The plumbing situation in Canton became much more complicated than roots growing into the pipe after Cornerstone Heating, Plumbing, & Cooling spent all day Monday working to figure it out.
Turns out it wasn't the trees' fault. The DRC sewer line is broken under the street a few feet before it attaches to the main line.

Shout of thanks to the owner of Cornerstone for his compassion in only charging us for the first employee's labor and not billing us for the machine or his time. We are grateful for their kindness and professionalism.

So what does this all mean?

According to Village regulations - DRC is legally responsible for hiring a contractor to dig it up & fix the sewer line. The village superintendent was on vacation, but I spoke to the Mayor on Tuesday, after the DPW guys confirmed it is indeed broken with their camera, asking if their was any way the village could help us out. He said he was seeking ideas for us.

To be completely transparent - DRC has zero funds to put into this endeavor. I cannot in good faith hire a contractor to dig up the street and repair the pipes knowing that I won't be able to pay them. I do have a call into our insurance agent to see if by any miracle our homeowners will cover it.

I will talk to folks at the Village office this coming week, after Memorial Day, and then we wait for possible solutions to present themselves. We will gratefully receive all the positive energy you can send.

We are terminating the lease on our Massena Center at 47 Perkins Dr. on May 31st. This means there are five days to pack up, empty, and clean the space after our last day on May 24th. Please let us know if you are available to help with this endeavor. All hands are appreciated - including the kiddos.

We will be there all day on Monday scrubbing and painting - stop in if you would like to help.

There are also 3 couches and 2 organs that need a home - let us know if you would like to come and get them.

The DRC Pop-Ups are coming to the Massena area this Fall. Any homeschooling family is welcome to join us 2 days a week at various host venues. They are set up to be pay-as-you-go. The stamp cards can be purchased ahead of time by following the below link or the first day your child attends.

Each child is $8 each day they attend. One stamp card can be used for multiple children in a family. Purchase here: https://omella.com/d7wj

A few photos from this past week, to highlight the essence of childhood - free imaginative play.

The end of our academic year is quickly approaching. Both Centers have their last day on Friday, May 24th. Then we are terminating the lease on our Massena Center at 47 Perkins Dr. on May 31st. This means we have one week to pack up, empty, and clean the space after our last day on May 24th. Please let us know if you are available to help with this endeavor. All hands are appreciated - including the kiddos.

I take my responsibility to DRC and, by extension, the kids, their families, and the wider community very seriously. There is a reason I was voted the "most dedicated" of my 1983 St. Lawrence Central graduating class.

I have, for the most part, changed beyond recognition since then - but that characteristic remains an underlying part of my identity. Therefore, when someone accuses me of not doing my job - I take it to heart and examine the situation closely. 

In this case, this past week, in a string of emails, a parent informed me that DRC does not hold kids responsible for anything. She said she would report us and that she had already let people know that it is an ineffective program that they should avoid sending their kids to.

The thread of emails was hard to read because - 1. of the accusations and threats she was throwing around, and 2. it was poorly written, with little punctuation and zero consideration for spelling or grammar. As I slowly deciphered the messages, I realized that she was upset (and pitching a fit) because the school was requesting an April quarterly report after she had re-enrolled him in school - that she did not have.

Upon further investigation, I discovered that I had spoken to the teen (who I remember being a delight) and written the original IHIP at the end of January - when they had joined DRC. Then I realized the parent had only brought the child to the Center once since then. We contacted her several times over that period to check and make sure he was OK.  Then I noticed that she had informed us of the re-enrollment four days before the reports were due.

So this parent accused DRC of not holding kids accountable - when she only brought him once in three and one-half months. I (hopefully) resolved the situation by remaining outwardly professional (meanwhile pitching an internal private hissy fit) and offered to write the April Quarterly Report immediately with the list of activities, classes, and projects she provided.

The hardest (saddest) part of this story is that this awesome teen with excellent communication skills had the opportunity to follow his interests (the law and theatrical art) right now by independently burying himself in Supreme Court cases and creating costumes but now has to sit in a classroom to be force-fed information that he finds irrelevant to his future goals.

I find it interesting (hilarious, frustrating, and infuriating) that DRC is accused of not holding kids accountable because they are not coerced to do the things they do not want to do - when that accusation cannot be further from the truth.

As a direct result of all that built-in freedom, kids own every single decision they make (whether it is impulsive or well thought out). When they do mess up, they know who was responsible and understand they are the ones who need to repair any damages (physical and emotional) they incurred. They can try to pass the buck - but at the end of the day, the truth will come back to bite them - directly - in the butt. Instead of telling kids what to do (or not to do) and how to do it - they learn through the consequences of their actions.

We have the awe-inspiring (exhausting) privilege of supporting (and loving) them through it all - the reparations and (sometimes) brutal lessons - eventually cheering them on through their triumphs.

Thank you to Northern Credit Union for their sponsorship of $350. It was a pleasure to meet the Gouverneur branch staff this past Wednesday.

Friday was Esme's (the amazing SLU volunteer) last day at DRC-Canton this year. She had the kiddos create egg protectors to do an egg drop. Some creations were more successful than others. Thank you, Esme, we hope to see you again next year!

Ten years ago, when DRC first opened, and I was desperate for families to discover us, I remember one of the first conversations I had with a parent about their child being able to go to college and ultimately make a living if they pursued self-directed learning. I said, "By the time your child is eighteen, there will be jobs and careers that haven't been imagined yet; they might even be creating their own." That sentence that I have, by this point, uttered thousands of times has become a prophecy. 

Recently, a child visiting the Canton Center recognized some stuffed key-chain creatures hanging from another child's backpack. I obviously had no clue why she was so excited to see them. She explained, with her Mom's help, that they were characters from a social media influencer. 

This YouTuber/TikToker not only earns from the platform - but also has popular merchandise highly sought after by a specific age group and is raking in the bucks.

Could we have imagined that career path or any of the hundreds of new ideas that have cropped up in the past ten years?

At this point, technology and innovation are moving so fast, and my Neuro-Spicy memory is so bad - that I have no idea how advanced YouTube was in 2014 or if TikTok existed. I do know that social media has exploded - in terms of the number of creators. The amount is staggering, not counting the hackers and folks stealing content - which is fodder for another post. 

People are leaving traditional jobs at an unprecedented rate. They are no longer willing to sacrifice their lives to years of mindless, unfairly compensated toil for the "man." Additionally, folks do not feel obligated to stay with one employer their entire working career out of (misguided) loyalty - they are willing to explore options while gaining new skills. The "next big thing" may not have been invented yet - but at this rate, it is right around the corner, and our kids will be the ones who imagine it or maybe even re-imagine something that already exists. 

This is precisely why we, as a society, require open-minded, curious young people who are self-aware and socially conscious, possess keen observation and creative problem-solving skills, can think critically in the moment, have practical knowledge of how things operate, and are unafraid of stepping outside the box, experimenting (playing), and getting messy.

DRC and other self-directed learning spaces are here for those kids to practice all those skills. What's the next phenomenon, you ask? Stay tuned - they are working on it, and it'll become an accepted/expected part of our culture before you can blink.

Thanks again to board member and parent, Tiffanie Jacob of Hi-Res Poetry Photography for taking our photos for the Memory Books. She was at the Massena Center on Thursday. Thanks, also, to board member and volunteer mentor Kris Rozelle, for spending time with our Massena kiddos on Thursday and going on a photography excursion with one of the teens.

Both Centers had plenty going on this past week. Only three weeks left before the summer break!