A Note from a Friend

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!

School Meeting for FVYD/State Contract Example☹STATE Maine)

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:

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.

TEACHER GOALS

Blog: AUG 2.2025

Here is a Linked-in post that I just wrote my response to from  Deborah Parker Pres FVYD).  

TEACHER GOALS

The post suggested that Teachers could use some mental and well-health support!      My response to that need is……: 

Well, here it is- that help you seek or are you just talking about it again and again because school is starting soon! IT IS A REAL NEED. The US Dept. of Education DOE needs to know also! — (Good luck with that today—no one is home there).

So to answer your requests for TEACHER SUPPORT!… A REAL NEED!

YOU ARE SO RIGHT! So where is the Teacher Support???—It is right here with our program! Right here- this simple short program not only delivers support and help to Teachers. First we start with their class to QUICKLY address the need of our students directly. That student recovery is what HELPS the TEACHERS themselves. 

With this simple program we calm the class– by bringing THE SOLUTION TO THIS PROBLEM. THEN WE FIX THAT PROBLEM!  THIS RECOVERY- also brings Peer Equality into that room. It helps kids know that their reading struggle is NOT THEIR FAULT nor THEIR TEACHER’S FAULT EITHER. Or…their parent’s fault either.  It is a simple fix—a well health adjustment– that Education managers are resistant to even look at. It has ALLTHIS EVIDENTIARY DATA THEY ASKED FOR–but God forbid they acknowledge it works so well! 

This solution is educationally supportive & with SUCCESS for all. It lies within a new Professional domain field overlooked for years. The short program 15 min. day/12 weeks does “Reading Skill Recovery”. 

Instead, here we are & decades have passed …we continue to stress our Teachers to leave and make our little kids, youth, & teens at Risk– all anxious over this blockage for years– that has a simple fix. 

We have been losing these Kids-at-Risk for years from just this daily stress they have experienced every day in school.  For years…some just do not come to school, others get sick, some just sit there bored and troubled for years…or…troublesome to their teacher and classmates-then some try to get suspended so they can stay home and, be difficult still for their parents and teachers UNTIL????!!!!-

…SOMEONE OF YOU TODAY ACTS to help get our Future Visions Youth Dev. Inc FVYD simple essential program in all our Public Schools.

 We are ready and waiting here…. for decades!

Thank You!… for your attention to this matter!

Sincerely, DP Pres FVYD

A Letter to the Maine Chambers of Commerce

Future Visions Youth Development

 

 

 

 

Maine Chambers of Commerce
Board of Directors
61 Maine Towns, Maine
7/1/25

Re: A Need To KNOW!

Dear Maine Chamber Boards of Directors,

We, Future Visions Youth Dev. Inc FVYD a Nonprofit 501c3.Organization P.O Box 312, West Rockport can quickly improve your town’s attractiveness with better “Schools Rating.” This will lower school, property taxes & recover towns and its people. Our FVYD program ran in Fla. schools. These PhD Research work ran in #8, 8th grade Maine School SY19-21, approved by University of Southern Maine USM. To data it’s information rich -evidentiary data remains available to the Maine Dept of Education. With a collective action now by your towns—a simple “Letter of Interest” to our DOE, & together we may change what will improve the welfare of all. Be part of the “Solution to Save Your Towns” also with this simple fix FVYD has built a simple short program that is remarkable, and we have the “proven skills” to easily implement it into the (Maine) Public School System. www.myfuturevisioninc.com. 

The reason for this letter is to promote unique & “trackable” dramatic changes for our at-Risk Students in this effort. (Parents & willing Teachers will breathe easier soon enough with this progress). With the voice of the people, we advance to include our poorer and urban schools as well. Our simple 15 min. program’s inclusion (that does not require added time to a school’s day- is done in time-is likened to a bathroom break). Once in our Public Schools – RATINGS- will improve with added value to local property & desirability for same in all towns. This one change can improve town growth, creating a need for- new housing, more consumer products & lowering taxes. Life in schools will change to Save Our Kids. Dramatic improvements in School Ratings that soon follow– will soon prompt new property “tax reductions” we all need! This comes from decreasing #’s of Special Services, IEP & those school’s funds needed for School budgets.  This simple program is –FVYDREADING SKILL RECOVERY.

To take this Action: Please send your Chamber’s ”Letter(s) of  Interest” post haste for this 12 week FVYD program’s consideration (with its implementation) to our Maine State Dept of Education Office (& to www.mekids.org.) LET’S SAVE OUR KIDS & towns also with our USM-approved Every Student Succeed Act, ESSA Innovative Initiative/Obama2015 /Non-profit 501c3 Program.

Thank You.  Sincerely!

Deborah Parker FVYD

How to SAVE AMERICA

The time is now to pick our heads up, “regroup” and grow America back again, differently with benefits for ALL! 


My focus is on “Our Kids” ! It must begin with Recovery of (their) Reading Skills–they must be able to make choices for their future and not be “herded” as one of “those 40% of kids who do not read.” Lets take back control and empower our children to RECOVER their future. This is always possible when we enable their growth, lighten their pathway to empower their future curiosity & exploration. That is what we can “simply” do.

 

The ” HOW TO” on this WE “Future Visions Youth Development, FVYD Inc., have answers for now!– We also need the “FORCE-that is with us (& YOU) at FVYD” to clear the path ! That will include “a FVYD meet and greet(s) with Maine (State) DHHS, DOL & DOEd. and I (as Pres. FVYD) begin those conversations today! The momentum from this point on requires your ACTION. I will focus on our youth–you, TAXPAYERS can focus on the Chambers of Commerce in your towns. Lets begin in (poor) towns and stand them up again. School ratings suggest there may be need for our FVYD simple program work i.e., Your ACTION can begin in Rockland, Thomaston, Waldoboro & Owls Head as a great beginning at Town Offices! Let them know we FVYD are right here and ready to go! The proof is here www.myfuturevisioninc.com
The excuse(s) we have heard are moot–#1. “We can not add 15 minutes a day to the school day”. That answer is of course not–So we will begin this simple project as a “magnet program” where- dependent on in-school contracts- we will begin with 3 FVYD ED-Techs & possibly 16 youth over 4 hours. You will not even “SEE” this simple program in the school (when in our past it- was likened to a 15- minute bathroom break. Then, Special Services took our Credit- (FVYD let them -that ONCE)!

 

Let’s get this ACTION GOING and seriously decrease the need quickly for US DOE funds in Maine. That will help the NOW Gov. bi-annual budget also! 

So HURRY!

 

***Then with the FVYD Template built we can share this simple program with all States across our Nation- to benefit the masses! ..that is,  if there is anything left of our Nation to SAVE! (FROM TODAY THREAT-IRAN)