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The Competence Institute
Breaking Barriers to Education with Barbie Rivera - Author, Educator & Parent
What would you do if your child's future was being dictated by a misdiagnosis? On this heartfelt episode of The Competence Institute podcast, we sit down with Barbie Rivera, author, educator and parent, who recounts her powerful journey advocating for her son Damon. Wrongly labeled as mentally handicapped for confusing letters, Damon was faced with a future of medication. Hear how Barbie's unwavering commitment led her to homeschool her children despite facing rejection and criticism, showcasing the crucial impact of parental advocacy.
In another segment, we uncover the remarkable transformation of Tony, a 16-year-old labeled as "learning disabled" and on the brink of academic failure. After enrolling at Help Miami, an alternative school, Tony's life changed dramatically through personalized education and intensive tutoring. You'll be amazed by his swift progress, jumping four grade levels in math in just ten hours. This story challenges the reliance on medication for academic issues and demonstrates the power of individualized teaching.
Finally, we confront the daily challenges parents face in today's educational landscape. With mounting pressures on children, the importance of instilling good habits and advocating for their needs cannot be overstated. We explore practical applications in education, particularly in math, and how traditional teaching methods can make learning more engaging. Learn how understanding foundational words and definitions can ignite a genuine excitement for learning, transforming the educational experience for students.
To contact Barbie and get her book, 'Enough is Enough!' go to her website:
https://barbierivera.com/
To reach out to The Competence Institute:
https://workshop.thecompetenceinstitute.org/optin
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Applied Scholastics and the Applied Scholastics Open Book Design are trademarks and service marks owned by Association for Better Living and Education International and are used with its permission.
Grateful acknowledgement is made to L. Ron Hubbard library for permission to reproduce a selection from the copyrighted works of L. Ron Hubbard.
Hello and welcome to another episode of The Competence Institute podcast. Today we have a very special episode planned. We have with us Barbie Rivera, author, educator and parent. She has an amazing story, is doing great things in the world and I'm so excited to have her on. Hi Barbie!
Barbie Rivera:Hi! Thank you for having me!
Ryan Kimball:Yeah, absolutely! So, today, as we went over, we wanted to really talk about how you found there was nothing wrong with your child and what you went through on that and that entire journey. So, I'd like to start out with going over, at the beginning, when everything started, when your child, Damon, he first went into school. What did you expect, and then what actually happened?
Barbie Rivera:Okay, all right. First, I have four children and I'm not one of these parents that coddle and if like, my son's baseball goes through your window, I'm going to pay for it and he's going to pay me back and he's going to apologize to you and he's going to be raking extra leaves, the whole thing, depending on the situation, but we're going to take responsibility. So I'm not somebody who is, oh, my son would never, or he doesn't like math, so I'm not going to - I'm not that.
Barbie Rivera:But Damon, my first child, when he was six - from the time he was born he was very easygoing. He never threw a fit in a grocery store. Never. He never threw a fit at the house - honestly, and he's told his friends I don't think my mom ever raised her voice at me, which is true, there was no reason to. He was just an easy boy, very creative, very adventurous, as adventurous as a five or six year old can be. He spoke two languages. He was the first grandson to the Cuban side of the family, so he - fully fluent in Spanish by the time he was five. And I'm like - he's a cute boy, he's very respectful. I'm like the school system is going to adore him. His teacher is going to adore him. And that's not what happened. And we go - so, school starts in August, and the first Friday in September, so, we're going - he made made the first week and by the second Friday, with a labor day off in between there, so eight or nine days, the teacher pulls me aside and tells me my son - and these are her words - mentally handicapped, and will most likely need a prescription for some pharmaceutical for the rest of his life. I'm like, what are we even talking about? That to me, that's just insane. And the reason that he was deemed mentally handicapped was because he confused the B and the D, the P and the G and I'm like but they all look alike. He's not confusing a cow and a fence. He knows the difference. He knows the difference between basketball and baseball. He knows more about basketball and baseball than I do. Right, he knows the rules. So I'm not so concerned about the B and the D.
Barbie Rivera:I'm like, thinking back to my public school education in 1969, 1970, kindergarten, first grade, we would make the D and the B in particular out of Play-Doh and make it giant and we practiced it and we practiced it and we practiced it. It wasn't nine days in, we had to master it. We had the whole of kindergarten to master just the letters. We did not read in kindergarten when I went to school. Anyway, so, I'm like, if we label my son, we're doing - to me,
Barbie Rivera:that's a crime against humanity, and I know I'm elaborating probably too much. It's also a crime against parents who actually have a child that is handicapped, because my son at age four, five and six was going on sleepovers with family friends. He could go to Key West and go on a boat and he wouldn't throw a fit. He could bait his own hook, he could go to the movies with the neighbors. People with handicapped children, they don't get to enjoy that. They don't have that experience. Their experience is different. So to say my son is the same is, to me, a slap in the face to a person who really is struggling or challenged.
Ryan Kimball:Wow, okay. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense actually. So, I know from reading your book and what you went over it in here that you, as you face this with your son, there were a lot of opinions thrown at you about how things should be done, what he should be put on - you know - what, what needs to happen next, and you maintained your position, were able to persevere and really help him. How did you do that?
Barbie Rivera:I don't want to use bad language here, but I'm like, n o one - no one had confidence in me! My own parents, and I get it! I was - god, when Damon was six, I was 26, pregnant with number four, 26 years old, with four kids under the age of six and under, and pregnant. I get the visual, I get how that presents. And for me then to say, okay, I've never gone to college, I'm going to just start schooling him.
Barbie Rivera:The backlash I got was fast and swift and, like I remember my mother, which they changed their minds. My parents - I'm in Miami, Florida. My parents were in Cincinnati, Ohio, and I did very well in public school. I in fact loved it. That's why I thought Damon would do so well. I'm going with my experience, which public school is nothing like what I experienced anymore. My mother was like, Barbara. My mom calls me Barbara, everybody else calls me Barbie. Barbara, you can't teach him anything. You barely know anything yourself. I'm an artist. She goes, they'll be eating paint when they're 30. And I'm like, I'll make sure it's non-toxic. I go, he's not going to school. So just to end off on that, I took the kids home. I visit every now and then, and one of my visits home -
Barbie Rivera:I think my young - I had two in diapers. Damon was eight, nine, whatever. And my parents were so impressed with Damon's demeanor and his confidence and how he was honest. If my dad was going to do some woodworking or whatever, Damon would say, Grandpa, I don't know how to do that. Where the other grandkids were like, yeah, I know how to do that, and then they break something or whatever. But Damon was very honest. I'm like, yeah, he's going to tell you because I'm teaching him, I'm not harassing him, I'm helping him. Anyway, after that visit, my parents were on telling everybody they should homeschool their kids.
Ryan Kimball:That's amazing! That's testimony in how something is causing the result we all look for in children.
Barbie Rivera:Yeah! And just to go on that, because in - two points, and I hope I remember both points. One - my parents - my mother was one of 13. When I grew up, there were 45 first string grandchildren. I'm first string. When my grandmother passed away, there were 101 grandchildren - five generations, big family. My parents did not get matching furniture until all five of us were out of the house, because that's how it was! You're supposed to - the term hyperactive did not exist when I was growing up. You were active because children are - by the laws of nature, they have more energy than adults. And in my generation that was to be celebrated, not suppressed with drugs. My parents would have never have considered putting me on drugs because I was vaulting over the dining room table. Instead they enrolled me in gymnastics because they wanted us worn out. And when the house was quiet, that's when they got nervous. Oh, what's going on? So you have that mindset. And then I have Damon.
Barbie Rivera:They're like - why are we drugging this boy? Like, why is that the go-to solution? First of all, is that going to teach him? Is the drug going to somehow magically affect his visual, his brain or whatever that drug is affecting, to get him to know the difference between the D and the B? No, and when I look into the drugs - I know I'm not answering your question completely, but when I look into the drugs they're called CNS medication - central nervous system. They actually alter the central nervous system and I think my son needs his central nervous system to learn how to read. It does not make sense that I'm going to impair his central nervous system or give him a pharmaceutical, psychotropic drug before his baby teeth, for God's sake, fall out, before his brain is developed. I'm like, can't we just leave him alone and teach him? It breaks my heart. Anyway, that was one of the reasons why I wrote the book, because now I'm - my son - now, I'm going to cry. He turns 40 in a few weeks, and is a very successful businessman. And I look back at what would have happened if I would have had money. Oh, I'm going to hire - Ryan, you're a good tutor. Let's tutor Damon on the nonsense that the school is pushing, right? Let's tutor him on Common Core. Let's make sure he knows that he's not adequate. And I'm going to pump him with drugs. I guarantee you my son would not be where he is, or my other children. This other point -
Barbie Rivera:now I remember my other point. I have four children. My parents had five. Like I say, my mom was one of 13.
Barbie Rivera:All four of my kids are completely different. They look similar, there are similarities because my DNA runs through them all, but they all four have different responses. They have different interests. They have different likes. If they were born on the same day, they are completely different individuals. So we cannot - what's the criteria? And I'm going to go back to the D and the B - if they don't know it by the time they are six years and seven weeks, is there a scientific test that shows they will now be unable to drive because he can't tell the difference between a red light and a green light? Like, where do we draw the line here? Anyways, again I'm jumping around.
Barbie Rivera:I found homeschooling and I didn't know what the heck I was doing when I started. But that was my solution. And again, that's another reason for writing the book, because I feel like if I can do it and I stood up to not only my family but to the school system that - they got nasty! - for the sake of my son, then other people can too and have a similar outcome. Again, I have - now I have four vastly different adults, but they're all educated and I am very happy that I've never had a drug issue. I've never had an issue. When they were teenagers, they didn't go through the teenage phase, they were all making money early, even if it was just raking leaves. Hey, I need to buy a rake. Okay, good, how are you going do that that? That's 20 bucks, I'll pay half. And then you got to pay me back. Like, they were thinking!
Ryan Kimball:Right.
Barbie Rivera:Anyway...
Ryan Kimball:I love it. I agree with you completely! The wrong solution is the drugs and the labels and all of that. And your book is - it's inspirational because it's a story about overcoming the obstacles that you ran into, but it's also so enlightening. You learn so much by reading the story and going through the information. The research you've done is amazing.
Barbie Rivera:Thank you.
Ryan Kimball:Yeah, no, it's really awesome Since we're moving into this area about the labels of learning disorders and how this is treated in modern educational systems. What is your take on learning disorders and all of that?
Barbie Rivera:I flat- out refuse to acknowledge or endorse. Like - I'll tell you a story, and this one's not in my book. I had a 16-year-old boy and I'm going to use his name, Tony, who - I got a phone call from his aunt, uncle or grandmother, some family member in Texas, that their nephew or their grandson, I think it might have been nephew - had failed eighth grade three years in a row and was ready to drop out. And they found me. I'm alternative. My website - I have a website for my school which is Help Miami. Would I interview him? I'm like, absolutely! Comes in, super respectful, so cute! He came in, in like a tie, you know, and I'm really late. This is how I am at school, but very respectful. Him and his mother and it was the week before Christmas break was when he enrolled. Now, when I get a student that enrolls mid-year, well, that's a little bit of a problem for me because they're nowhere close to what we're doing. Plus, this kid had failed eighth grade, so I already know we have a challenge. So I had the aunt and uncle - I'm like, okay, he's going to need tutoring, and as much as you can buy, the better it is, because we were out of time now. We don't have the luxury of time. A third grader struggling with first grade - we can fix it. A 16-year-old who is not up to a middle school level? We are about to destroy his life if we don't teach him some skills. So, no problem.
Barbie Rivera:Over Christmas I tutored him one hour a day. I think I gave him Sunday off. One hour a day and the first thing I had this math - I gave him this problem and I'm going to say it because people are going to know this 1,000 minus 781. So we have to borrow and work with the zeros. He goes, Oh, I never learned that because I'm learning disabled. I'm like, okay, we're going to cancel that lie.
Barbie Rivera:He goes, what do you mean? I go, Did your mommy put your shirt on for you today? He's, of course not! I could talk to him that way. Do you know the difference between your house and the neighbor's house? Yeah! I go, you speak two languages, right? He goes, Of course! I go, so, there's nothing wrong with your capacity to learn. If you can't learn, you could not have done any of that. And now you're in Driver's Ed - like, you're learning stuff all the time! Every time you get a new phone, you got to learn something. He's OK. I go, so now I'm going to show you how to do this. And we got about five minutes to solve this problem to where you're going to know it for the rest of your life.
Barbie Rivera:So I got out play money, take a thousand dollar, turn it into ten hundreds, turn the hundred into ten tens and blah, blah, blah. He was like - he - mind blown! And in 10 hours of tutoring I got him through four grade levels of math, no drugs. But I had his willingness and I convinced him he wasn't disabled, which sometimes I can't convince the child. Hey, this was all false. No, but I can't learn without the drugs. I can't function without the drugs. And I'm like, whoo!
Barbie Rivera:And with this boy - he ended up - it took him an extra year to get that diploma, but his math skills are higher than mine, and now I think he's got a photography business that he started himself, which is what we want. I want to help him get to where he wants to go. I know he needs to be able to read. I know he needs to be able to express himself correctly. I know he needs to understand the definitions of words. And he has - you're not going to have a business successfully if you don't have the basics of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. So, those are easy to do. What's happening in school is pain and unconsciousness and suffering. It's awful!
Ryan Kimball:I agree completely and I know it's easy to do. But there are those who have had so many failures, been told so many times like you said, they have a learning disability that they've lost that concept. And it's so refreshing to hear your stories and how you apply what you know. And it is easy. Yeah, it's really amazing.
Barbie Rivera:Yeah, it is easy! It's much easier if the child has never been drugged. The long - to me, and this is my opinion - it's going to get me hate mail. Warning you now! The longer they're on the drugs, the harder they are to reach.
Ryan Kimball:I'll bet!
Barbie Rivera:Because and some - again, I'm not a doctor, not pretending to be - but you can look at somebody and you could say, yeah, I trust them to drive the bus for the field trip. I trust them to drive the bus for the field trip. I know nothing about them, but I'm looking at them and I trust them to drive the bus for the field trip. When I said hello, they say hello, and then I get these kids that come in and I'm like, what color is this pen? And they look at it and they look at it, and they look at it and I'm like, I don't trust them on the bus and they're drugged because it takes them so much time and so much concentration and they're so worried about being wrong and all of this stress and the testing and this, that and the other - and I'm like, wow! We did that to that person!
Ryan Kimball:Yeah!
Barbie Rivera:The school system did that to that person.
Ryan Kimball:That's heartbreaking!
Barbie Rivera:It is heartbreaking!
Ryan Kimball:Yeah. Wow! Okay, totally understood. I was really impacted by pretty much everything I've read from you, but there were some concepts in your book that I just wanted to bring up that I wrote down here and ask you to talk about them a little bit more. One thing you went over that made a lot of sense was that children need more practice. They don't need medication, and it's not about how quickly we get them to a certain point. It's about mastering that piece of information or that skill, and that kind of, I think, seems to resonate throughout most of what you go over. Can you speak to that a little bit more?
Barbie Rivera:I can, okay, but I'm going to start with a non-academic example, okay, and I'll use my three boys as an example. So, as a parent - I don't know if you have children or not - but as a parent, how many times a day do I have to say brush your teeth or wash your hands? Easily, three to four times a day. Now, when do I not have to do that? When they're eight, I still have to do it. For my boys - like I say, I'm an on - I'm an on-parent. There's a schedule. Shower time - this one in, that one out, this one in, that one out. Teeth - blah, blah, blah. Pajamas, read a story, everybody in bed, everybody asleep. My boys - they're gonna kill me for saying this - did not start brushing their teeth on their own until girls came into the picture, so they were like 10, 11 and 12. So, for - now, you're not going to tell a one-year-old to brush their teeth. That's up to you, right? But let's say a four year old. So for six years minimum, six years minimum, I had to tell my children to brush their teeth three to four times a day, depending on the day, before they pick that up as a habit. I had to tell them to push the dining room chair in. I had to tell them to put the seatbelt on. I don't have to harass them about it, I don't have to nag them about it, but I do say, okay! And when I come in and I see feet on the sofa with shoes on the feet, I'm like, hey! Feet - off! I'm on it. But it's a process. The kid is not going to get it on the first try, on the first run. It doesn't work that way. Even if you, trying to tell me how to set up for this podcast - I know nothing about computers and stuff. You're going to have patience. Now I'm a willing participant, I'll listen. We're not going to be hours on it, because you were very gracious and sent me exactly what I needed to do to get here. So when you get to school, like when - again, comparing my experience in 1969, 1970, kindergarten, first grade - one, we didn't get any homework. We didn't get homework until fifth grade and that was writing spelling words five times each, maybe making a sentence. It was not what it is now.
Barbie Rivera:My son, in the first grade, had to - was expected to write book reports before he could read. He was given packets of work and I was being a good mom and I sat at the table with him and helped him through it all, and his brothers and sisters - they needed me as a mom, also! They wanted me to play Candyland. I needed to fill up the bottles, I needed to be the mom. But here I am being the good mom and helping my son through his homework, and every question that he asked was just like a knife through the heart. It was making him hate learning. It was making him disconnect more and more.
Barbie Rivera:So again, comparing that - I was given the luxury of, I wasn't expected to know it on the first go around. We were practicing sounds of the alphabet through the entire kindergarten year. We didn't start writing capital and lowercase letters - we didn't get that determination until first grade. There was no hurry or rush, and if you had it, then you could help somebody else or you were allowed to - for me, I was allowed to sit at a table and draw, which - I'm an artist, I love doing that. There was not the pressure cooker of, oh! - like again, with my son, he - the other thing, and I made a joke about it, which again, it got me semi-slaughtered. I thought I was being funny. The teacher says, he also confuses the 6 and the 9, and that was supposed to be the tipping point for me to drug my son and I'm like, wow! My six-year-old confuses the 6 and the 9! I'm going to take him off of all check writing responsibilities and all financial decision making for my family! This is outrageous! And there was like, again, the teacher did not appreciate that, but I'm like, we're nine days into school.
Barbie Rivera:How accelerated is he supposed to be? When is he good enough? Does he need to learn four languages to prove that he can learn 'cuz learning two wasn't enough?! I only know one!
Ryan Kimball:Yeah, same here! Wow! No, I get it! It's such a story about what children have to deal with these days.
Barbie Rivera:Yeah, and I don't want to go too far off topic, but it's attack on the family, because I have parents and sometimes I'm like, I have to exert so much control! They come to see me and they bring the child, the child's sitting right next to them and they're like, oh, he doesn't know anything about math, he's really bad on spelling, he's this and that. I go, Sir! How about I take you to some social gathering and say, Oh, this is my husband. He's a lousy provider. Show some respect to your child!
Ryan Kimball:Right.
Barbie Rivera:If you don't have his back, he has nothing. If you aren't in his corner, he has nothing. And again, that's a heartbreaking thing. But the parent - and I understand -they're being a good parent. They're going to punish him into knowing more. Doesn't work, never worked, never worked in history. But yet that's what we're going to do. We're going to drug him.
Ryan Kimball:Wow! You know, I notice when you are talking about all of this, you give the parents the power and responsibility of being the child's advocate and making sure that they are standing up for their children's needs and what actually is best for that child. You seemed to naturally - maybe you didn't - but appears that you just went into that role. But I know I've met with some parents before and they find it very intimidating to stand up that way, especially against authorities or people who know better. What would be your suggestions for those type of parents?
Barbie Rivera:The alternative is more gruesome than standing up. Really. (Ryan: Yeah) I would rather be wrong. I would rather be wrong than to 10 years, 20 years or now I'm about to celebrate my son's 40th birthday, then be apologizing to him or to look at, Oh yeah, he's been in and out of rehab. f only I wouldn't have. aybe it was the ADHD medication I put him on. Maybe he got addicted to that by the time he was nine. He was a drug addict, but he was a socially accepted drug addict because the drugs came from the school system.
Barbie Rivera:It's so much better - yeah, and you know what, if you lose friends, they weren't your friends to begin with, and I know that's, it's harsh, but that's what it is. If - I don't know, a bear were to break into my house, that bear broke into the wrong house. The chances of me, 130 pounds, winning a fight against the bear is slim to none. But if my children, if I'm all that stands between that bear and my kids, that bear is going to get hurt. I'm not going to, Oh, I'm sorry, bear, and I know that's hard. You can't really lecture somebody into a better frame of mind, so to speak. But you really want to look at, be able to look at the future and see what your decisions, what's the impact of your decision.
Ryan Kimball:Right.
Barbie Rivera:Here. What is the consequence? And you're going to make mistakes. And I think I even wrote in the book, because when I start suggesting homeschooling, I'm like, I've been doing this for 32 years. I'm still figuring it out! You're never going to get parenting 100%. I blamed child three for what child two did. Okay, those things happen. It does. You're not going to be right 100% of the time, so give yourself a little bit of a break, but be right more than you're wrong. That you can manage.
Ryan Kimball:Yeah, absolutely, absolutely, very powerful. I think the passion that you bring to helping children and being responsible and making things happen is a key part of all these messages that you have that you've been sharing now and that are in your book, and I'm just - even just talking to you after reading the book - I'm like, yeah, I can see why this happened. You're a person who's there, having that passion and willingness to make things happen for your children, other children, yeah! (Barbie: Thank you!) That's really awesome. I'm inspired!
Barbie Rivera:Thank you!
Ryan Kimball:Yeah! I did - some of the things you brought up made me think of another thing that was in your book that I wrote down here I wanted to ask you about. So, my friend Mike Tyler and I, we have The Competence Institute, which is the sponsor of this podcast. We're helping people with education and in your book you talk a lot about the lay of the land in the jungle that is the American education system and how navigating that is really a challenge and you've got methods in your book of starting to handle that and be able to help your child with whatever they need. When somebody is starting that journey, what would be your advice for them?
Barbie Rivera:Okay. So my advice is going to be very harsh because there's nowhere to deliver this nicely. If it was published in the United States after 1940, chances are it's garbage. Right now, it's almost like a joke.
Barbie Rivera:Parents say, like the parents of six, seven and eight year olds now, oh, they brought math home. I didn't understand it. I'm like, that is insane. (Ryan: Right) Because that does not change.
Barbie Rivera:Math is a science and when it's taught as a science, even if - like, I have my kids and I teach the pre-algebra. I'm the middle school teacher at my school and I'm very strong on definitions of words and some of the kids, rightfully, they say, When am I going to use this in life? I go, I'm going to tell you when you're going to use this in life, and it might not have anything to do with math. When you problem- solve. When you're going to start a business. It's not oh, let me grab this paper. Now I have a business. That was it.
Barbie Rivera:One step. I go, That's like first grade mathematics. One plus one equals two. That's easy. But you're not going to navigate contracts, you're not going to navigate the economy, you're not going to be able to purchase a home, you're not going to be able to predict the future, which, when you're educated and I'm not talking about mystic and crystal balls or anything like that, I'm talking about, if a person has confidence, they can read, write extremely well. They are productive. We don't have to - versus somebody who has a degree, who was given a calculator in the second grade but yet can't define the basics of mathematics. (Ryan: Right) Right, we can predict who's going to do better. (Ryan: Of course.)
Barbie Rivera:Yeah, so that's that prediction. And prediction again. We're on planet Earth, hurricanes happen, things go wrong. We all went through COVID. No one saw that. So you have to navigate things. But when you can problem- solve and you can stay with the math problem, even though it has six or seven steps, and you can be methodical on how you approach it, that shows up in life.
Ryan Kimball:Wow! That's - I've never heard somebody express it that way, but it a makes me want to go learn math more thoroughly than I did in school!
Barbie Rivera:It's what I tell my kids. And again this goes back to that learning disability. Education, really - what it comes down to, is a communication process. One of the things - I'm not bragging, but I am. I make a really good blueberry pie and what I've done is I've taken 1965 Betty Crocker cookbook which has a ton of sugar. I cut that. I barely dust my berries with a sugar powder, sugar, flour, cinnamon they're barely dusted, loaded with butter. Anyway, my blueberry pies, all of my neighbors, anybody who knows me, they get a blueberry pie at Thanksgiving or the holidays. They love it.
Barbie Rivera:If I write down step-by-step, what to do, take pictures of what the ingredients or what kind of pan I use, etc. And I publish that in such a way that people can understand it, then everyone's going to be able to make that blueberry pie. No question. Now, if somebody can't make it, I give the blueberry pie to you and your blueberry pie comes out wrong. Here's what the American society does: we drug you. Instead of finding out, what word did you not understand, what ingredient did you skimp on, what step did you miss? And let you do it over and over and over and over again, to where you add your own little spin to it and now you have an exclusive blueberry pie, that's better than mine, because you used your education to do so. So you can take that same concept and you can apply it to any topic of What's the definition of the word? hat's the purpose? Now, how do we apply this? And what's fascinating -and I've purchased and wasted thousands of dollars on curriculum. I'm talking thousands of dollars on curriculum and one of the things that I remember was - it was the United States of America and it was like a little checklist of what to do and it was like the first thing, tell the students welcome to the United States of America. Now let's locate that on a globe.
Barbie Rivera:And I'm like, what is this garbage? Garbage. What does the word united mean? We need to go with that. So, united - when you're together in a passion or together in agreement. And I'm like, okay, when we're all watching the Miami Heat battle it out with the Chicago Bulls, that's united. We might not agree on the same player, our favorite player. We may disagree with the referees, but we're united in the win and we're united in the loss. That's united. Now, in order to define state, you have to go over boundaries. So you can compare that to a house. Who here has siblings? Oh, I do. Are you all sharing the same room? Nothing wrong with it. Or do you have your own boundary? Oh, I have my own space. Good, so those would be called states, because sometimes, like in Florida, we don't have to worry about polar bears. So there's laws in Alaska about polar bears that don't apply to us.
Barbie Rivera:So by pulling it apart that way, the kids get to know, even defining the word, o where F is pronounced like the letter V. There is a meaning of that word. And when you go over that and the kids are then allowed to create their own state, name it, name the capital, and after you go through different steps of okay, what's -re you a farming state? What do you produce? What's your trade? What's your exchange with the other states? What's, what are you famous for? And the kids can create that. Oh, we have the highest roller coaster. It goes all the way up to the moon. I'm like great, we've got to go to your state to go ride that roller coaster. Then it becomes this fascinating adventure of learning and at the end of it they remember what the United States of America is and they have that concept forever.
Ryan Kimball:Yeah, exactly, and it's very real to them and they can use it. Awesome! You talked a little before we were starting about how much you want to get your information out there because of what it can do and the types of things - changes it will help create in society. And just talking to you, interacting with you on this and seeing how you present things and make learning interesting and make me want to go back to high school, which I never thought I'd say that! it needs to be known.
Ryan Kimball:It needs to be made known to the world, and so how does somebody reach out to you? What are the methods of getting in communication with you and getting your book and all that?
Barbie Rivera:Okay, when on the back of the book is a QR code that's to a website. Enough Is nough. Now, realize I am not the social media queen or anything, but there's a way you could subscribe and there's a way to contact me through there. I also have a school that's a nonprofit, Help Miami, and you can contact me through there.
Ryan Kimball:Great, Okay, great, and I believe there is a website. Is it just your name, or, BarbieRivera. com?
Barbie Rivera:BarbieRivera. com will take you to the Enough Is Enough.
Ryan Kimball:Okay, so BarbieRivera. com you can buy Enough Is Enough right on there.
Barbie Rivera:Yeah, it's available on Amazon, so you could also go on Amazon. Enough Is Enough by Barbie Rivera.
Ryan Kimball:Perfect
Barbie Rivera:And I think that there's even a link back to the website.
Ryan Kimball:Awesome, okay, great, and I know that all - everything you've gone over today is really powerful, but I can tell for anybody who's reading, there's so much in the book! We specifically tried to make this very detailed on one or two things, but there's so much in this book. It's a whole education in itself. It's inspiring. So do make sure you go and check out and grab that for yourself if you don't have it, the links will also be in the show notes, and this is only the beginning of what we're going to be sharing here. I'm really excited about Barbie being here today, but stay tuned, because coming up we're going to have other topics that are in the book and some that I've been told aren't in the book that we'll be covering in future episodes. So, thank you so much again, Barbie, for being here with us today!
Barbie Rivera:Thank you!
Ryan Kimball:Absolutely. All right. Thank you everybody for listening and, like I said, stay tuned. We'll see you in the next episode.
