What happens to an unschooler who refuses to wear shoes? (and who attends North Star barefoot in all seasons for several years?) I opened my mailbox yesterday to see Grace Martenson with her industrious smile busy mending shoes as the cover photo of this week’s Montague Reporter! It turns out that Grace has pursued her interest in leatherwork by apprenticing with a local cobbler, who happens to be retiring. Grace has bought his business and renamed it: Barefoot Leatherworks. Congratulations to Grace, who now makes and repairs shoes! Oh, the irony!
Grace is a uniquely strong character, and there is not much to further analyze here. She comes from a strong family of lifelong unschoolers and entrepreneurs, and she possessed curiosity, determination, and focus long before she ever attended North Star. We had a joyful number of years together, and as we are neighbors, I often had extra time with her in my car giving her rides to and from North Star. I loved arriving at her home in the mornings to see what footwear, if any, Grace might have with her that day. I can follow the newspaper story’s explanation that Grace’s interest in mythology led her to want to make things out of leather, but still, who would have predicted that Grace would own her own shoe repair business at age 21? If you have any excuse to go to Millers Falls, I encourage you to bring an item that needs some attention and go meet Grace!
Perhaps there is some lesson here for worried parents of unschooling children?
While I was busy typing a quick message to Grace, an email from the parent of another alumni arrived in my inbox. Renata Pienkawa, the mother of Alex Rosenbach, wanted to share her joy about Alex’s graduation with high honors from Rochester Institute of Technology. I wrote about Alex in my book (pages 107-109), including a very sweet letter he wrote me upon his acceptance to RIT. This time, upon graduation, it was his mom’s note that made my day:
Dear Ken,
Thanks so much for your contributions to Alex’s amazing education.
You and your staff are a big part of it.
He has just received an award from RIT for an “Outstanding Scholar”.
Only fewer than 1% of students get this award.
You and North Star saved us during such a difficult time in his/our life and the rest is history.
Alex could choose only one person to honor — but you were certainly on his very short list.
Ultimately, he chose his computer professor at HCC to honor but really we are grateful to the whole team of people with you being towards the top.
Alex will be graduating from both HCC and RIT this year on time with a 4.0 average. He also helps his peers frequently and organizes study groups, etc.
He will do is second and last internship with HP. Best to your whole family. How is life?
Thanks so much again.
Warm hugs,
Renata (with Arnie)
What’s the lesson here? Sometimes teens who only want to play video games do actually grow up to become video game designers? Perhaps.
The lesson I take from these two stories? Open my mailbox…who knows what might be in there!
Congratulations to Grace, Alex, and their families.