BLOG Sept 2025 How many foolish people are there in the world? …that answer by D. Parker Pres. FVYD
Plenty…
If anyone says to you evidenced-based and Education in the same sentence they are very foolish if they are looking for solutions to past education problems.
Let me remind all, for the past 8 decades kids cannot read with proficiency. For the past 3 decades, in 1991 that was 12 % in a 4th grade and above classroom; in 1999 about 17%; in 2012 about 22-25%. Then let’s continue in 2015–that number was about 27% in a general class today 2025 that number is 40% that cannot read with fluency and comprehension or at grade level with proficiency. A lot has changed like Pre K is added. But eyes are not ready to perform the task of reading yet so none of it has yet to fix the problem.
So now, if the schools are repetitive & not inclusive of nonprofit educationally- supportive work in what they allow to enter into Education. How is this new program that really does work well & enables kids to read-how do we reach kids that really do need it to work and….recover those reading skills with this highly effective simple program reach them?
It truly is a conundrum don’t you think?
Fortunately for all, the University of Southern Maine Research Office respected the Federal ESSA law of 2015 and after a strenuous Internal Review Board review to continue and apply the PhD work. So now we have that DATA. This took 20 years to get done in 8 schools, with 8 teachers and 124 8th grade students in SY19-21.
So now, I am right here with a NON-profit 501c3 program that truly does work –started 1991– when DOS computers were the only thing available and locked out of the school system for 3 decades waiting to run it in 15 min/12 weeks within 4th and 8th grades. The environment has changed but that is all–now many more kids need this remarkable work.
The block now from the school Admin. asks that I get a Peer Review of this work. A Collaborative Committee of Equals is needed for 1.5 hours to look at it.
It’s new– you do not need to know anything. How about learning and saying “great let go and stop this lunacy of avoiding the one true answer that works!” The kids have been waiting…some have even died waiting because by middle school they were still not reading 7 peer gossip destroys them. —They are truly AT-RISK
Here on this website are the testimonials that are great to introduce you to WHAT WORKS FOR EDUCATION! www.myfuturevisioninc.com
Lets get this done and over so our KIDS CAN THRIVE IN SCHOOLS.
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Blog FVYD Sept 2025 How to make your life special!
Kids & teens do not get stuck in your past! …especially if there is pain there. Take the beaty from it and hold that dear!
Do not get stuck in your present either—you can mold that to be great in your future….do it! Here is how we get this done together…..
We look FORWARD and see our goodness—write it down on something—for you to remember this moment when you leave the past behind.
Other kids do not tell you who you are! …Unless you let them.
Your life is about YOU! Change your face, change the place and grow happy again. SMILE while you look into your mirror—into your eyes!
Deeply & once there, breathe– feel it—that is the feeling you what to get and to you protect for yourself. Your shoulders will come down. Pat yourself on the back!…cause you are greatness…THAT WILL FOR SURE MAKE YOU LAUGH. Hold that feeling also!
Then do it again tomorrow before you start your day.
Life Skills work does that easily. Three to four shared talks (or once in a while just be with 3 different people one at a time or all at once—that is sharing too). Or to change a habit 3 to 4 shared months– is all it takes to heal and bring wellness into your life. Not for all but for most. This is the commitment to yourself & you need to decide to make it– to know yourself and to grow yourself forward with a new smile of achievement for your self- LOVE in the future. Whatever that means for you is perfect! (So your new mantra to speak is , “when you feel that gut punch say no, and let it go!” ). Pick your head up and become MINDFULL AND WALK ANYWHERE—“SEE” THE WORLD BEFORE YOU. HEAR THE BIRDS, SPEAK YOUR NEW TRUTHS….THERE YOU ARE WHOLE AND HEALTHY! DO IT AGAIN….AND AGAIN NOW YOU HAVE IT! “YOUR THE BEST”….BELIEVE IT AND CHANGE YOUR FACE TO A SMILE. Hold that thought and that beautiful face-yours! Have a nice day!…Enjoy every day forward!… And just be glad to share words, thoughts and deeds with others who need you also!
*Deborah Parker Pres. Future Visions Youth Development, Inc a 501 c3 Non-profit in need of donations
Every Tuesday I found a boy’s crumpled homework in my trash. One night, he told me farmers were worthless—like me.
I’ve lived seventy-two years on this patch of dirt. My name’s Ray. Folks around here call me “the old farmer with the broken barn,” and that’s fair enough. My wife’s gone, my kids grown, and most days it’s just me, the cows, and this stubborn land that refuses to quit.
What people don’t know is that, for months, I’ve been finding someone else’s life tossed into my feed sacks and trash barrel. Crumpled notebooks. Torn math worksheets. English essays with red F’s bleeding across the page. At first I thought it was just wind carrying scraps from the school down the road. Then I noticed the same handwriting, always scrawled in anger:
“I’m dumb.”
“Nobody cares.”
“School is useless.”
It punched a hole in my chest every time. Because once upon a time, I was that kid. Teachers said my hands were good for milking cows, not holding pencils. My father said, “Brains don’t grow corn.” And I believed him, until it was too late.
One night, I caught him. The boy. Standing by my shed under the security light, clutching another ripped page. His name was Tommy, the neighbor kid, twelve years old, freckles and too-big sneakers.
“What are you doing with my trash?” I barked, trying not to scare him.
He flinched but snapped back: “It’s not trash, it’s my homework. Dad says I’ll end up like you anyway—digging dirt, nothing to show for it.”
I froze. Like me. Worthless. Dirt.
I didn’t yell. I didn’t chase him off. I just let him run, his voice echoing long after he was gone.
That night I sat at the table with an old seed bag beside me. Pulled out a Sharpie. Wrote on the back:
“This seed looks useless. But give it sun, water, time—it feeds the world. Don’t throw yourself away.”
I tucked the note and a handful of kernels into the barrel where he always left his papers. Felt foolish, like a farmer writing fairy tales to the night.
Next day, it was gone.
The following week, there was another sheet in the barrel. Math problems, half-wrong. At the bottom, written in shaky pencil: “How can a seed be smart?”
I grinned. Wrote back: “Fractions are seeds too. Slice a pie into 4. Eat 1, that’s 1/4. Even a farmer knows that.”
And so it began. A secret exchange. Him throwing broken pieces of himself into my trash. Me sending them back stitched with hope.
He confessed he couldn’t spell “because.” I circled it and wrote: “You spelled it right this time. Keep going.”
He said his dad called farmers dumb. I scribbled: “My dirt puts food on his table. Dumb don’t do that.”
Week by week, his words softened. He started signing them: “Tommy.” And one day, tucked beside the page, was a candy wrapper folded into the shape of a star.
But secrets don’t stay buried long in small towns.
His father stormed over one Saturday, red-faced, fists like hammers. “You stay the hell out of my boy’s head! He don’t need farmer nonsense. School’s already enough of a joke without you filling him with lies.”
I didn’t raise my voice. Just said: “Your boy’s not broken. He just needs someone to believe it.”
That was enough. He spat at the dirt and left.
It should’ve ended there. But the next week, another note showed up in the barrel. Shakier handwriting, but determined:
“He says you’re wrong. But I think seeds are smart. Because they don’t give up, even in bad soil.”
My throat burned. The boy was fighting for himself now.
Months passed. Then, in spring, the school held a parent night. I wasn’t planning to go—farmers don’t belong in classrooms—but one of the teachers, Mrs. Carter, stopped by my gate.
“You should come,” she said gently. “There’s something you’ll want to hear.”
So I went. Sat in the back with dirt still under my nails, trying to disappear into the folding chair.
They had the kids read essays aloud. When Tommy’s turn came, he walked to the front, clutching a paper. His voice shook but carried across the gym:
“My hero is Farmer Ray. He taught me that seeds look small, but they feed the world. He taught me that being smart isn’t just about grades—it’s about not giving up. He taught me farmers aren’t dumb. They’re the reason we eat. When I grow up, I want to be both: a student, and a man who works the land.”
The room went silent. His father stared at the floor. The teacher wiped her eyes. And me? I sat in the back, fists pressed to my knees, trying not to break apart.
Afterward, Tommy slipped me a folded page. Inside was a drawing: a stalk of corn with roots tangled deep, and next to it a boy holding a book. Underneath, one line: “Thank you for seeing me.”
I walked home under the stars, his words heavier than any sack of feed I’d ever carried.
People think changing the world takes money, degrees, or power. Truth is, sometimes it takes nothing more than a stubborn farmer and a few scribbled notes in the trash.
Tommy doesn’t know everything yet. Neither do I. But we both know this: seeds grow when someone bothers to plant them.
And kids? They’re the most important crop we’ll ever tend.
So before you dismiss a farmer, or a janitor, or anyone who works with their hands—remember: without us, the world starves. And before you dismiss a kid struggling with fractions—remember: they just need one person to believe.
I believed. And now he believes.
That’s how you grow a future. One seed. One boy. One note at a time.
Deborah Miller Parker
I know this truth first hand…I have seen their faces and eyes glow….same goes with reading. Just one more step and that is happening on MONDAY after 34 years of not giving up!
AGENDA: Meeting Introduction: Future Visions Youth Dev. Inc. FVYD, D.P. with School Admin. (Named / #) where FVYD Program is to be provided 3rd grade—HS. Date_______
1. Process
1.The challenge we have together is to make all reading a good experience.
For approx. 40 percent of the population today-at or after 3rd grade in most schools, reading anything is not fun at all for the student. Instead, it stifles their peer equality- to become over time –in elementary (and middle schools), a frustrating and anxiety-instilling experience.
Instead, we FVYD first remove their guilt to begin the process for re-building their positive self –esteem & for reading.
When we say with the first words we use—, “Your failing in school is not your fault.” Life changes! Following that we have willing participants- hopeful and eager to participate in the fun times that follow with this simple program work.
2.Enhancing school life by quickly removing their struggle.
Schools prompt their student’s lifetime learning with —GUIDED learning pathway for several years.So that said…
READING SKILLS MUST WORK FULLY— so their school years guided pathway for learning– becomes a willing, well health habit that makes their life much easier & enjoyable throughout their lifetime.
The task at hand is to make a smooth pathway for reading possible. This allows for teaching with a *selection of all types of reading material, inclusively. With that new experience now successful—they develop as individuals more fully. As next steps then become– their willing responsibility to learn a wealth of new knowledge over their lifetime because, now they can.
2. Progress Comes With Collaboration:
- How we get there: From Failure to Success
- What they SEE
- How they adapt with conditioned behaviors
- How we support new pathways of learning freedom
- Students Reading Skills Recovery & with those adaptive behavioral changes & resolutions noted (i.e., with willing Teacher’s support).
- Testimonials speak loudly!
- Discussion complete & with date– to actualize program in schools,(& with no additional time required in school day):
School Contract to follow for 15 min/12 weeks tracking and Student Skill Recovery!
Also, with Teacher Evaluation of Screening Protocol & Behavioral Checklist when included in Contract.
*Selection of books, pamphlets… contracts etc.is now possible and fully recommended for fluency and comprehension.
