Give Me Liberty or Give me Death

As the fourth of July holiday gets closer many of us reflect upon the founding of our nation, and what our forefathers must have gone through in order to separate from England, and create our own nation.  False. Most people just want to eat, and enjoy some fireworks. Yet with Independence day coming up, I am able to reflect on one of the most recent life changing events of my adult life.

This last week I was sent to a training for a Key of Liberty class that will help me to spread our commonwealth (like a homeschool co-op, but better) closer out to my area.  I went because I wanted to start a commonwealth school near me, and was told I needed this class, and not because I actually wanted to teach Key of Liberty. This class is about the revolutionary war, and the constitution of the United States.  Sounds boring, right? I have never been so wrong in my life. When I went to school, American history was taught as a series of dates, and battles. I am not sure how much I remember, and I definitely do not remember much about our constitutional rights, or why they were worth fighting for.

This class is a project with the training being offered from the Leadership Education Mentoring Institute.  As part of this training, I did everything that I will be asking the youth that I teach in Key of Liberty to do, only the shortened version.  We tried to get all of the amazing ideas from a one year class into three days. This meant memorization, reading, writing opinion papers, and preparing and presenting a lecture.  I learned more in these three days about teaching than I did in the whole three years it took to get my Bachelors in Education. I learned about being a mentor, and inspiring the youth all while meditating on what it is each that each student in the class needs.  All of this while learning about the actual sacrifices that were made to free us from tyranny, and how this translates into today.

I no longer look at the Key of Liberty class as only an American Revolution class.  The young scholars will learn about the revolution, and the constitution, but this content is also a vehicle in which each young person will be able to learn who they are, that they have a voice,what our rights are in our nation, and what it is that each one of us can do to stand up for our rights, and why.  I never saw myself as a Key of Liberty mentor. I never even imagined myself as someone who had any influence in the government in my community, but after completing LEMI training this last week I now know that we have the power to change the world. I am going to spread this vision in my community.

“…I’m starting to realize that I have specific geniuses, that there is greatness in me, and I can give something of value to others.”
Quote from Leadership Education Mentoring Institute Website