TRANSCRIPT
Shanxi: Hello, this is Shanxi Omoniyi, host of MPE’s “Homeschool Hints” podcast to encourage you wherever you may be on your homeschool journey.
Today, I’m super excited to be interviewing Isaac Durst, and he has been involved for a very long time at the Principled Academy, or Values and Virtues. Isaac, do you want to just open by telling us a little bit more about yourself and how you got involved there?
Isaac: Sure. Hi, everybody. My name is Isaac. Gosh, where do I start? I hope my ADHD doesn’t kick in too hard. <laughs> I have been involved with education for a very long time. Character education is very, very big to me.
English education was kind of where I started, but I presently am the director of ValuesandVirtues.org. And we’ll talk about that more, I guess. I have four kids – boy, girl, girl, boy – and they are older now. I was married in 1992. Yay! I’m still married, and my kids still love me, I hope.
And I spent a long time in South Korea as an edutainer. So, from 2000 to 2016, I was like Mr. Rogers and kind of Big Bird combination. There’s no Disney in Korea, so when Disney did come to Korea, they asked me to help them out and it was like a 5000 seat, you know, arena. So I’ve just been – so many blessings, a lot of experiences I did not expect. When you major in English lit, I did not think this would be the way I went.
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And then in 2016, I had an opportunity to be the head of school, the Principled Academy, in the Bay Area in California. COVID got us, and so did a lot of other things. And then we are doing business now as valuesandvirtues.org.
Shanxi: Can you give us a brief overview of valuesandvirtues.org, like the curriculum, the website, just for people who haven’t heard about you before?
Isaac: Sure, we are new kids on the block for sure. So the school, which was around for 35 years, was a character education school. So we’d have a theme of the month: kindness, respect, gratitude, grit, real basic values. And so we would actually, after the Pledge of Allegiance, we had a school pledge.
“As a Principal Academy student, I pledged to be responsible, respectful, a person of integrity and a caring and honest person.”
There’s real basic stuff. And we’d have to ask the kids, so what does integrity, integrity mean? And they’d say, well, doing the right thing when no one’s looking.
But can you give examples?
So those, the themes of the month, allowed us to have books that were grade-appropriate activities, grade-appropriate and help the kids kind of connect the dots.
So if it’s Thanksgiving, it’s a great month in November to have gratitude as a theme, writing a good thank-you letter, putting the five senses in there and also the who, what, when or why, how, which. So hey, grandma, thank you so much for making cookies for me. Again, grade appropriate. Whenever I smell chocolate chip cookies, you know, I think of you and I think of your just your smile and the warmth and home. And it’s weird, whenever I smell a chocolate chip cookie, I think of you. So thank you so much.
And the “please, thank you, please, thank you,” for little ones. Older ones, we would go to the local food bank and box food for an hour and then talk about it. Again, not everybody has food, and have you ever been hungry and what did that feel like? And again, kind of that empathy questions. The golden rule, that’s really a basic thing. So how would you feel if someone did that or if you were in their position?
So that’s what the school was like. We had these themes of the month and now there’s no math or English or science as we had in the school or PE, but we have those with like 12 basic themes on the site. and four kind of major levels, preschool and kindergarten, 1st and 2nd, 3rd and 4th, 5th and 6th. Even though the school went to 8th, you know, we’re growing and it just kind of starting with the basics first. That’s the overview.
Shanxi: How many homeschoolers currently use your products? Do you have a rough idea?
Isaac: That’s a great question. This past year or, you know, the year I’ve been really focusing on, I went to a lot of different conferences. private schools, homeschools, I went to some charter school conferences around - I think it was New Mexico was where I went to the latest charter school conference.
I felt that homeschool families are really hungry. They’re looking. They’re this desire to make a big difference and be in control, not just, here’s my kid. Good luck. Hey, man, do your best. I trust you, even though you have a crazy classroom and there’s, you know, who knows what’s going on.
I think there’s been a lot more exposure since COVID. People were kind of saying, What? My kid’s learning that? And so a lot of families are like, whoa, hang on a second. OK, I think I can probably do this, but some things may be missing.
And so our experience, my experience at the conferences, especially homeschool conferences, is that people are like, OK, look, I like the boy who cried wolf or the giving tree or, you know, the tortoise and the hare.
But what are some questions to ask after I read the book or after I watch the book or borrow the book? Like, what are some good thought questions to help them connect the dots? Providing those questions to homeschool families has been great. So families have reacted well. I can’t give you numbers right now. Except, you know, if I go into the website and say, hey, we’ve got, you know, 500 families checking this out on a regular basis and we want that to grow.
But yeah, I think homeschool families, a lot of churches are using a lot of the the activities and stuff for Sunday, Sunday school. But yeah, I can’t say that this association has locked it in as their own. It’s more individual families.
Shanxi: So on your website, which I had the privilege of checking out before our interview, you mentioned how emphasis on character education can lead to, quote, significantly higher academic success.
And that really caught my attention because, you know, as homeschoolers, a lot of times people are quizzing us on, well, how do you know that your kid’s going to turn out all right? How do you know that, you know, they’ll meet all the academic benchmarks?
And so just knowing that emphasis on character and education can really help. Can you speak to that a little bit or tell us about the research?
Isaac: Sure. I mean, do I have the name of the study, of the meta-study where people all get together and scientists say – so no. And I believe it’s Google-able or searchable or however you look it up. We did do that.
And our experience also over 35 years as a school was that if kids think that respect is important and they’re kind to others, that patience is a good thing where they’re not like, dude, come on, hurry up with the pencils. I got to sharpen my pencil. And they’re kind of like, they breathe a little bit. They do kind of respect others themselves, the pencils that the parents got them, the teacher that, so, it’s kind of like there’s a home and school and community mix of these virtues help kids listen to the parents more.
Not like, okay, sure, I’ll do it because you’re telling me to do it. But like, wow, I respect my parents and they have, they are giving a lot. I do chores at home and I kind of see what hard work is. I respect the teacher. Actually, I respect my friends. I can cooperate better when I’m working in a group. And there is, it’s not just 1 + 1 is 2, but the synergy, wow, I’m getting better grades, I’m (learning) grit.
[vs] “These vocabulary words, come on.” But if they’re doing it Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and then they’re taking that quiz on Friday, like, “Whoa. That slow and steady does win the race. This is wild. I mean, I can kind of cram, but I don’t do as well, especially on the month thing. But when I do it every day a little bit, it’s like little things add up. Whoa.”
And they kind of feel more proud, more patient, more confident. These things – I mean, it sounds like common sense. Common sense is not common – we’re trying to make it common. But yes, studies do show that these things do add up, and there’s kind of a good cycle. And kids do, you know, mature in a good way over the years.
Even if they hit gratitude once a year for a month, the level is different, the stories are different, the activities are different as they grow. And it does make a big difference at school, with their friends, individually, of course, at home and the community.
We were, you know, I was one of the part of the scouting troop, part of church, of course. And as the head of school, most of the time, as an edutainer in Korea, I love just to be, all right, guys, it’s quiz show time. Let’s do this.
But once in a while, kids don’t make good decisions. So when they make poor choices, then we have to sit down and I’ll say, I’m putting on a different hat now. You know, you hurt so-and-so’s feelings. Let’s talk about this, and talking about better choices. And maybe lunchtime, the three of us can help, you know, maybe pick up some trash or sweep a little bit for five minutes. I’m not going to take your whole lunchtime, but reflect on what happened. And then put the other hat back on. I prefer being an edutainer than the strict person or strict father. I love carrots more than sticks. But yeah, did I answer the question?
Shanxi: Yes, definitely. Yeah. Just knowing where the boundaries are, I’m sure, helps a lot.
Isaac: Oh my goodness. So like, kind of, there’s the head, heart, and the hands, you know, knowing the good, what is a good choice. The heart desiring the good, oh, I should do that. And then doing the good, kind of the hands, head, heart, and hands.
It’s not just, oh, hey, I know what’s right. OK, that’s cool. And maybe you can even do what’s right, but, “Oh, OK, I’ll take my turn.” But kind of like, “Oh, wait, if that person took, you know, the heart, if that person treated me that way, I’d feel pretty good. Or if that person treated me that, I’d feel bad.”
The connection of the intellect and the kind of emotion and then doing it, putting the theory into practice, we found that it was huge.
Shanxi: That’s great. So let’s see. You’ve given us a lot to think about, obviously. <laughs> When people are checking out your website for the first time, what would you recommend they do, like first, maybe second, maybe third?
Isaac: Okay. Great. First of all, you got to take 5 minutes to log in, but imagine that it’s a character education library. It’s all free, 100% free, but you got to get your library card. So your e-mail or whatever it is, but not a ton of information and then choose basic membership, which is free.
There are other memberships, if – so, we have some educators that want the PDF. Our magic sauce is not the books. We don’t own the stories.
But the questions that go with the books, the kind of the guiding questions, the thought questions we ask, hey, if you’re going to download those and print them out for your classroom, for your team, for your family, can you give 5 bucks a month or 10 bucks a month? Those are different.
But I would say go for the basic membership, look around, see if the stories there are ones that you have in your family or your school or your church. And if they’re – if you have something that you have in your collection that’s not in our collection, we want our – we want to grow. If you see a question, try it. Try one that’s age appropriate for your kiddo.
And if you’re like, you know, we were talking about the story and this question wasn’t there, Hey, Isaac, add, add this. It’s all on the Internet so we can add. I worked doing a lot of books in Korea. And you want to see one of my books?
Shanxi: Sure, yeah.
Isaac: Oh, hang on a second. I look a little bit younger here, but this, yeah, there’s so there’s 120 themes. The goal was just to get people to talk. So I talk about summer or the color blue or whatever it is, or even hugs. Let me show you a picture. This is really cool. I did not do the illustrations, but isn’t this nice?
Shanxi: Oh, yeah.
Isaac: So this is under hugs. I’d introduce a topic when I was doing radio, live radio for years. I talk, you know, OK, let’s talk about summer. And do you have any good memories? What’s your favorite summer food? It’s asking questions to encourage people to think about it, talk about it, write about it.
And then a lot of folks in Korea are like, so what’s the right answer?
I’m like, what’s your experience?
And then so, the second book I did on was giving sample answers just to kind of – memorizing is big there, but being creative is not their strength. “How do I get grades now, man?” There’s a lot of pressure. There’s a lot of pressure.
I mean, if you look it up, I think Korea of all the developed nations may have like the lowest birth rate and unfortunately like the highest, “I don’t want to live anymore” rate, for like 23 years.
So trying that again motivated me to like – okay, character education guys, it’s not just what we learn, but how we learn it, not just what we do, but how we do it. The quality of friendships. Oh my goodness. So a lot of a lot of learning. There’s another book. I did not write this, but this book, Is probably like the one of the biggest, most famous Bibles of a book of virtues. I think it also came out in 1992. Good year. Love you, honey. Still married. <laughs>
But it has kind of sections of again, basic virtues. Let me just flip them up real quick. Sorry for the noise. self-discipline, compassion, responsibility, friendship. And the last one is faith. There are ten here. It’s a great book, but it doesn’t have the leveling. Whose is this for? And it doesn’t have thought questions.
And so, while I look at this as a great example, I’m like, let’s go to teachers and level the, you know, level the things age appropriate, super important. And then let’s ask questions.
Again, if kids don’t connect the dots, then it’s like it doesn’t quite make it to the end.
Shanxi: Yes. Yeah, the application, real world application, right?
Isaac: Yes. I don’t know, but my favorite movie is It’s a Wonderful Life. And there’s a scene you can look up on YouTube where the kid is in the pharmacy – the main character while he’s a kid.
And the pharmacist is devastated. His son had passed away. He got some message. He passed away, influenza. I don’t remember the details.
And the kid sees that the guy is devastated, and he says, are you okay? Can I do something for you? And that pharmacist puts some bad medicine in. He does it wrong. It’s kind of poison.
So the kid runs to his dad first and stands up for his dad. It’s a great scene. I really recommend you look at it. And he comes back and he doesn’t deliver the medicine because he knows it’s poison.
And the pharmacist is furious at the kid, and he goes, I know you made a mistake. I know you’re feeling bad. I love this movie. And then the guy apologizes. The adult apologizes. So the kid asks his dad. The kid knows what what the right and wrong thing is. And then the relationship is cemented in a good way.
It’s just a movie. But I think kids really have this innate ability to care for others, but they don’t have life experience. So they need stories. They need a lot of stories, a lot of examples that can be talked about that will help them and guide them.
Because once they become adults, we can see a lot of adults who aren’t making great decisions and are not a great examples. And ideally, I mean, I’m just moved by these families who are great examples. So the kids can catch it, right?
Some virtues are caught, and some virtues are taught. And the family is really – the parents are the first teachers. And really, the home is the ideal school to learn these things. Anyway, the movie’s great.
Shanxi: Yeah, no, I remember that scene. It was very powerful. Yeah, definitely. Well, thank you so much. This has been an absolute joy, just hearing all the things that you have to say and just, you know, it’s a wealth of information, for sure.
And we’re so excited to see you at our March 6-7th Homeschool Conference and Curriculum Fair. And is there anything that you want people to know ahead of time, just how to get the best experience there? You’re going to be a vendor there, right?
Isaac: I will. I will be having some gifts. I don’t know if I’ll have this gift. I was donated a couple boxes of this, “Aesop’s Fables,” by the dude who made the glass. It’s super cool. He actually blew the glass. Sorry.
So there will be there will be some gifts, I hope. I look forward to give and take. I want to keep learning. I think that’s what keeps me young. So if you know, please check out the website.
I know there are amazing vendors there. It should be a great experience. I’m going to learn. I’m going to hopefully get more books, recommendations from people, whether it’s online or in person. And yeah, I just hope to have an amazing experience.
Shanxi: Yes. Well, I’m very excited to have you there. It’s going to be yeah, it’s going to be really hopefully much warmer than it is right now.
Isaac: Yes.
Shanxi: But I would say, pack in layers is always a good thing. You can always dial back, but you can’t always put on extras. <laughs>
Isaac: I’ve got two jackets and something you’ll learn in Scouts, “Be prepared.” I just look forward to warm-hearted people.
Shanxi: Thanks so much for listening. We hope you are encouraged in your homeschool journey.
Please continue the conversation with us on our website, midwesthomeschoolers.org, or email us at podcast@midwestparenteducators.org. We’re also active on social media if you’d like to connect with us there. Thanks to Kevin McLeod of incompetech.com for providing this royalty-free song Wholesome, which is licensed under creativecommons.org.
