1st meeting, January 29, 2010 - Bailey and Lena's

Met with Bailey and Lena on Friday, January 29, 2010. This is what got started:

Took Notes on School years and times...most of this section taken from Malcolm Gladwell's "Outliers" so some research needs to be corroborated:

Average Schoolyear (by days)

United States - 180 Days

South Korea - 220 Days

Japan - 243 Days

How does this translate into the kids learning abilities. The argument is that the kids in the foreign countries get more schooling and thus have more of a chance to learn. Does year round schooling automatically mean better schooling? If that's the case, how many hours a day can a school day be? The KIPP(sic) in the Bronx is the example that Gladwell used in his book.

One point of this school is to teach kids how to teach others. How to teach kids to protect those who need protection and help those who need help. To give them the ability to do this while at the same time teach them that they have the ability to do it themselves.

A second point is to teach the parents of our kids how to be parents. How to live and function as a family. In discussions with Bailey and Lena, we went over how parents just don't know how to deal with their own children.

A third point is teach each other, kids with kids in their own classes as well as others, and the parents of these kids, teaching each other. All involved will have the chance to learn.

Lena made the point of making sure that the parents who needed help with education could get it. Similar to the idea of teaching the parents the classwork that their kids are learning so that they would be able to help them with their homework. In addition, we have the following rules that need to be followed:

• Parents are required to attend classes 2 nights a week with their children. These classes would involve things such as parenting classes, financial classes. and general classes that would revolve around keeping their home lives safe and secure.
• Parents would also be accountable to one another. The parents would be taught in a manner that would encourage them to become a parenting group...similar to what Bailey said his elementary school PTA was all about.

We would need to promote Authenticity, Honesty, and Transparency. People need to know where we come from, why we do this, and need to be shown EVERYTHING we do and why we plan out the curriculum the way that we do.  Along with those-Quality, Communication, Respect, Honesty, and Teamwork.

What is our Noble Cause? We need one...we need to make sure that we put together something that we can strive for but that is near impossible to achieve. something like "Teaching the future how to teach each other through Honesty, Respect, and Communication.

*Transitional system (Lena) -Child Welfare - how to achieve the necessary skills to live a productive life...Utilizes the surrounding community in this regard.

Parenting is the issue....Parents can be the problem.

This is why they learn the same time as the kids...They can be the best staff. They can have online studies with the kids in the same learning areas as well as be available to teach and discipline the kids.

LSCI training specific for schools. Bailey says that this is essential. Notes about IEP (Individual Education Plan)

Parents need to be taught that Teachers are not substitute parents and teachers need to teach the parents that the parents are the best teachers.

FIELD TRIPS & BAILEY'S PTA - MENTORING

Field trips consist of activities in the home. Teaching parenting moments. How to organize a home. I wrote How to organize your heart accidentally but that works too.

Daily processes (KIPP school 1st period)

1/2 hour - Problem solving, Conflict resolution, and Thinking Skills....Bailey's chess story

Lena's community...350 max...I was thinking at 150 max

Bailey's parenting class

• Parents start parenting too late. Effective discipline is not addressed until it is too late...Lena brought up her mom's saying about parenting effectively between 1 and 5 and you won't have to parent after that.
• Teaching Parents to establish boundaries...kids can't be cursing out their parents without consequences.
• TEASPOT - Take Everything Away for a Short Period Of Time
• Structure is Consistency is Safety

School - Strength of Family

"What are you good at?"

"What's your strength?"

Hypothetical 1st day of class (Orientation)


Lena - Dry Erase Board. "What is parenting to you?" (Where are they?) Gap Baseline assessment


Bailey - Need to make sure the parents believe in the school and what they think separates our school from any other school


David - Have them figure something out as a family. Possibly have them bring ingredients for a dish that they can make together. When they come in they actually see how the class runs. Amongst the hustle and bustle of the cooking or whatever activity it is, the parents see how the shool will work and without realizing it are involved in an orientation. 

New Thinks

For the past couple of years thoughts and actions have occurred that have had me reconsidering how to do things.  If you are reading this and know me, you most likely will have had some understanding in where things were and where they are now.

I'm using this to keep a record of where things are going.  At its core, My world is changed and its time I changed it.  These are a series of ideas that I have stolen and begun following and this blog is the record of that change.

btw, The Homeless Talent Show stuff won't be found here any longer.  Wasn't much anyway but it was fun when it was.


The following information is on our googlewave post.  We are using this as an attempt to work on our unnamed project.  I say we because this is not something that I can do alone and so far there seems to be initial support coming in from the people that I have questioned.  so here goes...

The email I first sent...I wrote this to Erica. I keep looking at it and my feelings about this get stronger. Add to it and give your insight. Whatever information that might be relevant to any ideas NEEDS to be posted here.

We share our ideas so that we can make something happen.


I don’t know where to start so I will start here. I need to feel like something is being done. That book that I spoke to you about has me thinking a ton about what and where I want to go as far as the future. I don’t want a job or even a career. I want to be a craftsman. Not to the extent of using my hands or drawing or anything like that…I want to be able to help. Not just one thing but different things. And not just counseling for emotion or well-being, but teaching people how to teach other people. We have been implementing things here at work that seem to slowly be catching on...and people seem to be slowly grasping those ideas. The problem is that I really enjoy the feeling of watching these people grow and I am not sure that I can fill it just by working here.


Now, I don’t know if I want to just tell people how they should or shouldn’t act and I know that my patience for people who don’t want to try has not been tested yet so I can’t say that this is something that I have thoroughly thought out. A lot of what I am writing to you right now
is swirling around in my brain and I am trying to put it down to make it concrete. I do know that for the better part of Lillie’s life I have been struggling with the idea that I don’t think the education system in California is efficient nor do I believe that the education system in the United States as a whole is all that desirable. I like the idea of concentrating on the arts as much as concentrating on the sciences and weighing them evenly. I don’t know if home schooling is the right answer but I do like the idea that it presents. Somehow I would like her to be able to learn in a way that I was never allowed. I try to show her how much EVERYTHING matters and fill her with an understanding that was never a focus for me or a lot of others – that it is important that others learn from you, so that everyone that you touch in turn will teach someone else.



This is pretty random and widespread but I realize that things really shouldn’t be compartmentalized when it comes to people. Every day I run into something that has nothing to do with my department yet in order for this place to run efficiently, I need to care and put forth as much effort as possible. I’m asking you these things because you are a perfect example of what people need to strive for…people who put their asses on the lines for other people because they are socially responsible and realize that helping others is the only way that we as a people can really move past things. I want to educate people; children, teenagers, adults…I want to teach them about math and English and architecture and candy making and baking and basketball and Graphic design…I want children to work together until they reach 11 or 12 years old and at that point encourage them in whatever interests them…no grade systems or GPA’s. Not a system without rules but a system that pushes kids with an understanding that they can work together and create…Charter schools are a good representation but I would like to go a step further…whatever that step is.


From then, teach them how to save money and how ours is a society that bends its citizens over financially and how to avoid that.  How to create opportunity and not wait for something or someone to bail you out. How to be self-sustaining…something that we don’t learn until we’re already out of school. I look at a lot of the things that are going on with health care and wall street and our views as a country on the outside world and all I see is a bunch of talking from a 2 sided argument that I want no part of. We should not be concerned as to how we can get over on someone else or how someone else’s viewpoints don’t agree with our own. We should be doing what is right…we should be compassionate towards one another and learn to pick them up and teach them to teach that to others. Hell, I’m tired of wanting this. It’s time to start doing something else about it besides wanting it.



What if we, and I mean we in the sense of anyone who is on board with this, what if we started a school where the core values were the values that we all agreed on? Not just what a state or an agency demands but one where we and the parents of our children decided that those values fall right in line with what theirs are. Not just values on paper but real CORE Values…Honesty, Teamwork, Hard work, Love, Compassion, Social Justice, Integrity. A school that kids of every background could get to…finance would not be an object. All that would need to be had was the ideals to be respected. Active family members of the kids as well as teamwork amongst those parents…parents not just worrying about their kids but being a community with one another. Social programs that would involve the children and parents working together with their classmates as well as the parents of their classmates. Not a commune either but a community based around our kids. On top of that, the idea that these parents will become
leaders in their communities long before their kids become leaders in theirs.



I don’t want to say this is a dream because that kind of puts it out of reach. I want this and I think that it will be done. I ask for your counsel because I think that your input is key. Not just important but vital. I have been talking to Christina about bigger things and scope. I think that there are enough contacts in my book to start something. I don’t know what but I am tired of everyone not being good towards one another for whatever reason it is that they have. I am tired of who I was and I am excited at what we can become. 




If anyone has anything to add, hit me up.  I look forward to everyone's input