Samurai Teaching ~ Sensational Living

Here to Light Up the World

2011-08-13T06:25:00.001-04:00

She is here to light up the world

Make it move and marvel

Shake and Stir

Gabby and The Three Witches ~ Chapters One & Two

2011-07-18T12:33:00.000-04:00

Chapter One ~ Hello Gabby

(http://www.wattpad.com/1218271-gabby-and-the-three-witches-chapter-one-~-hello)

Chapter Two ~ Burned at the Stake

(http://www.wattpad.com/1779681-chapter-two-~-burned-at-the-stake)

What Is a Hero?

2011-04-18T06:11:00.000-04:00

What Is a Hero?

The Motorcycle in Me

2011-04-03T20:26:00.001-04:00

The Motorcycle in Me

There's something about a motorcycle

That fits so well with me

It lets me feel the cool night air

And sets my wild side free

The more I ride

The more I see

This excitement

This freedom

This passion

Is the motorcycle

inside of me

This foto is on the same field outside of Dayton, Ohio where the Wright Brothers taught themselves physics and engineering, failing over and over, AND LEARNING FROM EACH ONE.....UNTIL THEY SUCCEEDED and PROVED THE IMPOSSIBLE WAS POSSIBLE.

MAN COULD FLY!

Grandma Bette's 92nd Birthday

2011-04-01T20:16:00.002-04:00

This is the link to the book I wrote for Grandma Bette's 92nd birthday

http://www.wattpad.com/1213941-over-the-years

Love-Drenched Rhyme

2011-01-03T20:21:00.001-05:00

"Beauty is truth, truth beauty/that is all
ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."

. ~ John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn, 1884

Literary warriors like Keats had it right.

The poet must fight

and he must write

The truth is here

We hold so dear

Yet throw it away

In meaningless ways

Pick up your pen

You women and men

Who write from the heart

As if it were art

And before you depart

Will offer your life

One day at a time

The courage to find

The best of yourself.

And offering it up

In love-drenched rhyme

~Adam Stuart

January 3, 2011

Grateful to have taken the time to get to know a spirit such as Keats, and find out they shared the same Spanish Steps in Rome before they died.

So Long As I Have This

2011-01-01T12:09:00.016-05:00

Thinking of Sofia
Missing of Sofia

Found myself watching this clip
Remembering watching it with her before she went on her trip

Feelings of happiness tap tapping in my heart
Then waking up with a jolting start

These two dancing are really she and I
With her for me Heaven is brought down from the sky

Life isn't about trying to become famous and rich
It's about being internally rich while making this life-long trip

And when I'm holding Sofia underneath the same sky

We are both more rich than any money can buy

This has special meaning to me because I've been approached with an opportunity to become a writer for a new television show and make a salary in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

This would require I leave teaching and possibly not being able to see and have Sofia in my everyday life.

The truth is......I already am rich and famous.

Every morning when I pick her up for school I am rich in the love the two of us share for each other.

When she puts her hand in mine crossing the parking lot I am famously alive and happy.

Breakfast in my classroom before school starts is time reserved just for her, and right now all this 8-year old wants is time with her Dad.

And every love note signed, "Love, Dadddy" she finds in her classroom mailbox means more to her than seeing his name up in lights for the rest of the world to see.

And then there's the day spent seeing every student for all the good they already are and all the great things they can so easily be.

As teens and adults we spend so much time searching for and chasing success and happiness. It's always out there in the future when something outside ourselves is achieved or happens.

As children we simply are happy and successful. We are richly and famously alive in the here and now, fully appreciating and treasuring the moments we are in.

And it is in this pure appreciation of each moment that we powerfully become the truest and highest versions of our selves.

We live and die in the blink of an eye
We can choose to use it to say, "I'm going to get mine"

Or we can choose to be our most powerful selves
Jumping up and pulling Heaven down from the sky

Sharing it with others
And telling the world of limits, "Goodbye!"

I haven't said yes.
I haven't said no

The events of 2010
have left me broke and alone

Unable to trust others
and more-or-less homeless

A friend's free spare bedroom
my few possessions rest

But by refusing to be broken and developing my gifts

2011 has arrived offering to make me famous and rich

I haven't said yes
I haven't said no

But the real meaning of life
Is what I truly know

So long as I have love
And love has me

Together we have it all

And after all...

This love is what gives life
and lasting meaning to thee

I'm Glad I Did

2010-12-22T16:24:00.000-05:00

I have to say

when I'm old and gray

I'll smile a lot

because I'll get to say,

"I'm glad I did"

instead of, "I wished I had"

"spent more time with them

...when they were young,

and I was their dad."

~Adam Stuart

December 22, 2010

*Written after playing with Sofia all day, who before running off to play with the neighbors, threw her arms around him and kissed his cheek.

As he watched her bound out the door, he threw his arms around her, and sent her kisses from his heart.

The Children's Hour

2010-10-18T18:44:00.001-04:00

I originally wrote this with Sofia in mind,
after our water fight today in my classroom after school.

I know I told my principal I'd be good,
and keep my room orderly being the golden rule

But behaving myself is just too much,
when childlike fun leaps into my heart

Knowing how to fill those around me with powerful happiness,
has become my work of art

For every child in all four classes is growing,
some as much as 900% higher from where they used to be

And the look of fire in their eyes today told me,
they were ablaze with the new horizons they could see

So when I begin to question my sanity for giving so much,
and not trying to teach but empower for life

I remind myself that for 60 minutes at a time I can do anything

And that this is the Children's Hour

A sample of the kind of growth happening just within the first 2 months of school:

INDIVIDUAL INDIVIDUAL
FALL FALL FALL
TEST RETEST GROWTH

4% 36% 900%
12% 48% 400%
16% 48% 300%
20% 48% 240%
20% 44% 220%
24% 52% 217%
28% 60% 214%
28% 60% 214%
36% 76% 211%
28% 56% 200%
36% 68% 189%
28% 48% 171%
48% 80% 167%
56% 92% 164%
44% 72% 164%
44% 72% 164%
32% 52% 163%
44% 68% 155%
48% 72% 150%
40% 60% 150%
48% 68% 142%
40% 56% 140%
36% 44% 122%
44% 52% 118%

I Do Know

2010-10-14T20:17:00.001-04:00

No matter how difficult pursuing your dreams can be....I know it's worth it

And I know that the best way to go about a difficult task is to have an incredible time doing it

The staff got an email form the Big Cheese to please help the one cleaning person we're down to. As I looked around my room I realized I've once again let having a clean and organized room slip away from me.

I took the high road and admitted my fault, sending her this email:

"In my massive data crunching and “Everyone Must Grow” teaching method I’m once again letting this area slip.

But will I give up?

No! “No” I say!

Did I give up the hope I could be on time even though it has been a chronic problem in my past?

No! My past IS NOT my future! (97% On Time this year – only 1 day 5” late)

Did the Americans give up when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?

No!

Then neither shall I!!!!!!!

(and all this energy after waking up and rock-and-rolling since 2am)"

(WARNING: possible offensive language for younger than adults people)

Success and achievement and all things related are made much more magical when experienced in an all-out state of enjoyment, even when no one seems to be following your lead.

I am extremely happy to report that the student who finished LAST among ALL 4th graders in math last year is FIRST in GROWTH of BOTH math classes......a 240% improvement in just two months.

Where he WAS is NOT where he IS now!

It's good to be a ridiculous dreamer.

All it takes is for at least one other person to believe with you.

He is my Hero. Just an ordinary person doing extra ordinary things

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

I Don't Know Why

2010-10-13T19:28:00.001-04:00

I don't know why it feels so good to call Grandma Bette every night.

I don't know why it was so much fun pushing Brosden in a shopping cart during our walk yesterday night.

I don't know why I feel so safe being wrapped around Bella's finger.

I don't know why I have the energy to eat breakfast with Sofia every morning before school and draw her a love note every afternoon.

I may not know why all these things happen.............But I know that all these things happening make life happy and fulfilling.

Free Spirits Rising to the Heavens

2010-09-19T20:26:00.001-04:00

Taking a walk with Shanghai around the lake....reflecting on the weekend.Friday night went to the school's family night and read my new book to them, then went to see a student from last year play volleyball. Her little sister said I was awesome for coming just to see her big sis. I told her if I didn't believe her sis was awesome I wouldn't have come.

Went home to bed, making it to the top of the stairs before crashing on the floor.

The next night I was invited to see the butterfly dance once again, and once again felt like I had entered the world that exists between this one and Heaven......it's here on earth, but so rarely do we allow ourselves to freely develop our beauty that we can only imagine it existing in some far away place at hopefully a far away time.....which we prefer to call Heaven.

As I watched the dancers (absolutely mesmerized and blown away by the belly dancers) I added India to the list of places I had to experience....and began writing down my thoughts:

"The how isn't as important as the why. Passion beyond belief becomes belief. Belief is the driving force behind dream creation (going to India).

Our bodies are absolutely beautiful.....not the media-promoted bodies, but the body expressing itself freely and beautifully.

Mia moglie prossimo sarà indiano (Italian for 'My next wife is going to be Indian) - (Again, written while watching the belly dancers).

Burning Passion - for life....for laughter....for love....for living each moment I exist."

Rupesh was singing and instead of spending money on food, I bought his CD to spend on uplifting my soul.

As the butterfly's mom took a photo of her and I on my motorcycle (the Panther & the Butterfly), she said I would be one of those teachers her daughter would remember forever, just as the former student's grandmother from Friday night had said.

I drove away knowing that I wanted these children to remember me as someone who believed in them and thought they were worth giving extra too.....causing them to believe in themselves as adults and continue giving to themselves.........and that I wouldn't be that one teacher who did this.....but one of many!!!!!!

I know this dream HAS to happen, and it's going to take so much spirit that even though I woke up this morning not wanting to move, I went to a Hindu temple service and was absolutely blown away by how much it paralleled the science behind Quantum Physics. It was over much too fast and I can't wait to take my kids next week when they're with me, watching at least one of them play the tambourine their first time there just as I had done today.

Went to look for a bongo/lap drum with my new friend Nana, whom I watched in amazement during the ceremony, prompting me to ask him if he would teach me how to play.

Then I visited a Taoist temple on my way home and am excited to take my children there for a Chinese dinner this week.

I am called a "free spirit". Does this mean the alternative is to be a "trapped spirit"?

But all of this couldn't compare to the simple words from my Grandma before we hung up

"Goodnight Adam. I love you."
(picture taken from one of my favorite meditation spots)

I take her love for me and send it back out into the world

Goodnight world. I love you. Tomorrow we'll wake up and live as the big, giant and free spirits we really are

Behind every god is love,and with love behind you, there is no where to grow but up to the heavens

Tomorrow will be a heavenly day.

The Best We Can

2010-09-18T20:20:00.000-04:00

There is something so amazing inside each one of us. Even five-year-old Nadir whom I a few weeks ago at a Hindu dance competition (behind Sofia in picture above). It's up to us to uncover what that is, and develop it the best we can, and with as much love as we can.

New Realities to Step Into

2010-09-14T02:44:00.001-04:00

Rise from the dead and kiss the stars

It's time to become who you really are

Pictures of Bella learning about Martin Luther King's courage at his museum in Atlanta, then applying that courage to her own life as she faced her fears on Cedar Point's scariest rides in Ohio.

How we experience the experiences we go through creates the realities we step into.

All I want is for my children (and students) to experience life in a way that allows them to continually create better and brighter realities to step into.........one positive and powerful thought, feeling and action after another.

Light & Laughter

2010-09-05T20:02:00.001-04:00

I'm glad my son is my son. He brings a lot of light and laughter into my life. This video clip he showed me this week is one example:

Thank you Brosden (taken this summer outside the Greek Parthenon replica built in Tennessee for the 1898 World's Fair),

We Are the Butterfly

2010-09-02T06:20:00.000-04:00

I've heard it said that when a butterfly flaps its wings the effect can be felt on the other side of the world. It's a 100+ year-old metaphor used in chaos theory that one small action in a dynamic or changing system can not only have an effect on the whole, but create a long-term change in that system.

One of our small actions can lead to one big change, in our life, in the life of another, or in the world at large, whatever the system is that we're trying to effect.

Saturday night I was the one affected in a big way by the beautiful butterfly dancing up on stage. Her dancing, the amazing vocal talent of Rupesh, my own daughter dancing around after the competition was over......Made me realize that WE are the butterfly

And when we have the courage to even TRY to live our dreams, we flap our wings and affect others in a positive way, be it in the room or clear across the world.

It filled my heart with love and peace.....this is what life is about - freely and fearlessly expressing the truth and beauty inside of us, flapping our wings and changing the world in more beautiful way.

Yesterday I received this picture from a former student

She's loving middle school and loving life, dreaming and doing bigger than ever before. And because of this, she's feeling big in this world and flapping her wings, effecting great change in herself and the world around her.

Last year when she was thinking and doing little I would flap my wings and let her know. Having potential means nothing if you don't use it, and by teaching her as the brilliant, creative individual she was, not only did she go up a level on the state test, but she went up a level in who she was and what she was capable of doing and being.

Yesterday in class a student came up to me complaining that she's only been in the country for two years and it isn't fair for me to expect her to produce as much as the other students because they've been here 8 years longer.

I told her the truly fair thing for me to do was to expect her to work 8 times harder. She began to cry, just as the student in the picture above did last year when I told her she had to flap her wings harder (flashing me back to when Patrice was in my class - The Last of the Mohicans - A Tribute to Patrice)

I wasn't trying to make her cry but get her out of her cocoon and to see herself as I did, a beautiful butterfly capable of much bigger thought and action. Instead of lowering the bar for her I raised it, challenging her to get more points on the online math program than she has ever done before.

Not only did she do that, but this morning I can see she worked harder than all but 2 of her classmates, outworking 18 others.

Today I'm going to stand on the desks and invite her to join me, in celebration for flapping her wings so hard.

Because the truth is, what she does in her life will echo in her world.

And if she does it big enough, brilliantly enough, and beautifully enough......it will echo in eternity as to what we all can do and be........our biggest, most brilliant and beautiful selves.

Truth & Beauty....Sets Us Free to Live, and Die, Freely

2010-08-30T06:57:00.002-04:00

It wasn't just watching the innocence of children that moved me Saturday night, it was being in the midst of children being children; dancing, playing, laughing and living in their truth and beauty

By the end of the first week of school I was already exhausted, feeling almost as tired as I did at the end of the last week of school of last year. Sixty new students entered my doors and less than 1/4th of them are still on fire with all the good they are and all the greatness yet to come in their lives.....

If only they will have the courage to dream big and do big once again

Because if they don't, they will dream and do even less in their adult lives when things get tougher, perhaps even dashing the dreams and hopes of their own children.

By midweek I had taken a fist to my face from a man who used to use that same hand to hit his child. Since he's been able to outsmart the system but not smart enough to control his anger, as his own father wasn't able to control his, he and I have an agreement that as long as he doesn't touch his child I won't tell the authorities and he can take his anger and pain out on me.

Every 60 seconds 116 people die in the world. For 60 seconds at a time I can believe the world can be a place of safety for children and growth for adults.

For 60 seconds at a time I can have the strength and stamina to be my strongest and most loving self.

I can give everything I have to seeing the best in all those around me, helping them learn to defeat their learned fears and limitations.

A man's strength should never be used to beat his children or spouse. But it can also be used for much more than winning an athletic trophy, making a million dollars, or impressing others in a gym. At a higher level, his strength and stamina can become his passion for playing with his children, pleasing his woman, protecting those around him, and pursuing the dreams that lead him to become his highest self.

At a deeper level it is for uplifting himself and others to higher and higher levels of living, laughing and loving, where together nothing is impossible and dreams become reality when backed by positive, passionate and purposeful direction.

But defeating these demons holding us back takes its toll. Just getting others to believe in themselves again and that they can defeat them is the first battle.

By the time I left school at 6pm on Friday I was exhausted and already doubting myself, thinking I was foolish for fighting this hard again for children that would be gone in a year and for risking my life by jumping into a child's and father's hell to bring a light that has never existed.

On the way home I asked Sofia what Daddy lived for and what was he going to die for. She said, "Love". I asked her if she was really OK with that. In all her truth and beauty she said, "Of course!"

I knew she was right. We're all going to die for something; making as much money to buy as many things as possible, getting as many people to like us as possible, pleasing our God as much as possible, etc, etc.

Living and dying for true love, which I only know as truth and beauty, has to be the only thing worth living and dying for.

That night I felt Sofia kiss me and whisper that she loved me. I tried to respond but was so tired I couldn't open my mouth to tell her I loved her back. I think she knew what I was trying to say, because she kissed the small cut on my nose where I had been hit and hugged me tightly.

I drifted off to sleep with warmth in my heart, dying at the end of this day in order to be reborn the next, because I had told a student I would try to go to her Hindi dance competition on Saturday.

It seemed important to her, and if I was going to do all I could to prove to her how important she truly was, I had to do more than try, I had to show up and show her she was worth it.

That night she showed me how worth it it was. She reminded me why I do this, what I'm giving my life to. The truth and beauty I saw flowed into me and everything made sense. Home is where the heart is. And I was home.

I used my phone to write what I saw and felt and will share as soon as possible. It's time to begin another week, and thanks to my Sofia and the beautiful butterfly I saw dancing Saturday night, I have the strength and stamina to give my all bringing out the truth and beauty in those around for another week, in an even stronger and more beautiful spirit than before this experience.

hey daddy its me sofia

2010-08-22T10:22:00.006-04:00

"hey daddy its me sofia. i love you."

I woke up the other morning and found this comment on a post I had written about her. It reminded me why I started writing in the first place, and how I wished I wrote more, for my children. Since they live primarily with their mothers this was my way of giving them a lasting gift of memories when we were together. And now my youngest (8 years old) is using it to send that love back to me, making a complete circle.

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

She's on vacation with her mother and I miss her so much it hurts, especially on my walks with Shanghai. I see her in front of me. I feel her hand holding mine. I hear her laughter.

Love is a funny energy and emotion. It makes you completely vulnerable to the dream or person you're in love with.

You see it everywhere you look because when you submit to it, it dominates and elevates your thoughts to the highest possible levels.....and makes you want to be your highest possible self.

You feel it everywhere because when you open up to it it dominates and elevates your feelings to the highest possible vibrations.....and makes you want to create positive change in the world.

And you hear it everywhere because when love is what you're committed to it's the truest and most beautiful sounds you can hear.....and you realize you are creating Heaven right here on Earth.

Since my phone isn't working, I guess I just wanted to tell you Sofia I miss you and can't wait to see you when school starts tomorrow on Monday (it's 72 steps from my classroom to yours).

You are truth and beauty to me in its highest form.

You remind me how important it is to fill yourself up with both and let it flow out into the world around you.

You are....incredible

And I absolutely can't wait to have you in my presence again.

I miss you.

Twelve Days of Summer Family Vacation 2010

2010-07-31T11:09:00.001-04:00

Twelve days of travel

Twelve days of fun

Twelve days of adventure

In the rain and in the sun

Hunting for hidden treasures

Seeking the truth we desperately need

Listening to voices from beyond the grave

Of how every human can succeed

Studying the laws of nature

And the amazing nature of man

Opening up all my senses

To take us from "I can't" to "I can"

This is a life worth living

As exhausting as it can be

This is a life worth giving

This is the best of me

~Adam Stuart

June 29th, 2010

(written on my little sister's 40th birthday)

All I know is love. It's a very "Forrest Gump"-like love in that it's simple and pure, and all I've become made of.....and believe is inside everyone of us.

I know even more after this trip exploring the sites of MLK, the Parthenon replica in Nashville, Mammoth Cave, Abe Lincoln, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Native Americans and the Wright Brothers that EVERY child can be reached in EVERY classroom, that child abuse DOESN'T have to exist, and that terrorism CAN BE counteracted with love.

But this love has to be POWERFUL, PURPOSEFUL, POSITIVE, PLAYFUL and PASSIONATE.

It has to be BIG!

It has to become so big inside of us that WE BECOME BIGGER BY IT.

It's a big dream.....One that's going to take as many big dreamers as possible.

You will find men who want to be carried on the shoulders of others, who think that the world owes them a living. They don't seem to see that we must all lift together and pull together.
Henry Ford

The Greatest Day of Our Lives

2010-07-27T09:30:00.000-04:00

Sofia woke while I was watching this this morning.

I went over and hugged her while I felt and believed each intention.

Today definitely is going to be the greatest day of our lives.

It Was Love

2010-07-26T20:55:00.001-04:00

Sofia and I just took one of those father-daughter walks around Orlando that I want to remember forever. Each new lake we went to we sat on a bench and talked into the sunset. It was as special and wonderful as she is.

It was love.

*picture is her in a giant yellow float with Bella during our family trip up the United States

We Are All Connected ~ Creating Firelands

2010-06-17T12:56:00.000-04:00

This is one of those photos that holds me and won't let me go, as if it's grabbing me and saying, "Look! There is more here than meets the eye. Here is an answer to one of your questions. Don't look away."

The student in the picture is crying after I read "Oh! The Places You'll Go!" by Dr. Seuss to the class on the last day of school, and the one I wrote this post about:

We Are All Connected

Wanted to share a comment I left on a student's photo. I think it reflects how important we all are to the world around us when we allow ourselves to be our best and brightest selves.

In this student's foto I was in the background with my hands on the shoulders of the student who was the hardest to reach, but WAS reachable, thanks in large part to the student I wrote this to.

As the Prince of Persia said, It was "Difficult, but not impossible". We are all treasures worth fighting for and protecting:

".....you brought such a positive, pure loving energy into the classroom that I felt and used to give to and empower others. Without you I’m not sure I would have had the strength and energy to reach everybody else, including those hardest to reach. But we did it! WE did it!

This is why I got on you so hard when you would break down and shut down. Who you are and the positive impact you can have on the world around you is far too great not to be turned loose like a mighty river. You make a very BIG difference in the lives of others. You did in mine, and in the lives of those I reached out to, helping how “we are all connected” become even clearer to me.

Thank you"

I did the same with her older sister who four years ago was very brilliant yet very shy. I challenged her to do something she was afraid of, which was going on the school news. She agreed to apply for a position as long as it was behind the camera.

I went to the technology director who ran the news and asked him to try to get her in front of the camera, which she eventually found the courage to do, and was the focus of a post called, "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? Not B___!"

Last month I went to her 8th grade Shakespearean play, and was so blown away with her performance I gave her a stone I found outside of Shakespeare's Globe theater in London, with this note:

Dear B___,

This is a stone I found outside Shakespeare’s original Globe Theater in London. After watching you during your school performance of his A Midsummer Night’s Dream I wanted to give it to you to let you know I see real greatness in you too.

There is absolutely no limit to what you can do or be in this world, except for the limits you give yourself. As Shakespeare said, “To be or not to be – that is the question”. (Hamlet)

How big will you allow yourself to be?

“Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em.”
~ William Shakespeare (Twelfth Night, 2:5)

Always be your biggest, most beautiful self. At times this can take more courage and energy than you think you have. The bigger your dreams the bigger the fears and obstacles you’re going to have to overcome.

Do it anyway.

Because when you make your dreams happen, you give others around you the courage and energy to make their dreams happen too. So….

Be big in courage,

Be big in smarts

Be big in happiness

Be big in heart

We’re all going to die someday. My question to you is, “What are you going to die for?”

The answer is, “Whatever it is you end up living for.”

Are you going to live just to get by and “make a living”? Or are you going to live for something so big inside of you that it changes the world on the outside? Live passionately for something so wonderful that it lives on after your death.

“Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once.” William Shakespeare (Julius Caesar, 2:2)

I see greatness in you, and give this Shakespeare stone so that every time you look at it, you see and feel your greatness even more.

Adam Stuart

I have since given away six more Shakespeare Stones to six more incredible young spirits. One of them whom I didn't even know but was so impressed by her, was moved on such a deep level that her mother told me she cried after reading it.

Even though we may not be able to move solid objects with our energy, this is proof that we are all incredibly capable of elevating other human beings with our elevated, appreciative energies.

I did have this person's younger sister in my class this year, and although it was only for 3 short weeks, it was more than enough time to see she was far better than I was at organization.

I allowed her to teach me and will continue to apply her wisdom next year, calling it "KDM Time" and trying to stop teaching 5 minutes before class ends and have the students help me clean and organize the room.

"In my walks, every man I meet is my superior in some way, and in that I learn from him."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Einstein proved that time and space (the reality of our world) is a result of where we tell our matter and energy to go (our bodies, thoughts and feelings). Our brains pick up 4 billion bits of information a second, but can only process 2,000 of those bits at a time (an example of how we only use 3-5% of our brains in this time and space of our evolution as human beings).

Most of us choose to process information that serves to confirm our current reality or what we have been told is our reality, instead of seeing past "what is" and into "what could be", in both ourselves and in others.

So back to this picture:

One day after this was taken I was standing next to a child abuser whom the law hadn't been able to stop, which meant the child was falling through the cracks. While the parents of the child hugging me are phenomenal (and the dad is technically the step dad but so much of a real father he's the kind of man I was writing about in a post called, Be More of a Man), the parent of the child in danger is much less than phenomenal.

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

(Ironically the "Be More of a Man" post, intended to bring out the best in my fellow man, is the one I've received the most death threats on from "tough guys" feeling threatened by what was said and feeling they have to prove their "manhood", making me feel we have a long way to go before we're where we could be.)

This poem about child abuse was sent to me by my Scottish "brother", Stuart, over in Scotland.

It's a terribly sad poem but terribly true for too many children. Too terrible to allow to happen if it can be stopped. "The National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) reported an estimated 1,760 child fatalities in 2007....With the exception of FFY 2005, the number and rate of fatalities have been increasing over the past 5 years." (http://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/factsheets/fatality.cfm#children)

And where the traditional/legal means aren't working, it's time for non-traditional means to enter. Otherwise it's letting people get away with murder; physically, mentally and emotionally.

It's called "Daddy it Hurts"

My name is Chris

I am three,

My eyes are swollen

I cannot see,

I must be stupid

I must be bad,

What else could have made

My daddy so mad?

I wish I were better

I wish I weren't ugly,

Then maybe my mommy

Would still want to hug me.

I cant do a wrong

I cant speak at all

Or else im locked up

All day long.

When im awake im all alone

The house is dark

My folks arent home

When my mommy does come home

I'll try and be nice,

So maybe ill just get

One whipping tonight.

I just heard a car

My daddy is back

From Chariles bar

I hear him curse

My name is called

I press myself

Against the wall

I try to hide

From his evil eyes

Im so afraid now

I'm starting to cry

He finds me weeping

Calls me ugly words,

He says its my fault

He suffers at work

He slaps and hits me

And yells at me more,

I finally get free

And run to the door

Hes already locked it

And I start to bawl,

He takes me and throws me

Against the hard wall

I fall to the floor

With my bones nearly broken,

And my daddy continues

With more bad words spoken,

"Im sorry!", I scream

But its now much to late

His face has been twisted

Into a unimaginable shape

The hurt and the pain

Again and again

O please God, have mercy!

O please let it end!

And he finally stops

And heads for the door

While I lay there motionless

Sprawled on the floor

My name is Chris

I am three,

Tonight my daddy

Murdered me

~Anonymous

I know this sounds blasphemous, but I don't care. Where God doesn't show up I'm stepping in.

And here I was, standing next to this person, pretending not to know anything, using the excuse I had bumped into his kid earlier and I was just stopping by to say "hi" (which I had to set up a few days earlier by literally bumping into him on the street and talking to him until I found something I liked about him).

But I wasn't feeling strong, completely worn out from the school year. As he talked I wanted to take my hand and separate his head from his neck. He disgusted me. But using violence to stop violence only makes the problem worse. When I'm not around, what's he do? More violence to his kid. No cycle is broken, no better future created, only already broken people being further beaten and broken down, and if they survive this most likely repeating it in their future.

The highest and most evolved forms of strength and intelligence serve to find solutions to problems. Forcing kids to learn and behave doesn't make them want to learn on their own and govern themselves. It's even worse with adults. So how in the world, how in this time and space, was I supposed to have the strength to not be violent and have the intelligence to plant seeds of him being more of a man, while at the same time stopping the abuse? (turn off the song if it starts to replay)

This is what I saw in my head. This is what came to me and what I felt in my heart. This moment was the answer. Great, big, powerful and pure love that her parents and sisters and past teachers had given so much of it to her that she was able to give it to me........and by the true grace of this beautiful person, I was able to find enough of it within myself to give it to this man so ugly inside, so he would be able to give it to his son who was dying inside.

The only way to change someone's future is to change what they are doing, thinking and feeling in the present. I know it seems crazy, but as Seal said, "Miracles will happen while we dream. But we're never going to survive unless we get a little crazy." The bigger the dream, the crazier and more passionate we are about turning it into a reality......the bigger the possible miracle as a result.

Hoping for a miracle doesn't produce one. You have get hungry, or crazy, for it.

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Just as a good teacher creates understanding and new thoughts by connecting what they don't know to what they do know, I stopped paying attention to everything about him that disgusted and angered me, and started discovering and processing as quickly as possible everything he was saying for insights into how he knew his world to be and how he could justify what he did.

Instead of "teaching him a thing or two" I had to first learn a thing or two about him. This created the teaching moment that I don't think would have been possible had this girl not allowed herself to feel what she did and hug me with such love and vulnerability to give me a vision and FEELING of how good and pure we all can be, even this "bad" and "ugly" person I was trying to help become good and beautiful.

I used "Fireland" (my nickname for her) and Einstein to help me see a new "time and space" for this person as I planted seeds of how he could change and to do it in a way his brain could make sense of it. I talked about how his child WAS good and how good parenting could bring it out even more. Ideas of how my own father handled me when I was "bad" were shared to enlighten and guide him to what he could do differently right now and after I left.

And after awhile when he began to feel he could trust me he confessed that he had trouble controlling his anger. I went back to the day before and felt the hug and all the strength it had in it. I looked in his eyes and said lovingly, yet firmly, that I would help him anyway I could, including that whatever he did to his child from now on I would do to him. Before I left I told him I was his brother and not his enemy, and as a brother he could count on me bringing out the best in him.

It's embarrassing to admit it wasn't the ideal solution. I feel I operate in the "in-between" worlds of what is and what could be, not yet quite smart enough to get others or myself to change immediately nor strong enough to hold back my own anger sometimes when enough is enough and I've reached my limit. Once a new standard has been set there are lines that cannot be allowed to be crossed any longer.

But I am getting there. I know this because I'm still searching for more answers and using my brain to see past what is and into what could be, processing as many bits of helpful information as possible. Today my kids and I leave for Atlanta where I will learn more about how Martin Luther King had the strength and intelligence to convince the world that the color of a person's skin doesn't define the level of his or her ability, even though most of the world told him he was wrong and walking on dangerous ground.

Bella wants to return to Abe Lincoln's stream where he played as a boy, and I'll seek the answers to how someone could survive so much failure in order to finally achieve so much success, and give inspiration to someone like MLK 100 years after his death.

Then we'll explore the Wright Brothers, who used not only massive determination and will in believing man could fly while the world called them fools, but developed the intelligence and ability to make it happen.(Knowledge is knowing what to do. Wisdom is doing it.)

Sofia wants to go back to Thomas Edison's boyhood home where I know I'll be inspired all over again to see life and education as one big amazing experiment, with each person being worth 1,000 possible failures in the successful outcome of getting their inner light bulbs shining and burning as brightly as possible. Most people see the darkness of life and turn away from it. Others shine so brightly that they walk into the darkness and turn the darkness away, even turning on the light in others. Every new light makes the universe brighter than it was before.

After the great Edison we'll see the Great Grandma Bette (91) and the rest of the Stuart Clan (including my young nephew Gavin who I'll meet for just the second time). Gavin's presence and everyone's reaction to him will confirm my theory that if we as parents and teachers could love and appreciate our children the same way we do as when they are very young, we could help them accomplish anything. Every single person learned how to walk and talk, because every single person was believed in and worked with UNTIL they learned how to walk and talk.

After this we learn to give up on ourselves and others far too easily. We stop living in the present and live in the disappointments and failures of the past and the fear of repeating them in the future. I find myself stuck here at times with certain things.

Then Grandma Bette will remind me how to return to living in the present and all that's possible in it as we appreciate and value each day as if it were our last. I'll watch as she feels all the love and joy of being with family, and feel all the happiness coming from her heart into everyone around her. I will be present with her. I will be completely happy in themoment.

And even though two of the four crazy dreamers we'll visit were killed as a result of dreaming too big for some in the world to handle, two were not. It's 50-50. Even if the worst case happens, and we all will die sooner or later, let's die for something beautiful. Let's die for something so amazing that the world is made more amazing by what we lived for, for however long we live in the world.

I am a new man already from the experiences of just the past few days. I imagine how much more I can become form the experiences of the next few, and the next few after that.

I have a place to stay in Germany when my roommate goes to play in a tennis championship at the end of July if I can come up with the plane ticket to get there. I hunger to stand in the same spot Einstein stood in looking out the window of the patent office wondering about the mysteries of the universe, becoming smarter as he did, and discovering the answers to so many of them for us.

Just as all of these people discovered ways to change the world for the better, I KNOW education CAN take EVERY student from where they are to where they could be, truly preparing them to thrive in the world.

And I KNOW this can happen in EVERY classroom across the world when we start teaching to the individual child and not to some test and/or as if everyone learned in the same way, which better be the way the teacher knows how to teach, which is usually the way they were taught.

No wonder education is so far behind. We keep teaching the same way expecting a different result, simply because that's the way it's always been done.

I am a man on fire trying to set fire to this land. I saw it in you, Fireland, and you in turn saw it and gave it back to me. Now I am Fireland too, and we are forever connected.

Thank you, Fire. Because of you and how we grew together and bonded this year, you did more than just shine as all children should. You helped me save the life of another child whose light was going out.

Always Remeber ~ We Are Lions!

2010-06-16T15:41:00.002-04:00

I called this site Stuart's Spectacular Students for a reason, because they truly are spectacular. All it took was creating an environment that reminded them of this and allowed them to see and FEEL how REAL this was about their true nature.

You wouldn't believe how the fire and excitement has gone out of the eyes of so many kids by the 5th grade (ages 10-13).

How in the world are you supposed to live spectacularly when you don't see yourself as a spectacular being in a spectacular world?

You can't........And life is too precious and amazing NOT to live this way....

About an hour ago while going on errands for our trip Sofia ran out into the parking lot between two parked cars. The young girl driving quickly into the lot would have hit her had I not jumped in front of the car and what felt like "willed" it to stop.

167,000 people world-wide will die today. My Sofia was almost one of them.........If we have breath we have life. If we have life we have everything we need to be more fully alive than we've ever been before. (Sofia having fun during a lesson this year on Newton's Laws of Motion some scientists from my class taught to her class)

Appreciation for each day that we're alive should be shown in living, laughing , loving and doing bigger and bolder than we've ever done. (If you want different results you have to do different things than what's been believed and done before. This was part of a math lesson that helped this class go from the worst in their grade to the 38th best in the United States!

We all have giants inside of us waiting to be born and wings waiting to be taught how to make us fly!)

When I got home I noticed a funny conversation on my facebook between former students over the past two years . It reminded me of how spectacular these students have become not just for one year, but I'm betting for a lifetime!

ME: R___ AND S___ AND T___ will change the world....AND I mean that with all my confidence....because if any of u don't, we're going to have to have another DREAM BIG, DO BIG and BE BIG chat :-)

S: hahhahaha dont worry Mr.Stuart we willl!!!!!!!!!!! :))

R: yeah what s___ said! haha:)

ME: My heart is happy

R: it better be since s___, t___ and the awesome r___ are in ur life! jk :)

ME: U just made me even happier

R: T___, I AM VERY STRONG , STRONGER THAN U AND U SAID EVERYBODY LOVES U AND I DONT SO THATS NOT EVERYBODY (playful banter going on)

B: hi its b___ the awesome

R: oh hi b__ and u r awesome not awesomer than me but u still r awesome. but u r awesomer than t___

A: =( u left me OUT!! xD imma change da world 2!! o and my hopes r up for all 3 or 4 of u!!! go mr.stuart

T: I AM AWESOMER THAN B___!!! :(

A: hey, hey, do not fite.... vilonce is not an answer

ME: Now u see what I had 2 put up with all year A____? Do you kno how many times I had 2 separate them???? Well, actually zero but they did provide some wonderful entertainment!

How r u doing Ab Man?

HIM: pretty good hbu is everything goin the way it was planned?

ME: Nothing great ever goes the way it was planned. The bigger the dream the bigger the opportunity 4 the plan to fail. It's all about how big u can be while u feel like falling apart

HIM: u got dat rite =)

ME: I just got done telling T____ u were actually a very kool kid, and u proved me rite with ur willingness to fite for wat's rite, and that's to be as big as we should, not small and misunderstood (O-M-G I see a new rappin career 4 me)

I'm going 2 post something 4 u

I've got 2 get back 2 planning the trip, so this is for you Ab Man. Don't let life menace you. You menace life! (I think you know who is behind the mask. He reminds me a lot of you. The mask was for the big Greeks v Romans water balloon fight at the end of the year)

I Want to Go to a Place

2010-06-15T21:08:00.000-04:00

With a month to go until the end of the school year (and on my birthday) I wrote this poem. I didn't think I could go on giving out like I do any longer. I couldn't even tell myself I could make it for just one more day at a time. On the drive to school I constantly asked myself if I was going to give up right now, and the answer was always "no". (This student came by to tell me he wasn't going to be back next year. Even though he was only in the 3rd grade, his smiling face gave me such a natural burst of energy that I would lift him up and tell him he was a giant, and we would talk of him being in my class in a few years.)

I'm glad I didn't give up. Not one of these students' parents gave up on them until they learned to walk and talk. Not one of the students failed to realize how incredible they were this year ...... and hopefully for a lifetime. (All my remaining energy drained into him as I held him in my arms)

Often the miracles we so desperately pray for only happen after we desperately hold onto making the miracles happen. A hero is someone who holds on one minute longer than others who have let go. And we can't help others find the hero inside of themselves until we first find it within ourselves.

I just want to go
To a place where I can rest

Away from all the madness
Away from all the mess

I’m tired of being positive
Tired of always finding a way

Tired of changing the world for others
While my own world is in disarray……

What am I supposed to learn here?
What am I doing wrong?

If I’m committed to living from my heart
Can’t more others go along?

Am I supposed to learn to stop dreaming
And agree I’m a ridiculous fool?

What exactly is it I'm trying to do?
What am I giving my life to trying to prove?

Is it not true that we are capable of god-like passions
And lasting immortality?

Am I doomed to the fates of Prometheus and Sisyphus*
Because I rail and preach against man’s mediocrity?

Taken to the breaking point again and again
For the manifestation of these dreams of what we could be

I just don’t think I can hold on any longer
To how beautiful and strong we all can be

If we could just hold on a little longer
To the dreams of what we all could be

~Adam Stuart
May 11, 1943 (I wasn’t even born in 1943. Why did I type that?) - 2010

For more than 2,000 years man has been warned about "dreaming too big". Even gods were punished for helping man think and become bigger than his original primitive self.

The Crimes of Prometheus (the rebel god)

Zeus had many plans for the reshaping of creation. After the fall of Kronos and his confinement in Tartaros, Zeus took no interest in the mortal race of men on the bountiful earth, he intended for them to live as primitives until they died off. Zeus said that knowledge and divine gifts would only bring misery to the mortals and he insisted that Prometheus not interfere with his plans.

Despite Zeus’ warning, Prometheus took pity on the primitive mortals and again, he deceived Zeus. Prometheus gave the mortals all sorts of gifts: brickwork, woodworking, telling the seasons by the stars, numbers, the alphabet (for remembering things), yoked oxen, carriages, saddles, ships and sails. He also gave other gifts: healing drugs, seercraft, signs in the sky, the mining of precious metals, animal sacrifice and all art.

To compound his crime, Prometheus had stolen fire from Zeus and given it to the mortals in their dark caves. The gift of divine fire unleashed a flood of inventiveness, productivity and, most of all, respect for the immortal gods in the rapidly developing mortals. Within no time (by Immortal standards), culture, art, and literacy permeated the land around Mount Olympos (Olympus).

When Zeus realized the deception that Prometheus had fostered, he was furious. He had Hephaistos (Hephaestus) shackle Prometheus to the side of a crag, high in the Caucasus mountains. There Prometheus would hang until the fury of Zeus subsided.

Each day, Prometheus would be tormented by Zeus’ eagle as it tore at his immortal flesh and tried to devour his liver. Each night, as the frost bit it’s way into his sleep, the torn flesh would mend so the eagle could begin anew at the first touch of Eos (the Dawn).

The Crime of Sisyphus (the cheater of death)

When Sisyphus came to the end of his lifetime, Hades, Lord of the Underworld, came to claim him personally for the kingdom of the dead.

For the occasion Hades had brought along a pair of handcuffs. "Show me how they work", asked sly Sisyphus, and he was so obviously eager to see how they worked, Hades was hoodwinked into a demonstration. But, as Hades was modeling the handcuffs,Sisyphus snapped them shut.

And so it came about that the high Lord of the Underworld was kept locked up in a box at the house of Sisyphus for many a day.

Of course nobody in the world could then die! As punishment for giving mortals the immortality of the gods, Sisyphus spent an eternity rolling a boulder up a hill all day, and then watching it roll back down again at night.

Since the beginning of time, great effort has been spent on keeping humans "in their place", and as a result most humans spend their entire lives trying to find their place in the world. (the facade of the Parthenon for next year, with "Dream Big, Do Big and Be Big" written in Greek)

Even if we are punished by the gods (or God) for "breaking the rules of mortals", isn't it better to break ourselves free from our self-imposed shackles?

"The worst imprisonment is the one we impose on ourselves." ~ Deng Ming-Dao

We Are All Connected

2010-06-14T07:31:00.002-04:00

An Amazing Education

2010-06-11T08:31:00.000-04:00

School is over and somehow this year has produced tremendous growth among the students again, even though there were four times as many students to work with and 1/4th the time to work with them.

This has to be further proof of the incredible ability of what human beings are capable of and of what education can be for every student involved, when heroic effort is spent of how they all can be reached instead of our thoughts and energy spent on how difficult or impossible it is to reach them all.

The impossible is possible within.

My math class this year was made up of those who scored among the lowest in the school in 4th grade. Their reality at the beginning of this year was they were the worst of the worst. On an online math program this year they finished as the number one 5th grade class.

They finished as the best of the best.

One year CAN make a complete difference in someone's life, when growth is focused on one day at a time.

What should amaze us even more is that they didn't stop there.

It doesn't matter where you start but where you finish, and this is where they finished:

#1 5th grade class in the school

#1 K-5 class in the school

#1 K-8 class in the district

#2 K-8 class in the county

#7 5th grade class in the state of Florida

#8 K-8 class in the state of Florida

#38 5th grade class in the entire United States

38th best 5th grade class in the entire country after being the worst 4th grade class in the school. This is really amazing! Truly remarkable! Even on the last day of school I was criticized by a fellow teacher for believing too much in the abilities of children. Completed projects needed to be cleaned up and even on the last day we were still working on a final project, a collaboration between my reading, science and social studies classes, making a life-size replica of the front of the Parthenon as a gift to the new students next year.

The Parthenon was dedicated to Athena, the goddess of wisdom and heroic effort. I want to make it even more clear to next year's students exactly what I expect out of them. So as they enter the classroom and go past the columns they are reminded they are here to give heroic effort this day, and to bravely find the hero inside of them.

Why would anyone go through all this effort? After the accomplishments of the math class alone, why would anyone not?

Just as brave and brilliant people of the past have proven that man can govern himself, the color of one's skin doesn't determine his ability, humans can fly even though they weren't born with feathers, and the world isn't flat............all I'm trying to do is prove that there is remarkable growth waiting to happen inside each and every student who comes through our doors.

And it can't just be an intention......It has to become an accomplishment. Their lives are depending on it!

These students have proven that "It is what it is" and "How they are is all they are" ISN'T true. Our worlds that exists within us ARE NOT flat.

What we see when we look in the mirror, at a test score or paycheck, at a failed relationship or project......isn't all there is to us. There are worlds to discover within us that even though we haven't seen their existence yet, if we would have the courage to take chances and venture out into the unknown of what could be, we will discover new worlds of ability in us that we never knew existed.

Where you and I finish is only determined by our bravery to dream and do big, and our resulting ability and brilliance as we become bigger in the process.

So to these students

I give them the award

Of bravery and brilliance

That will keep their lives moving forward

May we adults learn from them

And accept this human truth

That as we parents and teachers give them superhuman effort

We help them become super human beings.

~ Thank You Sand Lake Elementary Math Class of 2009-2010

You are proof that man can grow and create new worlds of reality

And of how amazing parenting and education can really be

~Thank you for your heroic effort this year.

You HAVE found the hero within you!

Mr. Stuart

June 11, 2010

I Want to Be....

2010-05-14T17:55:00.001-04:00

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

We can’t live forever

But we can live for something

Live for what brings you the greatest amount of happiness

The thing you would do for free

The thing that you find yourself saying,

“I wish I could do or be...."

Then cowboy up and do it......

Turn it into a Giant Dream

Make it so much bigger

Bigger than you and me

~ Adam (Loves His Daughter Sofia) Stuart

May 14, 2010

The Gold That Lasts

2010-05-10T22:14:00.002-04:00

I'm watching a basketball game where the players and coaches and fans are putting every ounce of their passion into winning this thing. And it's fantastic to see this. Giving your very all to something. Giving your all to win it all.....The gold at the end of the rainbow.....The golden trophy.........The golden paycheck

We know there's a gold so much greater than these material things that so many of us give our lives to watching and pursuing to one degree or another, in one profession or another.....Yet we don't spend our time developing the wisdom to develop this gold in our lives

This gold is inside each and every person walking this planet......And it exists within us until the very day we die......If we have developed this rarest and most precious of all elements existing in the universe enough........The gold of what we stood for and did with our lives becomes an unlimited bank account upon which all future souls can draw upon in the pursuit in developing their own gold

We can't take our brains, bodies, blood or breath with us into the darkness of the afterlife..........But we can use them to seek out and polish up the most meaningful gold there is............The shining gold of living lives of highest fulfillment, highest happiness, highest light, highest empowerment, highest confidence and highest love

The gold that lasts

This student was the unreachable one. When I see students outside the principal's office I say they must have done something good. As their faces fall and they say they did something bad I praise them for taking responsibility and tell them that same courage will allow them to choose to do the right things in the future, just like they did now by taking responsibility for what they did wrong and hurting enough to know they wanted to be more.

With this kid though, he would proudly look me in the face over the past four years and say with full confidence that he WAS a bad person.I had never met someone more convinced of their own unworthiness.

It took all year, but when he started getting A's (including the one above from another great teacher) I wanted to share it with the class even though he didn't want me too.

He was afraid.

(This speech has been memorized by one of his fellow students and was read today in front of the class. She is a true shining example of the beautiful gold that lies within all of us, should we choose to see it.....and as she is Arab....proves that how we are labeled by what we are on the outside has nothing to do with who we are on the inside...)

I had to jump over and on desks hunting him down, pointing at him and telling him in thunderous tones it was time to stop being afraid of himself and accept that he was not only good, but that HE WAS GREAT!

I finally caught him and lifted him on my shoulder.........He is the golden trophy.........We are the gold that we seek

And if we vibrate, really feel and vibrate with this knowledge at high enough levels.....we develop the wisdom each day to turn every person we touch into gold.......And teach them how to do the same for others

Live, Laugh and Love....and Overcome!

2010-04-30T07:24:00.001-04:00

Today is the last day of waking up to a hot house (no air) and taking a cold shower (no hot water)......and then going out to do my part to create a more abundant world (no limits).

Tomorrow I move into my friend's place. I will wake up to a cool house and take a hot shower.....but will I wake up and put myself into a positive, forward-moving mental state.....or will I paralyze myself with an angry, the-world-isn't-fair state of thoughts and feelings?

Tomorrow is too far away, and I am too tired to believe I can be that strong 24 hours from now.......But I can be strong in this moment.....and I can face the facts in a way that empowers me v disempowers

I have a chance to live in the only space and time that is real and holds any real power for change.....this moment.

The girl in the pink is the one who wrote the thank you card for helping her find the beauty that was inside of her. That is an amazing thing to teach someone about themselves....and can only be done in those powerful, teachable moments.

The girl in the black is showing me a math project she created and explaining her knowledge of the math principles and how she applied them to her project.

She has gone from scoring 40% on the Fall math and reading tests to 90%-100% on the Winter ones, and now taking that knowledge and creatively applying it to higher-level thinking projects.

This change in her reality has come from moment-after-moment of watching her work out a problem, then asking her how she knows her answer is true, whether it's right or wrong, and letting her evaluate her thinking v. just telling her how to do it and rushing off to the next student.

She is now out of her seat and "thinking out loud" on the board......just as Einstein did to develop his thinking.

"It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer." ~Albert Einstein

In the beginning of the year she didn't want to think through her work or stay with and struggle through the problems. Instead she distracted herself with drama of the past and worry of the future to the point I drew a line in the sand and told her she was either going to come with me on this journey of her best self and break herself free from this limiting and imprisoning drama.......she was going to be fully present working with me in this very moment......or I was going to kick her out of class right then and there.

This decision of hers to give up the drama and give 100% of herself to the moment she was in probably was the defining moment of the year for her, and what led her to be able to do things she had never been able to do before.

She ended up with all A's that quarter for the first time ever and is on her way to doing it again.

Life is a journey, and when we dedicate ourselves to living completely in the moment we're in we always seem to have more than enough energy to give everything we have......moment after moment after moment.....

And it does change the world around us when we do.

(outside the next day after the class participated in her project and before we cleaned up.....goofing off with another student who has made incredible growth this year).

Live, Laugh and Love......and Overcome!

This is Why

2010-04-28T07:23:00.000-04:00

This is why we believe in ourselves and others. This is why we hold onto that belief no matter how difficult it is to do so.

This is why.......because it matters to somebody else that we do.

Before I Die....

2010-04-21T04:40:00.011-04:00

Yesterday was another day when I just wanted to give up. If a terrorist succeeds he has the next day off (and the next and next and next because he's now dead). If the person opposite a terrorist gives all of their life and is successful in bringing out the life in others, the next day he or she wakes up to do it again.

Sometimes it seems just too much.

On my way to work I told myself, "Anyone can carry his burden, however hard, until nightfall. Anyone can do his work, however hard, for one day. Anyone can live sweetly, patiently, lovingly, purely, till the sun goes down. And this is all that life really means." - Robert Louis Stevenson

It didn't help. So I asked myself if I was going to give up right now in this moment. The answer was "no". "OK", I thought. "Then that's what I have to do today. Live moment-to-moment, nothing more than inside the very moment I'm in. One second at a time. One student at a time. One personal challenge at a time. One positive thought at a time. This is what zen is for me anyway. So I'm being forced to live in the most ideal way, and that is good."

Then I asked myself another question: "If I were to die today....whether physically or giving up and dying inside because this way of life just got to be too much.....If this were my last day to be really alive......How much will I really live?

How freely and courageously would I play the music I hear beating inside of me? (I used the Gypsy Kings this morning to wake me up and get me going)

And what proof do I have that playing this music (the unlimited potential of the human spirit) is worth the cost?

That depends not only on how alive I feel, but on how alive others feel around me.

Do they find the courage to see and dream of brand new worlds of possibility within themselves?

Do they develop this ability to create a bigger and better world by being able to do bigger and better things than they've ever done?

How BIG and DEEPLY do they THINK and DREAM (picture of Socrates in background) and how BIG and DEEPLY do they FEEL and DO? (300 pic of King Leonidas on other side of room)

I still haven't figured out this whole "how best to educate students on an individual basis" thing, (pic of my son discovering how to paint to remind me to let my students discover knowledge and develop wisdom)

but it has to be pursuing the answer to the question, "How can we get each one of them to dedicate their lives to creating their highest and greatest lives?" (two of the lowest performing math students at the beginning of the year, now two of the highest)

And anyone can live their lives, no matter how fully, for one more second at a time.

HALLELUJAH

2010-04-19T05:28:00.002-04:00

"a shout of joy, praise, or gratitude"

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

I wake up and begin another day. It's important to begin the day well. What we "water" ourselves with greatly affects whether we grow that day and in what direction. Putting oneself in a state of deep appreciation is a great way to begin a day of positive growth towards everything we could be.

To the wonderful people who have helped out in my time of need, I say , "Hallelujah!"

To my friend who's helping me go from homeless to roomful, I say, "Halleljuah!"

To my new homeless friend I met yesterday who is going to take a few things from the garage sale he can sell into the "forbidden neighborhood", and agreed along with his shopping cart to carry a message of hope to a former student doing things she thinks she needs to do for money, I say "Hallelujah!" (even when my physical presence isn't there my spiritual presence is - ha-ha!)

To myself who's determined to make one of the worst things that's happened to him one of the best, I say, "Hallelujah!"

And to my children, who when I look at your pictures, I feel so much joy and gratitude that I praise the overflowing abundance I really do have in my life, I say to you, "Hallelujah!"

Today is Sunday, and Sunday is a holy day for many religions. Because of you, everyday is a holy day for me, a day of where I can't help but focus on and appreciate all the good things in life and all the great things to come.

Because it's not what happens to you that matters. It's how you react to what happens to you that determines what happens to you as a result of it. And I am determined to react in a way that shows how truly grateful I am to be alive, and be fully alive with life!

(something I wrote this in Sofia's school planner the other day:)

"The purest form of matter and energy is truth and beauty.

The appreciation of this is love.

I appreciate your incredible truth and beauty, and I LOVE YOU!"

I wanted to take all the money I made from the garage sale and give it to my homeless friend to give it to my former student. The fact is I don't know how not to give.

So, this tells me I have to make more money than I could possibly need. I have to dream and do bigger than I ever have up to this point. I have to think and act on the scale of a Bill Gates or Bono from U2.

I'm going to have to appreciate the real truth and beauty in myself and the world at levels I've never yet done.....

And I'm going to have to tap into all the love in the world to become this powerful.

I can't think of a better way than to start with my own children.

(I sold my computer desk and had to unplug everything before I could post this. So now it's Monday 2am........and another holy day of thinking, feeling and acting completely and wholly on the best things in my life right now, and the best yet to come.)

The last pictures are of Sofia writing her "To Do" list for Sunday:

1. Dad wakes me up.
2. Brush my teeth. (When I took her to the dentist she promised she would do a better job. At least I know she truly intends to)
3. Help carry stuff out.
4. Beuty (beauty) check. (pics of her with her heart mirror)
5. Do playtime.
6. Take a rest.
7. Entirtane. (entertain)
8. Help carry stuff in.
9. Make a list.
10. Go to bed.
11. Dream.
12. Have a great day.

We have all the answers when we're young. Pretend you're young again. Every day is full of excitement and possibility.....and so are you. Have a great day everyone.

There's No Way in Hell

2010-04-10T10:26:00.030-04:00

I was taking Shanghai for a long walk, wondering how in the hell I'm going to get through this. It took me four times to read the three-page court document because I would get so filled with anger and deep negative emotions I had to stop and walk away from it.

Phone call after phone call to different agencies turned into a run around. I finally found out how to file an appeal and now have to wait 6 to 7 months for it to be heard. In the meantime I'm selling my belongings and thanks to the generosity of my friend and neighbor, moving into the extra room in his apartment.

During my walk I kept experiencing waves of shock and anger, feeling like a fool for seeing the best in the world only to get knocked down by it, and beginning to doubt myself; who I was and what I was all about. Maybe I should dream a little smaller, live a little less fervently, give less of myself to this world that can be so ugly sometimes.

But I know if I do this, so will others around me, including my children.

Then I remembered this speech:

I think my problem is believing too much in others who don't believe enough in themselves. I know that just because the seed hasn't sprouted yet doesn't mean it's not right below the surface. So I keep believing and keep giving to the idea of their growth.

Just then a jet flew overhead and I stopped and watched it intently. The further away it got the louder I heard this in my head: "Yes! That is my jet. I'm headed to Greece to visit the places where Pericles thought and talked because I'm close to understanding how he changed the way humanity had governed itself up to that point, liberating and empowering more people than ever before, and furthering human evolution.

I figure this out and I can help change how humanity has educated itself up to this point, liberating and empowering more people than ever before, and continuing this evolution of the human mind and spirit ." (This is a terrific student who received an F from me last quarter for less than terrific effort. She took full responsibility for her grade, learned from it, overcame it, and rose above it. She now has an A+ this quarter.....and feels incredible about herself.)

After the jet disappeared I laughed at how big I can still be inside when it feels like the world is closing in all around me and crushing me into dust. I've been practicing focusing all my thoughts and feelings on only the great and powerful things in life long enough now that I think I only know how to truly dream, do and be big.

I say we create more of a heaven on earth by developing the strength and spirit of the Ancient Spartans, so that all those around us are protected from harm and allowed to live freely....

And combine that with the higher intelligence and deep appreciation for truth and beauty of the Ancient Athenians, so we live at higher levels of life and love....

And do create a better world, an incredible world....a world we have yet to see but desperately need. One we currently can only imagine for ourselves after we're dead, calling it Heaven.

Our matter and energy is in the here and now, and where we direct this determines how our space and time looks and feels. Einstein gave his life to teach us this. Yet we still react to what is instead of creating what could be.

It's probably due to how we educate ourselves, and Einstein hated school. He felt it was too much covering the subjects and not enough uncovering the mysteries behind things like math and science. His brain grew before and after school, not during.

My parents are angry with me for believing in this utopia that doesn't exist; that every person can be good and helped to think and live at higher levels, while making myself suffer in the process (what parent likes to see their child suffer?)

Einstein's father died thinking his son was a failure. So if I am being a fool at least I'm being a big one. I'd rather struggle and die for a beautiful dream than sit around wallowing in an unacceptable reality waiting for someone else to change it someday. What else am I going to do with my life?

As I kept walking, pictures of the great time Sofia and I had just had over Easter weekend slowly played in my head. I felt all the love that we shared. All the happiness that was created in the midst of an opportunity to feel only despair.

And even though she had said, "See Dad, a family can live just fine without milk", thanks to Liz, a truly wonderful person, I can buy her milk when she comes back next weekend.

And I realized that there is no way in hell I can get through this.....with hellish thoughts and feelings.....

But there is a way in heaven.....with the highest thoughts and the highest feelings....

There IS a way in Heaven to hold on, I just have to have the inner strength to hold on to this and believe as big and passionately as Martin Luther King did with his dream, no matter how difficult holding on to that dream can be.

On Friday Sofia wasn't at school and I missed her deeply, beginning to imagine her not being there anymore and feeling waves of hurt growing inside. So I drew a picture and love note and took it to her room. Her classmates gathered around and helped me decide where to hide it.

I didn't realize until just now, but having the strength to do that affected them too. In their eyes that one action showed them the world can be, and is, a wonderful place.....a heavenly place.....It just takes a little creation. (Dancing together to Frank Sinatra Thursday before school)

BEND ~ BUT DO NOT BREAK

2010-04-02T10:46:00.003-04:00

I'm trying hard to understand what's going on. Sofia's mom sued me for more child support and won. The court date was during state testing so I wrote a letter to the court, filled out my financial information showing I couldn't afford to pay more, and even made a phone call the day before.....but I was not going to not be there for my students during a time they needed me the most. How they did on this test is now the sole determinant of where they're placed next year.

Her mom said she had nothing to do with it, that all she had done was file welfare papers after her employer locked her out of the office and fired her.

I would like nothing more than to lock her out of my life.

I don't know what she said to the judge, but I now have to pay more than twice what I was paying before, the court costs, etc, while she drives around in her Mercedes Benz with her $750,000 home.

I've already been living without heat or air and only 2 to 3 of the switches in the electric box switched on. And now I'm losing my apartment.

Luckily I have a friend willing to let me move in if I share expenses.

I've dedicated my life to bringing out the best in myself and those around me. I had a third God dream where I actually die and am taken to a room because God wanted to meet me. He stood up when I came in, smiled and shook my hand.

He told me He loved watching me live with so much passion and higher purpose, but His Son was right about me breaking too many rules, questioning too many things, and crossing too many lines regarding human limitation that aren't allowed to be crossed, and that I had to go to Hell.

I told Him I understood. I hadn't done any of these things to get something from others or even from Him. I had simply given everything I could to make others lives better. Doing the "right" things to try to get into Heaven would be the ultimate manipulation.

As I got to the door He said the Devil had already sent out an email and notices with my picture saying, "No matter what this guy says, you DON'T have a chance in here!"

I smiled and asked God if I could bring my dog with me. He laughed out loud and said, "Yes! That will drive the SOB crazy."

Next thing I know I'm in a line to get into Hell. There's a nerdy guy checking everyone in one-by-one. When he calls my name I knock the clipboard out of his hands and head in on my own. Somebody grabs the guardians(?) and tells them to let me be. I find an empty dingy, dark, black and red room and slump against a wall down to the floor, petting Shanghai with one hand and holding a beer in the other.

And this is where I sit for all of eternity.

So now I'm asking myself if this is where I am. I'm losing my small and already inexpensive ($725/month) apartment. I gave up business to build lives as a teacher. I put off my masters degree to make sure my students were fully prepared for the tests and now have to start over. Worst of all, when Bella came over last Sunday to drop off her hamster before going on vacation with her mom she had her cheer makeup on. When I asked if she had come from a competition she said, "We didn't tell you because we know you can't afford the entrance fee ($30)."

Now I have an onslaught of millions of cells splitting each second with receptors for all things negative, all things doubtful. And I feel very alone and foolish in this world.

I'm not sure I'll share this. People don't like it when I'm down. But if I do, it's to share another story of another person who felt like breaking, felt very close to breaking, but something inside of him wouldn't let it happen.

I give abundantly with everything I'm abundant in. I know someday I will also be able to give abundantly monetarily. If you or someone you know is able to give now.......I........there aren't enough words to say how much it would be appreciated.

It might mean simply being able to see my kids compete...........and my love for them is greater than my pride and ego.

If you're able to help, for the rest of this month my address is:

Adam Stuart
511 S. Summerlin Ave
Orlando, FL 32801

We hear stories of successful people telling us how they went through really tough times in the past. This is a story of someone going through really tough times in the present. And if I can somehow manage to hold on to everything that makes me good, and change whatever it is about me that has created the bad......then anyone who reads this can too. Thanks to Suzi for sending us these tickets to Disney.

I'm rooting for me. To change the weather inside I have to start by rereading my own work and return to Living in a Theory of Love. Today is Great Grandma Bette's 91st birthday. Still being alive is reason enough to hold on. Being completely, positively and powerfully alive until the day you die is a gift.

It's the juggling with the struggle that develops your gifts.

Bella's Brain Busters - Supercat?

2010-03-21T18:59:00.001-04:00

On the way home from the school carnival (where I was dunked dozens of times) Bella was telling me dozens of riddles. This gave me an idea to post them on my student's weblog and challenge them too.

Here's the first:

My brilliant daughter Bella

Has a befuddling riddle for you.

Can you figure it out in one guess?

Or will you need two?

Supercat?

A cat jumps out a window of a 50-story building and lands on the pavement unharmed.

How is this possible?

Happy St. Patty Boy's Day

2010-03-17T21:54:00.000-04:00

This is a repost, a very special repost. I've called several times to check on Patrice's status without getting anyone to pick up tonight (3/17/2010). The original post that follows was written two years ago today, linking to posts I had written four years ago when the accident happened. "Patty Boy Blemur" (link below) made me cry again reading it and remembering the deep emotions.

He is still in my heart and still mentioned to my current students.

March 17, 2008
*It's now been three St. Patrick's Days that Patrice wasn't supposed to be able to have, yet here he is having another one. I just got off the phone with his nurses and although he still hasn't made any progress....I choose to believe he will.

I could cry...I could get angry....Instead I'll just choose to continue to believe.

Here's a post my daughter Bella and I put together for him last year.

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone, and especially to Patrice Blemur.

Patrice is a student of mine who was involved in a fatal car accident in January of 2006. His mother was killed in the crash and Patrice was left in a coma. He initially wasn't supposed to be lucky enough to make it to St. Patty's Day of last year, let alone this one.

Today he is celebrating the unexpected, due to his strong desire to live, his great nurses and doctors, and the love of a father who visits him every day. It is a testimony to the POWER of BELIEF!

Last night I talked to Rob, who along with other great nurses like Teddy, Carmelita and Mam, keep me updated on Patrice's progress if I miss connecting with his dad. Fedre Blemur is an inspiration to me, going to his son's bedside every night no matter how long the day has been.

My own daughter is holding Patrice's picture for me, which I keep by my door at home. I can only hope to have the strength Patrice's father has shown, should something similar happen to one of my own children.

Last night at the party Patrice was awake and alert, which is a good sign. He's even attending school outside of his hospital unit. He still has a long way to go, and no matter what your belief systems are, I humbly ask that you simply......believe in him.

Whether it's a two-word statement "I Believe!" right now, or a letter or card, it DOES make a difference, and it DOES matter.

Thank you,

Adam

*p.s. I'm going to make a CD for him of me reading stories and doing the voices he loved (i.e. Jorgan von Jorgenson from "The Fairly Odd Parents"). Don't let your limitations stop you. I supposedly have one of the highest IQ's in the country, yet encounter things I can't yet do all the time, like burning a CD.

Step 1: "Put the blank disc in drive."

- In drive? I can't even get this thing out of park!

Just because it doesn't come easily to me it doesn't mean I can give up. All I have to do is find a seven-year-old at school who knows how to do what I don't :-). EVERYONE is smarter than I am in some way; in that, I learn of them (paraphrasing either Emerson or Whitman).

*Correspondence can be sent to:
Patrice Blemur
Unit Two
Franciscan Hospital for Children
30 Warren St.
Boston, MA 02135

**For the background story of why and how Patrice is so special to me and many others, first read "What Will You do That Will Last Forever?" by clicking here.

Then read "Patty Boy Blemur" (clicking here).

This poem is from the latter:

Patty Boy Blemur
One thing we know for sure
He gave the world his best
Now it’s time for him to rest

But he wanted me to tell ya
In fact I think he’s trying to yell it
That no dream is ever too small
No challenge is ever too tall

For it’s those who learn to DREAM BIG
And who have the courage to DO BIG
That are the ones who truly BECOME BIG

The size of your world is the size of your mind
So get to readin’, writin’ and learnin’
While you still have the time

Find out how truly special and smart you really are
Make the world a better place
SHINE BRIGHT AND BECOME A STAR

Thank you and goodbye to Orlo Vista
I will never, ever, forget ya

Goodbye Patrice. I will never forget YOU.
Mr. Stuart
Your Teacher

(March 2006)

Life is Good ~ Living in a Theory of Love

2010-03-16T05:58:00.005-04:00

The entertainment for this morning's breakfast picnic will be Charlie Chaplin's famous fork-and-roll dance from his movie, "The Gold Rush". Yesterday it was Sofia's choice and we watched "Singin' in the Rain".

For the past 4 days when we get to school Sofia and I have been having breakfast dates together. I don't do any work. Don't allow any students in before the bell. It's just me and Sofia.

I really like how romantic I can be, and that I'm in that state not to get something, but to give....and what I give is myself.

Five days ago I got an email threatening to take Sofia away from me again. Instead of focusing on the pain and ugliness of that, I focused on all the love and beauty in front of me right here, right now.

Einstein's breakthrough theory on relativity states that space and time tell matter and energy where to go, and matter and energy in turn tell space and time how to look.

No matter what tomorrow brings, I know that every day we have together, beginning right from the start in the morning, I choose to be in a space and time of complete love with my daughter, and everything I'm made of (my matter) and all my energy is going to go towards appreciating this beautiful treasure in my life....while I have it in my life.

One day Great-Grandma Bette isn't going to pick up when we call. One day Sofia won't be in my everyday life. One day I will no longer have life.

But until that one day happens, the one day that matters is this day.

Salutation To The Dawn

Look to this day!

For it is life, the very life of life.

In its brief course

Lie all the verities and realities of your existence:

The bliss of growth,
The glory of action,
The splendor of achievement,

For yesterday is but a dream

And tomorrow is just a vision,

And today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness

And every tomorrow a vision of hope.

Look well, therefore to this day!

Such is the salutation to the dawn.

Kalidasa (The Hindu equivalent of Shakespeare)

This man was once so humiliated by his wife that while contemplating suicide he looked to the sky and asked for guidance and understanding. Through this intention to hold on versus give up he began a journey of great enlightenment and poetry that seemed sent from Heaven.

This is the same poem I would recite to Brosden every morning while playing with him outside, raising my arms to the Heavens and looking at this three-year-old with a huge grin on my face.

Who says that the most painful and terrible things in life can't lead to an elevation into amazing bliss and beauty?

And now for your entertainment, I present another brilliant breakthrough in human history, Charlie Chaplin and his fantastic roll dance. Thank you you three; Albert, Kalidasa and Charlie, for persevering in pursuing and developing your greatest gifts. Now Adam and Sofia can enjoy them in a space and time of great love and laughter.....together.

Life is good.

Nothing But a Dreamer

2010-03-03T19:51:00.006-05:00

Some leading educational experts say if teaching becomes more effective there will be classrooms in the future that reach 90% of the students. This is well above the less than 50% of all students being reached now, and it's questionable that those "being reached" are able to do much more than mimic what the book or teacher has taught/told them to think. I see this as a problem because we are able to get monkeys and parrots to do the same thing......So what are we doing with humans?

A fellow teacher saw me grading a giant stack of papers this morning and asked why I was still working so hard with less than a week to go before state tests. She said, "Do you believe in miracles?"

I paused for a second, letting probably 10,000 thoughts contemplate her query, and then responded with an unquestionable, "Yes!"

100% committed to believing in miracles is the only way to make miracles happen.

A few hours later in reading class we graded the last and hardest test of the book series we've been working on. Not one student failed. Not one! That's a 100% success rate right now in the present! (And most students scored a 100%)

It's taken having to make up to 3,500 different evaluations on student work each night, but it, and they, have been worth it.

5 evaluations per question answered:

1) Did they get the right answer?
2) Were they able to completely explain and prove why it is right?
3) Were the able to completely explain and prove why wrong answer number one is wrong?
4) Were the able to completely explain and prove why wrong answer number two is wrong?
5) Were the able to completely explain and prove why wrong answer number three is wrong?

10 questions answered per student = 50 separate evaluations
70 students answering 10 questions each (reading, math and science classes) = 700 questions
700 questions * 5 separate evaluations = 3,500 different evaluations and feedback on how they can learn and improve today.

And it's taken them, the reading class for instance, to spend 3 hours reading, searching, comprehending, analyzing, justifying and evaluating and most importantly.....thinking and applying those lesson before answering.....all for maybe a two-page story.

Instead of turning in one piece of paper with 10 lines on it (a,b,c or d), they have been turning in up to 10 pages filled with enough brain work to....pull off a miracle.

And after working hard to behave myself all year, I threw over a desk today in jubilation and excitement.

So do I believe in miracles?

Yes I do.

Along with the miraculous effort it takes to make them happen.

And that the miracle I've been working so hard to get them to believe in, and that they now truly do...... is themselves.

In My Heart

2010-02-27T07:04:00.001-05:00

In everything I do

In everything I see

In every thought I think

In every word I speak

I want

No matter how difficult

Impossible

Or even dangerous it is to be

Always

In my heart

Because the people in this world

Are worth it

~ Adam Stuart
Feb 27, 2010

Love Like You're Dying - Happy Valentine's Day

2010-02-13T11:35:00.008-05:00

“To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction.” - Issac Newton

It bothered me that a student I saw so much to believe in last year, has teachers this year that see so little in him. If they're going to give him less, the equal and opposite reaction is to give him more. And he, his mother and I had a great conversation that lasted for @30 minutes.

The morning I wrote about him (That Inner Light MUST Be Turned On) my son was sitting behind me doing extra school work. I had woken him up at 5:45 am by asking him, "Are You Ready to Battle for Your Soul?"

His mom and I had asked him to get all B's this grading period. When we checked he had one A, one B, one C, and two D's. So he came to live with Dad who no longer asked, but told him he was going to get ALL A's now. If he is going to get more, he is going to have to give more.To be able to give more, he's going to have to become more.

Something else that has bothered me very much is the rise in terrorism and hate. I went into a neighborhood I've been banned from to check on a person that needs to be cared about, and now hear I have to die for not being terrorized and afraid enough to respect their territory (to be honest I think it's as silly as after a guy pulled a gun on me to get out I caught him off-guard by coming after him, which startled him enough to put it back in his underwear and walk away. Where I went wrong was loosing my temper and telling him to pull his pants up. It was foolish because I took away his sense of importance and his reputation, and will readily apologize for that. But I WILL NOT allow myself to die over a question of mens' underwear fashion and if he thinks I scared him before I'll make his heart stop this time. If he does kill me I'm confessing right now I will lie to my fellow dead people about how I died and why and say I got hit by a bus).

It's an ugly place (25 Most Dangerous Neighborhoods) filled with ugly thinking. I heard the city is going to tear it down, but that doesn't mean we can't bring as much light and love as possible to the people in it in the meantime. A new location won't change things for them anyway. They have to change for things in their lives to change. I'll feel strong for them, not sorry.

But I also heard something beautiful. Last week I called to see how my uncle in the hospital was doing. He couldn't talk so I told him what a truly great uncle he was and that I loved him very much. I began to choke up so my aunt thanked me and said goodbye. I found out he passed away right after, meaning the last thing he heard was how much he was loved. I can't think of any better words to hear your last few moments on Earth.

If terrorism and hate are about death, then the equal and opposite (and INTELLIGENT) reaction to this is that EVERYTHING around us MUST LIVE.

Awhile ago I turned down an offer to make a movie about my life for one simple reason, someone's reputation had to die in order to make mine look good. The "villain" was to be my ex-wife, who's not only my daughter's mother (what I do to her mother I do to her), but a person in the process of becoming her best self, just like the rest of us.

Simply because someone sees me as farther along that path than someone else doesn't mean we have to trash that someone else, which if put on film might prevent his or her highest evolution from ever taking place.

After 10,000 years of evolution, our species still only uses 3-5% of our hearts and our heads. What if we took a step forward towards using more by focusing less on striving to simply survive, or at best to succeed in order to say "Look at ME! Look at what I can do and how famous I am".......

What if we focused more on striving to succeed in order to live more fully and say, "Look at We! Look at what WE can do and how famously ALIVE we all can be!"?

This takes the ability to appreciate life while you have it.

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

While helping my son evolve towards his highest self Thursday night I got a call from Bella's mother telling me she has two F's. It seems our brilliant Bella has gotten bored by her school books and is being belligerent and bellicose about becoming her best Bella self. By the time I finished believing in and loving these two children, it was after midnight before I began grading the work of other children in the process of becoming their best selves.

When I came to school I saw a student I had at the beginning of the year who gave me her very best while she was with me for science. I picked her up and swung her around and thanked her for this. Walking away I wondered why I continue to give away energy I don't have and not save any for myself? It seems so stupid but feels so right.

At the end of the day I got my answer, and evidence that the decision to trade in my 15 minutes of fame for hopefully a lifetime of inspiration might just be paying off. I was handed something that not only will give me life for the rest of mine, but let me know I have done the same for her. It let me know that my life has become about "We".

It was the best Valentine's Day card I've ever received:

(Student's Name)

Book of Thanks

for Mr. Stuart

Thank you

for changing

the WORLD

even when

it gets

TOUGH!!!!

Thank you

for changing

into the

BEST

I have

EVER BEEN!!

Words can't

DESCRIBE

what you

are

doing for

and

LOTS

OTHERS!!

The kids and I were watching a show on the Grand Canyon the other day where they mentioned it was made @5 million years ago, which is the blink of an eye compared to how long the Earth has been around (4.5 billion years). To think that I could make any real difference in 42 short years confuses and awes me.

When I shared this student's card with my grandmother last night her voice filled with love as she told me how she felt about me. If terrorists can fill the world with fear and death, we can spend our lives reacting more intelligently by filling it with powerful love and life.

I might not be husband/boyfriend material, and therefore have no one specific person to send a valentine's to. The last person I dated complained this summer about what was wrong with me just as my exes did, and they aren't wrong. I work too much and dream too big.

But what I can do is the equal and opposite by focusing on all that's right with me, lovingly and humorously work on what's not yet perfect and probably never will be, and give the very best I have to offer to the world in one humongous heart hug.

Living like I'm dying....doing both for life-giving love. There's nothing better.

*pics are from last summer's trip to Rome, taken at the Roman Forum, the bridge over the River Tiber, the Castel Sant'Angelo, Spanish Steps, Piazza Venezia, Pantheon, Colosseum, and Vatican.

This summer I'm planning to go to Greece. I can only imagine what will happen to my head and heart sitting and stepping in the same places as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.

I'm going to come back even more of a giant pain as to what life is and can be :-)

That Inner Light Must Be Turned On

2010-02-10T06:53:00.001-05:00

A middle school teacher came into my room to observe some of my students she'll have next year. I asked her about the student I had last year whom I'm currently working on a super hero/educational comic book with this year. She shook her head and told me he's not doing well. When I asked why she told me things that were wrong with him.

When I mentioned how much he grew last year (probably as much if not more than any other student in the country - 700+ points in math and 865 in reading, when @100 points is equivalent to one year's worth of growth) she told me even more of what was wrong with him. It hit me this morning that her jaw had clenched and face tightened as she said this....almost as if she was fighting to justify why he wasn't learning this year...i.e. why in no way was it her fault

I tried planting some seeds of how she could help him grow by mentioning some things I did with him that worked, like finding out what was right about him (his love of drawing super heroes). It didn't seem the "soil" was very fertile planting ground though. Her mind seemed set on why his current failure was his fault and not hers.....and everything that was wrong with him v. right............whereas last year my mindset was on where was his failure WAS my fault, what was right already about him, and how I could change my teaching to allow his strengths to help him succeed.

Whatever I was doing in the first part of the year wasn't working, and in a parent-teacher-administration meeting I took the blame for it

I began to try a new approach with him.......and it didn't work

So I tried something different....and that didn't work either

It wasn't until mid-year that I became a much better student of him that I learned how to become a much better teacher for him

But this process wasn't possible without taking full responsibility for where I was failing, learning from my failures, trying a new, more intelligent approach.....and continuing to try UNTIL I found an approach that worked.

If someone like Edison can try 1,000's of times to figure out how to invent something like the light bulb, can't we as teachers and parents try at least more than a couple of times with these young human beings that have been placed in our care?

We know when we're born that light bulb is on, illuminating us with all that is good about us and all that is possible in this brand new wonderful world.

That light goes out in way too many of us way too soon. But that doesn't mean the bulb is broken. It just needs to be rewired and then relit.

And we must find a way to do that.

"Mr. Stuart, one day a kid just like me is going to be reading a comic book written by me."

I just heard what he said to me at the end of last year.

This year it seems less likely that will ever happen.

You don't give up on your most important dreams simply because the light has gotten dimmer on them.

It means you put more energy towards making it burn even brighter.

I'll make sure when I call him today that his inner dream light floods out the darkness beginning to surround him.

And I'll keep doing it until he's able to do it on his own.........His dreams depend on it.

Einstein's Brain Wasn't Bigger

2010-02-07T12:54:00.000-05:00

He just used more of it than what the average person did, and still does use, which is @3-5%.

We ALL can learn (or relearn) to use more of our brain at any time, at any age. Case in point, my daughter Sofia can't get on FCAT Explorer because there are no programs designed for 2nd grade. As her father I thought, "Well, how CAN I make it possible for her to have access to these learning programs?"

I discovered I can set her up in her own classes, allowing her to begin at the lowest levels available. In reading she is doing the 3rd grade program, and in math and science she is doing the 5th grade programs. I told her the questions would be hard, but not impossible if she thought them through.

She completed the first reading story, getting 4 out of 6 questions right on her own, and the other 2 right after being given a hint.

She is doing the science program and although much harder (because it's at a 5th grade reading level and asks questions about matter, mass, volume and density), she is doing even better, getting 5 out of the first 6 questions correct on her own, and the other one correct after guidance.

She looked at me with tears in her eyes. I asked her if those were tears because she loved me, or tears because she hated me asking her to try doing such hard problems.

She said she was crying because of how much I believed in her.......

Maybe when we learn to use more of our brains, we also learn to use more of our hearts.
We apply this to education, and learning can go from teachers pressured to teach to the test and students studying just to get "good grades", to teachers teaching to the hearts and minds of the future, and students studying to become fearless and free.

*I haven't had time to download any new pictures since school started last fall, but it has allowed me to rediscover old pictures, which are bringing a giant smile to my face....and enough energy to bring this love and belief to all my students this week.

You Can Sleep on a Train

2010-01-26T20:12:00.000-05:00

On the way home tonight we were stopped by a train in downtown Orlando. It was an Amtrack passenger train and I pointed out the people you could see inside eating and moving about, and the sleeping cars that followed.

They had no idea you could sleep on a train. I said, "Sure you can. Like in 'Some Like it Hot'. "

They said they had no idea what that movie was either, so I showed them clips when we got home. Now they are insistent that we watch the movie tonight.

It's fantastic how how one simple observation can turn into many wonderful teachable moments, among them..........that life is wonderful when you're together, the classics have no age limit on appreciation, and that you actually can sleep on trains, dress as a woman, and still get the girl :-)

Give Yourself a Rare Gift

2010-01-23T11:20:00.001-05:00

One morning last week a student came up to me and said she had me figured out.

"You know Mr. Stuart, when you get really tired you tell us that you're running out of energy and that if we don't learn how to give back to ourselves you're not going to be able to keep working with each one of us. You're going to give us assignments out of the book and have us sit quietly at our desks doing it.....But you never do. You never give up that we all can really get smarter every day and really become big in life, getting our dreams."

A smile came across my face and I said, "That's right. I never do. Your parents never gave up on you because they KNEW you could learn to walk and talk, and BELIEVED in you UNTIL you believed that much in yourself too....and finally developed those abilities.

I KNOW you all can learn to do what I'm asking you to do too. And no, I don't know how to give up on any of you, so I tell myself I can do this again for just one more day. But appreciate it for what it is........a rare gift, one that fewer and fewer people will see in you and help you see in yourself, because they're going to be too busy trying to see it again in themselves.

All I'm asking is that you accept this and give it back to yourself. KNOW you CAN make your dreams come true by making YOURSELF come true.........and please BELIEVE in yourself UNTIL you do BECOME big enough to make your big dreams BECOME big realities.

Give this gift to yourself, feel energized and focused beyond belief, and you will have given it back to me. Because you can't give this gift to others by buying it, you have to BECOME IT.

Chapter F: Successfully React to Failure

2010-01-06T07:11:00.002-05:00

Failure is not good or bad. How you react to it makes your failure a good or bad thing.

Since failure is part of life, one of life's most important lessons is learning how to successfully react to failure, and one of the most important things we can teach our students how to do in school.

If you fail to learn and grow from what caused you to fail, you are doomed to repeat it. This is probably why so many of us stop trying.

We lose faith and belief in ourselves and begin to reduce the size of our dreams to match.

Easier and smaller dreams are easier to accomplish. This is like putting the least weight on the bar to workout with. Sure you can lift it, but it doesn't allow you to become any stronger or healthier.

Instead of focusing on where others are better than us, and using what's good about them as role models, we focus on what's wrong with them in order to make us feel better about ourselves.

What if we judge Tiger Woods when we are Tiger Woods? In the meantime we can focus on the part of his life where he has shown greater strength and commitment, such as developing his athletic skills and mental concentration.

Instead of focusing our thoughts on the part of his life we don't approve of, we pay attention to what we do approve of and admire.

Then after we reach our own perfection we can gather all the stones we want to throw at all the imperfect souls around us......just look in the mirror first....and as we see our own imperfections to work on, and refuse to justify or accept this is just how we are......we react successfully to these failures by not throwing stones at ourselves, but throwing all the love, belief, courage and intelligence we can muster.

Over and over, again and again......because we know we are worth it.

We are the greatest project we will ever have in our entire lives.

“I didn't fail the test, I just found 100 ways to do it wrong” ~ Benjamin Franklin quotes (American Statesman, Scientist, Philosopher, Printer, Writer and Inventor. 1706-1790)

“Success builds character, failure reveals it” Dave Checkett quotes

“There are no failures - just experiences and your reactions to them.” Tom Krause quotes ( motivational speaker, Teacher and Coach, b.1934)

“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.”

Colin Powell quotes (Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff (1989-93). At present, US Secretary of State, 1937)

“The greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure.”~ Sven Goran Eriksson quotes

“A man may fall many times, but he won't be a failure until he says that someone pushed him.”

Elmer G. Letterman quotes

“Often the difference between a successful person and a failure is not one has better abilities or ideas, but the courage that one has to bet on one's ideas, to take a calculated risk - and to act.”

Andre Malraux quotes (French Historian, Novelist and Statesman, 1901-1976)

“Failure is not falling down but refusing to get up.”

Chinese Proverbs quotes

And finally, my BIG dream that school is a place where EVERYONE'S courage and confidence are developed to such an extent that seeking and learning from failure is so prized one would pay for it:

“Failure is the tuition you pay for success.”

Walter Brunell quotes

This song used to make tears stream down my face. It was after my second divorce and I felt like an utter failure as a husband, father and as a man. During the female vocals I would see my little sister's face, who refused to believe I was a failure, and threw all of her love my way to help me get back up and believe in myself again.

Socrates said, "The only thing I know for sure is that I know nothing".

The only two things I know for sure is that love is the most powerful and precious thing in the world to learn how to have for yourself and others......and that TEMPORARY failure is the road that takes you there.

Those Other 3 Wonderful Words

2010-01-02T10:53:00.004-05:00

Besides hearing "I Love You" from someone who truly does, the three other most wonderful words you could hear when you've been overcome by failure are, "Find a Way".

If this is coming from a person who sees you for all you could be, it can be very empowering. They are saying to you, "This temporary failure ISN'T who you are. Who you REALLY are is someone capable of finding a way of overcoming ANYTHING you truly believe you are......no matter how many times it takes you to find that way".

If this message of just "Find a Way" is coming from yourself, to yourself, I think it is liberating. It sets you free to continue moving forward, causing you to become stronger and smarter, and therefore, more than you have ever been before.

And the more thunderous this message is sent to yourself and others, the faster and greater the process of becoming and achieving more than ever before begins to really happen....and desperately desired dreams finally become fully fulfilled.

And this my friend, is a truly exciting way to wake up each day and live your life.....believing in yourself and others without limits......and without end.

Open the Greatest Gift

2009-12-21T14:53:00.004-05:00

I truly have received the best Christmas, Hannukah, and Id-e-Milad presents this year from my children and students. No matter what their religion or race or color of their hair, they have all given back to me what I have given to them.......seeing themselves for what they truly are.....

Beautiful, possible, and capable of anything they set their minds to

They have given me the shining of their inner beauty.........and as I realize what they have already done in just half a year I feel as if all the holiday lights are shining within me

The math class began the year as the lowest performing students on last year's state tests. On an online program they are now number one in the school and the district, and second in the county among all classes. They are also ranked as the 40th highest among all classes in the state and the 18th highest of all 5th grade classes.

THIS IS HUGE and VERY IMPORTANT for all of us as it could and should lead to the evolution of mankind! How does a group of students/people change so fast in such a short time?

Because they BELIEVED they could, and learned to use those POWERFUL FEELINGS to guide their thoughts towards a POWERFUL PURPOSE.

In reading more students now score A's than anything else, and most do it without sitting in their seats all week being "taught". Instead they spend their time learning about the things THEY WANT TO, and take the tests "cold", seeing the story for the first time, and still ace it.

****(This is a solution for the age-old complaint, "You can lead a horse to water but can't make him drink." - While this is true, what you can do is find out what he or she is thirsty for. What do they want to know more about? If they can master the traditional curriculum (ace the tests) they set themselves free from being chained to their desks by it.)

In social studies and science students tell me they can't wait to get to school to work on and show their projects, one telling me he dreams of being able to come to school at 2am to have the time he wants to work on his boat.

And they have done all this in less time than any other class I've taught. Instead of one group spending all day integrating their subjects, they have to do it in @ one hour then move on to another class.

What it's taken is an accelerated process of what it means to truly dream big (believe in the beauty of yourself) and do big. I've hollered the hades out of them and hugged more heaven into them faster and harder than I've ever done with any class before.

Three different times I've seen my maker beckoning me home before politely refusing the invitation. (Thank you Ray - I needed help refusing one of these requests and you were there to do it. And thank you son, hugging me two years ago after you made a mistake and promised me you wouldn't think you were a mistake because of it.)

It is OK to "work ourselves to death"....for what? To make the boss happy, pay our bills, provide for our children, make as much money as we can, etc.

And we admire our greatest heroes, our sports champions, who "play in pain"....for what? To win a game.

The point is we are all so much more than what we're living, and have been living for thousands of years. We all live, we all sometimes hurt, and we all die. The question we don't ask ourselves is what are we going to live for, suffer in pain for, and eventually die for?

If we're living for more than individual fame and glory, to bring out the best in those around us, to help them see and develop their most beautiful and powerful selves........then we're living for is the most valuable and powerful thing of all........LOVE for more than ourselves.

And what we're one day going to die for is something very valuable and worthwhile.....that leads to the evolution of mankind where more people succeed at becoming more evolved

I just asked Sofia, "What does Daddy live for?"

"Love"

"What is Daddy going to die for?"

"Love"

"Are you OK with that?"

"Of course", she just said with a confused look (validating once again that we do know the truth as youth, before it is "taught" out of us and forgotten during adulthood).

"No Dad, you live for money!", she just said with a mocking grin.

With real sadness I told her that's what most of us do end up living and dying for, with short breaks in between called vacations and holidays.

Teachers can also do this math program and I accomplished in one week what it took some to do in 11 months. Very quickly I moved to #1 in the state and 7th in the country. This can only be explained by the fact that I teach to many students individually at the same time, causing my brain to adapt and grow very quickly on a daily basis.

This is the second program that ranks me as one of the smartest people in the country (the other one in the world). And my mother thought I might be mentally handicapped when I was younger, but so was Einstein and Edison.

I'm thinking so-called "geniuses" are simply those whose brains resist the unnatural filling of its neurons with memorized information and instead learn TO USE their brains to think, connect, solve and create at faster and faster rates. And it's very possible that the smartest of us might still only be using 10% of our brains.

This is what brain plasticity is, and what we're ALL capable of, which the students in my classes are proving as an undeniable fact year-after-year-after-year.

If education doesn't change because of this, then despite how loving, smart and strong I have become, I have failed in becoming nothing more than a poster on someone's wall in the future for someone who probably doesn't need the motivation anyway.

And education will continue to be dotted with teachers who believe they can only hope to reach at least one student each year, and those rare teachers who reach all students in at least one way.

Every single one of us is deserving of having the best brought out in us, each and every year, and going on to spend our lives, living and dying to change the world for the better in our own very special and very powerful way.

We change history by changing the future, and we change the future by changing the present. It's a beautiful thing to see the people around you change and see how beautiful they truly are...

Thank you for doing this kids.

From all of us to all the world,

Happy Holidays

May the best present you open this holiday be yourself.

**Definitely watch this.....every day if possible.....and FEEL it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nv4mlFxLD90 (same clip but better quality - embedding disabled)

Another great and important clip from the movie about how the brain works
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQ2UdNY0UAw

I'm Having a Geat Fatherhood

2009-12-15T20:48:00.001-05:00

My children are always telling me how happy they are and thanking me for giving them a great childhood.

Tonight after a late-night game of basketball I thanked them for gving me a great fatherhood.

Life in itself is wonderful.

Life fully and happily lived is even more wonderful.

Thank you guys.

Love,

Dad

( The kids sitting in our favorite ice cream shop in Hilton Head, South Carolina.)

(Me standing in the same crik Abe Lincoln played in as a boy in Kentucky)

Winners Cry While Losers Whine and Wallow

2009-12-12T22:39:00.001-05:00

One of my students asked if I saw the Florida/Alabama game last weekend (college football) and mentioned how the losing quarterback was crying at the end of the game. I told them that was because he (Tim Tebow) was a winner, and that winners cry when they lose because of how deeply they feel. It is this depth of feeling that makes them winners, in times of great frustration and of great happiness.

Mark Ingram cried when he won the Heisman Trophy tonight. Brosden cried after I spent 20 minutes the other day telling him he was better than how he was behaving for his mother. Sofia cried when she heard for the first time how on the day she was pulled out of my school 2 years ago I found out because I stopped by her class to give her a love note. Bella has teared up and so have I as one student after another tears up as I communicate very clearly they are more than they are giving and comes back the next day believing in themselves so much that they do things they've never done before.

And tonight my friend and neighbor told me how he cried at a movie he saw today. This guy is a champion tennis player and a champion Kindergarten teacher. He gets his students to believe in themselves and accomplish incredible things because he does in himself.

Anyway, it's just another random thought I thought I'd share before it passes through my head is soon forgotten because I didn't write it down.

Instead of pretending that you don't care, powerfully practice caring more.

You Think You're All That!

2009-12-10T07:25:00.001-05:00

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

The day after the student with no electricity at home found a way to still do his online math assignment, his friend who also rarely does his homework became the next day's highest grower in terms of points earned. I noticed he was looking at his friend in amazement and pointed out to him that when he does go on the program he does well, which shows me he is very smart.

What further helped him believe in himself was that this observation/praise was coming from his teacher who was the number one teacher in the state on the program and in the top 10 of all teachers in the nation......and it was done in one week as opposed to teachers who have been on the program for 11 months.

So if his friend thinks he's capable of all that and his teacher thinks he's capable of all that....then why not believe he is capable of all that too?

When people "criticize" us by telling us "Oh you think you're all that!", what they are really telling us is that they themselves are feeling insecure at the moment, and our self-confidence is intimidating to them so much that they react by trying to put us down.

The truth is, if we don't believe we are capable of all that - all that growth, all that greatness - how are those around us supposed to believe they are capable of all that too?

The next day after that the student with no computer at home became the day's highest grower by going to the local library and using their computers. He is now the 3rd highest in class overall.....and he doesn't even have a computer at home. What he does have is belief in himself to find a way to overcome his problem.

Another student who has never been the player of the day in class has been our player of the day for the past three days in a row, and two of those days the player of the day for the entire school, and went from a 46% on the Fall county math test to a 96% on yesterday's Winter math test.

This great belief that nothing is impossible has spilled over to the rest of the class - there are 9 people with over 1,000 points on the program - and into the reading class which some of them are also in.On Friday's reading test the lowest score was a C, and there were more A's than any other grade (15 students kicked their desks out of the way by earning their freedom this week to work on projects they want to know more about....when I first started doing this only 2 or 3 were able to earn this freedom).

Yesterday we went outside to practice the vocab for this week's test by saying the word and its definition then running across the field to catch foam golf balls I was sling-shotting high into the air. Last week we used my late Grandfather's golf club, and the results speak for themselves.

And what the results say is that when you don't think you're all that it's not just you who suffers......It's the world around you that does too. If you stay small and afraid of criticism from insecure people, so do those around you.

But the most important "Oh, Adam you think you're all that" was yesterday. For some reason when my son is with me he is an amazing person who is capable of amazing things, and doesn't need to be on his meds to do it.

And what have I heard? "Oh Adam. You think you're all that."

You better believe I do. He is my son! And if I as his father don't think I'm capable of helping him realize he is capable of all that......How is he suppossed to believe it and become it himself?

It's not what the world thinks of you that matters. It's what the world thinks of itself. It's time to show it that it's not about Me, but We.

Think Big! Be a hero for someone around you everyday.

Today We Become Heroes

2009-12-01T06:43:00.002-05:00

One student who didn't do any work over break on the new online math program didn't have electricity. This is the same one who used to throw chairs and punch people. Because I do believe in him and want to protect who he's becoming, I said, "So? That's just an excuse. It's a pretty good one, but it still stopped you didn't it? This other student right here who doesn't have a computer went to his grandfather's a couple of days over break and had the second highest growth in class because of it. How about coming in with a stack of papers filled in with your work, telling me, "Mr. Stuart, I didn't have electricity in my home but I did have it in my heart. Look at what I did do."

What about doing math in the dirt with a stick? Go ahead and cry if u want. Refuse to do the classwork if u want. It's your life. It's your children you'll have to explain why you don't have electricity to as an adult because you didn't overcome the problem as a child.

You can't change the past. You can only change the future. Find a way!

He came up to me in the hallway during bus dismissal and told me his cousin was going to come over with his wireless laptop. I told him if he follows through, if he really does find a way to overcome a very real problem that would hold most people back, he breaks the cycle holding him back......and becomes the stuff movies are made of. All I was trying to do was help him break the cycle by building him into something bigger than the problems creating it.

Because whether or not a movie is actually made of this kid's life, he is the star actor in it. Is he acting with the courage, passion, and power he could and should be? Is he the hero in his own life? Or is he the villain?

The answer is, yes he is the hero. When I checked the progress this morning he grew enough to put him in the top 10 of the class in most growth yesterday.

And it just may have broken the cycle and changed his life because of what he had to overcome in order to do it.

The question for the rest of us now becomes, are we acting with the same courage as this 11-year old? And are we changing our lives because of it?

My uncle died yesterday. I bet he would take on any difficulty no matter how great just to be alive again.

Let's not wait until it's too late. What stopped us yesterday that we won't let stop us today? What obstacle or limiting belief can we overcome by having the courage of an 11-year old?

Let today the day we become heroes.

8,000 Years of Lessons Packed Into One

2009-11-24T01:40:00.001-05:00

Watching a program involving Columbus' arrival to America and all the way back to the Incan Empire of 8,000 years ago. Man has been around for a long, long time, and I can't help but wonder how far we've really come, how much have we truly evolved and liberated ourselves in this time.....

What I do know is that all of my students are going to evolve as much as possible in the year that I have them. They are going to free themselves from limiting beliefs that hold them back, the ones that make them worry about not being enough and what others may think of them as they pursue their dreams.

A month ago on a Date Night With Dad I had to apologize to my kids and lay down in bed when we got home. I was having a stroke. I had to unplug myself so I couldn't give anymore and just shut down. By morning I was fine, but since then I've limited myself to being a dad, teaching and writing while I regained my strength.

No answering emails or responding to comments even when they made feel terrific and helped me heal. Instead I gave that energy to my kids and students. No thinking about what I didn't want or could be worried about. I simply didn't have the energy to waste it on anything that didn't make the situation better.

Today was the first day of our Thanksgiving Break, and I feel a rejuvenated sense of passion for what I do. The faces of my students appear often in my head, and I see such aliveness in their faces that I know I owe it to them to help them evolve into powerful, loving and passionate creatures.

Forget preparing them for just an end-of-the-year state test. We're studying 8,000 years of what human history has taught us to prepare for an end-of-our-lives test.

We're preparing ourselves to have the courage and intelligence to discover where else the world isn't flat, where else do we have accepted yet limiting beliefs of how life is and what we're capable of.

We are preparing to evolve for a lifetime......for all of time.

Fearless Entities After a Dream

2009-11-15T10:53:00.006-05:00

MySpace Music Playlist at MixPod.com

As I passed out the math tests Friday morning I played the beginning of Korn's song "Blind", which after a slowly building crescendo asks the question, "ARE YOU READY?"

I was also wearing a shirt that said, "Go Hard or Go Home" from the insane bodybuilding clan called, "Animal", which I would point to when the students looked my way during the test.

I admire anyone who challenges the limits of what they can be, do or have. And as big as we can build ourselves externally through our bodies, bank accounts and list of buddies who approve of us.......it is the size of our spirits that allows us to become gigantic on the inside, abundantly and richly alive, and believe in ourselves no matter what.

It is this state that allows us overcome seemingly impossible odds.......what can be only temporary limitations for ourselves.......and just as importantly........for others.

If humanity is going to evolve past the, "Look at me and what I can do" world......and into the "Look at we and what WE can do" world, we have to change from the inside-out, and BELIEVE no amount of difficulty is too heavy for us to lift if we're willing to work together to develop the strength to lift it.

The student who is finally dreaming big but able to do nothing on math tests can't even add.On Monday she was sure 6 + 2 = 7. It is well-known fact that it impossible to teach someone 5th-grade math when they're only on a Kindergarten level..........unless....

"If I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning."
Gandhi

.......the impossible is changed to in-possible and the teaching goes internal in an unbelievably effective way. Since she trusts me I was allowed to wander around in her head this week, acting as electrician rewiring her neural network until she was able to begin understanding the basic math concepts that would allow her to figure out more advanced problems than simple addition.

We played, "I Have a Dream" and some Buddhist Zen meditation music for the rest of the test, and as time ran out I went over to her. I knelt down in front of the desk and looked at her answers. I reached my arms over the desk and wrapped her in my arms. Last week she got a 0%. This week she got a 40%.

Last week another student got his highest score, a 38%, and when another student said, "So what? You still failed", he said back, "So? I got a new high score. I'm growing!". I smiled and it was as if my heart could take a rest because the change had happened not just from an external grade, but from an internal change in his inner wisdom and strength.

And I KNOW this will happen with this girl too.

In fact the male student understands the concept of place value so well now that he's going to his former 4th and 3rd grade teachers next week to teach a lesson to their students. I heard these two teachers also cared for and pushed him like I do, so I've been bringing them into my head and heart to teach him this year; three teachers for just one student. And now he'll be teaching in the same class where just two years ago he had to be removed for punching kids in the face or throwing a chair across the room on a weekly basis.

"I believe that life is a journey, often difficult and sometimes incredibly cruel, but we are well equipped for it if only we tap into our talents and gifts and allow them to blossom."
Les Brown

And while all 23 students in class failed the first test 2 1/2 months ago, of the ones who took #6 on Friday only 9 are still failing (but growing), 3 scored a D (including the former chair-thrower), 1 scored a C, 2 scored B's, and 4 scored A's (one whose previous high was a 73% scored a 98%, and the student who scored a 100% last week did it again - freeing her to work on advanced math projects as if she was in a gifted class).

"You don't get in life what you want;
you get in life what you are."
Les Brown

The most beautiful, special and powerful thing about the results of all this newly created belief and ability, and the fact that it has created fearless entities after their dreams, is that it goes far beyond the walls of the classroom...

It goes back into all those who have ever believed in them........and out into the universe for anyone wanting to believe in themselves more.............and for the rest of all time.

This is why "WE" are so important.

"Believing in yourself is not for you; it's for every person who has touched your life in a significant way and for every person your life will touch the same way five minutes from now, or five centuries from now."
Jaye Miller

Dear Mr. Stuart (actual letter from student)

2009-11-13T06:57:00.003-05:00

While I was writing the "Dear Mr. Stuart" poem last weekend for the student who scored a 0% on her math test, she was writing her own actual letter to me, which she gave me on Monday morning.

"hello Mr Staurt I was thinking on the other day when we took Big 20# Math test and I noticed I am failing Math class and I really want to pass 5th grade math I don't want to fail math I want to work harder then I did Before I want to Be aBle to help you sometimes and I missed you when I was ABsent that Day tell every Body I missingfriends. But I Still Just want to Pass 5th grade Math. Please forgive me

I Love you Mr Staurt

Nov 10th

You rock"

I told her I was going to keep this letter in my pocket until she got an A on one of these 5th-grade level tests, then shared my poem with her.

Today she takes another test, and we we find out if I've learned how to teach her better, and if she'll have better results on today's test. Dreaming Big, believing v just wishing things can be better than they are, is step one.

Step two is Doing Big.

Step two happens today

Dear Mr. Stuart

2009-11-09T06:45:00.003-05:00

The student who scored a zero on Friday's math test can't even add simple numbers, which means she and I have to literally start from the beginning (kindergarten level). This is a lot of work to do in only an hour a day, but what about the other 20+ students who also need to be taught? Three of them are on advanced individual lesson plans. (Former student who has one of the most supportive parents I've ever seen. How can you not continue this support in the classroom?)

How does one doctor effectively cure more than one patient at a time? My answer is by the great capacity of our minds (on average we only use 3-5% of it). So even though I teach alone, I don't teach alone mentally. I bring the ESE teacher into class by constantly asking myself, "What accommodations would Ms. Wilson be providing right now?".

I also bring in the gifted teacher by asking, "What project would Mrs. Grimes provide to this student is she was gifted?"

And one student who is on an advanced lesson plan is a great teacher herself, and I've noticed particularly wants to help this failing student. Last week I told her mother that although her daughter was getting A's from me in reading and math I was failing in my job to reach her on deeper levels of thought and ability. She feels lucky and unworthy and still tries to remember what the answers are instead of becoming smarter by thinking what the answers could be and then evaluating her answer to make sure it's right.

I've learned to first focus on and deeply appreciate the things I'm doing right in life (including pushing past my imagined limits yet waking up still alive for another day...."Dude. You made it! And you know what they say about that which doesn't kill you....That means I can do EVEN MORE today.......I must be insane....actually just in case this is my last day I'm living fully and fearlessly....that's my insanity and I can live with that :-)"

This is what gives me the confidence to also appreciate where I can improve and look at where I'm honestly failing, and believing that today is the day I'll succeed.

From Friday's tests I could tell that this student DID BELIEVE she was able to think on deeper levels as I watched her evaluate her answers in depth (evaluation is the highest level of thought as opposed to getting questions right because you have memorized the answers).

From this I know that this succeeding student now has even more to offer the failing student.

And what can I bring into the mix? The same thing I brought to the A student I'm now succeeding with on a deeper and longer lasting level: unflinching, uncompromising belief!

MySpace Music Playlist at MixPod.com

Dear Mr. Stuart

You silly, silly man

While I prove to you that I can't

You continue to believe that I can

Yes Dear Student

This is all true

But you're forgetting one thing

I know the Real You

And because at least four people will be teaching this one child today, all of our combined belief, intelligence and expertise will make this a very, very good day for her.

And that's how you turn an impossible situation (one teacher/doctor trying to truly teach/treat every student/patient at the same time) into a possible situation (four doctors treating the one patient)

This is how you change lives for the better.

Waking Up With More to Give

2009-11-07T08:10:00.005-05:00

MySpace Playlist at MixPod.com

By the time I went to bed last night I was completely drained and dead.

When I woke up this morning I was completely refreshed and alive.

How?

“Anyone can carry his or her burden however hard until nightfall. Anyone can do his work, however hard, for one day. Anyone can live sweetly, patiently, lovingly, purely till
the sun goes down. And this is all that life really means.”
— R.L. Stevenson

(Author of such works as Treasure Island, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and A Child's Garden of Verses......and by a man who, a victim of poor health, found himself constantly at death's door. He died over 100 years ago at the age 44 but is still among the most popularly read writers of all time.)

I feel that by giving 100% of yourself to what you're doing during your waking hours, you give back to yourself 100% during your sleeping hours.

Millions of our cells are being shed every second, and they are being replaced by millions more through mitosis in the same amount of time. Even if you conservatively adjust this process to one million per minute, that's 60 million new cells being created for every hour of sleep you get.

During the day not everything goes as planned. Before yesterday's math test the student who stormed out of class in the beginning of the year in pain from my poor teaching method with her (I dropped the hammer instead of realizing she needed the hug) wrote this:

"Hello Mr. Staurt (she still misspells my name) thank you for really helping me and when I got in trouble (a few weeks ago she lost it and started throwing chairs in the cafeteria) you hugged me and I really was joyful and I really want to pass Mr. Staurt's class and go to 6th grade and I know I can pass because you teached me how to do math.

THANK YOU very much"

And on a separate piece of paper she filled it with:

"DREAM
BELIEVE
ACHIEVE
SUCCED"

She has changed from a person believing very little in herself and her world, to now dreaming very big. And guess what she scored on yesterday's 5th-grade level test?

A zero......nothing

And guess how I felt after I graded it?

A nothing. I had given her and her fellow students everything I had, and now there was nothing left in me to give. Even though the average student in class increased their grade by 17% and we had our first 100% score of the year, my best teaching scored a zero with her. She and I had both failed, and I went to bed with that fact.

“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those spoor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the grey twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.”
— Theodore Roosevelt

(For Teddy character was ultimately about action and struggle, rather than good intentions and reflection)

And since through my own struggles I've developed a powerful ability to focus my thoughts on what I want to see in the world, the cells that had nothing left to give died away during the night and were replaced by new cells full of power and hope and new intelligence of how I can help her succeed.

At the rate of at least 60 million an hour.

Next week is going to be the best week of her life. This is the fact I woke up to.

“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden, or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

(poet, philosopher, lecturer, and essayist who based many of his works from the observations he made in his journal as a boy.......Adding to my belief that we know the answers to life as children, forget them as adults, and remember them in old age)

“One life on this earth is all that we get, whether it is enough or not enough, and the obvious conclusion would seem to be that at the very least we are fools if we do not live it as fully and bravely and beautifully as we can.”
— Frederick Buechner

(novelist and preacher who as a boy overcame the loss of his father to suicide, fueling a literary search for truth, joy, home and courage)

Chapter 10 ~ The Power of The Parent - Kicking the Desk Out of the Way

2009-11-02T07:00:00.004-05:00

Before I came to teach at my children's school (and a few years before the famous, "This is Sparta!" scene), I was sitting around a table at the inner city school where I taught. The purpose of the meeting was to see how we could help a student who kept failing, partly because he had severe ADHD but was unable to take medication because his body rejected all types of medicine diagnosed.

One by one, everyone around the table said how they were doing everything possible and that his failure wasn't their fault. The parents, divorced and full of animosity, began blaming each other. I spoke up and said he was failing because I was failing to reach him. I confessed I didn't know what to do, but that I would keep trying to find a way, and that it was my fault.

It was as if everyone breathed a sigh of relief and sent all of the blame into me. I felt physically sick to my stomach and wondered why I had said that. I felt dizzy as we ended the meeting and I got up to leave.

Outside the door the boy's father was waiting for me. He told me no one had ever taken the blame for his son's failure and began to cry. He put his hand on my shoulder and told me I had his permission to do whatever it took to help his son.

Three months later this student (who I'll call Ant, which would make you smirk at my "creativity" if you knew his real name) still wasn't paying attention or working hard in class consistently. The state tests were in a month so time was running out. I remembered what his father said so I mentioned that since Ant wasn't using his desk perhaps we should get it out of his way.

I told him what I was going to do might be a little scary, but I was going to try something that might wake him up enough so I could work with the real Ant that was capable of focusing and making sense of what he was trying to learn.

I asked him if he trusted me. Because I had his parents' support at home he believed in and trusted me too (the mother also came forth later and thanked me). I asked him to move away from his desk and said I was going to show him who he really was. What he was really capable of. That he had ALL the power and strength he needed ALREADY INSIDE of him.

Then I shouted, "THIS IS WHO YOU ARE!"..........and kicked his desk so hard that it flew across the room and smashed against the wall.

He had tears in his eyes, but so did his father. He was now awake, and alive. And I had the opening I needed to reach him and teach him.

Yes, it put me in a storm of criticism from parents of other students who didn't know why I did that and didn't bother to ask, but instead called me "mad".

But instead of kicking Ant out of the way as another hopeless cause, I kicked and smashed his limitations and excuses out of the way, freeing him from his slavery of ADHD. In return, he overcame his limitations and BECAME something he never had been before. In one month he became so powerful he did pass the state tests and graduate into the 6th grade (by one point which makes me wish I had done it earlier).

As teachers it is our job to reach every single one of our students, to stand and fight. Most of us stop trying because we have one parent criticizing us. All we need is one who isn't.

(to be continued...)

(side note to remind myself that this was my 1,000th post on the Samurai Teaching blog)

Chapter 9 ~ The Power of the Parent - Why Educators Stop Trying to Really Educate

2009-10-30T17:27:00.009-04:00

Why?

Why would someone give everything they have to another person? All of their love, all of their belief, all of their time, energy, effort and strength............Why would someone give their life to another?

The answer is simple......because the person they are giving all this to is that important to them, and to the world.

In education, "that person" is the student. If that student was the teacher's own child, there's no doubt that as that child's parent, everything would be given to their full development. The love of a parent for their child is enormous and never-ending.

But even if a student isn't the teacher's own child, they are somebody's child. They are loved and believed in and the most precious treasure in the world to somebody else. And doesn't that make them deserving of all of you and your best treatment of them? If you're a doctor treating a patient who isn't your own child shouldn't you treat them with the same love and effectiveness as if they were?

And if a student's parent(s) has forgotten how precious their child is, shouldn't you remember it for them, and treat and develop their child so well they do things so incredible and fantastic that it wakes up and reminds their parents how truly capable and special their child really is?

This isn't easy to do of course, and the reason why it's rarely done, because it's not easy and takes an enormous amount out of a person to even try to do, let alone do correctly (I just noticed I italicized the words "not", "even" and "try", which put together is "not even try") . These teachers not even trying are good people, very loving people, but very tired and worn out.

Add parents blaming you as the cause for their child's lack of success and you begin to wonder why you're even trying.....and once that thought is asked enough times it begins to take root, and eventually does grow into not even trying to truly educate students more than just telling them how to solve and memorize problems to prepare them to pass a test.

At least everybody looks good.

The only problem is that a human filled with knowledge is no more impressive or valuable than a laptop computer with access to the internet.....I have one for $300. There is no way I can let anyone leave me being worth no more than a few hundred bucks. I don't care how good I look.

Educating someone in the real sense of the word, getting them to think for themselves and teaching them how to solve problems on their own that they haven't been "taught", or told, how to do, to be able to deal with and overcome failure so it's never more than temporary.......this is worlds more difficult and challenging than teaching someone how to memorize knowledge to get an A on a test.

And it requires you to create what's not yet there; new worlds of possibility for yourself and others, literally changing the history of those involved.

(The power of the parent to help or hurt their child's education is so great there's more on this to come.....Like having the parents' permission to kick the desk out of the way.)

Videos for Students ~ Lockin' Up and Rockin' Out

2009-10-26T05:18:00.000-04:00

Two videos for my students

Le Fou Rire d'une Ballerine écolière

2009-10-23T03:56:00.007-04:00

(The Giggles of a Schoolgirl Ballerina)

I went to Sofia's ballet and tap practices yesterday (her mother has taken over payments). As we both sat there watching this beautiful little girl we created out of love.....beauty and love found its way from my worn-out heart to my whimsical head:

We should strive to develop our inner beauty, not to attract another or convince the world of our beauty, but to convince the world of its own.

The beauty of watching children at play is seeing spirit at play. As adults we need to ask ourselves, "Are our own spirits at play?"

We must find our own music, or at least be convinced that we DO have music to play. And it's not what we think the world is telling us we should be playing. It's playfully listening to our own internal rhythms and letting them play within.......to the right people and the ones who need it, our music will sound like a symphony.....and it will be beautiful.

Every moment deserves to be appreciated.....felt.....with 100% of yourself dedicated and committed to this moment.

There's more (small notepad full that Sofia's mom gave me with a grin after watching me fill up both sides of a scrap piece of paper)....but I have to get back to recording and analyzing student data for today's lesson plans. I know it's an insane pace for an already overwhelmed teacher to put themselves through, but for what it's doing to the minds and spirits of these students it's worth it.

The reading class has gone from 4 A's and 14 Failures on the first test to 20 A's and 1 Failure on the latest (and this student has gone from a 23% to a 53%).

Math class has seen an 18% growth rate in average student performance and science, those poor kids in science.......they are going through such an assault on their brains having to demonstrate true understanding and ability that EVERY single one has had their grades drop to F's.........and are now just beginning to come out of this temporary failure.....but much smarter and with hearts beating with deeper beliefs in themselves than they ever had to have.

(It's easy to believe you're smart when you're getting A's.....Can you have the courage to believe in yourself when you're failing?)

Why anyone wants to be in my class I really don't know. It is a lot of fun, but it's brutal. You CAN grow bigger than your obstacles, and by God, Buddha, Allah and YOURSELF, you WILL!

***By the way, Sofia told me yesterday morning that parents were allowed to watch that afternoon's practice and asked me to come. I told her I had a full afternoon scheduled but I would move things around so I could make the time to be there. She said, "I like when you make the time Daddy."

Life is not confusing, just difficult. What's important is making the time for what's important.

Had I not done this I wouldn't have had this experience that led to these thoughts and feelings.

But how do you find the time to make time when life is already full and you're already exhausted? You can't always keep adding one more thing.

Yes, but these are all thoughts of what you can't do. Replace them with thoughts of what you CAN do. You CAN quiet yourself and get rid of pointless thoughts and emotions like stress, worry, doubt, fear and how tired you are. It doesn't matter if they're all true, it's not helping by focusing and hanging onto them.........and this "truth" can be only temporary by creating a new truth for yourself.

I hadn't gone to bed before 4 the past two mornings. I was so truly tired that I started to fall asleep within 5 minutes of watching her class warm up. I emptied my head of thoughts of how tired I was and replaced them with appreciation of seeing the inner beauty radiating out from my daughter.

Before I knew it I was so re-energized at Sofia's practice that I was feeling thoughts that my head was telling me, "Write that down!"

(I do the same thing at school during breaks by visiting other classes (like Mrs. Iiames, Sofia's 1st grade teacher last year, and her neighbor Ms. Pollard.) Sometimes I just stand outside their doors and let the love and playful spirits I see radiating from their classes come into me.)

To other parents I must have looked as if I had an abundance of energy.....which I guess I did after spending 2-3 minutes focusing on the beauty right in front of me v the tiredness I felt physically. My spirit had taken over.....proving that physical beauty and physical strength is nothing compared to who we really are on the deeper sub-atomic levels of our thoughts and emotions.......

This is our consciousness entering the dense matter of our cells and molecules - or what we call spirit.

And spirit is what allows us to find the love to believe more and the energy to be more.........

And to hear your little girl giggle in ballet class.

Becoming More (ALIVE!)

2009-10-21T07:41:00.000-04:00

Giving this to my classes today.

QUOTES ON GROWTH / BECOMING MORE (ALIVE)

We only have two rules in this class:

1. Dream Big and 2. Do Big

We ALL follow these rules and we ALL Become Bigger than we’ve EVER been!

And we do this with the first quote.

“The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving.”

Oliver Wendell Holmes quotes (American Physician, Poet, Writer, Humorist and Professor at Harvard, 1809-1894)

“Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death”

~ Albert Einstein quotes (German born American Physicist who developed the special and general theories of relativity. Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921. 1879-1955)

“If we're growing, we're always going to be out of our comfort zone.”

John Maxwell quotes (American Author and motivational speaker )

“Write to be understood, speak to be heard, read to grow...”

Lawrence Clark Powell quotes (American Librarian, Writer and Critic, 1906-2001)

“Don't wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful.”

Mark Victor Hansen quotes

“He who moves not forward, goes backward”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe quotes (German Playwright, Poet, Novelist and Dramatist. 1749-1832)

“Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.”

Benjamin Franklin quotes (American Statesman, Scientist, Philosopher, Printer, Writer and Inventor. 1706-1790)

“You've got to do your own growing, no matter how tall your grandfather was.”

Irish Sayings quotes

“Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose wisely.”

“Growth means change and change involves risk, stepping from the known to the unknown.”

Love is Never a Mistake

2009-10-20T21:23:00.004-04:00

Watching "Haunted Mansion" with Sofia. A character states, "But I loved her. Was that a mistake?"

"Yes!", replies the villain.

"Love is never a mistake. I'll tell you what a mistake is", says Sofia as she climbs into my lap. "Killing love is a mistake."

And there you have it, from the wisdom of a seven-year-old.