The Discovery School

Rate my Sales Pitch, or: From the Mind of a Dreamer

“Slow down, Shumway. I thought you were building a radio station.”

-That’s right. And a school. And a travel company.

-Great, why don’t you just go down and complete the construction of the Pan-American Highway while you’re at it.

girls from the Embera tribe, indigenous people of the Darien Gap. Check out Guido in the background- these Embera are a handsome bunch!

Like I said before, Pastor John is sanguine about all three projects, and who am I to let him down? Me getting this school idea going doesn’t mean Bitterroot Beacon Radio is on the backburner; I’m just moving my chips around so that I don’t have everything on the come bet. Plus, as you’ll see in my pitch, there’s potential for overlap between gigs here.

You see, my left arm is giving me trouble, as in it feels like it pops out of my shoulder socket when I put just a little stress on it, and at this age I don’t know how long I can keep up the stretching, pounding, jerking and heavy lifting of hard manual labor, and not go to pot. (If any of my bosses at Perky Pelican Pond Service is reading, please ignore the preceding- I’m game for lots more punishment!-and pardon all the P’s). All that may be fixed in a jiffy by one of ol’ Lars Hansen’s home-prescription potions, but I need to hedge my bets and consider a job where I use the old noggin more than the long-herniated lower vertebrae.

To add to that, I subbed at the jr.high/high school last week and was a bit troubled by the bored students. Their view of school wasn’t much better than mine at that age- drudgery. I tried to spice up their day with some funny anecdotes and we had a decent enough time, but I thought how hard it would be to really get those kids engaged within the structure of the public school system. Not that there aren’t great teachers down there, and some enthusiastic and happy students too (especially at the elementary level); I just think my head would explode if I had to teach 30 kids of widely varying abilities at a time, all within the prescribed curriculum, with wokeness thrown in for good measure.

Hence The Discovery School

What follows is a pitch I threw together just this morning, in case I decide to get this thing going. Who knows, it may never happen. It may be just a case of tutoring one to three kids. And it may become a school. In any case, what do you think of the pitch? Disregard for a second your doubts about me bringing such a project to fruition (the longer your acquaintance with me the greater your skepticism) and just ask yourself, If the right teacher were to run such an operation, could it be a workable idea? Would you want your son, nephew, or grandson in such a school?

You may not even be able to answer that question, as I don’t offer much of a plan. But here is the pitch anyway:

---

Welcome and thanks for visiting TDS (The Discovery School, not Trump Derangement Syndrome!).

My name is Daniel Shumway.

I’m a lifelong educator of over 30 years and father of four, originally from Bellevue, WA. I live in Stevensville. More on my bio below.

THE NAME

Why ‘Discovery’? Because the idea is that this school, or this learning/living experience to be more precise, will be a chance for your son to discover and pursue his interests and his strengths.

THE PHILOSOPHY

What’s the point or goal of The Discovery School? In a nutshell: The 3Rs, plus fun.

·         The first two Rs* because a focus on reading and writing (and speaking) leads to good communication skills.

·         The 3^rd R, Arithmetic, to foster problem solving in a logical, mathematical way, and because other subjects like the sciences depend on a good foundation in math.

·         Fun leads to the discovery of one’s interests and talents.

The 3Rs-plus-fun approach would involve tons of out-of-classroom experiences. The options here in the Bitterroot and proximity are endless. Just a short list: the library, the university, the big city (heh- Missoula), field trips to local businesses, field trips in and out of state, too many outdoor activities to list here, sports, guest visits to and from experts in their fields, possibly even a foreign study experience, etc. etc.

*The greatest of the 3Rs is the joy of reading. This I will promote strongly, because the eager reader has such a huge advantage in so many areas.

THE METHOD

Tell me about the curriculum. The exact methods and content will depend on the student. The way it works in the public schools, universities and night classes is this, Here’s the curriculum, adapt your learning/studying plan to it. The way it works at TDS is Here’s the student. I’ll adapt the curriculum to him. I don’t know how that’s going to work until I know your son. I recently met a teen boy who said he had no interest whatsoever in any subject offered at school. Imagine trying to conform his habits to a set curriculum! I asked him, “So do you consider school a total waste?”

-Yes, it’s a total waste, I just want to go to work.

So, my challenge for that student would be to convince him of the need and advantage of having good communication and problem solving skills (3rs), then work on those, all the while discovering all sorts of stuff he may find interesting (Fun) and a possible future career direction. Plus I’d encourage him to have that part-time job and see if we couldn’t incorporate it into our schooling.

BOYS ONLY?

-Why is it a boys’ school? Why can’t my daughter attend? In a matter of months, all of my children will be finished with their K-12 education. One very obvious thing I’ve learned in my years of parenting and teaching is that boys were not meant to sit still and listen at a desk for 7 hours a day. I watched my daughter sail through her schooling and now she’s on the cusp of completing a physics/engineering degree and gainful employment. Thank you education system! My first son was not made for the system that my daughter excelled in; he, and lots of boys, need something different. Hence I thought up The Discovery School for boys.

That being said, your daughter is more than welcome at TDS. It’s just that things are going to be geared for action, adventure and a bit of rough and toughness. Is sweet Kaitlin up for that? I’m not saying she has to rope a calf in 4.2 seconds, just sayin’ we’re going to be doing lots of boy’s stuff, like swinging a bat, taking a tough hike, jumping off a cliff into a lake, building stuff, doing some dirty jobs, etc. Heck maybe my contractor buddy Lars will teach the kids how to run his excavator, which is kind of a boy’s thing.

THE COST

How much are you gonna skin me for this? From each according to his means. Yep, that sounds pretty commie, but I don’t want to bar any kid because his parents are strapped. On the other end, the greater the funding, the more places we can go and fun we can have; why do you think they call it funding? What is such an experience for your son worth to you? I just want to cover expenses and make a modest paycheck. Who knows, maybe a millionaire will step in and be a donor to the school.

How does this sound: a monthly fee of somewhere between $400 and $2,000, based on affordability for you? Maybe gramps will kick in a few bucks.

ACCREDITATION AND SUCH

If TDS isn’t an accredited, ‘regular’ school, how does my kid get into MSU, or Harvard for that matter? Well, I guess you could ask the same of home schoolers, and as a whole, those kids, the ones whose parents take it seriously anyway, have a pretty good track record. My short answer is this, if your son comes to my school somewhere between K and 8^th grade, we’ll do our best to make sure that he has all the academic advantage necessary for a smooth transfer to public school, in case he wants the high school experience. If he comes between 8^th and 12^th grade, and isn’t interested in public high school, we’ll make sure he gets his GED, builds up his resume, excels in a few useful areas, and has the ability to ace the entrance exam of the college/trade school/job of his choice.

RELIGION

Will you be teaching my son good, Christian values? This is not a Christian school, per se, though I am Christian. I would say imparting is a better word. Teaching values, philosophy, religion and politics is your business. The teacher’s job is to teach the 3Rs, and if he wants the students to develop a good value system, he can teach by example.

SOCIALISATION

I get it, a freer environment, a low student to teacher ratio and such, but I don’t want my kid to be an anti-social freak. Look, Billy will be fine. He’ll learn plenty of skills. He’ll get good at a sport and be on a team. He’ll join a club or two. He’ll learn an instrument. He’ll memorize some good jokes. And we’ll read Dale Carnegie together- He’ll be the life of the party!

ME (director, head teacher)

Isn’t Bellevue a suburb of Seattle? You’re part of the coastal invasion. What are you doing in Montana? I first came to Montana on a college tour for my high-school daughter around six years ago, and always wanted to return. I’ve lived in Japan for 25 years and in 2020, at the height of the covid restrictions and shut-downs, I grabbed my twin 14-year-old sons and came here to be maskless and relatively free, living in various places and doing various jobs together. We made lots of friends in the Bitterroot, and as Japan still hadn’t emerged from the madness in the summer of 2022, I came again with one of those twins. He went back to Japan but I stayed, and now my goal is to set up a life here so that my wife and kids can alternate between Japan and Montana. I love Montana for the beauty of the land, the relative freedom and kindness of the people.

What other jobs have you had beside classroom teacher?

·         Writer

·         Journalist

·         Ski instructor

·         Windsurfing instructor

·         Restaurant owner/manager

·         Pond management, restoration, cleaning (my summer gig in the Bitterroot)

ANYTHING ELSE

·         Mark Twain said it best: “If you don’t read the newspapers, you’re ill-informed. If you read the newspapers, you’re misinformed.” We can apply this rule to the modern mass media and thus one of my aims is to teach kids how to discover truths on their own, not just imbibe the ‘authorized’ narratives.

·         I like acting and movie-making. We’ll put together some great skits, plays, stories on tape, videos, etc.

·         In my spare time, I’m a reporter/interviewer/North American director for an independent media organization from Switzerland. My interviews have over 8 million views.

·         I’m starting my own online radio station, called Bitterroot Beacon Radio. I’d love to have help from students on this project and am considering including youth-directed programming on the channel.

·         I love playing cards. We’ll learn some great card games together (no gambling!). Board games too! (chess, go, Pictionary, etc.)

·         I speak four languages: English, Spanish, Japanese and German.

·         I have acted as a tour guide in the US and Europe. My dream is to take my DS students to far-away locales, to learn about the world (emphasis on places where I have lived, can speak the language, know a bit about the culture and history, and have friends/connections; i.e. USA and Commonwealth nations, Japan, Germany, Mexico, Spain and Costa Rica- with a nod to Italia la bella!)

·         I’m keen on getting kids off the screens. Skills-wise, what has happened to youth? In my school, all the boys will learn/know how to throw a ball, for crying out loud.

·         The school is just getting underway. You might balk at the idea of your kid being a guinea pig in a new system, but consider this, the first students might have the best deal; the smaller the school, the more I’ll be acting as a tutor, rather than a classroom teacher. Here are some folks who never had ‘regular’ schooling, but were assigned a tutor in their school years:

• Charles V

• Ben Franklin. Dropped out of school at ten and then was apprenticed by his brother.

• Franz Liszt, tutored by Johann Hummel, himself tutored by Mozart

• Alexander the Great, tutored by Aristotle, tutored by Plato

• Billy Joe Shaver

So there.

A final note: Speaking of Aristotle, here is quote from him: "The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet." Why do I introduce this quote? Well, I’ve attempted here to paint a picture of a learning experience that will be more fun for your son than the standard approach, but what Aristotle is saying is that education requires hard work, and academic achievement will require lots of repetition, some tedium, and probably even some despair. It’s not all a walk in the park. However, Aristotle also said, “Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.” And if both teacher and student are in a more pleasurable environment than the standard one-size fits all, penitentiary-complex school, learning should become more meaningful and fun, if not easy.

Thanks for dropping in. Please contact me at xxx if your son might be interested in The Discovery School.

Daniel

Well, that’s the first draft anyway. Would you want to join my school? What can I do to improve this sales pitch? Should I include a short video along these lines?

by the way, I was just kidding about Billy Joe Shaver. For all I know, he did regular schoolin’. It’s just that I was thinking of his song, Georgia on a Fast Train, while writing this.

I been to Georger on a fast train, honey

I wadn’ born no yesterday

Got a good Christian raisin’

and an eighth grade education

and I don’ need y’all treatin’ me this way!

Great tune!

Thank you, Ayaita, for the photo, Mujeres de la etnia Emberá. CC-BY-3.0

Here’s another for new fans of the Embera tribe:

I like all the native stuff, and then the 25-cent, pink hair clip that any little girl anywhere might wear.

Panama, Darien, fillette Embera habillée pour la danse. Thank you Yves. Yves Picq http://veton.picq.fr - CC BY-SA 3.0