Wednesday, July 8, 2020

Oak Meadow School Independent Study: 1980 to 1985

When Sisson grade School became overcrowded and moved their 4th and above graders to the Junior High School within the first week or so of school an 8th grader broke a 4th grader's jaw. We withdrew our children from school (ages then 5 to 8 years old, 3 of them) and went on Oak Meadow School independent Study and moved onto our land from a house we were renting at the time in Mt. Shasta into our A-Frame house that I and my father and my wife and friends all built together. The youngest was then in kindergarten but ready to start 1st grade then and the others were 2nd and 3rd grade I believe (it's been 40 years now).

We found this experience very liberating in multiple ways because it not only protected our children from harm but it also liberated all aspects of our lives and field trips to nature sites all around Mt. Shasta like Lassen national Park and Lava beds National Monument and petroglyphs near that and lava tube ice caves and hikes up to 11,000 feet on mt. Shasta became possible because 4 wheel drive roads then went to around 10,000 feet then around the mountain until the Forest Service closed most or all of those roads now.

Also, we went to the San Juan Islands Camping and saw Killer Whales and went to Banff and Jasper in Canada because we hadn't seen that area yet either. So, for us, the children grew in leaps and bounds and became self starters researching and studying more and more of whatever they were interested in and in the process became better and better readers and writers along the way.

So, our experience was a good one.

When our oldest became 12, a boy, he wanted to return to school once again so we moved to the San Francisco Bay area and bought a business and have owned one or more businesses ever since 1985.

My stepdaughter is now a lawyer in Oregon, my step son is now a retired Fire Captain for CDF or CAL Fire in California and my other son is living with his wife and son in Portland and working there. He was teaching for several years in South Korea before this up to 2 years ago.

Because this is now 40 years ago when they started with Oak Meadow School they all have college degrees and all are married and my son now has a son too so I'm a grandfather. So, they are now all about 45 to 50 years of age at this point.

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