“One picture
is worth a thousand words”
-Albert Einstein
It is well known that the olive branch is a symbol of peace.
Peace, however, seems to be missing in today's society. Is the world peaceful right now? Certainly not. As a society, are we peaceful running from school, to work, to appointments, to extracurricular activities? Probably not. Our guess is that most families eat on the run and barely have time to catch up with each other, let alone truly connect with each other. Perhaps peace is missing in your family or in your child’s current educational situation.
At Rooted, we desire to be a place of peace in our community by offering a completely different model of childhood and education which we hope will rub off on the entire family!
The Olive Tree…
Not the most beautiful tree in the forest.
Their trunks are gnarled, bent, and often hollow inside. They don’t produce gorgeous flowers in the spring that everyone looks forward to like Cherry Blossoms or Magnolias, but rather small, unassuming buds. Their fruit is not sweet and tempting; quite the contrary, they’re salty, briny, and even bitter when raw. Definitely an acquired taste.
So, why choose this unloveable, unlikeable, unpleasing tree to represent Rooted?
Simple: there is something beautiful we can learn in all that imperfection.
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The olive tree has a remarkable root system which is key to the tree’s survival. It actually needs a dry, rocky habitat to flourish, and a long, hot summer not a cool, not frigid, winter.
How is this similar to Rooted and today’s society?
Our desire is to produce fruit for the Lord through raising kind, compassionate, well-rounded children which in today's society seems to be more and more impossible to attain. Things like the overuse/overdependence of electronics and an ever-growing sense of entitlement provide a dry, rocky, and harsh soil for today’s children to grow.
But that is exactly the environment God chose for the amazing and important olive tree! A tree so important, it (and its oil) is mentioned over 185 times in the Bible. It can't survive in overly moist or saturated environments. Much like a child cannot thrive in adolescence and young adulthood if their environment is saturated with everything being done for them and no opportunities to learn essential life skills.
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The olive tree continues to produce fruit despite what appears to be a mangled mess of a tree. However, to produce a good crop, the tree needs a great deal of attention carefully pruning, fertilizing, and cultivating year-round.
How many times has your child learned a skill then forgotten it because they didn’t use it frequently? Ask any teacher what the first few weeks, even months, are like when school starts each year; just review and re-learning from last year due to a long summer off. For this reason, Rooted has chosen to follow a year-round schedule much like the British school system to reduce the loss of learning, increase knowledge retention, and in turn cultivate more fruit within each child each year.
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While many may love olives, fresh olives are actually very bitter and unpalatable until they have been cured. We expect some, if not all, of the kids (and maybe even adults too) that join Rooted, may be coming from a negative educational setting. We acknowledge the large learning curve, or should we say “un-learning”, children will experience once joining the Rooted tribe.
Your child may be used to having a teacher tell them what to do and when to do it all day long. They may be used to having someone tell them to sit still and stop interrupting classroom instruction to ask questions. Much like adults, children love freedom, and at Rooted they will experience much freedom; freedom to roam and run. Rest assured, however, the freedom they will experience at Rooted will also be the curing process that will sprout independence and critical thinking as they learn to prune their day and make wise choices.
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Everyone knows the main use for olives is olive oil, but what you may not know is the very interesting process required to produce olive oil. A process not unlike education!
To harvest olives, one must carefully beat the trees and pick the olives up from the ground. Harvesters cannot collect olives straight from the tree. Similarly, we believe not every child learns the same way and their knowledge cannot be harvested through testing the same way. Children soak in what they are taught and will display that knowledge when they are ready, much like an olive falls from the tree when it is done growing and ready to be harvested. Therefore, we provide more personalization in learning style and more flexibility in when a child is ready to move forward.
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Likewise, not everyone is ready for an environment like Rooted, therefore you won’t see us trying to pick families to leave their current tree (school) and convince them to join us. We simply share our experience with others and know it will take root in them if it is the right choice for their family as well. Like olives, families need to be ready to fall and leave their tree if and when they are ready to become something sweeter in life!
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Which brings us back to olive oil; an imperative product with so many uses. After harvest, olives must be crushed in order to become oil. The olive must be broken for its oil to be spilled. Perhaps your child feels broken in their current educational setting. Perhaps your family feels broken over the lack of choices that match your core values. If this is you, please know you are not alone! Rooted was created by families just like yours - frustrated with the traditional educational choices and yearning for something different.
We all admire the mighty oaks and the graceful willow, but perhaps your heart feels a bit more like a messy and twisted olive tree. Take heart and remember that life (like kids) is messy. And should you realize your family tree belongs in an olive grove, know we are here ready to accept you - gnarled, twisted and all!
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Our goal at Rooted is to be an oil:
to soothe pains, bumps, and bruises literally as the children wander and experiment outdoors
to restore health mentally, emotionally, and physically from past educational settings
to balance the acidity and enhance the flavor of life and whatever it throws at us (like changing and unpredictable weather!)
to light a lamp and be an example in our community of Augusta and around the world
and to anoint us and the calling God has placed in our hearts