In this insightful episode of Restoring Education in America, host Priscilla Rahn welcomes Linda White, the dynamic founder of Grandparents for Kids. Join Priscilla as she delves into Linda’s remarkable journey from the medical field to educational activism, where she harnesses the power of grandparents to contribute significantly to the educational landscape. Linda shares heartwarming stories from her personal life and professional endeavors, offering a unique perspective on the pivotal role seniors play in shaping young minds.
Welcome to Restoring Education in America with Priscilla Rahn. She’s a master educator and author leading the conversation to restore the American mind through wisdom, virtue, and truth.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, hello, hello, everybody. Welcome to Restoring Education in America. I’m your host, Priscilla Rahn, and I’m so excited that you’ve decided to join the conversation today. You know, on this show, we talk about all things education, public, private, charter, classical, Christian, homeschool, education policy and advocates. And today I have an uber mega advocate for education. She is the founder of Grandparents for Kids, my dear friend, Linda White. Welcome, Linda. Thanks for having me on today, Priscilla.
SPEAKER 03 :
I love talking about education.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, for those people who don’t know you yet, I’m going to share a little bit of your bio. My dear friend Linda is the founder and executive director of Grandparents for Kids. She’s a wife, mom of two, grandma of eight, and a great grandma. Gigi, twice. Linda worked for more than 30 years as a nurse and in the medical field, including missions to Nicaragua, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic. She also served as a medical guardian with the Rocky Mountain Honor Flight, a group that flies veterans to Washington, D.C. to visit memorials dedicated to their service. Linda is a 2022 graduate of Leadership Program of the Rockies, where she won first prize in the LPR Plug-In Speech Contest. Linda is the founder of the Hilltop Conservative Club and a member of the Steering Committee of Douglas County Citizenry. And I don’t know when you have time to sleep. I wish I had a clone. Well, you know what they say, the busiest people get the most done. And you’re definitely not letting your birthdays slow you down. You are more active now, it seems like, than before. I don’t know. You tell me. But let’s talk about your time in the medical field from nurse, and missionary to grandma and community leader. What inspired you to found Grandparents for Kids?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, the fact that I have eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, that’s mainly my inspiration because grandparents, we tend to really love our grandkids. I mean, we love our kids, but we really love our grandkids.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, because you can spoil them. And then you send them back and you get it.
SPEAKER 03 :
Exactly. And I think the things with grandparents is we don’t have as many expectations on our grandkids as we do on our kids. I want my my biggest expectation is they grow up to be responsible adults, that they have faith, that they are patriotic. And, you know, those are not hard things to do. So I don’t care if they become president of the United States.
SPEAKER 04 :
So with your experiences in the medical field, that’s a very caring and nurturing field. How did those experiences shape your heart for service and leadership?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, I think I’ve always had a caring heart. I think that is something that God gives you, that you’re born with. He gives all of us each different gifts. And I don’t ever remember not wanting to be a nurse nor not wanting to be a mom. So that’s just something that I have within myself. So, you know, wanting to be a nurse and going out there and experiencing helping people. And especially in the mission field, it does show you that even though people have so much less than we do, they can still be happy people. And most of the people that I saw on the mission field with the medical missions, I would say most of them had a lot of faith also. So they were experiences that I thought that I would be giving to them. And most of the time I left those trips, those mission trips, feeling like they gave more to me.
SPEAKER 04 :
so you know again a lot of grandparents they’re enjoying their life they’re traveling they’re golfing they’re babysitting they’re doing all of those things you decided to get more active um politically specifically around education um school boards those types of things um why do you think grandparents play such a central role in education You know, at this, at this age, you can do so many things, but why did you decide to jump into that arena?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, besides the love for my grandkids, COVID definitely opened my eyes and I don’t think COVID, even though during the time we went through it, it was a very difficult time for everyone. It did open a lot of eyes and my eyes were one of the people who became wide open when I started realizing what was going on. And just not through my own grandkids, but attending different kinds of seminars and classes about revealing what was going on in the schools. And when I was attending those, they were always directed towards parents. Parents need to do this, parents need to do that, parents need to wake up. And I’m sitting in the audience thinking, hmm, yeah, I am a parent, but I’m a grandparent. And I was remembering, you know, looking at my own daughter and how busy she is trying to work, raise a family, get to the kids, to all the different organizations and activities they are in. And I thought, wait a minute, we could be the National Guard. You know, grandparents, we could be called up to help. And we have a lot of spare time, most of us, you know, when you retire, a lot more spare time than we did, I guess I should say. We also have a lot of wisdom. And honestly, we grew up in a time when education really was pretty much the basics. Um, you know, I, I do think education has had some roots way far back into getting to where we are today, but I did learn math. I did learn how to read. Um, I did learn that our country is an amazing country, even though we aren’t perfect. And so I thought we need to stand up. We need to help our parents, our kids, um, with this problem in education.
SPEAKER 04 :
My guest today is Linda White. She’s the founder of Grandparents for Kids, and she has so much wisdom. You’re right. In our society, we don’t value our seniors as much as we should. Now, my mom’s Korean, and in Asian culture, we very, very much highly elevate seniors. The more gray hair you have, the more wisdom you have, and the more respect you have. And that’s the culture I was raised in. And so we’ve got to change that narrative where when we see seniors come in and grandparents come in, that we take advantage of all of your wisdom and knowledge and experiences so that we can just continue to do better. Now, you’re a graduate of leadership program of the Rockies. You graduated one year before I did. It’s an amazing leadership program where we learn about the proper role of government We learn about freedom over force, all of these great concepts and values. So when you think about your time and the things that you’ve learned in leadership program of the Rockies, and then fast forwarding to Plugin, which for people who don’t know anything about Leadership Program of the Rockies, is a really cool competition. It’s a three-minute competition. Why don’t you tell the listeners what Plugin is and what inspired you to enter the competition?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, what Plugin is, it happens during a big retreat that Leadership Program of the Rockies has. And it gives the opportunity for people to pitch an idea because you can have an idea, but you have to have other people help you with that idea in order for that idea to become actually a movement. And I knew that my idea was a great idea, but it couldn’t just stay in my head. I had to act on it, you know, to make it become a movement and plug in does have a cash prize, um, uh, for the people that went for a second or third. And again, you can’t start a movement very well without some sort of, um, cash. So I thought, Hmm, I have this idea. So let me try and plug it. Honestly, it was the scariest thing I have ever done in my entire life. And, but it did make me realize if you have a passion. you will put yourself in situations that you’re scared to death. You have to take that leap of faith. And that’s what I did. And honestly, that night when I plugged my idea, I did get a very large round of applause and lots of people were standing. It wasn’t for me. It was for my idea.
SPEAKER 04 :
I love that because the mind is a terrible thing to waste. And we go through an intensive, nine months of learning how important the mind is and how the mind is the ultimate property. And we have to protect that. And you’re right. Everything starts with an idea. And how amazing is it that you just had this thought and it was so well received. I mean, it caught on like wildfire. And what you’ve been able to do is, is, nothing less than amazing. Let’s talk about Douglas County in particular. You’ve been very involved in school board and there was A very highly controversial vote of the Douglas County School Board when we talk about AP African-American Studies. And there was a big community debate whether or not that was an appropriate class to add on to the AP Studies. But you had an amazing process. That’s what I wanted to talk to you about, the process of Grandparents for Kids. When that controversial vote came, talk about what you decided to do.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, I’m not a teacher, and so I can’t rely on just myself to make decisions about the classroom, because I haven’t been a teacher. I haven’t been teaching the kids in the classroom. But when that controversy came up, I decided, Before grandparents for kids can take any kind of stance on this, we have to see what this is about. So a number of the grandparents in Douglas County divided the book up. And we each took a section of the book, read it over, took notes. And then we had a meeting to discuss. Should this be allowed in the schools or not? Do we need to speak up or do we not? You know, should we just be quiet about it? Should we support it? And so we had quite a discussion about it and we decided, no, we think this is okay to be in the school, especially since it was a class that was for students that are, you know, in the advanced classes. So it wasn’t going to every single student in Douglas County. And also they needed to have parental consent for the class. And I also thought, you know, we should be talking about different cultures and different points of view. Isn’t that what education is about? And how do you have those discussions if you don’t bring those subjects forward in a classroom? So we did not fight that in the Douglas County school system and it passed.
SPEAKER 04 :
I think that was such a smart process to take that curriculum, divide it up and have people read it in chunks and then highlight, underline, bring it back together and really dissect it. I wish more people would just do that in general, because, you know, like when we talk about even bills, I mean, there’s, there are hundreds of pages sometimes, and it’s too much for one person to really sit down and, um, and, and dissect it, but to have that conversation and then to analyze it and say, you know, what do we really believe instructionally should be happening? Well, it’s an AP class, so it’s a college level class. Parents have to, you know, opt their children into this course. And so, and we do want to have dialogue, right? That’s the one thing we do learn about in LPR because the first class when Dr. Kronowitter talked about slavery, right? You have to have some of that knowledge in order to really understand history and, you know, freedom and the constitution versus socialism and communism. Like you have to have these conversations. And at some point, you know, you have to teach young adults about these issues. So we don’t have a situation like what we see in New York city, where they just elected a communist, you know, socialist self self-proclaimed socialist, right. It’s never worked in any other society. And I don’t see it working here. And so I want to thank you for having that conversation and, you know, being really involved. And you do that with pretty much every every major decision.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right. Well, it became a very interesting topic, even for grandparents, for kids, because, you know, I think there are eight or 10 of us that read the course. Not everybody agreed, but we ended up saying, no, we think this is okay because I think it’s important for kids to learn civil discourse too. How do we talk to each other? You know, how do different points of views talk to each other? And I learned from that class, from reading my portion. So, yeah, but you know, some people didn’t quite agree with us, but that’s okay. I felt confident in the conclusion we came to.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, no, it’s always okay to disagree, right? And I think the civil discourse, when we think about the legacy of Charlie Kirk, I mean, that’s just like the whole point is we can disagree and we can debate. Sometimes we might persuade, sometimes we might not. Sometimes we might learn something new and still not change our minds, but that’s okay. As long as we’re, in my opinion, still kind to each other And trying to find a consensus. I think that’s really important is to try to find consensus in certain things. But so your faith is a big part of who you are. And I see that big smile. It’s so critical. How has your faith and your family influenced your leadership and activism?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, I think the way that my faith has, I know this was not my idea, you know, and the thing about this idea that was given to me, God kept poking me because I had the idea for quite a while and he kept poking me and poking me and I kept trying to ignore it. And there comes a point that, you know, hey, I can’t ignore this anymore. And actually, I think it was the 22 election that finally because, you know, we were talking about the big wave, you know, red wave. And that didn’t happen. And I felt so grieved because a lot of us had worked hard. And I remember the day after laying in bed just going, oh, my gosh, what are we going to do? And God poked me again and he said, you’re going to get up and you’re going to fight. And that’s when I signed up for Plugin. And there you go. That’s how I got there. And as for my family, I think that all of this work that I have been doing, I’m really proud that it shows my grandkids that even a little grandma, Because I am a little grandma. I’m not important. I wasn’t important when, you know, I started this. But I can do something because of my mind. My mind is the source of wealth. And I want them to understand that, too.
SPEAKER 04 :
Your children and your grandchildren are so blessed to have you. My guest today is Linda White. She’s a grandma. She’s a very special grandma. Gigi. Yeah. She’s the founder of Grandparents for Kids. And she is a 2022 graduate of leadership program of the Rockies. And she’s on a number of boards. And she is an activist. And she’s traveling all over the United States and, you know, rubbing shoulders with other amazing activists. You just traveled somewhere. Where did you go?
SPEAKER 03 :
I just got back from Chicago because there was a education conference there with defending education. You said something that I do want to point out. A lot of times we call ourselves accidental activists. I don’t think we’re accidental. I don’t. I think that, you know, we have that push from above. So that’s not so much of an accident, is it?
SPEAKER 04 :
No, no, you are called to do what you’re doing and you listen to the call. I think that’s really, really critical. Um, When we think about restoring education in America, what is it going to take? I mean, we’re starting to see a movement. We’ve got President Trump who’s passed his or written his executive order to reduce the size of the Department of Education. He may be able to successfully eliminate it, but right now there’s been a lot of reduction. And so a lot of those Decisions, the intention is to go back to the states and back locally. But in your mind, what do you think it’s going to take to restore education in America?
SPEAKER 03 :
An army and not just an army of parents, grandparents and education. That’s part of the thing, educating the public. I do think a lot of people think because of Trump’s executive orders that everything’s fixed. Well, a lot of them are being ignored. And I think that that’s going to have to take some federal action to really have some consequences for those federal orders. But the main thing that grandparents for kids is trying to do is to educate grandparents because so many of them do not have any idea because when their kids are going through school, a lot of the activism wasn’t going on and the sexual indoctrination too. And so one of our main missions is to educate grandparents about what is going on. We do have a newsletter that we send out every single month with different kinds of information from all over the state of Colorado about that, but also in different states in the United States. Yeah, real quickly, Linda, can you share your website with listeners? Yeah, it’s grandparentsforkids.org. And that’s grandparents, the number four, kids.org. We also have a Facebook page that people can follow. And we are on X also at GKids Colorado. So we try to do some media things that way. But a lot of grandparents aren’t media followers.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, I was going to ask you, what’s the best way to reach folks that are in your age group?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, the younger grandparents, because I was a young grandparent. And so there are young grandparents out there. But a lot of grandparents, yeah, are in their 70s right now. And we didn’t grow up with all of that. So they’re not following everybody on text. Facebook is probably a better media platform. option for us, but mostly it’s through our newsletter. Yeah.
SPEAKER 04 :
So a lot of people, Linda, feel discouraged about the direction of the country and what encouragement or advice would you give to folks that are feeling a little down about the direction?
SPEAKER 03 :
I understand that direction and I understand feeling down, but we can never give up hope. If we give up hope, it is lost. And what does that show our grandkids? So I think that we also have to be, um, have a lot of common sense. It isn’t one big victory. It’s little tiny battles that we have to fight along the way, little tiny ones. Um, so the little tiny ones eventually add up. So I, and talking to your grandkids helps with that too. I believe in grandparents having an influence on their grandkids. And sometimes that can be hard because some parents and grandparents don’t have the same political view. So you do have to be careful about how you talk to your grandkids to not overstep your boundaries. But just sharing things with your grandkids here and there. We have a lot of influence with them.
SPEAKER 04 :
So, Linda, what’s next for Grandparents for Kids? Do you have coming up any initiatives?
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, we have a big one coming up because, like I said, Grandparents for Kids, we love our country and want to share that legacy of loving our country with our grandkids. We are launching, it’s called America 250, and we’ll be launching it in January. America 250, Stars, Stripes, and Stories with Grandparents. And so we are going to be purchasing books about the founding of our country, kind of resource books to share with teachers that through stories they can engage the kids to be interested. Because a lot of times if you throw facts at kids, you know, history, that’s boring to them. But if you do it through stories. It’s a lot easier to remember, number one, and it’s more exciting. When I was in sixth grade, I remember coming in from recess every day and our teacher, to calm us down, would read to us from, you know, Tom Sawyer. And we couldn’t wait every day to hear what was happening next. So that’s what we’re trying to do is get books into the hands of the teachers that will engage the students.
SPEAKER 04 :
So people can help support you by going to your website and making a donation, I’m assuming.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, there will be a landing page just for that particular part of our organization for people to donate to if they want their donation to go to America 250 Star Stripes and Stories with grandparents for kids.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, it’s around the corner. So 250 years of our nation.
SPEAKER 03 :
And I think that’s a good way for the kids to be excited.
SPEAKER 04 :
You know, I agree because we can do more in the education space to instill patriotism in our students and the love of our country, like bring that love back. Because I know every time I watch the Olympics, there’s so much pride in watching us win a gold medal and hearing our national anthem. And yet we have schools where kids aren’t even saying the pledge. We have classrooms that don’t have an American flag.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes. Yeah. And, you know, I think reaching kids through every kid loves their birthday and get excited about their birthday. Let’s get them excited about this is America’s big birthday. You know, so I agree.
SPEAKER 04 :
I agree. We’ve got to do our part to bring that back. And you’re you’re certainly doing your part, Miss Glenda. We really appreciate you being on. Well, one more time, but we’ve got to land our plane. The time’s almost gone. I mean, we can talk forever and ever. Every time I see you, it’s like, it’s Linda. You’re doing such amazing things. I see you on Facebook and you’re constantly active. One more time for our listeners who might have just tuned in. Linda White is my guest. Where can people find you, follow you, make a donation?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, for more information about Grandparents for Kids, you can go to grandparentsforkids.org. And that’s grandparents, the number four, kids.org.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, Ms. Linda, until next time, I appreciate you. And for our listeners, please make sure that you follow Linda White. If you know a grandparent, please share her information with them. And then catch us next time on Restoring Education in America. I’m your host, Priscilla Rahn. And remember that educating the mind without the heart is no education. So seek wisdom, cultivate virtue, and speak truth.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thanks for tuning in to Restoring Education in America with Priscilla Rahn. Visit PriscillaRahn.com to connect or learn how you can sponsor future episodes to keep this message of faith, freedom, and education on the air.
