Hello fellow educators welcome to podcast number 94. This week I have the delightful privilege of talking with one of our most respected educators, Joanne Robideau. I have know both Joanne and her husband Gord for more than 17 years. They came to Heritage in the early 90's as teachers in our campus school. Gord came as our Vice Principal of middle school and when I took over as Superintendent I immediately promoted him to be our Secondary Principal. Joanne was very active all those years as well teaching English and helping us become the school we are today. They left for five year in 2001 and returned three years ago. Gord is now our Director of BC Online School and Joanne has both headed up our high school English department as well as become our school Guidance Counsellor. She is the mother of two very bright children who have also become an integral part of our community. Joanne seems to be one of the first to comment on my podcasts as she rushes into our morning time on Thursdays where we discuss, debate or chat about the week's podcast. She is very passionate about what she believes to be true and right. She also cares deeply about each and every student in our school.

Joanne had been reading a very interesting book entitled "50 Rules Kids Won't Learn in School" by Charles J Sykes who is most noted for his book "Dumbing Down our Kids." Sykes is a senior fellow at the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute and writes extensively on education for the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. It is a simple book, a list really, of real-world antidotes that address the modern trend in education to make sure our kids feel good, centered on building their self-esteem. He will not win any contests on political correctness in this book. But his practical approach tries to wake us up to the real reason why we are educating our children, that is, to prepare them for this harsh cold world outside of the classroom. Sykes isn't writing from a Christian perspective, although you can see elements of a Christian worldview in his practical wisdom. Many of his ideas line up the attitudes necessary to live the Christian life.

      Paul teaches: 2 Timothy 2:3 (NKJV) "You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." and Galatians 6:3-5 (NKJV) "For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4 But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. 5 For each one shall bear his own load." At some point we have to allow our children to accept and embrace the many hardships that come with life, especially if they are going to be equipped to face them without us as they get older.

       Here are a few of the rules that Sykes is recommending to find ways to teach our children:

• Rule 7 - If you think your teacher is tough, wait until you get a boss. He won't have tenure, so he'll tend to be a bit edgier. When you screw up, he's not going to ask you have FEEL about it.
• Rule 18 - Life is not divided into semesters. And you don't get summers off.
• Rule 28 - Somebody may be watching ......
• Rule 34 - Winners have a philosophy of life. So do losers.
• Rule 48 - Tell yourself the story of your life. Have a point.

It is obvious that this book inspires a pragmatic approach to life and raising our children. It particularly raises the questions and highlights the differences between the self-esteem movement and hard possibly rigorous parenting that will help us raise strong self-reliant young adults. I often see this debated in other words in our Christian communities. People misguidedly label intense Christian discipleship or commitment  as legalism. They declare that we need not "impose" strong standards upon Christians because we are under Grace. God will do it all for us. I prefer to look at Grace as an empowering force within us, not an excuse to shirk responsibility. God's grace empowers me to embrace hardship, work and study hard. When things don't go my way I buckle down, seek His face, ask what I need to do to change in myself and move on. I try not to blame others, the system, my boss, my staff, the church or our society. These are, of course, attributes of adulthood yet we all can see many examples of childish behaviour among our adult peers.

Over the Christmas holidays, I met with Joanne Robideau and talked about this book. Here is our time together:

Audio Only

Thank you Joanne. We will finish this interview next week. When I was first started out in my responsibilities of parenting I had the opportunity to see the film "The Chosen" with Robbie Benson. It was the story of an Orthodox Jewish Rabbi and his incredibly gifted son. The rabbi saw that his son was extremely bright and possessed an amazing capacity to learn quickly. He was so concerned that his son would grow up proud with an attitude of superiority that he took very sever measures to create an extreme hardship. He refused to speak directly to his son. He would speak through his wife or, as his son became older he spoke through a friend. This warped his son's sense of himself. It challenged the son's self-esteem and ensured that he would become familiar with rejection and hardship. The story helped me see that, as a parent, I may have to be the source of hardship in the lives of my children. My goal is not to be their friend, it is to be their Father and prepare them for a life that will be fraught with difficulties, disappointment and hardship especially if I want my children to have any significant impact upon this world. It is a war out there and I want our children at Heritage to be equipped to fight it well.

Please email us your comments and thoughts on this podcast. Also, if you would like us to mail you a free copy of my book or send you the download link for the audio version of, Discipling This Generation for a Digital World, simply send an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and let us know what type of an educator you are, home schooler, classroom teacher, school administrator, or interested parent. Please let us know how you heard about the podcast and, of course, please include your mailing address. Thank you for listening and thank you for your commitment to discipleship-based Christian education.