Greetings Eddies!

I hope you had a restful Thanksgiving.

We're easing back in with gentle thought from Gabor Maté clip (that sounds obvious once you hear it), and a Business Insider piece by a mom who’s honest admission makes her the poster child for the open education mindset.

Let's dive in.

THOUGHT: Nature's Agenda
TREND: 3 Kids, 3 Different Paths
TOOL: Hold On to Your Kids

Nature's Agenda

"You don't have to impose hard things on kids."

Renowned physician and early childhood expert Gabor Maté lifts the burden many parents feel when it comes to "preparing kids for the real world."

Life is already hard.

"When you're 2 years old, tying your shoelaces is hard," he notes.

And yet every kid reaches a point where they want to learn to do it themselves.

He calls this "nature's agenda" and says that all kids need to rise and meet the challenge is confidence:

"If they have it, they'll naturally take on hard things."

Watch the full clip and drop a comment with one hard thing you've seen your kid take on independently.

3 Kids, 3 Different Paths

Colleen Kelly writes in Business Insider that she started her parenting journey with firm convictions. Waldorf. Montessori. Whole-child learning. Anything but public school, which she saw as a factory for cookie-cutter kids.

This worked for years. But as her kids got older and life threw curveballs (single mom, three kids, limited bandwidth), she faced a choice: keep white-knuckling a homeschool approach that wasn't working, or try something new.

With great reluctance, she enrolled them in public school.

Two out of three thrived. Her middle child didn't—but rather than accepting this as inevitable, she found an online charter.

"An ideal education didn't just look different for my family," she writes, "but for each child within it."

Today, all three are on different paths: one enrolled in a private academy, another does online school with a gifted plan, and a third is back to homeschooling.

This embodies what Matt Bowman calls the open education mindset: you're not locked into the approach you chose five years ago. Different kids need different things, and different stages call for different solutions.

Read Kelly's full article 

Hold On to Your Kids

Hold On to Your Kids by Gabor Maté and Gordon Neufeld argues that modern childhood has inverted the natural order. Kids now orient toward peers instead of parents—and that shift undermines the very confidence Maté describes in today's opening.

Tl;dr: Attachment to caring adults is the foundation of healthy development. When that attachment is secure, kids venture out boldly. When it's replaced by peer orientation, they become anxious, conformist, and harder to reach.

The book doesn't make an explicit case for homeschooling, but it does question whether age-segregated schooling exposes young children to too much peer influence before they're ready. Once kids are securely attached, they're better equipped to navigate the social dynamics of any environment—including public school. (See: Colleen Kelly's oldest and youngest.)

Who it's for: Parents who sense their influence slipping to peers, screens, or school culture—and want to understand why.

Check out Hold On to Your Kids

Meme Monday

Tell me you’ve gone down the education rabbit hole without telling me you’ve gone down the education rabbit hole…