Hmmm. So many little stories within a story.

I especially like the one about the young man. My feeling is that some individuals are driven to success. And, I think the young man illustrates quite well Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Maslow contended that as humans meet their basic needs, they seek to satisfy successively higher needs that occupy a set hierarchy. Needs are prepotent. A prepotent need is one that has the greatest influence over our actions. Everyone has a prepotent need, but that need will vary among individuals. I'm thinking this young man moved quickly through Physiological Needs, Safety Needs, Love Needs and Esteem Needs; and, arrived at Self-Actualization at a young age. Perhaps due to the fact he was home schooled. The need for self-actualization is "the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming." People who have everything can maximize their potential. They can seek knowledge, peace, esthetic experiences, self-fulfillment, oneness with God, etc.

According to Maslow:
A musician must make music, the artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be. This need we may call self-actualisation.

Maslow writes of self-actualizing people that:

*They embrace the facts and realities of the world (including themselves) rather than denying or avoiding them.
*They are spontaneous in their ideas and actions.
*They are creative.
*They are interested in solving problems; this often includes the problems of others. Solving these problems is often a key focus in their lives.
*They feel a closeness to other people, and generally appreciate life.
*They have a system of morality that is fully internalized and independent of external authority.
*They judge others without prejudice, in a way that can be termed objective.

And how does this relate to growing cutflowers? As a successful flower farmer, I believe it is essential to possess these seven key Self Actualization points mentioned above.

How does it relate to compost? It doesn't. That's one of the other little stories within the story................

flowerfarmer,

Thanks so much for responding, and in such an errudite way! I've never heard of Maslow, but I'm sure my philosophy major son sure has! He may not know or care diddly about giant machinery, but he HAS been accepted into the Philosophy department of a private Christian Seminary/Graduate school in California for next fall. We're all VERY excited and proud of him. Don't have a clue how he-we will pay for said school, but he's been accepted, and that's huge!

I'll send him a copy of your response. I bet he'll find it very interesting, or maybe, way old hat he learned the first year of his studies.

I thought it was very interesting. Was philosophy part of your college or work studies, or just a hobby along the way?

WAY back in the day, I worked at a tiny West Texas town's police department as a dispatcher. The Central Casting good-ol'=guy "hired" to be my trainer surprised the heck out of me one shift when he started talking about how Descarte and Nitzchie said thus and such about life. I nearly fell out of my chair. Here "I" was, the "College" graduate, and this "HICK" was talking about philosophers and philosophies I'd barely heard of!

Learned MY lesson in judging people!

Now, to get onto flower chores!

Thanks for writing.

Susi.

Susi--Did you mean that you had originally judged me as a hick? Should I be offended? Many people in large cities truly believe all people living in Michigan wear the red and black buffalo plaid jackets and have bear wandering around in their yards. BTW, I am a born and raised City Girl with a private school education. I've worked for huge corporations. Most days I love being a flower farmer. And, I totally love the reaction I get from people when they ask what I do for a living. The look on their face -- priceless................

Oh HEAVENS NOOOOOOO! NEVER!

Unless you're pulling my leg just now. But if you thought I was insulting you for current, past, present, or future behavior that I can discern via this format, then PLEASE forgive me.

I've been valueing your advice and commentaries ever since you began posting earlier this year. On rare occassions you've sometimes seemed abrupt, but I figured you were short of time, or p'o'ed at some poster's possibly poorly phrased question, or just were able to make a short answer, versus the long ones some of us give!

I was a 25yo know-it-all stuck in a tiny town on the backside of no-where, and figured all pot-bellied, twang inflected, good-ol-boy cops were hicks. I was mistaken then, have been incorrect many times since, and I (kinda-sorta) learn from each mistake!

If anything, I envy your education and job opportunities, that presumably provided much of the capital to make the start and continue to be a successful flowerfarmer.

A philospher(?????) I've quoted before, but whose "whine"/slogan is apt, again, is Napoleon Dynamite. "Luckeeeeeee". ! LOL!

Susi.

We don't have too many bear wandering around our backyards here in Texas, but of course we ALL wear boots, cowboy hats, and have longhorns as pets. Well, if not pets, then certainly accompanying investment objects strolling around our back forty oil fields.

I read SusiQ's original post to my son and husband because of the good story (nicely writen) and because we homeschool our son who is 16. I could just picture the young man who did your sewer work and pile moving. It is people like him who give homeschooling a good name, and show that not everyone needs to follow the academic route.

Homeschooling can offer young people the opportuniy to pursue their own interests in depth and at an early age.

Thanks for sharing such good stories!

Geez, I know an incredibly-successful-incredibly-young man who went to public high school in suburbia. He started mowing lawns for money in high school, and grew from there. By the time he finished high school, he was incorporated, with three or four trucks, lots of other equipment, and employees. I think he is taking a business course or two, but other than that, he isn't bothering with college, and nobody thinks he needs to, including me, although I generally think college is the best choice. Now, I don't have a whole lotta faith in public high schools, but if a kid's motivated and gifted, it probably doesn't matter how he got his education!

Jeanne

Yes, but.......
When one goes to a private school, the Ivy League colleges come looking for you. Also, they will take a B student from a private school over an A student from public school. I rather believe all children should go on to college -- an extension of high school. That college degree would come in handy should that incredibly-successful-incredibly-young man's business fail and he finds himself knocking on some employer's door.

In regard to homeschooling, one of my son's had a chronic illness from the time he was 14 until the age of 22. He was home schooled from the age of 14. When he took the equivalency exam, he tested in the top 99.5% of all graduating seniors in the nation. His brother graduated from an all boy's academy with high honors. The boy's in the academy had their choice of colleges to attend.

Homequaker posted to say she was proud to say they homeschool their child; and, to thank Susi for writing such a nice story.

My opinion: I think a child's home life has much to do with their success.........

Interesting way this discussion has turned.

There is a boy at our local public high school who is doing what Jeanne's acquaintance is doing. Full scale, nearly full time, mow & blow. He's an A student, is involved in sports, academic extracuricular projects, at least one of which earned he and his team a trip to California for the national competition. He also has a girl friend! I was able to get him out here twice, but my yard & field are difficult, and he is VERY busy, so he hasn't come back. I'm sad, because he did a good, quick job, and now I have to!

Back when President Bush was Governor, he instigated, or strongly encouraged, a system to help do away with quotas and discrimination. The new system automatically allows the top 10% of ANY public (or private???, not sure) high school graduating class to be accepted into any State College, maybe also the private colleges. It sounds like, and probably still is, a good plan. But there are some difficulties in the system. A TV station did a story this late winter about 2 girls vying for a place at The University of Texas (which is, I think, THE most crowded school in the nation, and has become overrun w/ top 10 per centers). Anyway, both girls were straight A students, but one came from a lower economic school somewhere, and the other from an elite preppy high school somewhere else in the state. The girl from the lower economic school got into UT, but didn't have NEAR the GPA or SAT scores as the other girl. Preppy girl was in advanced classes, in possibly a larger school, and tho she had high scores, must have "just" missed out on being the top 10% in her school, therefore, no admittance to UT.

No one in the story wanted to deny the good education to the girl from the lower economic school, she was, after all, the top 10% of HER school, but all were worried (even the girl herself), if she could compete w/ the higher achieving scholars who'll be her classmates, and the rigors of first year at UT.

It's been months since I saw that story, so I'm sure I've left out or forgotton some details. I know it's a big concern at UT and at Texas A & M, the two biggest schools here. I heard once that "they" (whoever) are considering raising the top 10% to the top 8%. If a kid ISN'T in that top 10%, he/she has virtually NO chance of getting into UT as a freshman, the crush of kids there is so huge.

Wow, long derail of the subject! LOL!

None of my kids applied themselves enough to be in the top 10%, so whichever colleges they've gone to have involved more complicated admissions processes. One of my friends has brilliant kids, and as they went off to Georgetown or UT, were reminded that MOST of the other kids they'd meet at their colleges were ALSO brilliant, and probably valedictorians/salutatorians/private school alums/ and National Merit Scholars, too, so the competition would continue to be difficult.

I sure hope my kids' eventual careers earn them more money than the mow & blow young men we've been discussing here, but they may not. I know a mow & blow guy in another town who made THAT his career, and he told me that one year recently he SAVED $5,000 per month, and used that as a downpayment on a new fancy home. He has a crew of 30 ish, maybe 10 trucks, advertises and self promotes heavily, and is making a FINE living mowing people's yards. He was in the Air Force for many years, may have acquired some college along the way, but I don't think he has a degree.

And, back to the child's homelife thoughts: the young man that helped w/ my sewer & moved the compost apparantly DID have a good close family: multiple siblings, all home schooled, and apparantly a strong religious training and action in their home. The highschool boy who has His own business is now in a combined family, with each separate family having massive tragedies in the past--dad of one family died, wife of the other died, the two remaining parents marry. Church is a big part of their family too.

I never thought I had the patience to home school any of my kids, but in retrospect, I wish I had. But, they've all turned out pretty good, in spite of me, the plusses and/or minuses of public school, and "average" grades.

Gone WAY too long, I'll hush now!

Susi.