The National Day of Prayer in Park City, Utah

Today is the National Day of Prayer.  In Park City, Utah, The Christian Center of Park City joined together this morning and took the day seriously.  I, along with a few other STAR Forum members, attended the event.  I wasn’t sure what to expect, and was very impressed.

The morning started out with a wonderful breakfast of doughnuts, muffins, sausage, bacon, quiche, juice, coffee, and more.  I saw many friendly faces from around the community, and met a few new ones.

The event began with a prayer.  We sang a few hymns of praise, and different people from the community spoke.  With each community member concluding, we were asked to specifically prayer for just a couple of minutes at our tables for those specific needs.  Lisa Kirtchenheiter, a Park City school board member, spoke of the difficulties that children are facing.  She asked that we also remember in our prayers the homeschooled children (as she gave me a quick nod), charter-school children, and private-school children.  Then the prayers began.  I was overwhelmed with the spirit of these prayers, thinking of the youth that will grow into our local leaders, our entrepreneurs, our healers, and maybe even leaders of our nation. 

Then it came time for the law enforcement to say a few words.  Chief of Police in Park City, Wade Carpenter, and Summit County Sherriff, Dave Edmonds, both had a chance to speak.  They spoke of their commitment to community, and Chief Carpenter spoke of the way Sherriff Edmonds always seeks for guidance in prayer every day before his duty begins.  They spoke of the hardships of serving, how these officers see things that can disturb you for life.  Among other things, they deal with child pornography, abuse victims, drugs, and violence.  They spoke of the divorce rate among police officers, and it is around 75%.  They asked us to prayer for safety of the officers in both body and mind.

I wish I had taken my camera to the event, because Sheriff Edmonds was in his highest uniform, covered with stars on his collar, and stripes on his arms.  Today was an especially emotional day for Sheriff Edmonds.  Today four names were to be added to the memorial of fallen officers in Utah.  And every year on this day, Sheriff Edmonds thinks of Officer Ron Wood, who served in West Jordan and was killed in the line of duty, after being shot.  He was Dave’s friend, and trained with him.  I remember this man, because I lived in West Jordan at the time of his death.  What a small world it is.

We heard from other pastors and teachers here in the area.  The one that struck me, (and I apologize for not remembering his name now,) was the man who quoted from scripture and reminded us to love our enemy, and “pray for those that despitefully use you.”  He reminded us to pray for such organizations as Hamas, and al-Qaeda, and request that their hearts be softened toward us, and not wish to do violence.  Wise words.

The Christian Center left a sheet on each table that listed National Leaders, from Barrack Obama on down to Eric Holder, State Senators, our State Governor, Park City Local Leaders, the principles of the schools, and our Supreme Court Justices.  Sadly, some local leaders that had been invited were unable to attend.  The center distributed a book mark put out by Pray! magazine, that listed 30 ways to pray for people in Authority. 

The thought that came to my mind, that is often attributed to Alexis De Toqueville, but is unverifiable, where he is claimed to have said,

“I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers – and it was not there . . . in her fertile fields and boundless forests and it was not there . . . in her rich mines and her vast world commerce – and it was not there . . . in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution – and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.”

The spirit of the morning was beautiful.  There are many good Christians that understand that while many things are in their circle of concern, they seem out of reach of our circle of influence.  However, there is something everyone can do;  Pray.

Today, on the 2011 National Day of Prayer, pray for our nation, its public servants, and it’s people.  We must remember that we are One Nation, but only under God.

Freedom vs. Compulsion in Education

It’s time to rethink education.  Here’s an entertaining video that discusses it well, and then you can read the post from Carrie Piper about one mom’s experience with education.  You can see her blog at http://learningandlivinginliberty.blogspot.com/ 

Reposted with permission from Carrie Piper

I have been evaluating how I REALLY feel about freedom & the use of compulsion in education & life in general. A few weeks ago I read “The Leadership Education Continuum” by Diann Jeppson & Jodie Palmer (in the appendix of Leadership Education:The Phases of Learning by Oliver & Rachel DeMille) and listened to the free workshop you can download at Leadership Education Family Builder.

This really got the thinking! This continuum is a cyclical diagram that shows how the stages, 7 keys & 5 environments of Leadership Education all work together.  I cannot reproduce it here, but it is on page 301 of Leadership Education. The diagram shows the Freedom Agreement running across the center. I interpret this placing as a hinge of sort. It is the unifying practice that holds everything together. The mortar of a brick building, the eggs in a cake. So I ask myself. Just how am I living this principle? Have I fully accepted it?

Well, let’s define it first. It is basically the idea that personal freedom to pursue one’s own education works. It produces an individual who knows freedom.

WARNING! Soapbox Rabbit Trail Below

 (I do not mean having a head knowledge of the definition of freedom. I mean knowing it deep down in your bones so that it becomes a part of who you are and it sickens you when you see freedom being violated for yourself and others. These types of people are far and few between these days! It’s obvious they are a minority in elected officials if they are there at all. We allow our freedom to be hampered everyday.  For example, you cannot build on your own property without permits and paying the permit fees. You cannot start a new business without some sort of licensing, fee and government oversight.  This is not freedom. I read recently that 1 in 5 jobs in the USA is involved with monitoring the behavior of other people in some way. That is just wrong! )

 It also produces a person who loves learning because all they have learned has been intrinsically motivated, not coerced. Compulsory education makes an assumption here. The assumption is that freedom does not work with education. Reading, math and the like must be learned using coercion, a closed environment from which there is no escape, rewards for compliance & punishments for non-compliance (aka independent thought). The Freedom Agreement assumes that freedom in education does work and with superior results!

 Now when I read this I thought I agreed totally! I am a TJEder! We’ve been home educating this way for almost 4 years now, and even before I found TJEd, I was very relaxed in our methods. But then I hit a bump in the road.

I wrote here about how La had said she wanted to work on her math facts in order to be able to do Life of Fred. I thought, “Great! This is working! I can stop worrying about whether or not she will ever learn her math facts and move on in math!”

 ~ Here comes the road bump ~

This lasted less than one day when she burst into tears saying she doesn’t want to do this anymore! So no more work on math facts!  I confess I was shocked and disappointed.  I tried to figure out what went wrong.  After some soul-searching and prayer this is what I discovered.

1. I was emotionally invested in her accomplishing this which made it my goal, not hers. 
2. When we went to practice the math facts, I used a method that I thought would produce the quickest results. I failed to take into account her learning style and temperament.

This was inspiration with string attached. You see, it became all about me. All about relieving my silent fear that, she will never learn _________, if I don’t require it. I had crossed the line of freedom in her own education. I was pushing and using compulsion techniques. This is when Inspire not Require becomes manipulation and I need watch this in myself.

So, I still need to work on accepting the Freedom Agreement. I need to daily remind myself that it is my job to expose, inspire and help our home to be a learning environment. It is her job to learn, grow, and move through the phases at her own pace.

So why do this? It’s much easier to buy a curriculum, make sure your child is “on track” with everyone else, or yield the freedom to an “authority” of an online school.  I struggle through this because I want something better for my daughter. I want her to know freedom in her bones, to function within freedom, to have a deep love of learning that will last a life time, and be practiced in the skills of a scholar.

I need to trust freedom, trust my daughter & trust the guidance of my Lord God.

“Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” 

2 Corinthians 3:17

Economics in One Lesson

The STAR Forum is going to have a guest speaker come and speak on Austrian Economics just after the election in November.  Please obtain this book and read it.  Even if you cannot attend our meetings, buy the book and read it so you may have a better understanding of Austrian Economics, and stop the Keynesian nightmare that is our United States Economic system.  Click on the book above to purchase.