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Meet the Author
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Dr. Patti
"Diamondlady" Diamond, DD is a life long learning mom - living and discovering life's
possibilities
along side her husband, Aaron and her three beautiful boys – ages 15, 9, and
8. |
A Personal Message from Patti
Dear Friends,
I would like to share with you all a bit about Our Story of how we came to Life Long Learning. I did not place this in the Life Long Learning book, as I felt that this book was more of a learning of how to apply Life Long Learning into our lives rather than a story of our lives. So I will write a bit about our story here. The details of which are much much longer than I could ever write here, but a shorter version is what I wish to share with you......
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I wish I could say yes that they
have been learning from life since birth, as it would have saved my
children SO much heartache! I am a former teacher. I taught in the
public and private schools while my children were in "the system"
for a total of 12 years. I began teaching about the time Chris was
the age of 2. Before we left the school system we did the whole
"school at home" thing while I was teaching. There would be days,
weeks even, when our boys did not go to school because they did not
want to, saying they were sick or we would take "family" breaks,
which was fine with me, but we did the "school at home" thing which
was really just as bad as them being in school really as I was a
teacher and the teacher in me brought out the system at home!
In the school system, my children
were told regularly how "dumb" they were. Chris was even told once
on his report card that he was lazy and how his teacher did not
understand why he did not apply himself! Matthew was regularly told
that he was stupid and could not read and had to have a reading
specialist 4 days a week! It was not that he did not know how to
read, it was that he was not a robot spewing out what the system
wanted! Both Matthew and Chris were also labeled with "dyslexic and
ADD, ADHD tendencies" and wanted them to have IEP's and be on meds
and the whole bit! Both of them when they were in first grade!
Neither one of them are "dyslexic" or are ADD or ADHD (in fact we
even had Chris tested at one point!), they just tried to label them
because they did not "fit into the box" that was normal according to
the system! I can remember many times that even the teacher in me
would rebel knowing of homelearning and of Life Long Learning, and I
would "do" their assignments for school for the boys, just to make
sure that they "fit in the box" so the stress would not be on them
and on me to have to perform! My husband would do this too, staying
up many late nights to "do" or pretty much do their assignments with
them and for them! There were times when Matthew would catch me
doing this and he would say "Mommy you are not supposed to do my
work for me!" Of course I knew this, but to see such pain in his
eyes as he struggled with "fitting into that cookie cutter image of
what is deemed as their standard of learning" just broke my heart!
With Anthony, we had the opposite
issue. He is very bright and smart, "ahead" supposedly by "school"
standards. When trying to place him into first grade in the public
school system, they said NO because of his age. He is a January
birthday and the cut off here in Dec! So for three weeks they stuck
him back in Kindergarten even though he had already "graduated"
private school kindergarten. For those three weeks they place him in
"assessment testing" to see if he "measured up". Each day he would
come home irritable and sad and depressed and ask me constantly
"Mommy what is wrong with me? I can do the first grade stuff,
everything in Kindergarten I have done already and it is boring. I
am smart, why can't they see that" He was miserable! It was like
that of Matthew and Chris, where I could just see his spirit dying
away, his love of learning fading and the anger setting in. And of
course after 3 weeks they still said no because he did not measure
up to "their standards". Thus we placed him in private school and he
was just as miserable there because even though he was in "first
grade" he still was not given the freedom to learn what he wanted
to, or where and how!
Chris thus spent the most time
in/out of school that of 6 years. Matthew a total 2 years and
Anthony was in the least thank goodness and only private school
kindergarten and about 3 months of first grade. I knew of Life Long
Learning (or unschooling as some people call it, I just do not like
that word it sounds so "anti" learning and we do anything but "anti"
learning!:) I speak of this more in the book) about 3 years before
this, but I was too "scared" to do it and besides I was teaching
thinking I was helping the children I was teaching and also doing
the "good mom thing" by doing the "school at home" to make up for
what they were not really learning in school, that was my reasoning
then. Which now when I look back, seems so ludicrous. But back then
that is how I rationalized it.
And also the fact that at one
point that Anthony was in private school, so I was working 3 jobs (2
of them teaching jobs) just to pay for his tuition, working my self
sick literally, (which was part of my forced break I will speak of
in a minute), that I thought I was doing an even "better" mommy job
by giving him a better "education" than other children, than even my
own other two children who were in the public school system but
could not afford to have in private school! Add to the fact that my
husband always said "No child of mine is going to be doing THAT!".
WHOA! Let me tell you how he has transformed!:) Just about a month
ago or so now, my oldest Chris was joking about my middle son
Matthew reading something on a menu and my husband turned around and
said "Hey Chris, leave him be, he will read it when he is ready to
read it, he has his whole life to read!" Coming from where he was
about 4 years ago or so now to this is HUGE!!!:)
It was not until I had that
forced break I mentioned earlier, that I realized that I was not
helping the children I was teaching as I was a part of the problem
being a part of a system that did not wish me to help our children,
that they only wished to dumb them down. The school system's
response to children who supposedly were "ADD, ADHD etc." was to
consider them "problem children" and that if they could not "behave
and fit into the group properly" then I was to punish them by making
them stay in at recess and lunch, notes home for "bad behavior",
detention and the like. The systems answer for the "smart or ahead
children" like that of our son Anthony, was that I was "teaching too
creatively" by providing various ways to stimulate their learning,
all of which the children loved but the school system did not. I was
told on several occasions to "stay within the curriculum and not go
'outside' of the norm". It made me sick to my stomach when I
realized that I was apart of this and the fact that my own children
were suffering and I could not even help them, so what was I doing
trying to help others. I had to help my children to find their bliss
within the ability to learn everywhere and anywhere, learning
through life before I could help other children and other
families!:)
So this was when I quit teaching and we pulled
the boys out of the system and began Life Long Learning and we have
not looked back since! My only regret is how saddened I feel for all
of those children I left behind. I know that although I was not ever
able to help them in the way I thought I was, I know I did help all
of those children by being there for them because I intuitively
understood something that no one else did which is why these
children were all so drawn to me ~ that of the fact that they knew
that I knew another way, a way to free them from the constraints of
their "prison-like" lives within the system that wishes to dumb them
down. I was their safe haven, a free space for just that brief
moment in time everyday where they were free to be themselves and
not of what the "norm" of the system said they should be.
When I look back on all of the
pain my children went through it breaks my heart. It also breaks my
heart to know that now that I have helped my own children that there
are thousands, millions of children stuck in the system because
their parents do not know that there is another way. That is why I
wrote the book on Life Long Learning. So that no child will ever
have to go through what my children went through or what these
children are going through now ever again! That all children can
learn free from the constraints of compulsory education! This is my
fondest and dearest wish! I know that this, along with the spiritual
work that I am doing is my life's purpose for this lifetime!:) I ask
that you please join me in this vision.
In Love and Light, Dr. Patti "Diamondlady" Diamond, DD
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"Diamondlady" Diamond, DD
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