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#130: Labeled “Mentally Handicapped” After 10 Days: This Mom Said No to Drugs and Built a School Instead
Episode 130
When the public school system tried to label her six-year-old son as “mentally handicapped” after just 10 days in first grade, Barbie Rivera knew something had to change. What began as a desperate attempt to protect her child from a broken system grew into a thriving micro-school and a mission to transform education for others.
In this episode of The Homeschool How To Podcast, Barbie shares her inspiring journey—from first-time homeschool mom to author and advocate for educational reform rooted in early 20th-century teaching methods.
🔎 What you'll hear in this episode:
- How Barbie started homeschooling after her son was nearly medicated and mislabeled
- The moment she began charging tuition to teach neighborhood kids as a single mom
- Why she believes word definitions are the key to all learning
- How modern schools skip fundamentals and overwhelm students too early
- The transformation of a struggling student from first-grade to third-grade reading level in just six weeks
- How a grateful parent is helping her launch her school
- Barbie’s passion for vintage textbooks and classical teaching techniques
- Her emphasis on mastery, deep understanding, and life skills over test scores
- How her children learned to become young entrepreneurs through tutoring
- Her upcoming curriculum based on time-tested educational methods
📚 Explore more:
Check out Barbie’s book, Enough is Enough: Exposing the Education System After Their Failed Attempt to Label and Drug My Son, available on Amazon.
Visit barbierivera.com for resources, vintage-style curriculum, and more on her educational philosophy.
🎧 Episode Chapters
00:00 – Homeschool Journey Introduction
07:43 – Escaping Labels and Medication
14:16 – Creating a Micro-School at Home
26:48 – The Power of Understanding Word Definitions
38:11 – Traditional Education vs. Meaningful Learning
47:52 – Rebuilding Education From Historical Methods
53:14 – Raising Independent Critical Thinkers
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Published on 1 month, 2 weeks ago