Life isn’t always easy. Some say life is a struggle, a challenge. We often hear the saying "up a creek without a paddle." Life can be a test, you’re either prepared or unprepared. Who we become as adults is greatly influenced by the way we are raised as children. The abilities and skills to survive and excel in this test of life are forever ingrained in us by our parents and educators. In this fast-paced ever evolving world, the prepared are able to rise to the challenges of life and fortune of success. For the unprepared, life is not so. I believe that living a sheltered life at home along with some forms of home schooling are not the best way to raise your children.

I was a sheltered child at home and attended a private school. Private schools have since improved in time, with legislation to accredit the institution and greater attendance. Home-schooling, however, has been left on the back burner without much legislation to monitor it and has turned into the private schools of the past. Who is ensuring that the home-schooled children are receiving an education that will enable them to be socially acceptable? I wrote The Torments of the Modest, Secluded Farm Life with three main purposes: to show the bonds of living a pure, simple, moral life, to display of the wake-up call of entering the cruel, harsh, world, and to serve as a learning tool for our officials holding office on the subject of home schooling.

My book paints a very clear picture of the closeness of families who live a protective, sheltered life going to a private school(which I feel is the equivilant of modern home schooling). One’s only friends are those also living under that protective blanket, or in my case, only my siblings. One is raised to believe the whole world lives this way. Individuals only speak the truth because one is taught a person is only as good as his word. It is also emphasized that everyone treats others with kindness because that is the pure, moral way to live life. I give details of how my life was lived year after year. Readers will clearly see that what is instilled in a child, be it right, wrong, or naive, becomes a permanent and lasting part of one’s being. No matter the direction life may take, make no mistake, one’s childhood mentally follows him or her throughout life, causing doubt in every move because one knows how naive he or she was raised and things are just not the same in the world he or she now must live in.

The second reason for my quest is the mental trauma of having lived a protective, sheltered life and how it hinders one entering the cruel, dishonest, harsh world as an independent adult. One is first hit with harsh language he/she can not begin to understand. The lying and cruelness of how people treat each other is enough to make him/her want to run back under that umbrella of protection. Just think for a moment, if you were raised with no conflicts in child’s play, how does one expect you to have developed the skills needed to handle adult conflict? Do you continue as you were raised and just shut up and become victims in this harsh society? Do you just run home in fear and cry? That life style creates fear and fear is a powerful thing, especially for women. An individual gets confused as to what is right and wrong in life because the world is not what he or she was raised to believe. He or she feels like there must be two different worlds and one needs to find the other, kinder one as this other world scares them to the point of total disbelief. My book, shows us all as parents the need for proper transition from one world to the other and what our home schooled children need from us in order to not only grow up physically, but also mentally. A proper transition of such would save the children from an adult life of mental therapy.

Finally, the third reason for writing my book is based on the fact home schooling regulations differ from state-to-state. Some states have no regulations at all, and with the No Child Left Behind law I feel that these ideas contradict each other. Where the states fail our children with proper accountability of education for home schoolers, the government needs to take notice, step in, and make a change. I had a conversation on one of the political sites on Myspace where a man said "I quit school at 16 because school was nothing but a waste of my time." This same man said he was going to home school his children. Can you just imagine the education his children are going to receive? And how are they going to adjust into society when they turn eighteen? Schools are all being academically measured up, but what are we doing about these failing parents? What kind of society are we creating?

In the year 2008 there were over two million children being home schooled and various forms of unschooled. Yes, you heard me right "unschooled," where counting eggs while collecting them is math. That was 2008, the numbers increase 5-12% each year. We as a nation need to wake up fast and take a real hard look at this area of education. Let my book in part be a wake-up call to the society being created and let us worry much less about stepping on toes and let us as a Nation do what is morally right for the children in our nation. Every child deserves an equal shot to an education and for this education to allow growth, not only physically, but also mentally. Read my book, The Torments of the Modest, Secluded Farm Life ISBN:1-58721-806-2 for the heads-up on the society that is being created and as a good starting point for making changes to help the children here at home in America.

Thank You,

Doris Anne Beaulieu

Throughout a majority of my life I've been a volunteer in my community, for which I've even won awards. However, my work left me compelled to write my true life story to further help individuals. I believe that from my life, homeschooling parents can learn a lesson that will help their children cope with what they will soon be undergoing as young adults, much in the same manner as myself as a young woman.

Many children who attend private schools or who are home schooled face harsh reality when they step out alone into the world we take for granted knowing before we’re swept into it. These children don’t know half of the terms commonly used in public schools; these words include ghetto, pimp, and rape. At first you may think these words would serve no purpose in a moral child’s life. You’re right, except what happens if they eventually live in a place where people tell them to stay out of the ghetto and to avoid pimps because they might get raped? They also hardly interact with people they aren’t familiar with. What will happen to them when they have to get jobs and deal with people, sometimes upset people? They will lack the social skills necessary to do the job and not go home crying at night. This is just setting the children up for failure.

You may ask, how do I know this? Why do I care so much about making a difference? That’s because this is the story of my life. I was enrolled in a Catholic school, married young, and because of my husband’s job, was placed in an environment I was completely naive to. I know how it feels and how much of an effect it has on the emotional and physical well being of a young adult. I support a parent wanting a child to be moral, but not hindering them in life for this purpose. Some integration into society must take place in order for a child to enter into society properly. This can happen many ways including sports, jobs/volunteer work, and music programs. However small, it is necessary for a child’s well being, and this is the point I make in my book The Torments of the Modest, Secluded Farm Life (ISBN: 1-58721-806-2) and my screenplay Broken Souls. If you are considering such schooling or are just interested, please, read it and consider the ramifications.

Doris Anne Beaulieu

doris2@prexar.com

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“NATIVE OF MAINE WRITES OF OLD-TIME FARM LIFE

SMITHFIELD, MAINE-MAINE author Doris Anne Beaulieu says her book, titled The Torment's of the Modest, Secluded Farm Life, ISBN: 1-58721-806-2 will bring you heartwarming laughter and tears to your eyes. Hopefully, you will gain a better and closer understanding of old country folks. It is ‘filled with down-home stories and humor for a true picture of how life in the country with only your eight siblings for playmates.’
She describes the work as ‘an old time book from a girl in the back woods of Maine, who had a Guardian Angel to protect her and teach her about the REAL WORLD.’
She explains, ‘The book is the true story of a young girl living a very modest, secluded country life in the 1950's, in the state of Maine. She starts by explaining how country folks live life year after year...Then she takes you though the hard young working years. And then how she was tormented mentally in all directions as she enters the real world. She just couldn't believe or understand the world and its language being raised as she was in the county going to a Catholic school.’
She notes, ‘As more parents are choosing to home tutor their children for good reasons, I found myself complied to write my true story to help parents understand the long lasting effects of a modest, sheltered upbringing before making the final decision...I only wish for parents to see how a child may be affected and how these issues also need to be addressed.’”

The book has also been put into screenplay format for producers.

About Me

My personal site Life’s Ultimate Test and profile has received the attention of the Presidential 2008 Obama campaign for striving to bring about change in an area of education that has been overlooked and left on the back burner. The result was accepting the honor of being the Ambassador of the state of Maine for the 2007-2008 Presidential Obama campaign yearbook.

In the year 2000 I was honored for my unselfish attitude as a self-appointed community advocate. For my dedication and inspirational work, Adelphia Communications and Romance Classics, a network from the American Movie Channel, had selected me to receive the "Cool Women of America Award" Only two were chosen from Maine, and I was one.

I have volunteered in three different schools doing craft projects with the students on all holidays. I’ve done special projects (including with sewing customs for plays), volunteered in the Head Start program, and been a member of parent-teacher groups (doing many fund raisers for classroom needs and school playground equipment).

I have also served as vice president of both the People's Action Committee and the Maine Association of Independent Neighborhoods, which deals with low income issues. I’ve held office as Treasurer for Task Force on Human needs, as well as second vice president of the American Legion Auxiliary. I was certified by Pine Tree Legal as a community advocate. I’ve volunteered helping the elderly and handicapped along with anyone in need of help that has crossed my path as I go through life. I’ve also started a group for young children in the community called "Tiny Tots" doing fund raisers for t-shirts, parties, and a float for the parade to enrich the lives of young children. I also hold many certificates in different fields.

I went on to publish books and screenplays: