Order of Man - Homeschooling Myths Busted ｜ FRIDAY FIELD NOTES

00:00:00.000 You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest. Embrace your fears and boldly charge

00:00:05.000 your own path. When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time. Every time.

00:00:10.460 You are not easily deterred or defeated. Rugged. Resilient. Strong. This is your life. This is who

00:00:17.200 you are. This is who you will become. At the end of the day, and after all is said and done,

00:00:22.760 you can call yourself a man. Gentlemen, what is going on today? My name is Ryan Michler.

00:00:27.660 I'm your host. I'm also the founder of the Order of Man podcast and movement. I am glad you're

00:00:32.380 tuning in, whether it's for the first time or the hundredth or maybe even a thousand,

00:00:37.440 because we are quickly approaching that thousand podcast mark, which I am excited about. We're

00:00:42.280 going to try to do something special, but I just wanted to let you know first and foremost that I

00:00:46.360 appreciate you guys being here, tuning in. But the most important thing I appreciate about you

00:00:51.720 is that you're actually applying the information because that's what we're all about. How do we

00:00:55.580 bridge this gap between what we as men know we should be doing and what we're actually doing?

00:01:00.720 And one of the things I'm going to talk with you about today is that very topic, specifically as

00:01:05.520 it relates to homeschooling. This is always a very charged and polarized topic. A lot of you guys

00:01:10.920 tuning in are fathers or aspiring fathers or practicing fathers to be. We'll say it that way.

00:01:17.820 Um, and more and more homeschool is becoming a viable option and more and more, uh, it seems to

00:01:27.420 me that public, public schooling, government schooling is becoming less viable for a lot of

00:01:31.560 you. So my, my family and I, my wife and I, uh, made the decision three years ago. This is a one

00:01:37.120 year pre COVID to homeschool our kids. And anytime I talk about it, um, man, we get such a wide spectrum

00:01:44.740 of concerns or accolades and anywhere in between. So what I wanted to do today is if we're going to

00:01:52.380 have the conversation and we should not suggesting that all of us need to believe the exact same

00:01:56.820 around the education of our children. I think I've got some good ideas. I think homeschooling

00:02:00.780 has proven for us and for millions of other families to be very effective when it comes to

00:02:04.720 raising and educating your children. Uh, but if we're going to have those discussions, we need to do it

00:02:10.380 from, uh, an established, uh, baseline. So we're gonna, we're gonna bust some myths today. Uh,

00:02:17.620 before I get into that, just want to mention that very quickly, we have, uh, an event coming up, uh,

00:02:22.900 the end of May. So it's May 28th. It's a one day father-son experience called Squire program.

00:02:31.200 Bedros Koulian, uh, and his team from California are coming out. They're going to spend the time here

00:02:36.180 and we're going to put, uh, these men and their sons through the ringer, physically, mentally,

00:02:42.000 emotionally. We're going to challenge you. We're going to challenge your boys. Uh, and we're going

00:02:45.580 to help you usher your young man into manhood through tests, through challenges, through

00:02:53.180 hardship, through experience, through learning. And this is all going to happen here at my property

00:02:58.220 in Maine on May 28th. If you're interested, get signed up with a few spots left. Uh, and you can do

00:03:03.100 that at squire program.com slash Ryan squire program.com slash Ryan. All right. And also,

00:03:10.820 by the way, with this event, this is actually one of the cool things is that these types of

00:03:16.100 experiences are the types of experiences that count towards schooling. Now it's not traditional,

00:03:21.680 right? It's not what you would traditionally think of when it comes to schooling, uh, but it is

00:03:25.700 schooling nonetheless. So let me just take a couple of minutes, uh, and explain our story. I don't want

00:03:30.940 to take a long time because I've explained it in the past and I do want to get to these myths.

00:03:34.320 So those of you who are considering homeschooling can understand the reality of it. Uh, my wife and

00:03:39.320 I, when we moved to Maine, we, we were going to have our children enrolled in the school district

00:03:43.640 and where our property lies, they were going to be in a different school district. And we'd kind of

00:03:48.880 tossed around the idea of having them schooled and educated at home. Uh, and it just made sense

00:03:53.500 when we moved out here to, to do it like that. So we made that decision. Uh, this is about a year

00:03:59.340 before COVID and, you know, looking back with school restrictions and schools and classrooms closing,

00:04:06.180 uh, it actually made a lot of sense. And we're glad that we got out ahead of the curve, uh, because

00:04:12.060 it was coming down the pike anyways. So we were fortunate that we did that. We weren't really

00:04:16.500 sure if this was the best solution, but looking into it now, absolutely. It was the best decision

00:04:21.960 for us. Uh, I, I think there's a real challenge in government schooling right now, specifically

00:04:28.320 with the rise and infiltration of sexual indoctrination. Now I know people don't like to

00:04:33.760 hear this. Uh, I know a lot of people might think, well, that, you know, that's not happening.

00:04:38.340 No, clearly it's happening. All right. And it's happening, happening at an increasingly

00:04:43.280 younger age. All right. When you're talking about transgenderism and introducing gender, 0.87

00:04:50.540 and we see and hear from so many school teachers who are introducing their, their, our children,

00:04:56.340 not their children, our children to, you know, their sexual preferences and their lifestyle and

00:05:03.360 the LGBTQTIA or whatever agenda, like this is happening. Uh, and I'm not interested in that 1.00

00:05:12.720 happening for my children. So I'm glad that even three years ago, we got out ahead of this curve

00:05:18.380 because it's happening that quickly in a matter of three years. Now, some of you guys might say,

00:05:22.820 well, you know, when I was a kid, yeah, well, that was probably 20 years ago for me, it was a quarter

00:05:26.620 of a century ago. That's when I was going through school and school was different then. So I don't

00:05:32.700 want my, my children to be taught these sexual perverted, frankly, ideologies from people. I don't

00:05:42.620 know people that I don't trust and people that I don't agree with. Now, if you want to talk math or,

00:05:46.540 or writing or English and these kinds of things with my kids, that that's your role, but your role

00:05:51.780 isn't to tell you to, I heard one where, uh, a school teacher proudly proclaimed on some TikTok

00:06:00.100 video that instead of doing social studies or sciences or whatever he was doing, he started

00:06:07.560 explaining to the kids in his classroom about gender ideology. And he was so proud. Hey, we're 0.97

00:06:13.160 going to do math, but, uh, instead they were asking questions. And so I explained, of course,

00:06:18.620 they're asking questions because they're curious. They've never seen it before. So they're wondering

00:06:22.400 what in the world is this? So of course they're asking questions, but it isn't your right. And it's

00:06:28.640 not your responsibility to deviate from what we as parents who have our children enrolled in these

00:06:35.560 schools dictate that you should be doing through our elected officials. And speaking of elected

00:06:41.420 officials, namely school board members, you all better be aware because you're on notice

00:06:46.920 and you parents better be aware of what's being taught in these schools. And you better hold these

00:06:52.400 elected officials, these school board members accountable because they think they own your

00:06:56.820 children. They think that they're your children are theirs and they're not. Oh, right. And that's

00:07:03.160 inflammatory. That's hyperbole. No, it isn't. Right. Listen to what's going on around the country.

00:07:10.160 Listen to these school board meetings. Listen, look at the books that are being recommended to

00:07:16.780 your children. Look around in your school. Like look at the teachers. You can see pretty quickly

00:07:22.560 what it is they're doing and what they're all about. And you better get involved at a minimum.

00:07:28.940 So we made this decision three years ago to pull our kids out of government schooling and decided

00:07:35.300 instead to take that upon ourselves. And it's been an uphill battle in a lot of ways. And it's been

00:07:40.620 very advantageous and beneficial for my wife and myself and also for our children. But whenever I

00:07:45.800 bring this up, there's usually three or four main sticking points for people. And the sticking points

00:07:51.640 that I've seen flat out are incorrect. So let's get on a level playing field here. And if there's other

00:07:57.100 reasons that you think maybe homeschool is not the best option, then that's fine. But I do want to

00:08:01.720 make myself very clear when I'm talking about this first and foremost. I'm not talking about every

00:08:06.780 kid who doesn't have the opportunity. I'm not talking about the children who potentially are in

00:08:11.500 poverty or their parents aren't around. Like that's not what I'm talking about. Okay. There are some

00:08:17.820 reasons for public school, a public schooling option, but that's not your children. Right. I'm talking

00:08:25.960 about your children. I'm talking about the responsibility you have as their parent. So

00:08:31.320 let's not shift the conversation to something I'm not talking about. I'm talking about you

00:08:36.180 and your children. And if you decide, Hey, we don't want to do that by all means do, do what you got to

00:08:40.920 do, do what you think is best. I'm telling you, I don't think it is. That's my opinion. None of this

00:08:46.220 truth or my truth stuff. It's my opinion. That's not best. I think it's dangerous. I think it's

00:08:51.800 potentially destructive. And I think it's a really good way for you to lose your children. At least

00:08:55.460 their minds and their souls. And I'm not interested in doing that for my kids. If you see it differently

00:09:00.300 by all means, but let's keep the points, the argument on point and work from a level playing

00:09:05.440 field. So let's address these. I have four today. I wanted to talk with you about. Okay. Number one,

00:09:09.020 these aren't in any order, but the one that I get quite often is that you as a parent aren't

00:09:14.620 qualified to teach that you're not qualified to teach your children because you don't have what a

00:09:22.100 degree, formal education in schooling or these things. Guys, that's the furthest thing from the

00:09:28.040 truth. You as a father of your children, your wife as the mother of those children are eminently

00:09:37.280 qualified to be able to teach your kids what they need to know. You went through school,

00:09:43.420 you have a high school degree. You probably have some post-secondary education, whether that's through

00:09:47.860 a university or a trade school, or even the experience that you have in life. I didn't go

00:09:52.740 to trade school. I didn't go to a university. I went to half a semester of college, dropped out,

00:09:58.380 but I've got 20 plus years of entrepreneurial experience. And you're going to say that a person

00:10:04.640 who has that experience is not qualified to teach his kids. Now, let me also say this is that I think

00:10:10.180 there's a lot of great school teachers out there. I think there's a lot of teachers who want to do best

00:10:13.740 for their kids who care deeply about the children they're serving. And they're doing this with noble

00:10:19.480 intent, with righteous intent. They're trying to do right. But you school teachers, based on the

00:10:24.040 conversations I've had with quite a few of you, are so burdened and bogged down with not teaching

00:10:31.480 the administration aspect of it. All the paperwork and all the assignments and all the red tape and all

00:10:38.080 the reports and everything else that you get bogged down with, so much so that it actually hinders

00:10:43.560 your ability to teach our children. The other thing is just because a public school teacher,

00:10:49.720 and I'm not necessarily talking about college right now. I'm talking about K through 12.

00:10:55.160 Just because a public school teacher has a degree in education doesn't mean they have advanced

00:11:01.360 knowledge of some of these other areas in which they're teaching your children. For example, math.

00:11:07.860 Now, unless they have a secondary degree in mathematics or engineering or one of these things,

00:11:11.900 it might not be that they're coming to the table with any more experience than you,

00:11:17.640 really just how to A, navigate the landscape, which bogs a lot of these well-intentioned school

00:11:24.080 teachers down. And B, interpersonal communication, how to manage a class of 30 12-year-olds.

00:11:31.340 So there is some benefit there. Because if you've got 30 12-year-olds, you need to be able to know how to

00:11:36.260 manage that class. You have to have some sort of behavioral psychology knowledge. They're not

00:11:41.660 psychologists, but behavioral psychology knowledge with how to keep these students and these kids on

00:11:45.900 track and how to keep them learning. So I'll give you that. But I don't have 30 kids in my classroom.

00:11:51.320 We have four. And those four children, I know intimately, they're my children.

00:11:57.040 And I know what they're good at. And I know what they're not good at. I can look at them and I can

00:12:02.540 see when they struggle, that they're struggling. I can look at them and watch and see when they get

00:12:07.820 things and maybe we can double down on that. So I have unique advantages that a school teacher,

00:12:14.280 bless their hearts, just doesn't have. I couldn't do that if I had 30 kids.

00:12:18.800 Okay. Not to mention the concept of no child left behind, right? So you might have a student in your

00:12:26.180 class who doesn't get it for whatever reason. Maybe there's a learning disability. Maybe it could

00:12:32.800 be an IQ issue. It could be a behavioral issue. Maybe no support at home, which is actually quite

00:12:39.020 common, obviously, which is why a lot of people, not everybody, but a lot of parents do drop their

00:12:43.200 kids off at school because it's like, cool, they're out of my hair now, right? It's not everybody,

00:12:46.560 but that's certainly an issue. And so these school teachers are burdened. And I don't know

00:12:52.580 burdens or I'm trying to be empathetic to this. These school teachers are tasked. We'll say that

00:12:56.740 they're tasked with having to make sure that little Timmy who can't keep up for whatever reason

00:13:02.240 doesn't get left behind. But what happens to little Billy and little Susie who are excelling,

00:13:07.460 who get it, who get frustrated and bored and start getting into trouble because they're not being

00:13:14.800 challenged in a meaningful and significant way. We know this is the case. We know it.

00:13:20.540 And so we say, well, no child left behind. Well, what about those kids out front who aren't getting

00:13:25.540 personalized attention, who aren't having a catered experience to them, who aren't being challenged and

00:13:30.640 pushed in meaningful and significant ways? The other beautiful thing I can do as a, we can do as a

00:13:37.520 homeschooling family is that I can build a curriculum based on what each of my four children

00:13:43.100 need. I've explained this in the past. My daughter, she's dyslexic. We didn't know that until about

00:13:49.000 three years ago when we started trying to teach her. And I could see that she was reading and I'm

00:13:53.040 like, oh, she's doing a great job. But then I watched her eyes and what she was actually doing

00:13:56.280 is she had memorized all the words because my wife and I had read those books to her. She'd memorized

00:14:01.320 the words and then associated them with the pictures. So she would, I'd turn open a page and

00:14:07.960 she would say the words verbatim. And I'm like, oh, cool. She's getting it. But then I would watch

00:14:12.780 her eyes and she's actually just looking at the picture. And it's frankly been a real struggle.

00:14:19.340 Well, I think in the public school system, she probably would have been left behind because she's 1.00

00:14:23.880 intelligent enough to fake her way through it. She was trying to do that with us and she would have

00:14:28.400 got lost in the shuffle and lost in the mix and not really got what she needed. A lot of you,

00:14:32.500 I know this now, I didn't. A lot of you listening are probably dyslexic. It's actually fairly common.

00:14:38.520 I didn't know that. So my wife and I had to try different ways of introducing words and letters and

00:14:45.860 sounds. And even to this day, you know, three years later, there's still some struggles and we have to

00:14:51.380 work through that. But she's not going to get lost in the shuffle. She's going to get exactly what she 0.58

00:14:55.740 needs. And I'm going to take out that one little bit of information that doesn't work for her.

00:15:00.040 And I'm going to input it something else in that's going to be a little suited, more suited to her.

00:15:04.480 I mean, there's so many resources online. We use a program called The Good and the Beautiful.

00:15:11.500 I don't particularly like that name, but it is a good curriculum. And that's the curriculum we use

00:15:16.380 as our baseline curriculum. I say baseline because there's other ancillary curriculums that we get

00:15:23.280 or explore or purchase or implement based on what our children need, based on what they're interested

00:15:29.780 in, based on what they're struggling with. A school teacher can't do that. I'm not saying they

00:15:35.060 don't want to. I think they do. I think they want the children to succeed, but they're in an environment

00:15:40.160 that won't allow them to succeed. The analogy I would use is if you have an apple tree in your

00:15:47.620 backyard. Well, if the tree goes bad, the fruit's going to go bad. Okay. And it isn't really the

00:15:55.320 fault of the limb of the tree. It really isn't the fault of the fruit, the apple of the tree,

00:16:00.560 that the tree went bad. The tree's bad. And naturally and inevitably it will begin to poison

00:16:06.220 the limbs, the teachers. And naturally, inevitably those poison limbs, the teachers will then have its 0.86

00:16:14.160 effect on the students or the apples. Like you cannot produce good fruit from a rotten tree.

00:16:22.660 And so I'm not saying the teachers are rotten. I'm saying the system is rotten.

00:16:26.780 It's eroding. It's crumbling. It's being rooted out. It's being changed. It's being manipulated.

00:16:35.100 So we, as parents, my wife and I have a system that works because we test it. And if something

00:16:43.280 doesn't work correctly, we put something else in there and we can do that. We can adapt because

00:16:47.920 A, we know our children better than any school teacher can. And B, we have access to the resources

00:16:53.320 to be able to change as we need to change and implement what needs to be implemented in our

00:16:57.340 young children's lives for the betterment of them and their long-term success. A school teacher's

00:17:03.400 classroom just is not that mobile. Can't do it. Even if you wanted to. And again, I think a lot of

00:17:08.580 school teachers would, but you can't because you're hamstringed by this curriculum

00:17:14.200 that frankly, you probably didn't have that much saying. So please let's get over the notion that

00:17:22.420 you are not qualified. Also, if you feel like maybe you're not the best in math, well, maybe your

00:17:28.660 spouse is. I mean, that's the situation with my wife and I, she's very good at the other things.

00:17:32.780 And then when it comes to math, she's like, dad, you step in, you teach the kids on what

00:17:37.500 they're struggling with. And I get it. That like math resonates for me. So I can step in and I can

00:17:42.480 help them with that. The other thing you could do is you could hire a tutor, right? And that's an

00:17:50.880 option. That tutor comes into your home or you take your child to that tutor or you do it at the

00:17:54.600 library or whatever. And then you have customized, catered information for your kid to learn in a lot

00:18:02.620 more efficient and effective way. So that's number one is that you're not qualified. You are

00:18:07.040 qualified. Okay. You're just as, if not more so. So please don't, don't think that just because you

00:18:12.660 don't have that teaching certificate that you can't teach your kids, you absolutely can. You can

00:18:15.900 probably do it better. All right. Number two, this is a big one. Well, you know, the kids aren't

00:18:20.020 socialized. Kids won't get socialization. That, that to me is such a strange, strange concept because I

00:18:28.780 know rational people who make this argument. Like these are rational, intelligent people. Like if your kid

00:18:33.700 doesn't go to school, they won't be socialized as if public schooling is the only socialization

00:18:40.220 opportunity in the world. Far from it. My kids are so socialized, right? They could sit down at a

00:18:50.320 table with adults and they could hold that table. They can tell jokes and stories and laugh and take

00:18:55.540 a joke and, and give a joke and all the things that they would need to do in their life. As they grow

00:19:01.400 up, they can do that better. I think then a lot of what you see in the school district.

00:19:06.540 I'm not saying exclusively, but I'm not saying that, that being socialized at school is the

00:19:11.620 pinnacle of your social evolution as a child. Far from it, far from it. Cause what are they

00:19:20.420 learning? Well, we already talked about what they're learning from their school teachers.

00:19:23.480 So that's, I don't want them socialized to that. I don't want them to think that's like

00:19:28.540 normalized behavior, but also what are they learning from their friends about drugs and addiction and

00:19:36.300 pornography and sex and gender and transgenders and all these other things that other kids are

00:19:42.580 learning. Am I supposed to say that I want them to be socialized to that? Yeah. I don't, I don't want

00:19:49.020 that for my children and we're going to get into exposed to new ideas here in a minute. So I don't,

00:19:53.940 I don't want to cross over to that because we are going to talk about that, but my kids are very

00:19:58.040 socialized. They're part of a CrossFit class that they go to three to five days a week. They go to

00:20:05.140 the gym. My two oldest boys go to a gym. They have a coach who trains them with strength training and

00:20:10.920 they work with other boys there. They're, they're all very involved in sports. My daughter has a dance

00:20:16.040 class that she goes to every week. We've got a couple of neighbors right down the road that have

00:20:19.920 five children that are all right about the same age as our children. They homeschool too. So their

00:20:25.420 kids come over and play. My kids go over there and play and they learn things about farming and hard

00:20:30.480 work, things that you wouldn't necessarily learn at school. And then the other thing we do is we,

00:20:34.580 we, as a business, I host big events here on my property, like on my property. My house has like

00:20:41.540 a revolving door built into it of strong, bold, successful men. So when my kid, and I'll never

00:20:49.120 forget this moment. A lot of you guys know my friend, Brandon Lilly, big, intimidating person.

00:20:57.220 So big guy, strong. He's got, he's all tatted up. He used to have a beard. I think he shaved it off.

00:21:02.500 Shame on you for that, Brandon. But other than that, we're all good. He's a big, intimidating,

00:21:07.540 imposing figure. And I'll never forget. I had him over for an event. This was, I think, two years

00:21:12.800 ago. And he walked in and I, before I even said anything, my son was so excited to meet Brandon

00:21:18.480 Lilly, my oldest son. So he must've been 11 or 12 at the time. He walks right up to Brandon.

00:21:25.020 He extends his hand. He looks Brandon right in the eyes, up, right in the eyes, shakes his hand and says,

00:21:31.280 hi, I'm Breckin. You must be Brandon. I've been looking forward to meeting you.

00:21:35.460 Now, they're socialized. They get it because we take the time to ensure. Now that is one of the

00:21:45.560 challenges. Let's be honest. It's like, I have to go out of my way as does my wife to put them in

00:21:51.040 environments with other children. And it isn't always easy. It's not always convenient. There's

00:21:55.420 other things I wish I could be doing, but their socialization is an important thing to me.

00:21:59.500 This has really changed relative to when you and I were, were, were students and the homeschool

00:22:05.020 kids were weirdos. Let's just be real about that. They were weird, right? But the socialization

00:22:11.400 issue is just not as big a deal, especially with the millions and millions of people who have decided

00:22:15.920 to homeschool their kids. Now there's co-ops. There's, there's learning groups. One thing that

00:22:21.180 we've done in the past is travel down to Boston with a group. We take the train down to Boston and

00:22:25.100 we go to the museums with other homeschoolers. Guys, the opportunities are there. I promise you

00:22:30.360 they're there. They're available. They're out there. A little more effort. Sure. But now you

00:22:36.080 get to choose who they're going to be socialized with and by. And that's an important distinction.

00:22:40.800 So let's talk about the next myth. Cause we've kind of crossed over into this is this idea that

00:22:45.280 if you don't send your kids to school, then they're not exposed to new ideas. There's a lot

00:22:48.820 wrong with this myth. Okay. The first, the first problem with this myth is that there's some ideas

00:22:55.660 I don't want them to be exposed to at an early age because they're literally incapable of discerning

00:23:04.460 fact from fiction. They're ignorant. They're literally incapable of doing that. So when you 1.00

00:23:11.660 have a school teacher that, that starts teaching them all this gender ideology nonsense, and you're 1.00

00:23:17.580 like, well, you know, my kids, I just want them to be exposed to new ideas. They, they can't,

00:23:21.800 they can't make decisions for themselves. This is why we have consent laws. This is why we should

00:23:28.740 have laws in place. And there are some, but even more so with regards to protecting our children from

00:23:35.700 mutilating their bodies because they've been introduced to the concept that maybe the boy is a

00:23:40.620 girl and the girl is a boy. Okay. At the age of 13, like you're, you're just figuring out how to play

00:23:49.400 with your dingy, right? Like, and then, and then you're going to have a parent or a teacher start

00:23:54.560 suggesting to you that, Oh, maybe this child needs puberty blockers. And maybe we ought to mutilate

00:23:59.560 their bodies so that we can take that penis and turn it into a vagina. And, and, or with, with 1.00

00:24:04.500 young ladies is like, is, is take their breasts off. So they're more flat chested. So they look 1.00

00:24:09.220 like a man or introduce testosterone and they start growing facial hair. A lot of this stuff is

00:24:13.400 unreversible. You start mutilating the body at a young age. Like kids can't make that decision for

00:24:20.900 themselves. They don't even know the consequence of it because they don't, they don't get it.

00:24:26.840 We don't expect them to. It's the same reason why. And unfortunately I think this might change as well

00:24:32.800 is that a child cannot consent to a sexual or intimate relationship with an adult. They're

00:24:40.400 incapable of doing it. Okay. They don't know what's wrong for young boys and young men. They're

00:24:48.260 the front of the brain doesn't even fully develop until the low to mid twenties, like 23 to 25 years

00:24:54.180 old. Your brain's not even fully developed. Okay. This is why we have consent laws. This is why we have

00:25:01.780 laws in place, protecting children from being preyed upon because kids can't make those decisions

00:25:07.360 themselves. And so I don't, yes, I don't want my children exposed to some ideas from somebody I

00:25:16.080 don't know or don't trust or don't agree with when my children are incapable of discerning right and

00:25:23.140 wrong or fact from truth, or excuse me, fact from fiction. Now, 25 year old kid that's going to

00:25:29.940 college and they're exposed to different ideas and different ways of doing things. And they can,

00:25:34.020 they can articulate a little better and they can defend themselves. They can stand up for

00:25:36.900 themselves. They can question. Okay. That's another story, but we're talking about children here.

00:25:42.640 And so that's one of the problems with that myth. The other problem is just because they're not going

00:25:49.280 to school doesn't mean they're not getting exposed to new ideas. My kids and I listen to podcasts,

00:25:54.320 some of which I agree and some of which I don't, but guess what? When there's things I don't agree

00:25:58.360 with or things they have questions about, where do they turn to me? And then I explain to them

00:26:04.520 what they're hearing and what's being taught and what that person is saying. And you might say,

00:26:10.660 well, you know, Ryan, you're talking about indoctrination in the school district. Aren't

00:26:14.280 you doing the same thing? Yes. Yes. A hundred percent. I am indoctrinating my children. The difference

00:26:20.640 is it's my right and moral responsibility to do it because indoctrination is taking a belief system

00:26:28.340 and then teaching that belief system to somebody else. That's indoctrination. Teaching them a

00:26:41.440 doctrine. So that's what I'm doing. And that's what every parent is doing. And that's what school

00:26:46.540 districts are doing. The difference is I have the right and the responsibility to do it. School

00:26:52.460 teachers, school administration, and the school district does not have the right to indoctrinate

00:26:57.700 our children into their, what I believe are misguided and dangerous ideologies. That's

00:27:03.260 my responsibility to help them filter that information. So it isn't that they're not

00:27:08.680 exposed to new ideas. We talk about new ideas all the time. I talk about things I'm upset about.

00:27:13.640 I talk about things I agree with. I talk about things that I don't agree with. We have dinner

00:27:17.100 together. We break bread. We have breakfast together. We have morning meetings. We're having

00:27:20.180 discussions. My kids are like, Hey, I want to go shoot. And I'm out there teaching the firearm

00:27:23.760 safety rules. We have other men come into the house for events. I present to these men. So my

00:27:32.160 children hear me. They can hear this podcast. They're getting exposed to new ideas. Again,

00:27:37.720 school doesn't have the corner on the market with new ideas. We believe that because it used to be

00:27:43.260 that schooling was an institution where you could go and you could be introduced to new concepts and ideas

00:27:49.220 in a civil manner. And then you could hash them out and separate the weave from the chaff, right? 0.95

00:27:55.520 You could decide what was good and what was bad. And now they just get one side of the equation.

00:28:03.800 So we got to get over the myth that our children are, A, are not getting new information in other

00:28:10.480 places. And B, that it's the school's right to even do that.

00:28:19.560 It's not, it's your right. And it's your responsibility.

00:28:24.340 And I guess the third point of that, and I alluded to this earlier is believing that your

00:28:28.320 kids can even combat against dangerous ideology.

00:28:32.920 You know how much easier it would be? And this is like, excuse me, this is going to sound evil.

00:28:38.380 And I'm not trying to compare it to this. I'm just giving you an analogy here,

00:28:41.080 but how much easier it would be to get a child to commit suicide than it would be to get an adult

00:28:50.640 to do that. Like a functioning adult versus a functioning child.

00:28:53.380 It's unfortunate, but that's the reality. They're impressionable.

00:29:02.740 They don't understand. They don't get it. They don't know how to separate right from wrong.

00:29:05.860 And so if we're just exposing them to new ideas and not controlled environments, then

00:29:10.120 the new idea isn't virtuous. The introduction to the new idea isn't virtuous.

00:29:14.720 Virtuous. It's only virtuous in as much as somebody can make a choice.

00:29:22.480 Right? Like if I'm in jail, here's another analogy. If I'm in jail

00:29:25.120 and you're like, Hey, we're going to let Ryan out. He hasn't stolen anything,

00:29:29.700 you know, for 12 months, he had an 18 month sentence and, but he was in his jail cell and

00:29:34.060 he didn't steal anything for 12 months. Right. But that doesn't make me virtuous or make a good

00:29:38.640 behavior. I just didn't have access to it. Now, if I had access to it and I decided not to,

00:29:43.980 then that's virtuous. Right? So our kids, in order for them to make good decisions,

00:29:48.380 it actually has to be a decision. They consciously make a decision, but they can't do that when they're

00:29:52.820 children because their brains aren't fully developed. All right. I think you guys get the

00:29:57.080 point. And the last, uh, the last one I wanted to address, this one's very, very important.

00:30:03.320 And, and all the objections I get fall into these three or four categories. But the last one is this,

00:30:07.340 that, you know, Ryan, that's great for you. You know, we would love to do that, but, uh, we can't.

00:30:14.540 And usually the reason is time constraints or money. And I understand. I do. I get it. You know,

00:30:21.860 I've been fortunate. My wife has been at home, a stay at home mom, a housewife, a homemaker,

00:30:27.560 since we started having kids. And we are fortunate. We are blessed that we're able to do that. I'm so

00:30:33.840 grateful. I thank God every day. I'm able to do that. And I know that not everybody can do that

00:30:38.020 currently, but there's ways to make this work guys. There's ways to make this work, get a promotion,

00:30:45.840 get a second job, figure out how to, how to start a business, develop a new marketable skill,

00:30:53.400 invest, get out of debt, sell some things that you don't need anymore. You can't say that you want to do

00:30:59.600 it. And you're, and it's so important to you in one breath and the next breath say, but I'm not

00:31:05.040 willing to do what would be required. And that really is what you're saying. Now you paint it as

00:31:10.260 something different. You justify, you rationalize, oh, we need to, like the economy is just like,

00:31:15.540 it's just not possible anymore. Okay. That that's your painting of the environment. It isn't truth with a

00:31:23.340 capital T. So why are you telling me how badly you want to do this on one hand and on the other,

00:31:29.900 you're like, no, but I can't. No, it's not that you can't. It's that you won't. It's that you won't

00:31:35.100 even work towards it. Cause right now it might not be in the cards, but you can't even work towards it,

00:31:39.660 but you can't make more money, invest properly, figure out how to start a secondary business on the

00:31:48.220 side, cut back on the, on the lifestyle, cut back on the, on the subscriptions that you have like

00:31:56.040 Netflix and Disney and, and, and Hulu and all these other kinds of things that you have in the sports

00:32:00.720 chant, like get rid of all that stuff. Look at your expenditures. I was talking with Kip on this

00:32:07.160 Wednesday's podcast. And I said, how many cars do you have? And I think he said, I can't, I think he

00:32:12.000 said, did he say four? He might've said even six. And we, we have, we have five vehicles.

00:32:20.820 Okay. Like, do we need that? No. Was it nice? Yes. We've earned it and we paid for it. It's ours,

00:32:25.300 but we don't need that. And if we had to make sacrifices, then that's what we would do.

00:32:30.620 Those are the sacrifices that we would make. The other thing is there's a lot of more,

00:32:33.860 a lot more co-ops and group type settings popping up. And you really ought to be aware of that because

00:32:39.100 when I say homeschool, yes, I'm talking about homeschool, but I'm also talking about alternate

00:32:43.840 education, right? And one of those opportunities might be that you have a co-op home education

00:32:51.300 center in, in your community. And I've seen parents get together where you as, as a parent would have

00:32:59.700 the kids for one day a week. And then the other days they're somewhere else. And so maybe you don't

00:33:05.100 go from, from two full-time incomes down to one only, but you could go from two. And then the

00:33:11.420 other, your wife or you or whoever, based on your dynamic could reduce your hours by 20 or 30%.

00:33:18.020 So you're not having to go cold Turkey, but you're actually moving in the right direction,

00:33:21.840 getting your kids out of this dangerous public school system and moving into an environment that

00:33:26.820 could be more beneficial for them. And that's not to say it's a hundred percent. Cause if we're talking

00:33:31.620 about co-op and other families, like, yes, I, again, I want to be really clear about this.

00:33:37.600 The pros and the cons is that you need to make sure you vet those people because you could run

00:33:42.940 into the exact same problem you're running into at the school district, that you have an unvetted 1.00

00:33:47.100 person teaching your children who knows what. And maybe even, unfortunately, I know this happens,

00:33:55.020 obviously inappropriate behavior, sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse. So those things

00:34:01.700 need to be vetted, of course, but I think you understand the point. Now, if there's other

00:34:08.480 reasons that you're like, well, it doesn't work because of this. And, but some kids don't have

00:34:11.960 these opportunities. I get it again. I'm talking about you and I'm willing to have this debate.

00:34:17.920 It was amazing to me how so many people, it seems like lost their minds in the post that I made on,

00:34:25.800 was it Tuesday? No, I think it was on Monday. People just, their minds exploded, their minds

00:34:32.780 melted, like all reason and logic and rationality just went out the window. I can't do that, but I

00:34:40.340 can't have a discussion, a rational discussion about this. And we should, we should be talking about

00:34:44.720 this, but these are all myths that just are not rooted or based in reality. Number one is that

00:34:49.640 you're not qualified. That's a myth. You are uniquely qualified, maybe even more so in a lot of

00:34:55.460 ways. Oh, but Ryan, not everybody is. Again, I'm not talking about everybody. I'm talking about you

00:35:02.080 and you are qualified. And if you don't feel like you are, you can be, that's the beauty too,

00:35:07.860 is you can get qualified, not by some credential and going through college, but by picking up the skills

00:35:13.700 and the tools and the things that you need in order to be successful at this. Second myth,

00:35:19.080 that your children won't be socialized as if the government school system has the corner on the

00:35:24.020 market when it comes to socialization and group activities for children. Clearly, clearly that

00:35:28.780 isn't the case. I explained probably five or six things that my children do and they have plenty of

00:35:33.480 social interaction. Number three is they won't be exposed to new ideas. Again, as if public school

00:35:42.340 space is the only place in which new ideas are discussed, you can, you can introduce them to

00:35:48.660 new ideas. You can give them new information. You can have them read different books or listen to

00:35:52.880 different pot. Like they're going to be exposed to new information. It's just going to be in a

00:35:56.640 controlled environment. So you can help them understand what is real, what is not, what is

00:36:00.920 truth, what is lie, what is right, what is wrong, what's going to serve them, what's going to hinder

00:36:04.380 them. And it's all filtered through you, where should be the parent. That's your responsibility.

00:36:09.120 Really? And then the last one is I can't do it because of time constraints and money that

00:36:13.760 there's, there's a lot more legitimacy to that one than the rest of them. And so I understand

00:36:19.760 because I've actually been there in my life where having my wife at home and not having

00:36:23.660 an income outside of the house was actually very, very challenging for us. Like we struggled

00:36:27.740 to make bills. We struggled to put any money away. We struggled with food. We lived off of our

00:36:32.840 food storage for a time because the income wasn't coming in. So we had to make sacrifices and

00:36:37.740 we had to do things differently. And I had to figure out a way to make more money.

00:36:40.420 And I started a different business. And then I had two businesses. Maybe even she, your

00:36:45.380 wife can do something out of the house. That's an option. You know, instead of going to the 1.00

00:36:51.460 workforce, 40 hours a week, she could be at home. Who knows? Maybe there's even an option 1.00

00:36:55.620 with her current employment. This is one of the beautiful things about COVID is that it taught

00:36:59.760 a lot of people and showed them that maybe they don't actually need to be in the office.

00:37:03.100 My mother did this. Actually, she was going into the hospital and she does coding for the hospital

00:37:08.620 for insurance claims and benefits. And she approached them and said, Hey, you know, I'm

00:37:12.740 doing this here. Can I just do this at my office? It's going to cost you less money. It's going to

00:37:16.160 take me less time to commute. I'll be able to dedicate more time to the business. They're like,

00:37:20.180 yeah, sure. And so she created that opportunity because she asked, she just asked for it.

00:37:26.040 You might be able to do that, or your wife might be able to do that. And now you're home,

00:37:29.060 you know, so you put in your work and you do what you say you're going to do with your employer,

00:37:32.280 but then you're home and you're available to be able to teach. And by the way,

00:37:36.220 schooling at homeschool, it doesn't take seven, eight, nine hours per day. It takes two or three

00:37:40.700 hours a day because it's catered. It's customized. It's specific. It's, it's sniper. Like there's a

00:37:48.200 whole lot of distractions. There's no assemblies and transferring from class to class and waiting

00:37:52.980 for this person. Cause they don't get it. Like it's hyper focused, which means that it could be much

00:37:58.400 more efficient. Anyways, look, I know it's, I guess I am. I'm trying to convince you that this

00:38:04.800 is a viable option. I was going to say, I'm not trying to convince you. No, I am. I'm trying to

00:38:08.140 convince you that this is a viable option that if you've ever considered it, if you haven't

00:38:12.020 considered it, cool, no problem. Do your thing. But if you've ever considered it, don't let people

00:38:16.860 tell you that this is the way it is. These myths are myths for a reason. And I busted them

00:38:20.940 wide open today. And if you're curious about more of this, keep looking into it. Lots of resources

00:38:26.540 out there. Lots of great curriculums. I'll answer any questions you have. Cause I think

00:38:30.980 more and more parents need to do this with and for their children. All right, guys, there

00:38:37.020 you go. Homeschooling myths busted. Uh, we'll be back next week until then go out there, take

00:38:43.140 action and become the man you are meant to be. Thank you for listening to the order of man

00:38:47.600 podcast. You're ready to take charge of your life and be more of the man you were meant to

00:38:52.120 be. We invite you to join the order at order of man.com.

Order of Man - May 06, 2022

Homeschooling Myths Busted ｜ FRIDAY FIELD NOTES

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