovely and smart Anita thought (thinks) of her son – man a mother’s love is something – isn’t it? On the rare occasion I would gently press on the top of her head pushing her feet down to earth reminding her that Julian is a fine boy but not the miracle she imagines. Honestly I was just trying to keep a balance to the perspective. There are a lot of intelligent and dare I say even more so beings amongst our son’s peer group.

OK so let’s take Julian out of the equation and talk about education. During the conversation with our friend’s career student he eloquently waxed on about the inestimable value of education; something a nearly mid-life continuing to date student certainly might be thinking.

I argued the point that the educational system in the United States was way behind the times in my way of thinking. I share Alvin Toffler’s (author of the books “The Third Wave” and “Future Shock”) theory that today’s schools are a derivative of the Industrial Age turning out factory-style workers and ‘thinkers’ for jobs that soon won’t exist.

Toffler argues and I agree that the U.S. education systems need to diversify, individualize, and decentralize. They need to become smaller, more local schools that are supported by more education in the home (i.e. home schooling). The U.S. should be stressing parental involvement; more creativity, less rote; after all it is the rote jobs that are disappearing from the fabric of the U.S. job market the fastest.

It isn’t that our son is a boy genius rather he was educated outside the box – the simple truth. And now fifteen years later and the results are in, rather than these facts faced our son’s success is reduced to his exceptional intellect.

Don’t misunderstand my point here. I am not here to diminish capability rather to support an educational process that isn’t archaic and designed to do little more than to play to parental egos and amass huge financial gain for a rather useless group of educators.

If I weren’t so darn diplomatic I might even suggest that the U.S. educational system sucks. The United States needs to revamp its educational institutions before all is lost. Think about it, or not, but by all means STAY TUNED!

Paul McCartney & Me (circa 1972)

…Or have you noticed all the old rock n’ rollers that are making comebacks these days?

This morning I quickly got off a SKYPE conversation with John Paul in Chi Town to catch a CBS Sunday Morning Show segment on Bob Seger.

OK here is the thing, Bob and I go way back more than 35 years where in another life I was a recording engineer at Capitol Records. You have all seen that round building a block up from Hollywood and Vine and of course know CD’s come from that label. Less of you know I worked there for ten years.

It was good to see Bob and where his life is at after all these years – but this rock n’ roll revival thing has me bothered. The truth be known these oldies and not so goodies can’t sing anymore. It saddens me to listen.

Bob Seger can’t sing anymore; nor can Carol King or Steve Miller or any number of sixty plus year olds that simply can’t get away from entertaining. I’m guessing it is about ego, after all they were saddled with GIANT ones.

I mean I worked with those artists and many more lo those many years ago. Now when I see them I compare me to them – are they heavier, grayer, wrinkled, or even still alive?

On the same show I watched a segment on Bill Walton and his son, a Father’s Day segment. This caught my eye too because I shot some hoops with Walton senior at Steve Miller’s studio back in the late 70’s. Now our son’s are following in our footsteps. There is no question in my mind that the baton must be passed.

I wouldn’t go see Paul McCartney sing as quite simply it would break my heart to watch him trying to be something he isn’t anymore. And I have some fine memories of working with Sir Paul back in the seventies.

Why can’t musicians hang up their guitars and grow old gracefully before they embarrass themselves?

Remember when they were carrying off ol’ blue eyes form the stage at 80? Fortunately we can put on CD’s and even records if you still have them that will reproduce these voices when they were in their prime – but are any of these people listening to their ‘old’ music?

Julian is a far better computer programmer than me – today! I had my time in the sun and now my son is basking in the light – I am happy about that and not in any way bothered that he is better at it than me – this is as it should be.

I don’t want to take anything away from fathers and daughters by the way. Somewhere I read and liked this: The daughters of lions are lions too.

While our offspring take over for us, never let it said that we no longer have something to offer, because we do – wisdom counts for a lot. But, let’s keep it in perspective.

Happy Father’s Day to me and all the rest of you fathers out there. Stay Tuned!

Julian is now 8 working days into his new job. This morning the human resources department called him in to discuss a possible mistake in his file. He SKYPED me writing:

Just spoke to HR [Human Resources] actually; they just noticed the age on my paperwork lol

It wasn’t a problem.

He said they probably won’t run into anything, they just thought it was amazing.

Apparently they just figured out he is sixteen years old. Of course we think it is a bit amazing ourselves – but since he has been with us his entire life – we understood

We have many parallels in our lives – my son and I – including minor problems. In 1964 I was working at RCA in Van Nuys, California building Saturn S1B and Saturn V ground test computers. I was seventeen years old. I had lied about my age as one needed to be a minimum of eighteen.

After a month or so they were working on some military clearance process for me and discovered my age – oops! They fired me – they apologized all over themselves as they were happy with my work up to then. But, rules are rules and the Union would not allow minors in their club.

As I am leaving the building someone approached me with a job offer for a position in management where unlike the government and Union there wasn’t age restrictions.

The position was in expediting – something I had no interest in at 17 years old – I respectively declined and soon after began a career in music by way of a Burbank radio station.

Thankfully Julian wasn’t dismissed. You have to wonder how they missed his age up to that point.

My amigo Marvin from Xalapa dropped by here in Colorado for couple days – it was a nice break from going through boxes, packing things and selling stuff. We had a nice visit. He headed off this morning.

One of my neighbors bought my 8N Ford tractor – oh sad day to see that old workhorse go down the road. We are going to have to try and take special care on our roads for the next three months now without a tractor to smooth things out.

Off went my aluminum fishing boat and its motors – ‘been dragging that thing around for 25 years – no more.

My neighbors Esther and Jim have tons of books that they brought from San Antonio to Mexico. We have over 5000 books – boxes and boxes, shelves and shelves. I don’t feel like trying to get them down to Mexico – but there are soooo many I want to keep – from Shakespeare to George Carlin.

Sitting on my desk is “Tactics On Trout” “How to Wade, Cast and Fish Out Each of 33 Different kinds of Trout Pools.” I have a lovely paperback copy and a fine hardback copy as well – those and about 4998 others. Moving is never easy, but when it includes abandoning many fine possessions – it is really tough.

What was I writing about freedom being another word for having nothing else to lose? Not being possessed by my possessions will be a new freedom soon. Stay Tuned!

And the beat goes on…Stay Tuned!

Boy lately I have been reading about the mass of problems amongst diverse people until I want to run and hide from them all!

To me we are all one – white, brown, black, red or yellow – at the end of the day we are human beings living on planet earth. The cry of a little baby regardless of race, creed or color is simply that – a cry. If a person doesn’t have enough to eat he/she will be hungry regardless of their color. We all know that a better truth is to embrace our fellow man regardless of differences.

Part of the process of being civilized is to acquire the habit of getting along with our neighbors – other human beings.

So I am reading and hearing a lot about the conflicts between peoples of different races, religions and regions. How different or similar we are can be defined in so many ways. If we spent more time acknowledging our similarities mainly that of humanoids and less about our differences then just maybe getting along would be easier.

When the United States was founded most recently the Poles congregated in one community and the Italians in another – they had a natural affinity that way.

When the Calypso family considered Mexico as a part time or full time home base we chose (so far) to live amongst the natives rather than “join up” with an expatriate enclave. That written I have no problem with sects of people wanting to combine forces and live close to one another. Perhaps their collective spirit is not one I choose to follow – but I think they have the right to gather together if it is their bent.

There are those that live on one side or the other of this issue that think only their way is right – how sad. Wouldn’t it be better if we all were tolerant of the other side of any issue?

Oh I hear the rhetoric about the gringos that invade poor Mexico and cause waves within the economy and structure of the “foreign” systems. It is less expensive to live amongst the poor and sort of live like them; and then I can bellow about how much better I am than the ugly Americans (read foreigners) that lives in a gated, guarded expatriate community. I can point my finger in shame at the gringos that have disruptive the socio-economic balance of their new found lands. But in truth isn’t there room for people on both sides of that issue – and more importantly should it not be an issue if in fact we are all willing to agree at the end of the day two armed, two legged up right humans are the same?

Do we really have a right to diminish the value of relocating because we want to live better on the money we have? I hear this rhetoric about how those Americans or Canadians just want to come to Mexico to live for less. They want to have a maid and a gardener – even though what – they don’t have the right or they aren’t rich enough to have or want these things? After all isn’t that what the rich have and isn’t that part of what we are supposed to be striving for – a better quality of life – but how dare they come to a poor area and take advantage of the natives. One might argue that if the natives didn’t want the money for such work they would do something else. I don’t know if it is more right or wrong but maybe the thing is to butt out and let people live as they may or might. Isn’t part of the free enterprise economy we all live under in this first world country about opportunity, freedom of choice and market based economy – the American way , no?

Come on people let’s tear down the barriers of division and learn to accept difference and similarity with an open mind and heart. In the not too distance past humans have done a little better towards teaching, even demanding, that we humans accept one another – but maybe those lessons and that process have peaked out, and now that there is so much war and communication we are re-polarizing ourselves and reigniting prejudice and hate toward our ‘different’ fellow man.

If you have a little extra and you decide to give some away – feel good about yourself but don’t beat everyone else up around you because you did and they didn’t – is this being a cheerful giver? I marvel at the spin doctors that pit the proletariat against one another while the rich get richer and the poor get poorer all around us. Wouldn’t it be better to look into why education and health care cost so much in the U.S. before trying to take more from the middle class to pay for that – is there a middle class anymore? – But I digress.

No one seems to complain that it cost more for a cup of coffee and the clothing on our backs in Beverly Hills, California than it does in Pueblo, Colorado. I don’t hear anyone yelling about how we are going to spoil the natives if we pay a maid in Beverely Hills what a teacher makes in Pueblo – but for some reason it is done when it comes to the difference between San Miguel and Xico. Isn’t it all really what the market will bear after all – and if it gets to the point there is no place for the poor than perhaps they will storm the rich? Isn’t that after all where a lot of the rich’s ‘heart felt’ concern for the poor comes from – either we throw them a bone or they will come after our steak.

Getting along in your neighborhood, across borders and between nations of people is no easy process and if I had all the answers as to how to make it all work I would run for office (but what office and where?).

I do know in my mind and heart that it starts with a genuine desire to get along, to tolerate difference and to accept the fact we are all one at the end of the day. Stay Tuned!

Actually we never got a for sale sign up. We have a deal on Rancho Calypso. The buyers are a really wonderful couple that we think will appreciate and enjoy this special place. We signed all the papers and now begin the arduous task of packing up – oh boy!

Our plan was to keep the upper forty acres to be sold or built upon later; in the mean time we would create storage for our STUFF. As it turns out the buyers bought the entire 80 acres with the Earthship – so now we are in a moving crunch.

As previously written we will greatly miss this place – but also we are excited about the new challenges ahead.

It is interesting that many of our circle of expats have been selling their houses and buying houses in Mexico. I think readers have a great chance to get a sense for the process via Jim and Mindy, the Harts, Bille and Ned, Brenda and Roy, Jonna and Mimi, Kathy and Jamie, and most recently Nancy and Paul.

Jonna writes in her latest Blog entry, “It’s getting financial stuff done that always freezes me in place. I know I want to do these things, I just panic at actually signing the papers or making the calls or mailing off the documents. What’s up with that? I need to get over this.” Boy how I hate Title companies and paperwork of that nature – all the intervening nonsense from the power structures – ugh!

When we moved here I told Anita, “Never again!” And here we go – once again. Stay Tuned!

Red Sky in the Morning… (ENLARGE)

At 5 AM I opened my eyes to see approximately what you see here. I whispered to Anita, “Look at the sky out there.”

She moaned, rolled over while mumbling, “Are you going to take a picture?”

I was comfortable and not wanting to get out of bed – but through a sense of duty to my loyal readership I stumbled from warmth and comfort to a fresh breeze and the smell of pines, and the dampness of early morning.

Each day’s weather is a mystery here on Colorado’s Front Range. You can see where the purple mountain’s majesty words come from in the song “America the Beautiful.”

In 1893 an English professor at Wellesley College Katharine Lee Bates, had taken a train trip to Colorado Springs, to teach a short summer school session at Colorado College, and several of the sights on her trip found their way into her now famous poem: “America the Beautiful.”

The adapted music was actually written a year earlier. Several existing pieces of music were adapted to the poem. The Hymn tune MATERNA composed in 1882 by Samuel A. Ward, was generally considered the best music as early as 1910 and is still the popular tune today.

Take the time to ENLARGE the photo. Living here on Rancho Calypso has brought that phrase home on a number of occasions including this morning. – Stay Tuned!

The Other Hilary

We watched an interesting movie last night – “Freedom Writers.” I have never been a big Hilary Swank fan, but I must write she did an excellent job. The film is thought provoking and hard to keep a dry eye watching.

There has been any number of true life high school drama films beginning perhaps with “Blackboard Jungle” (1955) Moving on to “Stand and Deliver” (1988) and “Dangerous Minds” (1995).

“Freedom Writers” is also based on a true story about a teacher who gets urban kids motivated. The film lends some credibility to this dark reality. Why else would they keep making the same movie over and over again? Hilary Swank apparently has enough star power or money (or both) to executive produce her own personal soapbox.

But, the true story here is that of a real life teacher, driven by pie in the sky optimism, which changed some lives and while doing it became the teacher of the year and the subject of a book and now film.

Sadly part of this true story is the fact that the dedication cost this woman her marriage bringing home a more 21st Century reality to this drama.

I get tired of the black and white – good person bad person scenarios – that tend to blanketly villainies main stream whatever – but then at the end of the day apparently there were some thoughtful management types who supported this teacher’s extreme idealism.

There is a Freedom Writers web site (The real outfit). I read some of the comments on the associated Forum; many of them are enlightening. I imagine the students and teacher will be followed to see if this is a lasting success story.

It is a little known fact that the real life teacher portrayed in the film “Stand and Deliver”, Jamie Escalante, left Garfield High School after problems with colleagues and administrators, and that his calculus program withered in his absence. That the untold part of that story highlights much that is wrong with public schooling in the United States and offers some valuable insights into the workings – and failings – of the U.S. education system.

This film elicits a lot of forced sentimentality with all the “You don’t get us at ALL, white lady” rants and the “You ARE so special” speeches. As much as Hilary Swank and Danny DiVito want to make an impact, its countless predecessors about the horror of gang life dampen its chances to do so. It may, however, inspire a new teacher to make a difference or even create more home school’ers.

My sister is a teacher retiring as of this year. I wonder what her take on this film will be? Because we were home school parents from day one with Julian we avoided a lot of the problems seen in a film like this. And of course we are anything but urban types.

We had a lot of nay-sayers during the time Julian was kept from mainstream education. Now that he has a six-figure income job at sixteen years old many of our detractors suggest we should be patting ourselves on the back for our decisions and effort – not sure about that. I tend to avoid this kind of thing and don’t feel justified in taking credit for the progress that my son has made – pretty much on his own.

The jury is still out on our son in terms of whether our methods were better than most or even right at all. He calls or writes home every day; and for that we are thankful. Of course he is sorely missed now that he is part of the big city scene – from whence both Anita and I came lo so many years ago.

The latest Scripps National Spelling Bee winner just announced yesterday is a home schooled kid, an occurrence that seems to happen a lot. Twelve and a half percent of the 286 national finalists spellers were home schooled while only three per cent of all students are home schooled – hmmm. What is it about home schoolers and spelling?

I don’t kid myself that all schools these days are social and racial war zones, but there is a lot of that going around. We appreciate the family values that we see in Mexico – not perfect – but closer to our own belief system. The reality check for me is that it is a dangerous world out there. I hope our son has enough tools to call upon to survive in the jungle. As this film suggests – we taught our son with our hearts. If you get a chance see the film and let me know what you think. By all means never surrender your beliefs! Stay Tuned!