Copyright by James Carlson
Government run public education has been failing both the students and the parents for decades largely because the Teacher’s Unions (TUs) have been running the show. The movement to leave public education began at least 4 decades ago and renewed interest in leaving the insanity of today’s public school curriculum is opening new doors for private education, especially for home schools. New developments in the homeschool movement has led more professional resources for the home schoolers. And as changes are coming for public schools (reaction to Covid, Gender Dysphoria, etc), its time the government run institutions of public education adapt to the models of homeschooling. The home school movement has gone pro and so too should you.
I do not have children but I worked with homeschool families to provide the homeschool library at my local church 3 decades ago. Homeschool families have to buy their own curriculum, readers, and other teaching materials, which is very expensive. Not only do parents have to sacrifice a dual income as one parent reserves their free time for the education of their children at home, the cost of homeschooling can be prohibitive without the benefit of their tax dollars that are spent on other children in public education. Building a homeschool library for families to share their used materials will reduce the cost for all in a coop environment. I encourage any group of homeschoolers to expand their efforts to include shared resources.
I remember 30 years ago talking with a public-school teacher who worked a regular weekly schedule at a house where she taught children in a homeschool environment. Five families pooled their financial resources together to pay for her salary and teaching materials. She was a fully accredited school teacher and she taught their children in a room set aside in one house with a rotational schedule of parents proctoring the students throughout the week. This is a model of homeschooling that can be applied anywhere in the U.S.
Homeschool is nothing new and it has a history of enduring political attacks from government (Teacher’s Union) activists. I have been involved in helping this movement for at least 3 decades. Two decades ago, I was a writer and President with the Texian Christian Writers (TCW). We wrote historical readers for children in homeschools showing them the Hand of God in Texas History. We had many public school teachers in our organization, some of whom helped to improve the curriculum of Texas history statewide. Groups of teachers, historians, writers nationwide should continue to form organizations dedicated to providing children with relevant and accurate historical readers. This aspect of the home school movement cannot be ignored as God’s Hand is witnessed in every culture, community, and country.
TCW also had a focus to create supplementals to public and private school curriculum. Whether children are being taught in public or private/home schools, having supplemental curriculum will aid in presenting issues that public schools cannot because of the TUs (creationism, sex education from a Christian worldview, science as tool of discovery and application vs the religion of evolution, etc). Having supplementals for public, private, and homeschools will aid in the education of children at the direction of parents and not the public school (TU) system. Credit should be granted to children in all schools with their work on done on supplementals each semester. TCW had members who worked on these projects.
Forty years ago, I was enrolled in a Church school where college level Christian education was provided using a homeschool model. This was an early example of using the homeschool model for teaching at a higher level than grade schools. College education has gone into distance learning and for a time, I was enrolled in Georgia Tech’s Master’s program on Computer Science (I left the program after my mother passed away). Using the homeschool model, with adaptive schedules of completing learning modules, using the tools of distance learning, all can combine to provide accredited education for college students after they graduate the High School level to get their higher degrees.
After witnessing the creation of small coops for homeschools as noted above, larger systems of private education can be based upon the same models. Dozens of families can create similar systems of private education where instruction is lead by qualified teachers and parental monitors. The purpose is not to dismiss the public system of education or teachers but the TUs who dismiss the role of parents in education. It has long been time for families to quit the government run public school system but we need to keep in mind a simple truth: government run public schools should not go away; just the Teacher’s Unions.
As the homeschool movement goes pro, public schools need to embrace this movement too. There are many families who could benefit from a government run homeschool system that can compete or supplement academically with the private homeschool systems. Having curriculum, textbooks, teachers, etc. working with home school children in providing distance learning, with parents present as proctors will provide for public school teachers who want to continue to work within the public school system, will provide for families who no longer want to be in the public schools dominated by Teacher’s Unions, and improve upon the education of children overall.
Distance learning during the Covid crisis failed because students were often left without parental oversight (proctoring). The lessons learned during this crisis often lead some to dismiss distance learning entirely. Instead of trashing the failures, let’s learn from the mistakes and capitalize on the opportunities before us. Having an adaptive set of curriculum that parents may select for each age group of students, having a public school teacher head each of several distance learning classes, having parents (one or more) providing discipline for learning at the local level will provide for improved learning for all.
The teacher dinosaurs (to include but not exclusive to TUs) who do not want to participate with any changes to the public education system can continue to stay seated while the rest of America explores innovative approaches to learning based upon homeschool models. For those who want to go to school in government run public schools, let them; for those who want to continue to teach in these environments, let them; for those who want alternatives that utilize their tax dollars for distance learning (parents, teachers, and students), let them. Competition will improve all aspects of education.
Student scores provides continued proof that homeschooling can work and is more often than not superior to public education. And with the crippling, mind bending, insanity that comes from the TUs today, it is time for families to opt out of the TU (PU) curriculum, etc. Homeschooling has been in development for decades and has reached a level of professionalism that not only competes with public schools, it beats them regularly. If the object is education, then let’s facilitate at the private and public levels new and improved systems of education based upon the homeschool model. Homeschools have gone Pro. Its time you do too!
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