education Archives - Page 2 of 2

Education is Too Important Not to Leave to the Marketplace

by Ron Paul – Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity:

This week, events around the country will highlight the importance of parental control of education as part of National School Choice Week. This year’s events should attract more attention than prior years because of the growing rebellion against centralized education sparked by the federal Common Core curriculum.

The movement against Common Core has the potential to change American education. However, anti-Common Core activists must not be misled by politicians promoting “reforms” of the federal education bureaucracy, or legislation ending Common Core while leaving all other federal education programs intact. The only way to protect American children from future Common Core-like programs is to permanently padlock the Department of Education.

Federal programs providing taxpayer funds to public schools give politicians and bureaucrats leverage to impose federal mandates on schools. So as long as federal education programs exist, school children will be used as guinea pigs for federal bureaucrats who think they are capable of creating a curriculum suitable for every child in the country.

Supporters of federal education mandates say they are necessary to hold schools “accountable.” Of course schools should be accountable, but accountable to whom?

Several studies, as well as common sense, show that greater parental control of education improves education quality. In contrast, bureaucratic control of education lowers education quality. Therefore, the key to improving education is to make schools accountable to parents, not bureaucrats.

The key to restoring parental control is giving parents control of the education dollar. If parents control the education dollar, school officials will strive to meet the parents’ demand that their children receive a quality education. If the federal government controls the education dollar, schools will bow to the demands of Congress and the Department of Education.

So if Congress was serious about improving education it would shut down the Department of Education. It would also shut down all other unconstitutional bureaucracies, end our interventionist foreign policy, and reform monetary policy so parents would have the resources to provide their children with an education that fits their children’s unique needs. Federal and state lawmakers must also repeal any laws that limit the education alternatives parents can choose for their children. The greater the options parents have and the greater the amount of control they exercise over education, the stronger the education system.

These reforms would allow more parents access to education options such as private or religious schools, and also homeschooling. It would also expand the already growing market in homeschooling curriculums. I know a great deal about the homeschooling curriculum market, as I have my own homeschooling curriculum. The Ron Paul Curriculum provides students with a rigorous program of study in history, economics, mathematics, and the physical and natural sciences. It also provides intensive writing instruction and an opportunity for students to operate their own Internet businesses. Of course, my curriculum provides students with an introduction to the ideas of liberty, including Austrian economics. However, we do not sacrifice education quality for ideological indoctrination.

It is no coincidence that as the federal role in education has increased the quality of our education system has declined. Any “reforms” to federal education programs will not fix the fundamental flaw in the centralized model of education. The only way to improve education is to shut down the Department of Education and restore control of education to those with the greatest ability and incentive to choose the type of education that best meets the needs of American children — American parents.

Article originally posted at The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.

Charting Your Homeschool Course

by Vicki Bentley – HSLDA:

When I mention the word curriculum, what comes to mind? Most of us think of books. While your studies will surely include books, the word curriculum simply means “course of study” (its root translates from the French courir, “to run,” and Latin counterparts). Think of your curriculum as the road map for your homeschool journey.

Now, a little secret about maps and me: I am hopelessly geographically challenged. I have been known to call my husband on my cell phone from the parking garage of the state convention, unable to find an exit—even after 11 years at the same facility. Not long ago, I got lost for 20 minutes, a mile from my own house—after four years at the same address.

So if I called you for directions, you’d probably ask me where I am now and where I want to go, so you could help me figure out the best way to get from here to there. Similarly, in mapping out your homeschool course, you must determine where you are now, where you plan to go, then ascertain the best way to get from here to there (lest you be “lost in the parking garage” of homeschooling). This can seem overwhelming, but don’t panic! Let’s take a “rest stop” to determine your philosophy of education, which will guide you on the rest of your journey.

Why are you homeschooling?

Is this something you feel “called” to do, or are you “trying it out” for a year? This will steer your curriculum choices somewhat. If you are planning to put your child into public school in the near future, you may want to use a fairly conservative approach, possibly a pre-packaged curriculum (maybe a correspondence course), or you may want to compare your customized curriculum to the grade-level standards of learning for your state. For placement (knowing where to begin), determine what your child already knows versus what is covered in the material. Just because he is a first-grader doesn’t mean he has to be constrained to covering first grade reading skills again if he is already reading well above grade level.

(Note: If you are removing a child from a conventional school setting and you have a concern that he is not up to the cognitive levels indicated by his grade level, you may wish to have him take a standardized test or have him evaluated in some way to provide a baseline for you. That way, at the end of the year, you have a starting point against which to evaluate his progress.)

If you are committed to homeschooling for at least several years, you will have more latitude in your choices, since you will be responsible for setting the long-term standards for your child’s education. What is your concept of an education? What skills, knowledge, and/or experience will your child need in order for you to consider him ready to be on his own? If you can’t think that far ahead right this moment, at least consider what you want him to have accomplished by the end of this year. These goals should be measurable—how will you know when they have been accomplished? Discuss with your spouse and your child (if appropriate) how these objectives fit into the “big picture” of his future.

This is also a good time to set some goals for yourself and your family in general. As you choose activities and curriculum for your children, evaluate these against the goals you have set for this year. Will this activity move you closer to your stated objective? Is a good activity or book or class keeping you from having time to do what is best? Maybe it is something that can wait until another time.

Will you use a packaged curriculum to get started? Or will you choose various books and games that fit into your plan? Are there some subjects that you can teach to all the children at one time in a multi-level approach? Do you prefer the security and continuity of a traditional textbook approach, or do you like the idea of an integrated unit study approach? Maybe the patriotism of the principle approach excites you, or possibly your maternal instincts go into overdrive when you read about Charlotte Mason’s gentler approach to learning. As you read, you may find that the classical approach sounds like what you equate with homeschooling, or maybe you are attracted to the relaxed approach of studying what is of interest in your family at the moment. Feel free to borrow and re-arrange from all these different approaches; they are not mutually exclusive. That’s one of the wonderful benefits of homeschooling—you can create a custom curriculum!

There is no one “right” way to homeschool, no “perfect” curriculum. What works for one family may not be the best for another, or what works for you one year with one child may not work for the next. Don’t compare your children to the support group leader’s children or your friend’s children; compare your family only to God’s ideal for your family.

Have a great time along the way, and be prepared for an incredible journey!

Article originally posted at HSLDA.org.

Crafting a World-Class Education

submitted by jwithrow.

Journal of a Wayward Philosopher
Crafting a World-Class Education

January 9, 2015
Hot Springs, VA

The S&P opened at $2,063 today. Gold is up to $1,214 per ounce. Oil is still just under $49 per barrel. Bitcoin is flat at 287 per BTC, and the 10-year Treasury rate opened at 2.00% once again today.

Keep an eye on the oil patch – that’s where the interesting action will be as we move into 2015. Losses will start to crop up if the price of oil remains flat for any extended period of time. Most of the U.S. shale boom has been financed by debt, not equity. We can expect some of these losses to show up in the bond market as repayment becomes difficult at current prices.

But it won’t be quite that simple. Financing oil exploration also involves swap contracts and derivatives which are then packaged, moved, and sold. This means that some losses may not be borne by the oil companies but rather move over to the bank. But the banks are just middlemen so many of the swap contracts very well may have been sold to institutional investors such as exchange-traded funds. No one knows exactly where the risks are so discovering where the losses pop up if oil remains flat will be much like playing whack-a-mole.

Yesterday we discussed why the public school system fails and we decided the best thing for a concerned parent to do is opt out.

But then what? Most of us have gone through the public school system so we are accustomed to the rigid top-down model of education.

Do we look to private schools? Some of them probably offer a service that is superior to the public school system but they are still based on the authoritarian “gymnasium” model and they probably use the same politically-correct textbooks. And they are expensive! As mentioned yesterday, the Sudbury Valley Schools are an exception as they do not employ the “gymnasium” model. If you live close to one of these schools then that may be a great option.

For the rest of us, we are on the frontier – it’s up to us to craft a world-class homeschool program. To do so we must first understand what education is. The word educate stems from the Latin word ‘educo’ which means “to bring up; to draw out”. You see, education is not about teaching; it is about learning. There is only learning. We’ve had it backwards for quite some time now.

An individual’s education actually begins the moment they are born; and maybe even the moment they are conceived. At birth, infants are completely helpless. Within twelve months’ time they have learned to follow objects with their eyes, move their appendages, hold their head up, coo and chuckle, roll from side to side, grasp objects in their hands, laugh, sit up, play with multiple objects, crawl, stand, and maybe even say a few words.

Within twenty four months’ time that same infant has learned to walk and play, climb stairs, color with crayons, use gestures, and use several words together intelligibly.

Within sixty months’ time the infant has learned how to move freely throughout the house, use sentences with nouns, verbs, and modifiers, recognize colors, recognize his or her own name, age, and gender, play with other children, communicate with adults, write his or her name, and to feed him or herself.

That is an amazing amount of development within a short period time! And guess what? There is no system in place mandating or forcing the infant to absorb any of this. The infant learns all of these essential items on his or her own with the guidance of parents and trusted adults.

In crafting a homeschool program it is important to allow this natural education to continue uninhibited. The curriculum chosen should supplement this natural education; it should not take the place of it.

The development of technology has, for the first time in history, made access to quality supplemental curriculum free to everyone with a computer and an internet connection. One can go online and read essays or view lectures on any subject imaginable. There are millions of articles and countless books available to read online at no cost to you. The Ludwig von Mises Institute’s web site offers the entire manuscript of many great books in the fields of Austrian Economics and the philosophy of Liberty absolutely free. The Ron Paul Curriculum offers K-12 curriculum completely online including a platform for students to interact with each other.

This type of technology is unprecedented in human history! Technology is not only liberating education from the confines of centralized authority, but it is doing so at a greatly reduced cost. It is completely possible for enterprising parents to supplement their child’s natural education with a world-class curriculum for pennies compared to what the public school system costs.

If you venture down this path be sure to familiarize yourself with the Homeschool Legal Defense Association as well as your state’s laws regarding homeschooling. And always keep the big picture in mind.

Education is not about indoctrinating children to think the same things we think. It’s not about taking up all of a child’s free time to keep him out of trouble. It’s not about “beating” other countries on standardized tests. It’s not about setting a child up to get into the best college or to secure a high-powered desk job.

Education is individual in nature. Children, free to discover and pursue their own passions, will learn so much more on their own than they ever could in a classroom. And they will grow into self-governing and self-driven adults capable of thriving in an ever-changing world.

More to come,

Joe Withrow
Wayward Philosopher

For more of Joe’s thoughts on homeschooling and educational alternatives please read “The Individual is Rising” which is available at http://www.theindividualisrising.com/. The book is also available on Amazon in both paperback and Kindle editions.

Why the Public School System Fails

submitted by jwithrow.

Journal of a Wayward Philosopher
Why the Public School System Fails

January 8, 2015
Hot Springs, VA

The S&P opened at $2,036 today. Gold is checking in at $1,212 per ounce. Oil opened just under $49 per barrel. Bitcoin is trading hands at 286 per BTC, and the 10-year Treasury rate opened at 2.00% today.

The markets have kicked off 2015 with some healthy volatility! The S&P has dipped as low as $1,985 only to bounce back up. Oil has drifted as low as $47, bringing energy stocks down with it. The 10-year rate has dipped below 2% and threatened to drift lower. Bitcoin has fallen below $300 for the first time since 2013 and gold has climbed as high as $1,221.

Last month we contemplated raising children in the modern world and we decided compulsory education was not, in our humble opinion, in the student’s best interest. We reckoned that for any real learning to occur the student would have to be free to engage a topic of their own choice and then have the space to inspect, poke, jab, nudge, kick, and maybe even dance with that topic on their own timeline. Of course this method is the exact opposite of what is employed by the compulsory public school system that says the student must learn this topic in this way on this timeline with this grading scale and he better not interact with his neighbor while doing so.

As always, it is a minority position we take on the important matters of child-rearing and education. Perhaps this is why we had such an affinity for “Don Quixote” as a youngster. While the public school system is accepted as “normal” today, it is important to understand its origin.

The current public school system model was founded in Germany in the 1800s. The Germans called their model the “gymnasium” system and it was organized in part by the German military. This system separated students by grade and limited their interaction with students of differing ages. The intent was to foster a robust bond between the boys for they would be expected to train and fight together in the military as adults. Sure enough, this system created fiercely loyal soldiers.

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic in America, students were either educated at home or in small groups that were not separated by age. Individualized education in America was less geared towards memorizing facts and figures and more geared towards fundamental reading/writing/arithmetic, common sense, and self-confidence.

Age diversity helped older students develop responsibility and leadership skills by guiding the younger students along. Younger students got the benefit of both adult tutelage and guidance from the older kids. While seemingly a small point, having two distinct perspectives on the same topic goes a long way towards fostering critical thinking. Peter Gray, in Free to Learn, discussed this very dynamic as he observed students in Sudbury Valley School.

America began moving towards the German “gymnasium” model after the Civil War with the political class using force to move the shift along. Massachusetts passed the first compulsory school attendance law in 1852 and all states had compulsory school attendance laws on the books by 1918. Reading the work of John Dewey, one of the leading educators in 20th century America, provides troubling insight into why the shift was facilitated.

“The mere absorbing of facts and truths is so exclusively individual an affair that it tends very naturally to pass into selfishness. There is no obvious social motive for the acquirement of mere learning, there is no clear social gain in success thereat.”

The political objective was the centralization and control of education in order to reduce the American spirit of individualism and make students more malleable and group-oriented. John Taylor Gatto expanded upon the political shift of American education in his books Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling and The Underground History of American Education: A School Teacher’s Intimate Investigation Into the Problem of Modern Schooling.

History and political motives aside, Gatto also outlined and then expanded upon several points that demonstrate how the public school system is “dumbing us down”. They are as follows:

1. It confuses the students. It presents an incoherent ensemble of information that the child needs to memorize to stay in school. Apart from the tests and trials that programming is similar to the television, it fills almost all the “free” time of children. One sees and hears something, only to forget it again.
2. It teaches them to accept their class affiliation.
3. It makes them indifferent.
4. It makes them emotionally dependent.
5. It makes them intellectually dependent.
6. It teaches them a kind of self-confidence that requires constant confirmation by experts (provisional self-esteem).
7. It makes it clear to them that they cannot hide, because they are always supervised.

Gatto’s points refer to the public school system itself; not to the individuals working within the system. Most school employees at the local level are well-intentioned and work hard to improve the quality of their school. But they are forced to operate within the confines of the gymnasium system and they are forced to use government-approved politically-correct textbooks. More money will not change this dynamic, it will only further empower the Department of Education and impoverish the public.

So what is a concerned parent to do? Opt out!

Until the morrow,

Joe Withrow
Wayward Philosopher

Homeschooling: The Future of Liberty

by Daniel McAdams – Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity:

A common feature of authoritarian regimes is the criminalization of alternatives to government-controlled education. Dictators recognize the danger that free thought poses to their rule, and few things promote the thinking of “unapproved” thoughts like an education controlled by parents instead of the state. That is why the National Socialist (Nazi) government of Germany outlawed homeschooling in 1938.

Sadly, these Nazi-era restrictions on parental rights remain the law in Germany, leaving parents who wish greater control over their children’s education without options. That is why in 2006 Uwe and Hannalore, Romeike a German couple who wanted to homeschool their three children for religious reasons, sought asylum in the United States. Immigration judge Lawrence Burman upheld their application for asylum, recognizing that the freedom of parents to homeschool was a “basic human right.”

Unfortunately, the current US administration does not see it that way, and has announced that it is appealing Judge Burman’s decision. If the administration is successful, the Romeikes could be sent back to Germany where they will be forced to send their children to schools whose teaching violates their religious beliefs. If they refuse, they face huge fines, jail time, or even the loss of custody of their children!

The Administration’s appeal claims that the federal government has the constitutional authority to ban homeschooling in all fifty states. The truth is, the Constitution gives the federal government no power to control any aspect of education. Furthermore, parents who, like the Romeikes, have a religious motivation for homeschooling should be protected by the free exercise clause of the First Amendment.

The federal government’s hostility to homeschooling is shared by officials at all levels of government. Despite the movement’s success in legalizing homeschooling in every state, many families are still subjected to harassment by local officials. The harassment ranges from “home visits” by child protective agencies to criminal prosecution for violating truancy laws.

Every American who values liberty should support the homeschoolers’ cause. If the government can usurp parental authority over something as fundamental as the education of their children, there is almost no area of parenthood off limits to government interference.

Homeschooling has proven to be an effective means of education. We are all familiar with the remarkable academic achievements, including in national spelling bees and other competitions, by homeshcooled children. In addition, homeschooled students generally fare better than their public school educated peers on all measures of academic performance.

It makes sense that children do better when their education is controlled by those who know their unique needs best, rather than by a federal bureaucrat. A strong homeschooling movement may also improve other forms of education. If competition improves goods and services in other areas of life, why wouldn’t competition improve education? A large and growing homeschooling movement could inspire public and private schools to innovate and improve.

When the government interferes with a parent’s ability to choose the type of education that is best for their child, it is acting immorally and in manner inconsistent with a free society. A government that infringes on the rights of homeschooling will eventually infringe on the rights of all parents. Homeschooled children are more likely to embrace the philosophy of freedom, and to join the efforts to restore liberty. In fact, I would not be surprised if the future leaders of the liberty movement where homeschooled.

I believe so strongly in the homeschooling movement that I have just announced my own curriculum for homeschooling families. Please visit this revolutionary new project at http://www.ronpaulcurriculum.com

Article originally posted at The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.

On the National Debt

submitted by jwithrow.

Journal of a Wayward Philosopher
On the National Debt

October 7, 2014
Hot Springs, VA

The S&P is down to $1,953, gold is up to $1,212, oil is up to $89, bitcoin is up to $330, and the 10-year is down to 2.38%.

Looks like the 10-year Treasury rate is still well-corralled for the moment. And gold is still on sale.

Yesterday we examined a few of the traps cleverly hidden for infants coming into the world at this time – prompted by wife Rachel and my expectations of a little girl named Madison set to begin her journey here on Earth within the next few days or weeks. Today let’s look at the overt trap that boldly claims the right to little Madison’s future earnings: the national debt.

It is popular today for politicians to speak out against the national debt and boldly claim that ‘we’ (they love this ‘we’ business) need to balance the government’s budget and begin to pay the debt down. This sounds great and people will vote for you for making such a statement, but there are two problems this leaves unaddressed – one based in economics and one based in morality.

First, the economic problem: the national debt is not $17.75 trillion as advertised. The national debt is actually closer to $200 trillion if you calculate it according to generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) which require you to record all future liabilities on your balance sheet. Most of these future liabilities that are not included in the official debt figure are Social Security and Medicare commitments. These future commitments are completely unfunded which means there exists no underlying revenue support and no asset backing. The only way these future commitments can be met is if enough money comes into the Social Security and Medicare programs versus going out. Demographics tell us that 10,000 Baby Boomers will retire EVERY SINGLE DAY for the next ten years, however, which suggests that a huge number of people are going to move from being contributors to these programs to recipients.

Oh, and both Social Security and Medicare already run annual deficits.

These politicians must be expecting quite a bit from my little Madison if they plan to balance the budget and pay down the debt with her future earnings.

But they don’t actually plan to balance the budget and pay down the debt. The simple fact is it can’t honestly be done without defaulting on the existing commitments in some capacity. There’s just too much debt and not enough production. Which leads us to the moral problem: this system is incredibly, unbelievably immoral.

Why should anyone be taxed and forced to pay for anything against their will? What kind of system assigns debt to infants from the moment they draw their first breath in this world? What kind of system incentivizes debt, dishonesty, consumption, and exploitation while punishing honesty and production?

My answer: a really bad one.

So did the economic problem lead to the moral problem or vice versa? I am not sure but history does suggest that dishonest fiat money seems to always undermine the morality and stability of society.

I will have more thoughts on that in a later entry. In the meantime be sure to order a copy of The Individual is Rising for a more in depth look at these economic problems, some financial strategies to prepare for the Great Reset, and more.

Focusing our attention back on the debt-trap: how best to prepare Maddie for life in a society that plans to confiscate her future earnings to pay for the immorality of earlier generations?

It is a shame that I have to spend any time at all on this question here in what is supposed to be the “Land of the Free”. The more I think about it, the more I become convinced that education is the key to preparing our children for the world that awaits them.

Not education of the public kind, however. It looks to me like the public schools are setting children up to be victims of the immoral System. The public school system fosters a herd mentality and requires students to subordinate themselves to “authority” at all times. Such an environment is not going to stimulate the creativity and self-confidence necessary to thrive in a society that expects the next generation to pay the debts of the previous. Instead, this method of education is going to condition students to happily embrace their servitude to the System as it pillages the fruits of their labor in the name of the “common good”.

Far better to create an individualized educational experience tailored to Madison’s unique skills and interests. Instead of forcing subjects upon her, why not let her guide her own education? Rachel and I will probably need to do most of the guiding in the early years, but I suspect Madison will be plenty capable of determining her own path as she grows and matures. Enabling self-education in this manner will certainly do a better job of preparing her for adult-hood than the government school system that conditions students to always seek guidance and permission from “experts” instead of trusting their own abilities.

Of course this self-education will need to be blended with social activities as well. Fortunately, one can find all manner of groups, clubs, and activities using a simple internet search these days so I don’t see this being much of a problem. What will Madison like to do? Dance? Aikido? Art? Music? Softball? All of the above?

The world will be her oyster…

More to come,

Joe Withrow
Wayward Philosopher

For more of Joe’s thoughts on the Great Reset and regaining individual sovereignty please read “The Individual is Rising” which is available at http://www.theindividualisrising.com. The book is also available on Amazon in both paperback and Kindle editions.