Join Priscilla Rahn as she delves into the transformative power of classical education and its role in restoring foundational American values. In this episode, Priscilla brings on Didi Vecino, a distinguished educator with a compelling journey from teaching English to leading schools. They discuss the importance of instilling civic knowledge in students and the critical role of parental involvement in education. Discover how the Excalibur Classical Academy and other institutions are cultivating the next generation of servant leaders dedicated to upholding the principles of freedom rooted in America’s history.
00:00:03 Introduction to Restoring Education in America
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 03 :
well hello everybody welcome to restoring education in america i’m your host priscilla ron and i am so thrilled that you’ve decided to join the conversation today and it’s going to be a great one this fall there is a new school that’s opening it’s a private classical school called Excalibur Classical Academy. It’s open enrollment time, and I know parents are looking for great options for their children. So if you have a young child that’s starting kindergarten through third grade, I would encourage you to go to their website and sign up for a tour of the school. Their website is ExcaliburClassicalAcademy.org. And their mission and vision is restoring America’s heritage by developing servant leaders who are keepers and defenders of the principles of freedom for which our founding fathers pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor. So if you’re looking for a great option for your children where parents are involved, please look at Excalibur Classical Academy. And also, if you are a teacher looking for a great environment to teach in, please submit your resume to the website. Well, I’m excited for this conversation because I love talking with fellow educators. And my next guest is a fellow LPR graduate. Welcome to my friend, Didi Vecino. Hi, Priscilla. I’m so happy to be here with you today. Thank you for having me. Well, you are always a ray of sunshine every time I see you and you’re doing wonderful things. But before we get too far into the conversation, I’m going to share a little bit of your bio with our listeners. So Didi Vecino earned her BA in Communications from Florida Atlantic University and completed graduate studies at Duke University, receiving a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies and a graduate certificate in International Development Policy from from the Sanford Institute of Public Policy. She began her career as a teacher before taking a 17 year hiatus to raise her two children. Returning to the workforce, she became a middle school English teacher and later served as an assistant principal at Hollywood Academy of Arts and Science in Hollywood, Florida. She is also a graduate of the Leadership Program of the Rockies and a top 10 recipient of the Defenders of Capitalism. Didi, I know that’s a big deal. We’ll talk about that. Didi served as head of school at Colorado Early College’s Fort Collins Middle School. She has spoken at national conferences on education, professional development, and food allergies, and has trained educators, executives, and chefs across the country. Today, she hosts the More Than One Way to Live a Principled Life podcast. Didi serves on the board of Empowerment Society International, supporting sustainability projects in Liberia, Africa. That is pretty amazing, Didi. And you look like you’ve had eight hours of sleep. 87. Daylight savings time, Rob. This is true. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Well, Deedee, let’s get into it because, well, first of all, let’s go back to this whole Defenders of Capitalism thing. A lot of people don’t completely know what Leadership Program of the Rockies is. Tell our listeners, what is Leadership Program of the Rockies and what is Defenders of Capitalism?
SPEAKER 02 :
Leadership program of the Rockies is, as we talked about just, it seems like yesterday, it’s an incredible program that kind of trains up leaders. Well, it takes people who are already in leadership positions and who have kind of a sphere of influence in our community and really amplifies that and gives them the skills necessary that they need in order to increase that sphere of influence. Really honing in on what, our Constitution means, what the Declaration of Independence means, what our responsibilities are as responsible citizens of this country, because so many of us were introduced to those concepts so long ago, and we have forgotten what they are, or We didn’t learn them in the first place. So what is the proper role of government? What are those pillars that hold up our society? When we are making arguments, are we making well-founded arguments based on those principles? And what are those principles? I don’t know them by heart. I have to look at the little cheat sheet in order to…
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, I know one of them because I used it for my plugin, my plugin competition. And it’s, you know, people don’t understand the origin of their rights. And therefore, they don’t know how to identify the threats to their rights. And therefore, they can’t defend against those rights. That is one that I do know.
SPEAKER 02 :
And that is one of the most important thing is if we’re not teaching civics in school and we’re teaching social studies now, we’re not teaching civics. If you don’t understand what your rights are, how do you know when they’re being taken away and how do you know to defend them? And I think that’s that’s really important. So understanding what those pillars are, understanding how to defend those pillars is very important. So Leadership Program of the Rockies for me was a wonderful opportunity to meet like minded people, to understand the founding fathers. What were the principles? that founded this country and understanding that the founding fathers, too, had differences of opinion. You know, we had people that, you know, maybe Hamilton wanted a little bit more government than Madison wanted. And what did that mean? And what did that look like in the Federalist Papers? And how do we go back to the Federalist Papers when we’re defending the principles of the Constitution? So that was really exciting. Then we had the Defenders of Capitalism Project. One of the books that we were required to read in the leadership program of the Rockies was Ayn Rand’s
SPEAKER 03 :
I’m pointing to it on my bookshelf. By the way, I did not get top 10 in defensive capitalism. So I’m about to learn a lot from you.
SPEAKER 02 :
She was probably 11. But we had weekly homework assignments every week in this program. And you were graded on these homework assignments. And apparently I did well on the homework assignments. well enough to be in that top 10 and then awards were awarded at the end and i did not receive one of those awards because you had to write an essay based on a topic and i had just gotten that job that you mentioned earlier at colorado early colleges as the head of school and i was brand spanking new and i was so underwater and i was working 12 to 14 hours days seven days a week and i did not have time to put into this essay and i almost dropped out of the contest because i just i didn’t have time to write this essay i wasn’t sure i would have time to go down and complete the interview for this contest and then i thought you know at the very least i’ll be number 10. so i’m just gonna wing it which is what i did which is why I was not in the top three. Which is absolutely fine. I was just, I felt very flattered to have made it to the top 10 and really understanding what those principles of capitalism are, what socialism looks like, what is the invisible hand? What does that mean? What does that look like? What are all of those theories? What is the broken glass theory? Don’t ask me what they are now because that was three years ago and I have to go back and look at my notes. And my brother asked me about it the other day and I said, ooh, please hold.
SPEAKER 1 :
And I said, okay.
SPEAKER 03 :
pulled out my little book and was able to talk to him about it. Listen, you’re being really humble because even top 10 is remarkable in our class because we’re in class with such intelligent people who are really, really articulate. And a lot of young people think, capitalism is just about money and it’s just about profit. They don’t understand that it’s about the free exchange of goods and services. And ideas. And ideas, exactly. See, look at you. So, you know, but let’s take a minute to do a shout out for our leadership program of the Rockies, to Mr. Michael Williams, to Ms. Shari Williams, and of course, to the Honorable Congressman Bob Schaefer. We’re not worthy. We’re not worthy. Okay. Okay. So let’s do like our own mini, like speak out from teacher to teacher. No, I get to ask the questions because it’s my show. You’re not going to ask me. You know, I never had to do speak out. I never had to do speak out either. Yeah. So I was just like, woo, you know, but I have to explain what speak out is because people don’t know what it is. OK, so to the listeners, speak out is when Congressman Bob Schaefer asks you a question. It’s a philosophical question, but of course, it’s grounded in the Constitution and one of these pillars of, you know, our heritage and our history. And you need to explain your answer using one of these pillars. So one question for you, my dear colleague, is do you think it is the proper role of government to force students to go to school?
SPEAKER 02 :
That is one of the questions that came up. Do I think it is the proper role of government? I do not. Do I think it is the proper and good and moral thing to educate your child? Yes. Does that involve sending them to school? Not always. So whose job is it to educate children? It is the parent’s right and responsibility to educate their child. Ding, ding, ding, ding. Okay.
SPEAKER 03 :
Check, check. Okay. Next question is, Oh, the speed round. Oh, yes, yes, yes. Do you think that teachers should be required to have a teaching license from the government?
SPEAKER 02 :
Absolutely not. Some of the best teachers, some of the best teachers I have hired have not had teaching licenses and they were so flexible, so malleable, so eager to learn and they were able to tune in and really reach children. Some of the worst teachers I have had were veteran teachers who had been teaching for 20 years and they were rigid and stuck and stuck in ideologies that did not work.
SPEAKER 03 :
OK, well, I’m going to let you off the hook. Those were the two that I had for you. So we’re going to dig into some easier, easier. Those are easy ones. I know. I know. I wasn’t too mean to you. OK, so, Didi, you had quite an interesting start to your career and you’ve been really transparent about starting as a baby teacher and having to quit because you had baby and everything. Then some really traumatic things happened in your life. Talk about those early years of what happened to you.
SPEAKER 02 :
I was very blessed early in my life. My mother was a single mom and she worked three jobs to kind of keep everything together for us. So the early years were, they were lean years, they were tough years. And my husband and I met in college and our early years were lean years and hard years and working and just trying to pay the bills and stay on top of everything. But he did very well and took a white collar mentality to a blue collar profession, went into business with his father. And it just exploded. And financially, we were in great, great shape by the time we were having children. So I lived this really idyllic fairytale Norman Rockwell life. And it was highly recommend. If you can do it, do it. I was able to stay home and raise my kids and… you know do the pto and volunteer at my church and within my community and it was fantastic you know we talked about this a little bit about biblical principles in marriage and in life and there is a biblical principle that says you know a man shall leave his family and cleave unto his wife and that was a principle that was not lived in my home And it took quite a toll on our marriage because I was not prioritized in my marriage. But I stuck it out, stayed in there. But when it turned to my children and my children were not being prioritized and his family was prioritized over my children, that was a bridge too far for me. And that was hard to come back from. So we did end up getting divorced and it was a difficult thing. At the time, I didn’t realize the impact that that was going to have on my children. on my immediate family, on my circle of friends, the ripple effect that that was going to have. And I am not a big believer in regrets. I’m just not because we always have to move forward and make do with what we have. But if I could go back in time and change one thing, I would, this is where I get emotional. I get emotional every time. I would have worked harder on that marriage. because it does see here we go it does impact so much i don’t know that it would have changed anything i don’t know that the outcome would have been any different if i had a crystal ball and would have known that the marriage counselor that we used wasn’t awesome and that we should have used our divorce counselor because we had a great divorce counselor so if we could have used our divorce counselor as our marriage counselor maybe we would have had a different outcome but um i think it’s really important in marriage to live out those biblical principles i i really do and you know we have colossians you know 18 19 20 20 all of those that that really outline what what a marriage is and i know some people get really prickly you know that a woman should submit into her husband and like what i have to submit We have to go back into history, into historical times and realize what that meant and how revolutionary that was back in ancient Rome. Men were in control of everything. women were not given directives. Only men were given directives. So for Paul to speak to women, to speak to children, to speak to servants, that was a really big deal because that first one, Colossians 18, where it says women submitted to your husbands, it says women. It’s not speaking to men there. So men, that’s not for you. You skip that one. You go to the next one where it says, men, do not be harsh with your wives. That one’s for you. So if you are treating your wives with reverence and not being harsh with your wife, it’s really going to be easy for your wife to be in that relationship with you. And it’s about responsibility. It is about agency and how to run an effective household. And then the children respecting the mom and the dad. It’s really, I think it’s really important. And that didn’t happen in my marriage.
SPEAKER 03 :
You know, listening to you speak, there’s a way we are kind of taught to become educators in the way we think and the way we problem solve. And I hear how you’re articulating that time and you are already going to the lessons learned from that part of your life and the things you would do differently. That is so ingrained in us. It’s like, what did I learn from that and what could I do better? So going forward, I mean, you said you talk about losing everything, having to start all over and you took this big break. So how did you go from a very short time in teaching to then almost two decades later, coming back and then becoming a head of school? What was that like getting back into the industry of education?
SPEAKER 02 :
It was something because I did, and when I say I lost everything, I don’t want people to be confused. I didn’t lose everything when I got divorced. I got divorced and things were fine. I divorced well. I was able to stay home. I was able to raise my kids. It was the crash of 2008 that really did me in. Next to my divorce, that was probably the second worst thing that just brought me to my knees. And I cried every day. I couldn’t get off the couch. I finally just put an X on the calendar. I was like, okay, you have permission to cry and you have permission to be sad until this day. And this day you have to get off the couch. So that day I got off the couch and started figuring out what I was going to do next. And fortunately, my daughter’s school needed a teacher there. My daughter’s English teacher was going out on maternity leave and she was begging me to come and teach for her. And I said, no, I will never teach again because my first experience was not awesome. But I did go back. And when you go back to school, go back to teaching 17 years later, after raising children, after being very active in the school, you know, being a classroom mom and going on field trips and raising up children your experience with children is very different and the way you relate to them and the way you relate to other adults and you understand the world a little bit better so your toolbox is much more full after 17 years and being a mom so when i went back into teaching it was a fantastic experience i just had a great experience so i was much more relatable I think with my students and with my teachers and with my supervisors, even though I was older than them, my principal was a decade younger than I was. But she was phenomenal. And she’s a mentor to me to this day. And I just was able to kind of clip right up that food chain because I had a lot of years behind me. I had a lot of maturity behind me. I had a lot of life skills behind me that I would have collected along the way as a teacher. I just collected them in a different way. And so it was I moved up pretty quick. It was fun. It was great. I had a great time.
SPEAKER 03 :
So looking now at the lay of the land, your children are grown, but, you know, you’re still paying attention to a lot of the things that are happening in education and talking about it. What scares you the most about the things that you’re seeing in education?
SPEAKER 02 :
What scares me the most is the attempt to hijack children from parents. That somewhere along the line, teachers and administrators decided that they know best how to raise our children. That they somehow think they know our children better than we do. And that they can parent our children better than we can. And no one can parent a child better than a parent. And no one knows a child better than a parent. And when we start keeping things from parents and undermining parents and kidnapping children from parents, which happens here in Colorado, we have a really big problem. And when we start teaching untruths to children, that is a really big problem. So I think those are the things that scare me the most with education right now.
SPEAKER 03 :
You know, we we are going to have public education probably for a while, even though President Trump signed his executive order ending the Department of Education. That takes an act of Congress. He has reduced it quite a bit and he’s gotten some attention from the states. What would you do if you could wave a magic wand, Didi, and change one or two things about our public education system to make it better?
SPEAKER 02 :
What would those things be? Do you know, when we, when you and I interviewed for LPR, Leadership Program of the Rockies, Shari asked us if I could give you a magic wand and you could wave it and change one thing in general, not about education, but in general, what would that one thing be? My question to her was, can I abolish the Department of Education? So it’s interesting that that’s what you’re posing to me now. A couple of things I would change is one, I would get rid of the certification process. I don’t think you need to have a teaching certificate to teach. Just let people teach. And if they’re doing a great job, great. And if they’re not doing a great job, then off they go. I would also get rid of the steps. If somebody is doing a great job, pay them more. Pay them for what they’re doing. If they’re doing an awesome job, teach them, give them money. If they’re not doing a great job, coach them. Do what you need to do to get them to teach well. If someone is bringing things into the classroom that is not related to education, then they need to go. Schools are for teaching. That is all. Schools are not mental health facilities. Schools are not healthcare facilities. Schools are schools. We are there to teach children. And that is where the responsibility begins and ends. We put too much responsibility on our teachers to wear way too many hats. And we have overstepped our bounds in entirely too many ways. If something is not related to our curriculum, which should only include reading, writing, arithmetic, civics, probably physical education, because I think health is really important. Science. Latin is probably important. I can’t believe we’ve lost Latin along the way. Music, art, that’s pretty much what should be in school. Sounds like a liberal arts education. Imagine.
SPEAKER 03 :
Imagine that. So there’s all these different philosophies. You’ve got Montessori, right? You’ve got expeditionary learning. There’s STEM and STEAM.
SPEAKER 02 :
And that’s all great. I think that’s all great. I think choice is a beautiful thing. I think we should have choices in education. However, it should be related to education. All the extraneous things need to go away.
SPEAKER 03 :
Are you talking about like these social justice issues that are coming into the schools? Is that what you’re referring to? Yeah. So Didi, do you have a favorite style of school? Like amongst those different styles, do you have one that you really like personally? Yeah.
SPEAKER 02 :
You know, it’s interesting because I wasn’t familiar with the classical education model until just the last few years. And when I was first introduced to it, and that was before I knew about Liberty Common, before I knew Honorable Congressman Bob Schaefer. I thought it was kind of a very rigid model and I wasn’t sold on it. And then I got to know Ian Stout over at Loveland Classical and I got to know Mr. Schaefer at Liberty Common. And I started looking more into it and seeing what their outcomes were, talking to the students, getting to know the students. I’ve not seen an unhappy student. On any of their campuses. And there’s a lot of campuses in Loveland. There’s a lot of campuses here. Speaking to people at Ascent, speaking to people at many different schools in Northern Colorado. And I’ve been to a lot of the campuses and talked to a lot of the leaders and a lot of the students. And they’re doing a phenomenal job. And those kids are performing and they are happy. And I think they’re smarter than I am. When I talk to them, they’re so eloquent and I will ask them questions and they answer in ways that I could not possibly answer. And I look at them and I think these are the future leaders of our country. These are the people that we need to take charge. And I feel very confident in the direction of our country if we have these kind of people leading us. And so I’m very impressed with the classical schools.
SPEAKER 03 :
You bring up a really great point that I think there is a perception when you hear a classical school, because most of us grew up in public school. We really don’t have any concept of classical. Now, 40, 50 years ago, most public schools did look like a classical school. I mean, I said the pledge every morning and sang patriotic songs and read a lot of books. I mean, it was very different. And in the last… I started seeing a major decline 25 years ago where the shift began and the professional development started changing and teachers were becoming indoctrinated. I mean, how do you indoctrinate a whole entire nation? Well, you indoctrinate the teachers because they’re the ones that are in front of those kids every single day, starting from… There are children. It’s like, no, they’re not our children. We’re the trusted adult. No. And I had to be red pilled and detox from that because I would say, oh, I love my kids. They’re not they’re not my children. And when you think of yourself as the trusted adult. before the parent, then you start to do things that separate parents from their children and that is a very, very dangerous thing to do. So in your time as a coach, what are some of the things that you’re seeing in teachers that you have had to coach the most on?
SPEAKER 02 :
You know, it’s not what you would expect. Most of my coaching, you know, when I was in the charter school, we didn’t have a lot of these issues because my principal ran a really tight ship, and we just didn’t do this nonsense. We just didn’t do it. And so when I came here with charter schools, I just kind of expected that was the charter school model because that’s what I was familiar with. So when I moved up here and I did see kind of some of this creep, coming into the schools i had to deal with that in a slow roll kind of way because i was new coming into the school and i couldn’t just smash all at once right you have to you have to earn trust and kind of come in that way and i was only there for about a year and a half but most most of the coaching that i had to do i had you know new teachers that i had to coach but it was mean girl coaching. I had some mean girls. And so I had to coach how to be nice to people and how to smile. And I had one teacher say to me, and I kid you not, she said, well, if I don’t like them, I’m not going to smile at them because that’s not being authentic and that’s being phony. And I said, you know, sometimes you have to check it at the door and you have to be kind to everyone in this building. I don’t care if you like them or not. You have to be kind.
SPEAKER 03 :
period and so yes you have to smile when you see people in the hallway you cannot scowl and walk by someone we don’t do that here you know teaching the true the good and the beautiful that is a classic model and i told you this i will spend the rest of my life in a classical model because those are the things that we teach at a young age and all the way up So, Didi, I’m looking at the time and we have to land our plane. But before we go, before we go, tell everybody where they can listen to your amazing podcast.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thank you. I started a new podcast called More Than One Way to Live a Principled Life. And you can find it just titled that way on YouTube and Rumble and Spotify and Apple Podcasts and on Substack. You can find me everywhere.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, Miss Didi Sunshine Vecino, thank you so much for your time and for all that you do. And to my listeners, thank you so much for tuning in and catch me next time. And remember, educating the mind without the heart is no education. So seek wisdom, cultivate virtue and speak truth.
SPEAKER 01 :
Thanks for tuning in to Restoring Education in America with Priscilla Ron. Visit PriscillaRon.com to connect or learn how you can sponsor future episodes to keep this message of faith, freedom, and education on the air.
