00:15:09.940She's been just words can't describe how valuable she's been.
00:15:15.040um and all our academy parents are very familiar with sarah because she speaks to you on a regular
00:15:20.640basis to check in with you um so we put together this program um and when we were looking for
00:15:29.240homeschooling we we bounced around the idea of writing brand new fresh curriculum from scratch
00:15:36.960and i actually attempted to do that and learned very quickly that there's a reason that uh people
00:15:43.080with master's degrees get paid you know six figures a year to do that um and and devote
00:15:50.360their entire careers to that because it is extremely difficult time consuming and uh you
00:15:56.520you absolutely have to be a professional educator to do that um so even i tried my best but that just
00:16:03.640that was not going to be an option for us so i began to do some research about various
00:16:09.960educational philosophies um you know i had thought at one point well when i first started
00:16:16.840to homeschool my oldest daughter i i tried the classical approach and as a result i mean my
00:16:23.240my oldest daughter has a a very deep love for greek culture but uh you know that's not um
00:16:30.520something that all our parents i didn't think were going to to be able to do or we even want to do
00:16:36.040and I wasn't sure that was the best strategy to go forward to. So reading the various educational
00:16:44.640philosophies and programs out there, I came across Waldorf, which is what we do use. And the Waldorf
00:16:51.100method was developed by Rudolf Steiner in Germany in the late 18, early 1900s. He was a German
00:17:02.060nationalist and and again like myself he didn't start out as an educator but uh he ended up that
00:17:08.460way um but a very intelligent and educated man um who came up with this new educational philosophy
00:17:16.380that it really it takes a holistic approach it grounds our students in everything uh experiences
00:17:23.900are highly promoted rather than just reading and memorization experiencing the world and
00:17:33.500everything in it to gain a broader perspective and and Mr. Steiner really when he wrote this
00:17:42.460this program and this new philosophy he really had the Aryan mind the in our Aryan youths
00:17:49.180as the backbone of that, how we specifically look at the world, how we specifically relate
00:17:56.660to it, how our minds specifically work. So when I saw this, I thought, well, this seems
00:18:02.920like it's tailor-made for our folk. Let's use Waldorf. So luckily at the time, we had
00:18:10.340a member that had been homeschooling in Waldorf who helped us a lot with early materials
00:18:17.660for the uh when we first started and we've kind of picked up and gained more material as we've gone
00:18:24.300uh in the waldorf style um and then most recently we found uh a comprehensive program i mean it's
00:18:34.780just like if you went to a private waldorf school it's so uh extensive and wonderful what they
00:18:41.020provide you don't have to excuse me i'm losing my voice i'm just getting over a cold uh but it was
00:18:46.940videos materials lesson plans books um anything and everything you could possibly need is included
00:18:55.180in this you you literally wouldn't have to to get another piece of material at all it's that
00:19:01.420comprehensive um and and we went ahead and got that to get the very best for our students and
00:19:08.060that's that's what we want for our kids is the very best and and we provide that as a church to
00:19:14.860to our membership that's a question i often get when parents reach out um asking about the academy
00:19:22.620and how to enroll is this well you know how much does it cost um because traditionally in home
00:19:27.660school they're used to having to go out and make possibly tens of thousands of dollars worth of
00:19:32.540purchases uh to gain materials um and we as the church provide that free to our membership that
00:19:40.380is a benefit of afa membership is this program is 100 free to you and it is it's quality and it's
00:19:48.140it's if you were to go out and purchase this on your own and collect all the materials we have
00:19:52.700collected it would be tens of thousands of dollars so it is absolutely a good value
00:19:58.300um and then on top of the waldorf material we've got um our own afa uh gothar that have
00:20:05.260and folk builders that have contributed religious lessons um so you're getting the very best in in
00:20:12.300our faith and in our theology being taught to your kids at an age-appropriate level
00:20:17.260um and then as the children get older um and and are able to do more they'll have
00:20:24.780uh actual theology lessons with myself and uh get the alt where we'll have a video conference
00:20:31.740and we'll teach a lesson so it's almost uh it's almost like you're getting private training in
00:20:37.180aussitrew and it's and it's by the very best we have to offer uh so um and all our all our clergy
00:20:44.540have can have contributed and will contribute to that so you're getting um not only um world-class
00:20:52.860scholastic educational material but you're also getting the very best in aussitrew um teaching you
00:20:59.580about your faith and our gods so you really can't beat the afa academy in any way shape
00:21:06.460or form out there for our kids these days there's a couple of things i wanted to piggyback on that um
00:21:16.860one of i don't know i talked a lot last year as we kind of spent the year celebrating our 30th
00:21:23.820anniversary um this is the 32nd year that we're a little over a month into and one of the really
00:21:33.500special things that comes with time is you know rob mentioned kind of the best and the brightest
00:21:40.540giving you you know their expertise but that expertise is built on the experience and the
00:21:50.060institutional knowledge of those that have come before us so the longer the longer we exist and
00:21:55.820the more you know the more we do this the more our go far have been through and experienced things
00:22:02.540the richer our depth of resource to bring to the folk to the children in this program and you know
00:22:11.660to us true in general is we've got you know all that pool of resource of all the experience to
00:22:17.660go with it which is great that's one of the things with this program is we have the experiences
00:22:22.060of all the afa parents who have who are homeschooling their kids who have homeschooled their
00:22:27.740kids and those lessons and those strategies and that troubleshooting is all there to try to help
00:22:34.380our folk on stuff um one of the things a lot of our stuff we try to try to get away from the
00:22:43.980pay to play stuff as much as possible um i get on here you notice every show i'm i'm
00:22:51.340coming with my handout on stuff for the hoff or stuff for whatever we absolutely need your
00:22:56.700your donations uh money matters it's a big deal but you guys are extremely generous so we never
00:23:02.380want to make money a barrier to participation our faith to educating your children it's one
00:23:09.580of the things that goes into our interring our loved ones of burial sites with the afa
00:23:17.580so hard when you go other places and they want to rob you blind on burial expenses and ongoing
00:23:26.380upkeep and ridiculous stuff so we try to do what we can to provide what we can for our members
00:23:33.340in the best way we can we don't want people to go without since one of the reasons also that
00:23:37.660when people donate to the astro academy we're able to you know take care of those things so
00:23:43.340that we're not putting that burden burden on families that they can't or aren't in a spot for
00:23:47.500it we want to make it as easy and i mean that doesn't it doesn't make for the best sound bite
00:23:55.580but it is what it is we want to make the path to homeschooling your children as easy as possible
00:24:00.540And when I say easy, I mean easy, but I also mean as stress-free.
00:24:06.080One of those big things is, you know, wondering if this is legit or wondering if it's going to meet your state qualifications or want to make sure you're doing it right.
00:24:16.680That's why we really, you know, pride ourselves in this program on trying to hold parents' hands and help make sure that you're able to be successful.
00:27:47.540Oh. Hey, Shannon. Shannon donated $20 to Frazehoff. Thank you so much for that. Wow. You guys have
00:28:04.420been... A bunch of donations just came in. Thank you, guys. Gilbert donated $150 towards the
00:28:10.280heating situation at Frazehoff. Thank you, Gilbert. Always such a generous donor to us.
00:28:14.480we appreciate you uh jason in um mississippi uh donated ten dollars to this broadcast
00:28:25.680and bought a phrase off a pell pen so i hope you like your pen um
00:28:32.400yeah thank you jason we appreciate you caleb donated ten dollars to the academy and towards
00:28:38.080balder's steeple folks baldershoff are the old steeple there had not been maintained the way it
00:28:45.360needed to be had a lot of weather damage so the top portion got got lopped off and we're working
00:28:51.280on building something back that's even better but we're still raising funds for that so thank you
00:28:56.480for that we appreciate it um and steven in japan donated ten dollars each to thor's hoff heating
00:29:03.520situation and towards phrase off so thank you very much for that steven we appreciate you
00:29:08.640um what else do you wish folks knew about the academy that they might not currently know
00:29:23.520well um we do encourage and we have a parent group on me we and we encourage our parents
00:29:30.160to be active within the the parent group so once you get signed on to the academy it's not just we
00:29:37.760we give you the the login um uh you know when we do use google classrooms which is in keeping with
00:29:44.000modern educational practice um and then we just disappear from you oh no um we hate we stay in
00:29:50.640contact um we give you as much help as you want um so you know some homeschool parents want um
00:29:58.400um very little interaction because they they've been homeschooling for a long time and they're
00:30:04.280very uh they're very confident in their abilities and they know what they're doing and they they
00:30:09.900just want our material and maybe to to come to our class our live classes uh and then we have
00:30:15.080parents that are brand new to homeschooling and they they need a little bit more support and in
00:30:19.840which case uh we we will you know call you or or stay in in contact by text or however you you
00:30:27.800best stay in contact um as much as you'd like and and give you as much help as as we possibly can
00:30:33.740or as much as you want um but aside from just uh staff support we like i said we have the parent
00:30:41.040group on me we uh so that the parents can support each other uh and talk about their victories and
00:30:47.920what they found to be uh to work best um to to teach a lesson etc um and then we've had parents
00:30:57.000that that organize that are in the same um location or close by they'll organize field trips
00:31:03.240together or uh or just play dates to to meet up and hang out uh for the younger kids um as we
00:31:09.960now are adding older kids um you know that that that group is a way for them to network and and
00:31:17.160to make you know and build relationships with kids their own age across the church
00:31:22.520um so it's not just uh you know we hand you materials and run uh we've got a lot of uh
00:31:28.920support uh for you um whether it be from other parents or from staff so i think that that's
00:31:35.560something i really want to drive home because it can be scary especially for new homeschoolers that
00:31:40.040have never done this um they may you may worry about well how do i teach this um or how do i
00:31:46.920teach at all uh luckily we've got some parents that are very um experienced in in homeschooling
00:31:54.040that are right there in that parent group that can help you uh we also have um githia sheila
00:32:01.240mcnalen who is um as many of you know she was a a professional teacher for many many years she's
00:32:07.880on our staff and she can absolutely help give you pointers uh on teaching styles and methods
00:32:15.000and to show you that it's not it's not really as daunting as you think another big thing that I
00:32:23.640think especially parents new to homeschooling should know is that homeschooling is not it's
00:32:32.760not what you may fear you don't have to come up with eight hours of solid instruction you don't
00:32:40.920have to sit your child in front of the computer or in front of a book for eight hours a day
00:32:45.560and learn learn learn learn um you know most like when we send our kids off to public school most
00:32:51.960of the day is not filled with actual instruction it's filled with indoctrination um it's filled
00:32:59.320with learning how to uh to interact in that social setting it's recess it's lunch it's discipline
00:33:08.600um it's play uh which these things are important but um that i think is something that parents
00:33:15.080worry about is that they're going to have to devote eight hours a day to teaching their kids
00:33:20.200and a lot of parents don't have that ability but that's just not the case um you know when you
00:33:27.320break it down you can do as much or as little as you feel comfortable with uh as long as you're
00:33:33.160progressing but um most of the day is is not needed to be devoted to instruction and in fact
00:33:40.920many instances of instances of your just day-to-day life are are um can are opportunities
00:33:48.760to to do teaching and uh they count towards educational hours in the states that uh that
00:33:55.320make you track hours so for instance if you go to the grocery store that's something you have to
00:34:00.280anyway uh that is an opportunity that you can get instruction time and you may not think of it but
00:34:05.800sure uh there's nutrition there there's there's math um there is uh depending on on what you're
00:34:14.280shopping for uh there's um you know automotive uh for their our older kids um but there there
00:34:23.000there's a ton of opportunities um you know most most people like to go on a trip to the park
00:34:28.280uh well there's an opportunity there uh to identify animals nature uh and for our smaller
00:34:35.160kids and say kindergarten um you know you can say point out something that's alive
00:34:41.000point out something that's not alive um you know how do you spell leaf you know sound it out uh
00:34:50.120things things like that that you don't really think of when you do them but they come natural
00:34:54.840but they absolutely are instruction and count towards instruction time um and there's several
00:35:01.560studies that i've read um and i unfortunately don't have them on hand but especially younger
00:35:06.280children kindergarten first first grade age they can only really focus for about 15 minutes 10 to
00:35:12.68015 minutes at a time um anything beyond that and they start to wander um so really instruction time
00:35:21.000is these little nuggets uh that they get broken up throughout the day so you can you can focus
00:35:27.320on a task um or or uh a you know something from the from the curriculum you do it for 15 minutes
00:35:36.040and then you go out and play or you do it for 15 minutes and you switch gears into something else
00:35:41.480um so it's not this steady stream of instruction all day long uh and i think that's one of the
00:35:48.840things that may might be a block for some of our parents as they think oh no i've got to teach
00:35:54.200all day long but trust me that's not the case well i want to mention this too and it's one
00:35:59.960of the reasons i really like waldorf um there's a lot of things institutionally
00:36:08.840set up either intentionally or because it's just the momentum things have taken on to where there's
00:36:13.400a a fear factor and especially as a parent you don't want to be do wrong by your kids
00:36:19.640and you know i know that was something that um anybody doesn't know mandy and i had aubrey
00:36:25.480you know we're both 39 had her at the height of uh the cobit situation and all this stuff
00:36:34.280you know you want to do right by your kids you don't want to make the wrong choice and that can
00:36:39.400be um debilitating one of the things that was really interesting through all of that
00:36:46.120was just kind of a re-evaluation of schooling and what counts and what doesn't so one of the things
00:36:52.520that i really sat and thought about you know how much stuff did i learn in eight hours of
00:36:59.960institutionalized learning grown up versus you know where did i learn most of the things that
00:37:05.320i learned learned a lot with my parents my grandparents with experiences that i've had in
00:37:12.200my life as a kid with figuring out those things didn't you know didn't learn that much
00:37:21.640indispensable in public school system and there's a lot of negatives that can come with that i don't
00:37:27.960want to rag on the idea of public education too hard my mom was a mostly first grade school teacher
00:37:36.760for about 30 years so my family's you know been involved in public education for a really long
00:37:42.200time but there's a lot to be said for learning by getting to spend time with your parents and
00:37:51.160that's something that homeschooling really allows and especially that waldorf encourages
00:37:57.320um and i think that's a that's a neat thing to take advantage of and to think of it but also
00:38:05.800and i know that you know when you get in the higher grades there's some more specialized things
00:38:11.720but don't worry this is stuff you can do this is stuff we can do together and if you want to take
00:38:20.040you know control of your kids education if you are in a situation which is increasingly a thing
00:38:25.560to where people with values counter to ours are indoctrinating your kids during the day and if
00:38:32.200you have the availability to to homeschool your kids this is something you can do this something
00:38:39.560we're all in on really wanting to help you be successful at doing so you know make choices
00:38:46.600based on on what you want and what you believe and not out of fear that gets put on you by a
00:38:54.040system something else kind of an unintended consequence of the um reaction to covet was
00:39:02.280whereas you know when i was growing up there's a big stigmatized thing about homeschool like
00:39:07.720you know what's your kid gonna do they're gonna you know be strange and they're gonna miss out
00:39:12.680on all this stuff and it's this you know horrible scary thing then all of a sudden those same people
00:39:17.800are like no no keep your kid at home for two years and i think something that they learned
00:39:22.680during that is like wow didn't really have the same effect that i think they thought it might
00:39:30.040so it opened i don't know i think it opened a lot of minds to homeschooling and it also freed up
00:39:36.520some of the hesitancy um that people and that the mainstream had towards homeschool so yeah
00:39:43.720this is a really really cool program and i'm excited about it and you know i'm also excited
00:39:49.800that i'm not just you know trying to sell this to you get to you guys it's something that i'm
00:39:54.120very much you know doing the the like what is it kindergarten one um schooling with aubrey right
00:40:00.520now and i'm very excited as a father to be taking her through the austral academy as she as she
00:40:05.800grows and learns um looking to see prioritizing questions here we'll get to random stuff but i
00:40:12.920wanted to make sure that we get any uh academy specific stuff out of the way if you've got um
00:40:20.200okay are there options for just the religious material for kids if someone is doing you know
00:40:26.200something different academically yes absolutely um so we do offer the full program which is the
00:40:36.120academic and the religious studies and we also allow um we have a program religious studies
00:40:44.200uh for our parents that maybe you just aren't able maybe you are a single parent you have to work or
00:40:49.960maybe you're two parents and both of you have to work or any number of different scenarios where
00:40:55.240homeschooling just doesn't isn't an option for you we still have our religious studies program
00:41:01.400And that is you get all the benefits of of our of our theology and our religious teachings from our go far and through our program.
00:41:11.000And you can sign up just for that so that we still want our kids to get the good quality religious instruction, even if they aren't able to attend the full school.
00:41:21.380We still want them to get that that basic grounding in our faith and pass on the morals of our church.
00:41:27.980so yes absolutely um you can sign up just for the religious studies program
00:56:11.360a steeple per se no is not in our current thoughts on it and keep in mind our these
00:56:19.040plans will continue to evolve up to and until it gets built but um as far as tiershoff itself there
00:56:29.200we're very much looking into a stave church inspired construction there i have always me
00:56:35.920and many of our people have been inspired by uh state church construction because i really think
00:56:42.880that is the that's the point of evolution that like that's the highest form of um
00:56:55.040arc also true construction met with it's like the the the highest point that that construction of
00:57:04.240Hoffs was developed and the you know the starting point for how our people at least our people in
00:57:12.880Scandinavia begin to incorporate uh Christianity and other things so I think that you find
00:57:19.760so much of what would have been relevant to to the Hoffs of antiquity in the the lines the
00:57:27.760structure the upward thrust of state church architecture so inspired but we wouldn't be
00:57:35.280trying to make a you know a replica or a you know something like that what we would try to make would
00:57:41.760be something completely modern and you know relevant in modern construction and you know
00:57:49.280we want to be very honest about that but i think a lot of the inspiration of the lines and the
00:57:53.840And the themes of that very well being in play.
00:57:58.460It's certainly something we've thought a lot about.
00:58:08.580Matt, what kind of lessons is Aubrey enjoying the most?
00:58:17.460So it's pretty light because it's that kindergarten one.
00:58:23.840nature stuff the idea of finding finding things when we're out at the park when we're out you
00:58:34.300know going for walks and things like that that are seasonally relevant that was more challenging
00:58:41.240in reno than is now that we're in tennessee so i'm excited about that um we have a afa hike
00:58:49.120newt coming up this weekend so she'll get to experience some of like ah this is what winter
00:58:54.480time in tennessee is like these are some of the leaves these are some of the critters and some of
00:58:59.280the stuff i think she'll get to experience that a lot more so that's i'm excited to share that with
00:59:04.400her coming up rob what is your favorite hero of the folk and why that's a that's a tough one
00:59:19.120um so uh as a german as a person of german uh ancestry uh naturally uh you know my mind
00:59:32.300gonna go to prince herman uh because without him you know i i don't know that germanic culture on
00:59:39.980the continent would have looked anything like it does now it would have been romanized much like
00:59:44.760the Gauls were. So, personally, I believe we owe a huge debt of gratitude to Prince1.00
00:59:54.840Hermann. But I am also, you know, very devoted to Meister von List and an arminist, practicing
01:00:06.160armonist so it's really a toss-up between meister von list and uh and prince herman and i would say
01:00:15.120um prince herman probably is going to take precedence because without him i'm not sure
01:00:20.240meister von list would uh would even have been able to or or to study what he did so
01:00:27.040i'm gonna have to go with prince herman on that one yeah that's it's always an interesting one
01:00:34.800And I think, I don't know, it's funny because I think a lot of those kind of what's your favorite, this or that question can be really, really simple.
01:00:48.100But they also challenge you to actually like dive deep and think like, man, which is my favorite?
01:00:58.020hmm let's compare and contrast unless you know i think that they also have different um
01:01:08.100different appeal at different stages in your life um or different things you're going through like
01:01:21.060i don't know that he's my favorite of our heroes but one that has always been
01:01:26.740really really i don't know specifically important to me is uh is king radbot um
01:01:38.820and that was you know for a couple of reasons there
01:05:32.380pick out things that work and things that won't
01:05:35.180and then get her as best we can to help with the,
01:05:38.420you know, with the preparation of the food and of the meal.
01:05:42.640So we do a lot of that, but yeah, we use it as a guideline.
01:05:46.560so anybody else have questions tonight or it's going to be a little bit brief of the show i know
01:06:00.580rob's looking at a brief show anyway so that's okay but if you have questions we'd love to get
01:06:05.260to them um rob do you think anybody has misconceptions about the academy that you
01:06:14.640may want to clear up um not that i've heard specifically um you know i i think some of
01:06:25.440the earlier misconceptions were that uh it was more just a support group or a conglom
01:06:32.320uh what's the word i'm looking for um where several people get together and just share material
01:06:40.480um a co-op there we go uh you know some folks may have thought we were a co-op for a while
01:06:47.360um you know which people do share stuff and ideas but we we definitely aren't a co-op so
01:06:53.520um i think those the big misconceptions uh that were early on but i think a lot of those have
01:06:59.600been cleared up um or and another big one and not so much from afa members but in the beginning um
01:07:07.760from outside the church you know there was some some ideas that you know it wasn't going to be
01:07:13.200a quality program but it's funny because our detractors actually went through and saw our1.00
01:07:19.440program and like oh this is our dream program if only it wasn't the folkish folks you're funny that1.00
01:07:28.320yeah so um no you know that that was the big one is uh you know in the in the beginning uh1.00
01:07:35.840they thought some folks might have thought it was a co-op or that it wasn't going to be
01:07:39.440so comprehensive and quality and you know just through us following through on what we said we
01:07:45.280were going to do we've we've dispelled those myths uh handily so i think that's that's the only thing
01:07:51.840i can think of unless there's something specific you're thinking of matt but that's really all i
01:07:56.160can think of yeah i uh you know i i didn't have anything off the top of my head i was wondering
01:08:01.680if there's something that you've encountered uh you interact with the parents more directly on
01:08:06.480that than i typically do um one of those things that i think is interesting for anybody out there
01:08:13.440um out there watching this if you okay so
01:08:21.520if you are you know a heterosexual white person who is not involved in an interracial relationship
01:08:28.400you should join the house true folk assembly it's where you should be we would love to have you that
01:08:33.440said anybody out there in in the universe is welcome to watch this program and i hope you do
01:08:40.560and i hope you enjoy it i hope maybe you learn something from it if you are afa eligible
01:08:48.400and you're watching this and you are uncomfortable with um
01:08:59.360racially specific religion or politically incorrect traditional views of the world
01:09:07.360or things that just socially are stigmatized something that you know rob and i chuckle
01:09:15.520about and i think we've earned some of the chuckling because we've been in the trenches on it but
01:09:20.000But something I've really experienced with people over the years that are around us and see the things that we do.
01:09:30.220They get an idea in their head that, you know, you're not allowed to think these things.
01:09:35.440And the things that you're not allowed to think aren't because we're house of truth.
01:09:40.400They're because we're traditionally minded.
01:09:42.620And there's things that generally all of your ancestors, you know, I'm getting older now.
01:09:48.080going to say up until your grandfather's generation but maybe up until your great
01:09:51.440grandfather's generation have pretty much all thought and agreed upon and would be completely
01:09:56.640normal it's only very very recently that things have taken a real dramatic turn in different ways
01:10:05.840so these are things that you know the vast majority of our ancestors would have found
01:10:10.320very very reasonable things um but sometimes a lot of stuff goes together and it's worth
01:10:16.560considering that um i knew a woman that uh used to get together with me on stuff when i first started
01:10:24.320out and she had a daughter and you know she tended to lean universalist back when there was a lot
01:10:32.400more crossover with those things and you know she was uncomfortable with the you know social or
01:10:39.760political or whatever views of myself some people that we get together with she always felt really
01:10:45.520comfortable having her daughter around us when she got together with you know her good socially
01:10:52.160approved lefty rainbow coalition buddies they virtue signaled right but she's terrified to
01:10:59.760leave the room with her daughter unattended around those people and it was one of those things that
01:11:05.680i've seen more and more people over time realize some of these things go together
01:11:09.840so it's worth considering you know the totality of some of these things
01:11:15.520detractors think you know whatever they want about folkish people but one of the things
01:11:22.780that goes with our traditional views about gender and about race and about
01:11:29.480values also is commitment to follow through on our word is commitment to stick through and look
01:11:40.100out with what's best for our children, for our families, for our folk in long run, and to really
01:11:46.120hold the line and to stand firm on the things that we believe. And that ends up, you know,
01:11:52.380these things go together and there's a totality. And some of these things, when you notice a point
01:11:56.820of commonality like that, it's worth considering. Maybe there's something inherent that ties all
01:12:02.600these things together in a comprehensive worldview. I just think that's worth, you know,
01:12:08.080worth thinking on for a moment um what else we've got a couple of other things coming through here
01:12:15.840also uh 14 broke i'm glad that you were inspired by my dinners to start hosting your own that is
01:12:22.240that's my roots that's how i started with house a true that's something that is really
01:12:26.800near and dear to my heart is hey there's nobody doing anything near me i was up in alaska
01:12:32.800you know afa wise pretty much all by myself in the area that i was in when i started there was
01:12:39.040you know some other people i was able to find on like was it meetup.com or like yahoo groups
01:12:45.680or something at the time but inviting people to come over and share a meal at my table that was
01:12:52.240really how i started how i got my i don't know got my feet under me in house and true and it's
01:13:01.280It's something that I look forward to every month to this day and it's so important to, you know, to what I do and how, I don't know, how this fits into my life.
01:13:11.360So I'm glad that that's something that you're doing.
01:13:13.920I wish you a lot of success with that.
01:13:18.380You know, while we're talking on the Academy, I have been digging in there for the last couple weeks, uploading all of the new programs or the new curriculums.
01:13:29.600and we mentioned a few things tonight that i thought were funny and we talk about how
01:13:35.420a lot of the program with waldorf is about like hands-on not this boring reading from a book or
01:13:44.260just listening to some lecture drone on and sometimes they incorporate things in interesting
01:13:49.140ways that i thought were a little interesting in either 10th or 11th grade curriculum there's a
01:13:55.000whole science class on embryology like embryos uh baby making and in part of it there is even a
01:14:05.980uh a sculpture lesson where you sculpt an embryo out of clay so you're really getting hands-on in
01:14:14.840that regard there's another one in it's a history block on art history where and yeah
01:14:24.880art history you think yeah you're doing some artsy stuff but this is technically from the
01:14:28.720historical perspective but you're still getting in there and in one of the lessons you are
01:14:35.760using clay again to sculpt a uh one of the old venus statues uh you know the the heavy set ones
01:14:44.240from uh way back when the bronze age or was maybe even pre-bronze age um and then in another lesson
01:14:51.280in there you're doing a painting in the art history section and you're always all kinds of
01:14:58.140different fun lessons and i'll tell you especially once you get into high school it's gonna be so fun
01:15:03.540for these uh kids i think because there are probably four math science history and english
01:15:13.940options per grade level um and with encouragement to pick one from another grade level
01:15:21.940if you want um we've got one where technically at least according to waldorf if you complete
01:15:30.060this lesson block it's actually the exact lessons that people have to take to pass the certification
01:15:38.500at zoos to do hands-on animal presentations um so that's part of i think the 11th grade veteran
01:15:49.44011th grade veterinary course um there's zoology there's all kinds of all kinds of fun stuff in
01:15:57.800here and that's just the tip of the iceberg that's just what you get to look forward to in high
01:16:03.280school coming up um all of the amazing stuff that we've got in the earlier grades too is um
01:16:11.760it's really it's really very thorough and um well we've got the baseline down now that's what i
01:16:20.500consider it so we're just going to keep adding on to it for years to come it's going to get better
01:16:24.880and better even um all right rob are the older years in the academy more structured or specific
01:16:32.880in the curriculum yes um so there's going to be more and this is really when we start um keeping
01:16:44.000transcripts and that's something i can talk about as well um so yes the classes are more structured
01:16:50.720there's going to be um you know specific live classes with myself and possible other goes are
01:16:57.280that are going to teach not only religious lessons but uh myself i'll be teaching some history
01:17:02.000um and we'll also like i said start keeping track with transcripts so kids that want to go on to
01:17:10.820to college will have those transcripts um and they'll get a diploma uh from them from the
01:17:16.820academy so yeah it is a little bit more structured it's not so much um you know play focus but it is
01:17:23.780still experiential um as nick mentioned uh you're not just learning about an embryo you're crafting
01:17:29.120one um and you know some folks learn just from reading a book and and memorization oddly enough
01:17:37.200i'm one of those i i retain things i read very well um but a lot of folks learn better doing it
01:17:45.040hands-on um they're not gonna look at a picture in a textbook and remember the parts of an embryo
01:17:51.680but if they make one they feel it with their hands um they interact with it in a in a in a
01:17:59.520physical sense then they retain that knowledge better uh and waldorf really emphasizes that
01:18:05.280so uh yeah there is some structure but it's still in in a waldorf style um so i i hope that answers
01:18:12.320the question um but for those students that are interested um you know by training i'm an historian
01:18:18.880so i i want to teach like a lecture several lecture series on on various uh topics and
01:18:26.480area in history so i'm going to so uh dean's prerogative there um um yeah so yeah definitely
01:18:35.840some more structure so rob how how much does racism play in the curriculum
01:18:44.880none i'm just looking over in the chats and i guess somebody did a video about the evil racist
01:18:54.620brainwashing their children and right well it makes me wonder what our detractors think that
01:19:01.800we actually do it's humorous but it's also kind of sad that that's the world they live in but
01:19:08.980i think they would be surprised i think they'd be very surprised yeah exceptionally um and
01:19:16.100waldorf let me let me be clear waldorf um it is huge worldwide there's private brick and mortar
01:19:24.900waldorf schools all over the world um you know there there's and i visited one as a matter of
01:19:33.600fact um you know i i said i would be interested parent so i went and visited one and looked how
01:19:39.780they did things you know at a brick and mortar wall they're all over the place and there's
01:19:46.160waldorf universities there's um there's it's not this fringe you know ultra racist uh you know
01:19:58.540we're teaching our kids these horrible evil things you know this this is a pretty solid
01:20:03.740internationally recognized program you've supplemented it with courses on on racial
01:20:09.740hatred and stuff right no no um you know so when i teach topics in history i mean i'm teaching
01:20:18.860facts um you know i i don't teach i don't want to word it like in the wrong way like
01:20:27.660i don't teach self-hatred i don't teach hatred of anyone um but i think you should take pride
01:20:35.820in your own people and there's nothing wrong with that of course you should and we would hope that
01:20:41.580everybody else does too right uh hatred is not taught anywhere um you know i can look at the
01:20:52.300imperial palace in in japan and say wow that's that's a beautiful building that's that's a
01:20:59.020gorgeous piece of architecture i can look at um you know japanese culture and and japanese food
01:21:06.940i love japanese food and so that's an amazing culture it's beautiful and they they are certainly
01:21:12.860proud of their achievements um just because i can look at a culture and their achievements and say
01:21:18.460wow that's that's pretty and that's cool and um they have neat history that doesn't mean that
01:21:24.060i have to hate my own and it certainly doesn't take away from mine either but i can still
01:21:29.020appreciate some another people's accomplishments um so no we don't we don't teach hatred anywhere
01:21:36.300uh and especially we don't teach teach hatred of ourselves and i think that's the big difference
01:21:42.860um between homeschooling especially in and you know more and more in a public school setting
01:21:49.020is we don't teach our kids to hate themselves nope and we our kids have a lot to be proud of
01:21:56.460and that's good that they have an avenue to take pride in themselves unabashedly
01:22:01.740i'm an afr i'm a member i'm sorry let me start fresh i'm moving to anchorage in a couple of
01:22:17.060weeks i'm not an afa member yet but are there events in alaska i'd love to join but odentock
01:22:23.780isn't practical to travel to so disagree when i lived in anchorage i traveled to northern
01:22:31.420california uh once a year to go to afa events it can be done but it is a challenge one thing about
01:22:38.220alaska is you're far away but that's where i got my start and you know here i am and i've really
01:22:44.460made this this my life we do have members in alaska i'm not going to lie to you and tell you
01:22:51.740there's a lot of activity going on because what we desperately need is somebody up there to step up
01:22:58.140and folk build and host stuff and even if you're not folk building to actually host stuff and be
01:23:02.780willing to make some stuff happen it's difficult to do but when i was up there i was able to get
01:23:08.140together with people uh regularly and really make something for myself up there that you know brought
01:23:15.980me to where i am today so it can absolutely be done i spent the first uh 33 years of my life
01:23:23.660in anchorage so awesome i hope that you really like it and yeah we have members all around the
01:23:30.780world if you want to have stuff in your area you should join and you should get people together
01:23:36.300and make stuff happen the afa doesn't this is the name to you the same to anybody that wants
01:23:41.980to see activity this is how every time you see a successful area where we have a hof or where
01:23:48.700we have a community of afa members that are meeting regularly and you see a afa activity
01:23:56.940it's not because i sent out missionaries there to go make it happen that'd be cool but we don't have
01:24:02.380those resources right now it's because you know a member decided to step up and say hey how about we
01:24:11.100do something there are folks in my area absolutely there are you want us to let them know sure and
01:24:17.420they host something maybe it's at their house maybe it's at a park maybe they go to a bar or
01:24:23.180a restaurant or a event or whatever they want to do there's a lot of stuff to do it just takes the
01:24:28.940individual stepping up and saying they want to be part of it we've got people that would love to
01:24:33.100help connect you with other afa members wherever you're at and get those things going so please
01:24:38.300if it's something you're interested in reach out we would love to help make that happen
01:24:41.820in person on a personal note i would love to see more activity in my home of anchorage alaska i
01:24:49.020would love to see that happen that's like i say that's my roots that's where it all started for
01:24:53.420me and i would love to see that area flourish ah what is the afa's views when it comes to animal
01:25:01.580rights and circumcision um of people not of animals when it comes to circumcision i assume
01:25:21.500Circumcision, unless there's some kind of medical necessity0.97
01:25:25.080because the kid's junk's mangled somehow, no, that's not good.1.00
01:25:31.260That is an explicitly Jewish practice.0.98
01:25:36.640It's something that has for a variety of – you can go into the history of it,
01:25:41.560but that's not typically a worldwide thing it's very much an american thing that has happened i
01:25:46.440think it happens far less lately um but no that is explicitly the mark of the covenant between
01:25:56.760the jewish people and yahweh and it's not something that we want our people engaged in
01:26:03.160you know you've got to make the choices that you want for your children but it's definitely1.00
01:26:08.920something that we do not encourage and that we're we're not in support of like i said unless there's
01:26:14.280some kind of a medical reason that that needs to be done but i don't really know what that reason
01:26:18.840would be but animal rights i think is is interesting i don't i don't know what all
01:26:25.480that means animals aren't people we're not the same in the afa we don't believe in equality
01:26:30.680but we are absolutely opposed to cruelty cruelty to people cruelty to animals cruelty is something
01:26:38.280that we're very much opposed to a great many of us are deep animal lovers i know that that i am
01:26:46.760i mean you can see behind me i hunt i say that i haven't hunted in a long time i'm glad to hunt
01:26:52.120and have the opportunity but cruelty is completely unacceptable um it's one of the things we do when
01:26:58.680we screen and we background check members you know we look for you know some hard nose when it comes
01:27:06.600to uh registered sex offenders but one of the other things we look for is crimes of cruelty
01:27:14.360and that includes you know cruelty towards women and children cruelty towards the elderly
01:27:20.200but also very specifically cruelty to animals um cruelty is
01:27:28.280anathema to what we believe and what we do and we are very you know we're very aware
01:27:35.080of and we don't tolerate cruelty towards animals uh rob do you have anything to add on any of those
01:27:41.640topics not especially um it's unfortunate uh in the united states specifically that circumcision
01:27:53.320has become the norm um for every you know american boy um that's something that we
01:28:01.560consciously contain uh now that we know better uh you know don't be mad at your parents they
01:28:08.120didn't know any better that was standard practice at hospitals um and even parents that have have
01:28:13.800had a boy born recently can probably tell you that the hospital still pushed that
01:28:18.360it's it's something that we have to consciously you know fight against now
01:28:27.400knowing what it means and how it is not medically necessary um to mutilate our young men
01:28:34.900um so unfortunately many of us like our parents didn't know any better so you know we got what
01:28:41.280we got but going forward we can definitely change that um yeah animal cruelty animal cruelty uh you
01:28:50.140know i love animals i know most of us do um but i also love tasty animals too so i think there
01:28:57.700there has to be that line drawn as matt said there's a difference between hunting for food
01:29:02.620and sport um and cruelty just for cruelty's sake and that's where i think the line needs to be drawn
01:29:09.620all right um rob what you know about cleptis um not a whole lot i know they pushed that a lot
01:29:22.960when i was in the military you know that was uh over 20 years ago so but i know i know they
01:29:30.380pushed that a lot for for us when you know um to to get signed up to college and do clept tests
01:29:37.460And I vaguely remember it from high school. Some of the some of the courses, you know, the the the higher like the gifted and talented program courses counted for both college credit and high school credit.
01:29:51.220But I'm not super familiar with it. I know it's it's like a test you can take to get college credit.
01:29:56.880that's that's about all we know now that high school kids coming into our program
01:30:02.740I'm gonna have to get more well-versed on it and and absolutely you know be
01:30:09.420able to to have some knowledge if our kids ask about it and want to take
01:30:13.200advantage of it I'm not sure if all colleges recognize it or not but it's
01:30:21.060something that i'll definitely investigate more deeply yeah so um he goes on to uh say cleps
01:30:29.780slash ap test so that's what i'm familiar with is advanced placement tests um in my high school
01:30:38.980you had your your standard courses you had honors and then a step above that is you had
01:30:43.540advanced placement and that was i don't know if it was 11th and 12th grade courses for everyone
01:30:53.860or if that's just when i got involved in it um i remember i took uh like ap us government ap
01:31:05.860history a couple of different ap histories and like ap english and that that was a really cool
01:31:14.420thing and it was it was cool in a couple ways the test to where you could get college i didn't use
01:31:20.020any of it but it was cool that you could get college credit for it but it also was taught
01:31:25.060at a little bit higher level and was that's something that i'm a big fan of deviating from
01:31:31.620the homeschool thing for a sec one of the things if you're gonna be in public school
01:31:38.100that i think is really nice if you're able to and you have a kid that is interested
01:31:45.540is to keep them stimulated and keep them interested it's really unfortunate when you
01:31:52.580have very high functioning kids that are you know forced by circumstance to be in a class with
01:31:59.140either kids that just aren't that high functioning or kids that are outright disruptive and a problem
01:32:09.220public school tends to lower people to the lowest common denominator because that's what works when
01:32:15.300you have a system like that but when you have the option put your kids in honors programs
01:40:33.060But if you're in Canada and you're interested, contact us.
01:40:37.520and we will let you know if your province allows it or not and what are the requirements for your
01:40:43.360province um as far as our membership in europe i mean i'm sure you all know unfortunately europe
01:40:49.460is not on board with the homeschooling so that's that's cool because i mean i think people do
01:40:59.900understand that but i think people also assume that canada that canada i think that some of us
01:41:06.540in the United States assume that all of Canada is as far left as you can possibly be and is very
01:41:13.560anti-homeschooling, it's refreshing to know that some provinces do allow that. I think that's
01:41:19.160something that a lot of people maybe haven't considered.
01:41:33.700What has surprised you most about running a homeschool program for the AFA?
01:41:42.480What has been the most unexpected for you?
01:41:49.160That's a good question. There's so much that I've learned over the last couple of years. I said, when I got into this, I'd had some, you know, I mean, I have a background in education, but I'd only taught at the adult level, you know, and then my own higher education.
01:42:11.760So everything I've had to learn fresh. So that's that. I mean, everything has been new and exciting.
01:42:23.180I think the most, you know, surprising aspect of things is, you know, just like you talked a little bit on earlier, you touched on earlier, is that most people when they hear homeschool, they think, oh, how are they going to socialize?
01:42:48.480But into the homeschool community and culture and and and and really seeing things from a homeschool perspective is that's it's probably better how our homeschool kids get socialized rather than how they get socialized in public school.
01:43:08.100And that that really was surprising to me because, you know, I fondly remember my high school days, but not everybody does.
01:43:17.100And things have certainly changed in, you know, 30 years.
01:43:22.700So I think that was the biggest surprise is that our parents are so good at getting our kids socialized, but getting our kids socialized in a healthy way.
01:43:33.160um a way that reinforces our values and our faith and our morals rather than denigrates them
01:43:40.320so i think that's been the biggest thing well one of the things that you know we see all the time
01:43:48.320um you know i mentioned aubrey you know we like to get outside and go to the park and
01:43:52.680learn stuff that way a lot of the time and she's we've run into groups of homeschooling parents
01:43:58.960all the time. They're awesome. They're like the nicest kids. They're the nicest parents. It's
01:44:07.000the most wonderful experience. It's good socialization as opposed to the victimization
01:44:14.000slash enrichment that can often be a very problematic thing about today's public
01:44:24.580education unfortunately uh reminder to folks though um even if you live in some backwards communist
01:44:38.820dystopian location you can always be part of our religious studies to enhance um and to you
01:44:46.740know fortify the stuff that's going on where you're at um and we'd love to do whatever we
01:44:52.260can to help you be successful if you find yourself in a spot where you're not able to homeschool and
01:44:59.060you're an afa member we can supplement and help and help help help you get the best
01:45:06.580best situation you can find our people are very very interested in helping out any way we can on
01:47:13.300you know pictures do a lot of things that words don't do as far as communicating past that
01:47:21.940kind of logical barrier we have where we look for
01:47:25.840we look for critical arguments we look you know toward with an eye towards cynicism
01:47:31.320all of us do that in today's world um pictures help conceptualize like oh these look like
01:47:38.040good people oh this looks like fun but experience does that in a wholly different way
01:47:44.600um i would really encourage anybody who hasn't yet met up with other afa members
01:47:52.520or practiced also true with other people to do that um
01:47:57.800that's when it becomes real and you can see the people who've done this for a time and you can see
01:48:05.600how very real this is to them, how very serious they take it. And that enhances and strengthens
01:48:11.760your own faith, especially when you're starting out. I can't say it enough, but this is really
01:48:17.280something meant to be done as a group and as a community. You know, if you find yourself in a
01:48:22.420spot where you're in an institution somewhere, you're isolated, you're out in the middle of
01:48:27.220know where worshiping the gods by yourself is a lot better than not worshiping them at all
01:48:33.440but worshiping them with your folk is really how this is meant to be done
01:48:38.780similar to how jews have their own language hebrew slash yiddish muslims have arabic and
01:48:51.200farsi and christians have latin and greek does the afa use germanic icelandic or other scandinavian
01:48:57.060language as i see your title name so i think that does is ambitious do i want us to and am i trying
01:49:07.460to get us to yes the exact same comparison you're making yeah i want that to be old norse and
01:49:16.100icelandic is mutually intelligible to old norse we do that for a number of reasons we do it because
01:49:25.380it keeps things congruent as opposed to a hodgepodge of random european languages
01:49:31.700it becomes unified in one language in one uh middle uh least linguistic framework to
01:49:40.980conceptualize the things also that's where the majority of our lore comes from that is its
01:49:49.140original language and it helps us relate to that and understand it in a deeper way and it also
01:49:55.860that's the um the names of the conception that this has come down to us in the most successful
01:50:03.140way that's the presentation of this that was you know that was there when the all father
01:50:10.580interacted with our founder steve mcnalen and set him on his course to found the austral folk
01:50:15.620assembly and bring us where we are and so in the same sense that you know you so you mentioned and
01:50:23.460i you can be a muslim and not speak arabic or not speak farsi and that's fine but i think speaking
01:50:31.700arabic enhances your participation in some of that you can be a christian certainly you can
01:50:38.180even be a catholic these days and not you know speak any latin or greek but i do think that is
01:50:43.460a liturgical language unites some things and helps that so you don't have to speak icelandic you don't
01:50:51.780have to speak old norse to be also true not at all not even a little bit but it's cool if you do and
01:50:57.700you learn in a different way and you know i've learned and i say this i'm trying i've been trying
01:51:05.220since you know i've tried off and on but this time it's really stuck and i've worked hard towards it
01:51:09.940But I can, if I were to tell you I can speak at a kindergartner level in Icelandic slash Old Norse, I think that would be a reach.
01:51:22.860I think I'd be a pretty dumb kindergartner, but working on it.
01:51:27.860And the more that I do, though, the more that I notice things when I read the lore, the more that words and phrases jump out at me and that it helps my conceptualization stuff.
01:51:38.660So aside from just being cool, which I think it is, and a unifying thing, which I think it is, it also helps me appreciate the lore in a different way.
01:51:49.700But, yeah, that's something that we're reaching towards.
01:51:53.120I think it's still, you know, a little bit out of our grasp, but it is something that we're absolutely working towards and trying to study.