Elders vs Olders

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[SPEAKER_00] What I'm about to share took me a lifetime to figure out, and nobody taught me any of it.

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[SPEAKER_00] Did you know there's two kinds of people who get called elders?

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[SPEAKER_00] Well, only one of them actually is an elder.

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[SPEAKER_00] It's hurting the old and the youth both at the same time and for the same reasons.

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[SPEAKER_00] We have to remember that a bunch of someones benefited from that.

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[SPEAKER_00] And it wasn't us, it wasn't the families, it wasn't the kids.

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[SPEAKER_00] Unfortunately, the kids got the worst of it, and the schools made it worse.

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[SPEAKER_00] I've got a story from my own family that proves this isn't just talk.

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[SPEAKER_00] And through all of it, elders are the ones who can actually fix it.

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[SPEAKER_00] That's what today is all about, so let's get into it. Elder versus older.

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[SPEAKER_00] What does that actually mean? An elder hasn't given up yet.

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[SPEAKER_00] Still looks at what's wrong in the world while never losing the sight of what's still good.

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[SPEAKER_00] Still asks, what can I do to make a difference? What can I do to help?

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[SPEAKER_00] Instead of looking the other way, which all too many are doing nowadays.

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[SPEAKER_00] An older, on the other hand, has accepted it. It's too late. I tried, and look where it got me.

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[SPEAKER_00] Maybe good for a, I told you so, but that's as far as it goes.

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[SPEAKER_00] And for a lot of the olders, I can't really blame them. You know, they've been disrespected.

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[SPEAKER_00] They've been talked down to, laughed at.

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[SPEAKER_00] Not treated with the respect that they most certainly deserve. It's not just about the old.

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[SPEAKER_00] This isn't just about the old ones. Not by a long shot. Youth are olders too.

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[SPEAKER_00] Forced to grow up way too fast. Getting too old beyond their years.

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[SPEAKER_00] No one raised them the way a village once did, like when I was a kid.

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[SPEAKER_00] You know, there's no neighbors and elders and relatives,

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[SPEAKER_00] grandparents taking care of, taking them under their wing.

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[SPEAKER_00] The elders that would have done that got pushed to the side.

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[SPEAKER_00] Got pushed away so there's no interaction anymore between the elders and their

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[SPEAKER_00] own kids, the grandkids. When that connection was broken between the youth and the elders,

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[SPEAKER_00] there was no one left for the elders to pass their wisdom down to.

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[SPEAKER_00] And when the wisdom disappears, when the elders die, you're never going to hear it again.

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[SPEAKER_00] It's gone. For every elder, they have a library of information that just disappears.

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[SPEAKER_00] It's not found in any books. It's not found anywhere else.

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[SPEAKER_00] Just like it was meant to be when the world was first created.

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[SPEAKER_00] Everything was shared by word of mouth. And that word of mouth isn't happening anymore.

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[SPEAKER_00] So the information that's being passed down is not reaching the people who need it the most.

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[SPEAKER_00] It goes both ways. Elders with no one to teach. Youth with no one to learn from.

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[SPEAKER_00] Make no mistake. This wasn't an accident.

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[SPEAKER_00] First, we have to look at who benefited. It sure wasn't us. It wasn't the families.

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[SPEAKER_00] It wasn't the kids. Somebody did. Go ahead. Ask yourself.

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[SPEAKER_00] Who got richer when families got poorer? Tax collectors. Landlords. Drug companies.

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[SPEAKER_00] And anyone selling a solution to a problem they helped create. One income turned into two.

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[SPEAKER_00] More household tax revenue collected. Demanding more. Always more.

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[SPEAKER_00] Never giving anything in return. And zero accountability for any of it.

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[SPEAKER_00] House prices climbed right along with it. You buy a house. Look at your first payment.

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[SPEAKER_00] A few dollars go to the principal. The rest goes to interest, taxes, insurance.

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[SPEAKER_00] They win on every side. While we get punished and put into debt prison for the next 30 years.

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[SPEAKER_00] A lot of somebody's game from that shift.

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[SPEAKER_00] And if you look around, you can see that the same pattern shows up elsewhere.

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[SPEAKER_00] All the different health epidemics. No shortage of new cure -all drugs to treat everything.

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[SPEAKER_00] For a cost, of course. Don't forget all the insurance premiums that we have to pay.

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[SPEAKER_00] Of course, the first 40 or 50% comes out of our pocket.

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[SPEAKER_00] And then when the insurance companies find out that, oh my God,

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[SPEAKER_00] they actually had to pay something for a prescription.

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[SPEAKER_00] Well, we're going to have to raise your rates because that prescription wasn't part of our deal.

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[SPEAKER_00] We collect the money. We don't send it out.

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[SPEAKER_00] And that's the way it's been for as long as I can remember.

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[SPEAKER_00] However, I also know some people that I used to work with that they had serious

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[SPEAKER_00] illnesses like cancer and other ailments like that. That it's basically a one -way ticket.

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[SPEAKER_00] And some of them, they just had to work right to the end. They'd be at their desk.

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[SPEAKER_00] They'd have a big heavy coat on in the summertime.

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[SPEAKER_00] They'd be chewing ice because they were swollen enough from the chemo that they had to take.

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[SPEAKER_00] But then they were freezing on the outside, so they had to have a coat.

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[SPEAKER_00] What kind of ending is that?

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[SPEAKER_00] What kind of disrespect is that for somebody to put in so many years?

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[SPEAKER_00] My point of view is just nothing but feeding the scam.

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[SPEAKER_00] I don't know how many times I'd gone to a pharmacy and I'd have a prescription.

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[SPEAKER_00] And it would be like something in maybe $100 or over $100.

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[SPEAKER_00] Then they'd turn around and tell me, Well,

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[SPEAKER_00] if we file it where you don't have insurance, the price is like half.

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[SPEAKER_00] What is the point of having insurance? It's like a one -way road.

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[SPEAKER_00] Feed the giant and they get nothing back. But it comes right down to it.

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[SPEAKER_00] It's the families and the kids who actually pay the price.

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[SPEAKER_00] Less time, less attention, more stress, less living, and less life.

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[SPEAKER_00] The damage won't stop with us. It got handed down to our kids and their kids after that.

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[SPEAKER_00] This is just a tragedy and a betrayal. It didn't happen just on its own.

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[SPEAKER_00] We were forced into the direction none of us wanted.

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[SPEAKER_00] And it's still happening, still getting worse, with no cure or end in sight.

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[SPEAKER_00] Then we'd look at what's happened to the kids. Stress levels through the roof. No skills.

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[SPEAKER_00] No critical thinking. No recess. Handed a problem. Here, find the answer.

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[SPEAKER_00] And instead of figuring it out, how to solve it, they just Google it.

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[SPEAKER_00] Look at what we spent on education and what we got for it. Test scores didn't go up.

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[SPEAKER_00] They went down. And not by a little. And we spent more, got less.

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[SPEAKER_00] Someone has to explain that one. Schools stopped teaching kids how to think.

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[SPEAKER_00] And started teaching them how to pass a test.

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[SPEAKER_00] A kid who can't think for himself can't question what he's being told.

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[SPEAKER_00] Yeah, he's a good little servant, isn't he? That's not education. That's conditioning.

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[SPEAKER_00] Kids need to move. They need to be outside. They need to use their hands.

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[SPEAKER_00] A desk and a screen all day isn't how children are wired. Ed, who was a dear friend of mine,

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[SPEAKER_00] couldn't survive traditional high school.

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[SPEAKER_00] So they sent a couple of teachers or counselors, I guess,

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[SPEAKER_00] over to his house to talk to his parents at the time.

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[SPEAKER_00] And they basically had said, nah, he's not going to make it.

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[SPEAKER_00] It's a waste of our time and a waste of his and a waste of yours as well.

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[SPEAKER_00] But we have an alternative. So considering grades 9 through 12,

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[SPEAKER_00] they're basically just getting you ready to go to college.

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[SPEAKER_00] If you're not going to go to college, 9 through 12, not worth it.

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[SPEAKER_00] But what we can do instead is we can move them into a trades program.

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[SPEAKER_00] You know, something where they will not have a student loan that's hundreds of

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[SPEAKER_00] thousands of dollars and will take them 10 years or longer to pay it back.

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[SPEAKER_00] Ed absolutely thrived in that program. I couldn't believe it. And he wasn't alone.

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[SPEAKER_00] There were other, like, girls and boys getting into the trades.

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[SPEAKER_00] No, they come out four years later. They're pretty much a journeyman. No student loans. No debt.

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[SPEAKER_00] Ed ended up retiring, I think, when he was around 45 or 50. Full pension. Full benefits.

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[SPEAKER_00] Full medical. And I know I went to school with kids that went to college for the,

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[SPEAKER_00] you need a business degree. Yep. All they ended up doing was pumping gas.

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[SPEAKER_00] There was a big, long student loan that'll take them years to pay back.

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[SPEAKER_00] I'd even talk to a few of them. And they said, no, when you went for a business degree,

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[SPEAKER_00] what did they actually teach you?

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[SPEAKER_00] Says, you know, you know, they taught me about a hundred ways that a business will fail.

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[SPEAKER_00] They never taught me one on how to make it succeed.

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[SPEAKER_00] Yeah, welcome to the student loan and educational system. And they will regret it.

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[SPEAKER_00] And they tell their own kids, do not go to college. It's a waste.

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[SPEAKER_00] I don't know if that trades program still exists anymore.

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[SPEAKER_00] But if it doesn't, it should be brought back and it should be made mandatory

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[SPEAKER_00] throughout the country. One problem that we'd have to overcome is that institutions

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[SPEAKER_00] protect themselves first. And the Board of Education is definitely an institution.

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[SPEAKER_00] Kids are secondary. You know, funding, bureaucracy, job security, it always comes first.

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[SPEAKER_00] The kids, yeah, we'll get to it. When the institution fails, it doesn't fix itself.

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[SPEAKER_00] It defends itself. And when it does that, more tax money, we need more, we need more,

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[SPEAKER_00] we will guarantee less. That's the way the cycle goes. A true story from my own family.

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[SPEAKER_00] Because this isn't just talk, this is real life.

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[SPEAKER_00] When COVID hit, the school system in our area and all around the country,

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[SPEAKER_00] as far as I could tell, just collapsed. Note, we have to test everybody for COVID.

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[SPEAKER_00] And if anybody tested positive, and it was just a big fiasco. Well, my daughter and her husband,

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[SPEAKER_00] they pulled their two girls out of the public school system.

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[SPEAKER_00] They just said, no, we're not doing this. And my daughter, she was real scared.

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[SPEAKER_00] You know, had real doubts. She was nervous. That was not an easy call.

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[SPEAKER_00] Because they decided, we're going to homeschool our girls.

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[SPEAKER_00] Support came from a homeschool network through their church. Nationwide, not just local.

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[SPEAKER_00] And there was some rough spots. And it did help, too, that my sister, her aunt,

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[SPEAKER_00] was also a very educated lady. And was good in the math and the sciences.

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[SPEAKER_00] Which she said, I would volunteer my time for my nieces anytime you need it.

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[SPEAKER_00] Well, once they got over the rough patch, the girls absolutely flourished.

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[SPEAKER_00] I mean, they just blossomed. They were doing outdoor activities. Going to old farms.

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[SPEAKER_00] Learning what happens on farms when there is no tractors. You've got to use a horse.

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[SPEAKER_00] And just so on and so on. And the learning never, ever stopped.

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[SPEAKER_00] And the girls just interested in all kinds. Art, music, writing.

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[SPEAKER_00] They just exploded. The girls played on different sports teams.

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[SPEAKER_00] Like for volleyball and basketball. Baseball and such. Soccer.

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[SPEAKER_00] And I'd hear them talking to the kids on the other teams. And I was kind of comparing them.

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[SPEAKER_00] And that wasn't even close. I mean, just their grammar, their vocabulary, their understanding.

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[SPEAKER_00] It was just, it was an embarrassment. And it's not to the parents.

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[SPEAKER_00] Because not everybody can afford to be able to homeschool.

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[SPEAKER_00] But there are more and more families that are getting away from the traditional system.

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[SPEAKER_00] And doing homeschooling. And it is growing and growing and growing.

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[SPEAKER_00] And the Board of Education should be forced to use their model.

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[SPEAKER_00] Because evidently, the Board of Education's model is a failure in so many different levels.

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[SPEAKER_00] It should be just abolished. The homeschool network. There's a bunch of groups out there.

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[SPEAKER_00] Families helping each other. Fighting for their kids and the future of their kids.

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[SPEAKER_00] The gut punch is, homeschooling does need at least one parent at home.

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[SPEAKER_00] Which also means that it needs to be a one -income household.

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[SPEAKER_00] You know, the same one -income household that was destroyed years ago when I was

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[SPEAKER_00] back being a kid. Single -parent homes can't even attempt this.

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[SPEAKER_00] Even two -income families have a hard time trying to pull it off.

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[SPEAKER_00] Some families make the sacrifice anyway. And it is a major sacrifice. Two traps.

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[SPEAKER_00] Same root cause. Closing on families at the same time.

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[SPEAKER_00] Now, my daughter and her husband, they were lucky.

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[SPEAKER_00] Because my son -in -law, he's a journeyman electrician.

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[SPEAKER_00] And they do make sacrifices to be a one -house income, take care of the girls.

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[SPEAKER_00] They skimp all over the place to make sure that happens.

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[SPEAKER_00] But their family unit is so much happier.

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[SPEAKER_00] You know, they don't have really the internet on TVs and all that stuff.

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[SPEAKER_00] They just don't go that way. They read books. They talk. They read articles. Read magazines.

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[SPEAKER_00] No, the same way it was years ago. Oh, and their whole group is like that.

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[SPEAKER_00] Another reason on why elders matter. And they do. More than people realize.

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[SPEAKER_00] That homeschool network is proof of the village or the community that we talked

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[SPEAKER_00] about in episode two still exists and will always exist.

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[SPEAKER_00] Just not where people expect to find it anymore.

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[SPEAKER_00] Real, organized, nationwide community stepping in where an institution failed.

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[SPEAKER_00] Elders stand outside that broken system and we're looking in, knowing what's broken.

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[SPEAKER_00] We're not tangled up in it and we're not dependent on it.

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[SPEAKER_00] Elders carry real, practical, life knowledge the system doesn't have anymore.

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[SPEAKER_00] Because the system's too busy falling apart to teach anybody anything real.

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[SPEAKER_00] In closing, this is a shout out to all the elders. We can't stay neutral anymore.

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[SPEAKER_00] We can't stay hidden anymore. Real elders need to become elders again.

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[SPEAKER_00] Reclaim the actual standing, not just rack up more years.

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[SPEAKER_00] Olders, younger, and old both need somewhere real to come back to. It's not about the past.

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[SPEAKER_00] It's for the people not even born yet. We identified the cancer.

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[SPEAKER_00] Next time we talk about what to do about it.

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[SPEAKER_00] Next time, the elder superpower and what we can actually do.

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[SPEAKER_00] Do you ever get that feeling something's off and you

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[SPEAKER_00] just can't put your finger on it? Yeah, me too.

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[SPEAKER_00] This is Elders Uniting the World, one elder at a time.

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[SPEAKER_00] Past episodes and contact information can be found at eldersunited.org.