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Author's Note: Pulling from the archives this week — too many competing ideas rattling around in my head, and not enough creative energy to wrestle them into something coherent. Enjoy this revised post from February 2016.  Kitchen Sink Science experiment on Friday After our most basic needs are met, two things stand between human beings and genuine contentment: affirmation and validation. Eastern philosophy reminds us that true happiness is an inside job — it cannot be bought, bartered, or commanded. And yet, we are profoundly social creatures. Connection and belonging aren't luxuries; for members of the primate order, they are biological imperatives. History has tested what happens when human interaction is stripped away entirely. The results — from institutional experiments on infants to solitary confinement — have been devastating, and widely condemned as a form of torture. We are simply not built for isolation. It follows, then, that genuine serenity and fulfillment are nourished by something deceptively simple: being seen, appreciated, and recognized by others — our gifts acknowledged, our essential selves accepted. Which raises an uncomfortable question: if affirmation is so fundamental to human wellbeing, why is it so often the first thing we withdraw the moment someone fails to meet our expectations? In conflict, we tend to reach instinctively for punishment, shame, or manipulation rather than conversation, acknowledgment, and understanding. We treat dignity and respect as something to be earned rather than something inherently owed. This impulse is rooted, I think, in a deep cultural anxiety — a fear that freely offering compassion and cooperation will produce a spoiled, entitled society. Here's the irony: we already have one. It just isn't coming from the people we're most worried about. A system built on carrots and sticks — doling out small rewards for conformity and harsh judgment for anyone who dares step outside its lines — is neither sustainable nor morally defensible. Strip people of their dignity, tell them explicitly or otherwise that they have no inherent worth, and they will seek that worth by whatever means available. We are watching this unfold in real time: propagandists and con artists spinning lies and making promises to those who feel most unseen and unheard. These are people who have already internalized society's contempt. Shaming them won't work. Arguing them out of it won't work—neither will change their thinking or their behavior. It is not our place to decide who deserves basic human needs — food, safe shelter, supportive accommodations, empathy, encouragement, respect. Every human being does. Full stop. Our collective epilogue is being written in real time, and I'll spare you the suspense: it is not trending toward the hopeful ending most of us want. But it doesn't have to end this way. So here is my challenge to you: roll up your sleeves and join me. Before the conclusion consigns itself to the inevitable, let's choose to reimagine it — with compassion, with kindness, with the courage to show up for one another. One honest conversation at a time. One unconditional connection at a time. One moment of genuine recognition at a time. The ending isn't written. But the window to change it won't stay open forever. DRC NewsWeekly Wrap-up Our first day back from break was pretty chill. We had an Economics class, multiple ongoing, intense conversations about a particular anime, and several hands-on projects, including sewing a stuffy and building a plaster of Paris embankment for the train set in the cellar. Tuesday: A teen showed up with a pristine box set of the manga books that the anime they were discussing on Monday is based on. One teen dove in and read two in quick succession, and others joined in and began reading too. And the conversation continued through the day. Three kiddos painted the embankment they made from plaster of paris for the train set. Thursday: Most of the crew went skating at the Canton Pavilion. Then some went sledding at the SUNY Canton hill after lunch. E found a very large stick on the walk there and pulled it out of the snow, declaring it the walking staff that he has been looking for. When they got back, he insisted that we should get the perfect photo of him holding the stick. The rest of the day was filled with various craft creations, computer time, and building with Magna-Tiles. A chill Friday at DRC included a kitchen sink science experiment that explored color. We made dots on a coffee filter with water-soluble markers and placed the bottom edge in water. And then watched the water wick through the colored dots. Some separated into the colors that were mixed to make that particular color, and others stayed the same. We should have used taller beakers because, in some cases, the separated colors traveled up past the stick holding the coffee filter. But otherwise, it worked well.  Fundraiser  Summer Program Survey
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 The beginning of the storm on Friday evening in the deep woods. Author’s Note: A short one this week — because sometimes simplicity is the clearest path to being heard. On Thursday, two young women showed us exactly what it means to be a genuine good sport — bringing joy, authenticity, kindness, and warm generosity into the fiercely competitive world of figure skating for all of us to witness. It shouldn't feel remarkable. Yet somehow, it does. How we win and lose — how we carry ourselves when outcomes disappoint us — reveals everything about who we are. There is nothing quite as uncomfortable to witness as a sore loser, unless it's a sore winner. In a culture that glorifies cutthroat competition even in everyday life, treats winning as the only currency, and crowns ruthlessness as strength, simple decency has become a quiet act of rebellion. It doesn't have to be this way. What if kindness, generosity, and the courage to be wholly yourself weren't the exception — but the expectation? Thank you, Alysa and Amber, for leading the way. DRC News
The Pop-ups Peeps met at the Massena Library on Thursday and had an insightful discussion about the US Constitution. They will meet at the Massena Library again on the 26th.  Exciting News: I am facilitating a SOAR class this spring semester! If you are a senior and have wondered what Deep Root Center is all about, or want to learn more about the self-directed learning philosophy, check it out.  Fundraiser  DRC Swag
 Stirring the “ice cream" This past week had me silently screaming every profanity I know into the void—and inventing a few more. Not because of my DRC students, who’ve been doing great. But because I’m watching this administration run a protection racket with a presidential seal—in real time. Since last January, I’ve been thinking we are living a true-life version of Weekend at Bernie’s—people behind the scenes with actual power exploiting his narcissism, feeding him his lines (lies) and stroking his ego, trotting him out and propping him up while they run the grift, the cheating, the bullying, the exploitation, all of the diabolical actions. These are just three of those things that set me off this week: First, the SAVE Act—a pay-to-play scheme disguised as voting integrity that blocks women who changed their names from voting unless they have a passport, which this administration conveniently made harder to get by gutting passport office staff. Just another way to rig the vote after their gerrymandering scheme collapsed. The Republican Party has made it clear: they are very aware that the only way they can win is to cheat. As I write this, the SAVE Act has passed the House and sits in the Senate, where it will hopefully die. Second, the continued brutality unleashed on Minnesotans even after the administration announced ICE and Border Patrol operations were supposedly winding down. The real way to end this terror is through an appropriations bill that defunds ICE. I’m hopeful our representatives will stand firm and do it—because this isn’t just Minnesota, Chicago, LA, or Portland. ICE patrols are everywhere, intimidating and terrorizing regular people, even here in Northern New York, where local sheriffs are working with them. This isn’t, as they claim, a crackdown on illegal immigration, keeping us safer. They’re actively targeting and threatening anyone who disagrees with this administration’s bigoted, misogynist, ableist, xenophobic, homophobic, transphobic, white supremacist, oligarchic, fascist ideology. Finally, the Epstein files—the cover-ups, the lies, the lack of accountability, and the utter frustration that these horrors against children were possible in the first place, and that this still isn’t the thing taking this administration out. How is it conceivable that the monsters who hurt those children remain in power, still raking in money, and not behind bars at the very least? I’m constantly reminded that our kids are watching. Tuesday afternoon, two teens asked if I knew about Epstein—meaning the files, the revelations. Even without all the details, they know some people did some terrible sh*t and faced no consequences. I wonder if they may even, in some dark corner of their understanding, admire that kind of untouchability. What struck me wasn’t the question itself, but their assumption that I might be too sheltered, clueless, or just too old to know. I was caught off guard. I only managed “Yes, I know about him” before the moment passed. Looking back, I realize I probably missed a crucial opportunity to help them understand the inherent responsibility of leadership, the importance of accountability, what an effective, dependable, and trustworthy leader actually looks like, and why we can’t let exhaustion, and some people’s willingness to shrug and look the other way, stop us from demanding all those things from those in power. A lesson I’ll carry forward, even if I can’t reclaim that particular moment. DRC NewsWeekly Wrap-up We had a weird week before midwinter break. We had several kids out sick most of the week. On Tuesday, we closed early because of impending snow. On Thursday, a few spent the day on my land, playing in the snow, hanging out, eating chili, and entertaining my cats. And on Friday, we had most kids back and made “ice cream” for Valentine's Day in Kitchen Sink Science. The idea was to use packed snow with salt instead of ice to surround the bowl filled with the ice cream mixture. We did one outside, one inside, and the bag method, where you put a Ziploc filled with the ingredients inside another bag of snow and salt. The inside mixture came closest to ice cream, but that may have been due to CM's dedicated, vigorous whisking. At the end of the day, we poured our efforts into cups and called it a milkshake. Thanks to the SLU CBL students who helped kiddos look at snow, dish soap bubbles, and hot sauce with the microscopes. In case you were wondering: yes, there were very much alive, and wiggling, microscopic critters in all that snow you ate as a child! As mentioned, the DRC Crew is on midwinter break this coming week. We will be back to our adventures on Monday, 2/23.  Fundraising Raffle Purchase your chances to win $100 worth of NYS Lotto Tickets from any DRC family or online here. Drawing is on March 17th.  Thank you!  Thank you to Stewart’s Shops for the $350 grant towards essential needs. We are grateful for their continued support over the years.
 On the way to the SUNY CAnton Sledding Hill. When I think about authenticity, I consider how comfortable someone feels showing up as themselves. It's rarely straightforward—neurospicy people often don't feel safe letting their weird flag fly in unfamiliar places. Yet even when we're masking, fragments of our true selves slip through. Our core ethics, principles, and beliefs reveal themselves despite the mask. This applies to neurotypical people, too. Based on behavior—not what people say but what they do—it's fairly easy to determine someone's morals. Though maybe that's just my particular flavor of neurospicy giving me a knack for seeing through facades. I base my impression of how well a student is fitting into DRC on a few things, but the main one is their willingness to be themselves and stick to their moral compass. Sometimes it takes a while. Even though our environment is inherently designed as a safe space, we're working with real people who have real emotions, real history, and varied neurologies. Being genuine matters because it makes connection easier—it inspires trust and paves the way for meaningful relationships. People can detect a fake from a mile away. Most of us relate to those who more closely resemble our own messy, chaotic, real lives. Successful content creators and entertainers understand this instinctively. Bad Bunny—the Puerto Rican artist who is headlining the Super Bowl Halftime Show and won multiple Grammys—exemplifies this principle. Despite industry pressure to record in English for broader appeal, he sings every song in Spanish and celebrates his Puerto Rican heritage unapologetically. He was told it would ruin his career. Instead, his commitment to his roots, culture, and mental health made him a global phenomenon. The pattern holds true whether you're building a community, creating content, entertaining, or simply trying to connect with another human being. Authenticity isn't just morally right—it's practically effective. When we show up as ourselves, we give others permission to do the same. And that's where real connection begins. DRC NewsWeekly Wrap-up This week flew by—filled with plenty of activities and projects, such as a kitchen sink science activity that included making insulated containers to see how long they would keep snow from melting, and which material worked best. Each cup got 2oz of snow. And we have a control set out at room temp. One of our Chromebooks had the black screen of death, and KP began the process of fixing it with the help of YouTube videos. He figured out that the OS was corrupt, uploaded a new one, and thought he had it, but then found an additional issue with the battery. We purchased a new one, and he installed it. We discovered that the scruffy old fake leather chair in the seedlings room, which had been shedding fake leather pieces for years, had beautiful upholstery underneath. J helped take off that ratty outer layer to reveal the new aesthetic. On Friday, we welcomed our three SLU Community-Based Learning Volunteers for the Spring Semester. In addition to going outside, they also had fun playing UNO with the Crew. Oh, and on Monday, we celebrated the triplets’ 16th birthday!  The Crew even got in some quality outside time. Besides sledding earlier in the week at the SUNY C Hill, K & E decided to try out the cross-country skis. On Friday, K took them out again, with E (who had not skied in a couple of years), and two of our SLU CBL volunteers agreed to join them. After a bit of struggle to get the skis on, they enjoyed their very first ski adventure.  Fundraiser It is time for our annual Lotto Ticket Raffle. You can purchase tickets from any of our families or online by clicking the button below. Thank you for supporting DRC!!!  |
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Deep Root Center
48 Riverside Drive, Canton, NY 13617
315*323*1435/[email protected]
Deep Root Center
48 Riverside Drive, Canton, NY 13617
315*323*1435/[email protected]