Warren Burda Knihy

K-12 public education has been on this merry-go-round since the 1950's. The author wrote this very small book with some very big revolutionary ideas about educational policy and reform. Using text and illustrations, the book achieves a first: it identifies the actual cause of the education tragedy, gives achievable remedies to fix it, and puts forth a simple action plan to incorporate the remedies into law and policy. When this is accomplished, K-12 public school instruction, learning, and teacher performance evaluation will be set free from that which binds them. Students, teachers, and school administrators will have their proper share of legislated power. Their voices will be fully heard.

This book takes the reader on a journey with a cabin and a creek. Its characters and story are imaginary, but everything else in it is real. The cabin wasn't much (it had no electricity, indoor plumbing, or phone service) and the creek was small (mostly a few inches in depth and a few feet in width), but they brought various people together who would not have met otherwise. This is their story, woven together, much like God does with our life stories. They all share experiences of love and loss, but also the hope that comes from knowing the One who gives us life and the cabin at Kettle Creek. He is still on His throne, offering the good news of healing and wholeness to a broken world. It doesn't get any better than that, for the characters in the book and for us.

In Benjamin Franklin's words, "if you can keep it" loom large before us as one thing after another tests this nation's ability to long endure, Covid 19 being the latest. Social media tends to make us think that we are not enough, that we are too divided and self-centered to continue to form a more perfect Union. While not ignoring the issues before our government and the private sector, this book believes that our nation and its people have what it takes to keep our sovereignty, to be both competent and compassionate citizens, and to continue to achieve the American Dream. The author and illustrator challenge us to think about our government, its role in our lives, suggestions to improve it, and our part in making sure it is secure for future generations. As they do so, we are introduced to a group of high school students who did their part to improve our government, the study of it, and public high school education; and to the story of The Pod, whose civil discourse rivals that of the Founding Fathers, and who refuse to let the divisiveness, hatred, and negativity of this world have the final say - for their families, for each other, and for this nation.