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The most recent release from the federally funded Nation’s Report Card shows that 40 percent of eighth graders lack even a basic understanding of US history, while only 14 percent are proficient or advanced in history. This score from 2022 showing so many students lack basic understanding is bad. It also indicates a continuation of a decline that started in 2018, the last time the score was previously reported.
This report should frighten everyone who wants to restore limited, constitutional government and a true free-market economy. Students who graduate high school without basic knowledge of how the government is supposed to work and why the drafters of the Constitution designed it the way they did, as well as the history of the US, are more likely to fall for the lies of authoritarian demagogues who promise economic and personal security in exchange for the people’s liberty.
Even scarier is the fact that many government schools have replaced history and civics with critical race theory, transgender ideology, and other forms of cultural Marxism. Contrary to claims of its defenders, opponents of critical race theory do not object to teaching students the truth about America’s racial history. Instead, critics object to teaching students that the free market is irredeemably racist and thus must be replaced by rule by the “woke.”
Similarly, critics of promoting transgender ideology in schools are not motivated by a desire to punish adults who decide they wish to identify as a different gender. Instead, the motivation is a desire to protect children from being exposed to these and similar topics at an inappropriate age. There are also legitimate concerns over allowing children to have life-altering gender reassignment medical treatments. How is it rational to tell a 13-year-old he cannot choose to have a beer but he can choose to alter his gender? And how is it rational or fair to allow boys to play on girls sports teams simply because the boys have switched pronouns?
The good news in all this madness is that it is encouraging more parents to look into alternatives to government schools such as homeschooling. I have long believed that future leaders of the liberty movement will come from the ranks of homeschoolers. This is a reason why I have started my own homeschool curriculum.
My Ron Paul Curriculum provides students with a well-rounded education that includes rigorous programs in history, mathematics, and the physical and natural sciences. The curriculum also provides instruction in personal finance. Students can develop superior communication skills via intensive writing and public speaking courses. Another feature of my curriculum is that it provides students the opportunity to create and run their own businesses.
The government and history sections of the curriculum emphasize free-market economics, libertarian political theory, and the history of liberty. However, unlike government schools, my curriculum never puts ideological indoctrination ahead of education.
Interactive forums ensure students are engaged in their education and that they have the opportunity to interact with their peers outside of a formal setting.
I encourage all parents looking at alternatives to government schools — alternatives that provide children with a well-rounded education that introduces them to the history and ideas of liberty without sacrificing education for indoctrination — to go to RonPaulCurriculum.com for more information about my homeschooling program.
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I will repeat something I wrote long ago…
Just because the USA has – for now – a homeschooling option, unlike, e.g., Germany, doesn’t mean the State can’t turn homeschoolers’ lives into Hell… by, for instance, ‘tweaking’ the current Law to compel parents to educamate their children into ‘classics’ like Robin DiAngelo’s “White Fragility” and Ibram X. Kendi’s “How to Be an Antiracist”, etc.
No, Dr Paul. The REAL ‘key’ to preserving (relative) Liberty is:
An all-White country without Women’s Suffrage.
At least now there is Home Schooling!
The most recent release from the federally funded Nation’s Report Card shows that 40 percent of eighth graders lack even a basic understanding of US history, while only 14 percent are proficient or advanced in history.
Let alone world history :/ There are American university students who don’t know about the world wars or our revolution in 1776. Many American schools are irredeemably broken and a complete waste of time. I was incredibly lucky to get a decent education in the Montana public school system before the woke crusades. We even had a full concert band in our rinky dink little town. I played the trumpet from the 5th grade.
Libertarianiam has some downsides but many of your points are quite valid. Unlike most libertarians I don’t see free markets and no regulation as a cure all, however it seems better than our current system.
I always enjoy your commentary Dr. Paul. Its at least productive and pushes the conversation where it needs to go. Good luck with your homeschool program! I hope it works well. Our kids need a fighting chance!
when i think about the history i was taught as a boy, most of which was his story, with history being what ever big brother said it was, no matter what he said last week.
homeschool is the answer but trading one form of propaganda for another, defeats the entire purpose of homeschooling in my opinion.
i swapped roles with my then wife, coming home, to homeschool and care for my son, while she ran the business (into the ground). in the end it was well worth the sacrifice and the time i spent with him, was some of the happiest times of my life. at the time homeschooling was still controversial and people would ask me, aren’t you afraid that you won’t be able to give him a proper education? i would always respond by saying, why would you want to put your child into a system, that so failed you, that you couldn’t teach an elementary school student? the story starting changing when people saw the results of homeschooling in their performance vs their public school peers in collegiate studies. homeschooling is the answer from many different directions and for many reasons.
The real goal should be to empower parents to determine the curriculum and values for their children’s education. Home schooling is just one way to do that, and not necessarily the best way. Private schools that answer to the parents who pay the tuition would accomplish this. Public schools that were accountable to a locally elected school board would accomplish this.
Our problem is that the federal government controls all our private and public institutions, and a handful of oligarchs and parasitic elites control the federal government. Democracy and self-government by the people are dead in the US. Home-schooling is a way to avoid the control of these elites, but it doesn’t break their control, which is what we ultimately need to do.
“Homeschooling” really just means AWAY FROM A SHITLIB RUN MADHOUSE.
Even the best traditional schools are being ruined, and the worst threat to a child’s education is LOW COMPANY. INTEGRATION IS TOTALLY OPPOSED TO THE MOST BASIC PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION.
There’s nothing restricting a homeschooled child from attending any sort of voluntary course, lesson, tutoring session, or engaging in apprenctice-type training. In short, “HOMESCHOOLING” does not actually mean pretending that the home is a school or its equivalent. While parents, siblings and close relatives are undoubtedly some of the best people to carry out the task of educating children, there is nothing inherent of the “SCHOOL” in this teaching. There doesn’t really have to be.
Unfortunately, children are less and less disciplined by parents with the level of attention and care that is needed, because the parents rely on the schoolmarms backed by the police to watch and feed their children. That and electronic devices.
The reflexive and instinctive reliance on the schools is fundamentally the mark of incompetent and lazy parents. Parents who support and send their children to public schools should be forced to do corvee labor to support the education of those who eschew the system, as punishment for their unfitness as parents.
Picasso famously said that he had to learn to paint people with two eyes and one nose before he could paint people with one eye and two noses. Back in the day (way, way back) when I was in public school the teachers were not rocket scientists, but they did not need to be. The were teaching the two-eyes-one-nose things, and they were fantastic at this. Almost all students were proficient or better at reading, math, civics, and everything else. Those days are gone now for the public schools. The teachers would never put up with it and the students would never put up with it. Too bad.
No, the key is to go back to handing control over to local school boards and parents.
Which then means that students do not get a standard education. Some will get much better and some much worse, depending on where they live. Is that fair? I say no.
I was with you until the last two sentences. What did you intend “The teachers would never put up with it and the students would never put up with it. Too bad.” to mean?
80% of the people seem to be dumber than a log. How can they be expected to properly teach kids at home? Teach them what? To read a bible and believe what is written is real?
Standard Education? Decided by Politian’s based upon who contributed the most to their election.
Result – everyone get a poor to mediocre education.
Fascist Academies are the solution
Our “7th grader” (by age) is enrolled in the engineering program at the local university. Our “6th grader” is finishing up High School.
The first boy is effectively on full scholarship. The second will be too, thank God.
We were shocked how easy it was to blow the government schools out of the water. We did not see why we had to wait until age 6. Ours were reading by age 2.
After that, the kids just did what they were interested in. One was math and science, and the other was mechanics and process technology.
A month ago we decided to finally bring them into the “official” school systems so the first boy took the college entrance exams and that’s why they admitted him to the University.
The second isn’t quite ready for college at age 12 so he is going to do finish a year of “accredited” high school first. We found a correspondence school that would let him place according to his academic level instead of his age.
They’ve been working as independent contractors, and they never make less than $50/hour. Some mechanical work, some heavy equipment contracting on our bulldozer and excavator.
They own seven snowmobiles, three ATV’s, a car, a boom truck, and have a safety deposit box they are stuffing with gold coins. The only thing I owned at 12 was a bicycle.
It’s great to be able to read and participate in a Ron Paul thread again without that little love-fest that took up all the space under recent columns (not that I didn’t agreed with them for the most part).
For the naysayers of Home Schooling, I have a few things to say:
1) There are parents who wouldn’t do a good job at it. Single Black! Moms and many Hispanics who don’t care about education won’t. However, they are part of the reason for the problems at the government schools, as their kids drag down everyone else. Let the market work its magic.
2) Once the kids can read, it’s a matter of providing the right material to them – I would trust Dr. Paul’s curriculum, most ESPECIALLY when it comes to history and civics. (John Birch Society material would be a close 2nd.) They can learn in 3 hours what the government schools take all day for.
3) A “standard education” means the government gets to decide what your kids learn. I don’t want that. Dr. Paul’s curriculum is one of many, and parents can pick and choose and/or add their own. That’s a real Free Market in childhood education!
That’s pretty impressive, B.B., but let me advise you and your children against the safety deposit box thing. When the SHTF, you will have NO access to that, right when you need it.
You mentioned you have an excavator – those dig holes, if you get my drift. ;-}
Our public schools were originally largely copied from the Prussian school system and are not really suitable for a free society. They weren’t needed because there was already widespread literacy in the United States. Common Sense by Thomas Paine, for example, had sold over a hundred thousand copies in a nation of 2.5 million and was widely passed from hand to hand.
The public schools became worse in the 2oth century under the malign influence of the socialist John Dewey and his progressive educational movement. This encouraged group projects and discouraged reading and thinking about what one had read. Phonics was dropped and the whole word reading method was adopted. I couldn’t learn to read in the early sixties using that method and my first-grade teacher wanted to hold me back a year. My mother thought that would attach a negative stigma to me that would follow me all through school and refused. She taught me phonics on her own and bought me more interesting books than the insipid Dick and Jane books. Eleven years later I scored in the top 6% on the verbal part of my SAT test.
The government run public schools continued to deteriorate. They are a major factor why the average person is not intelligent enough to figure out that control of the country has been captured by a combination of special interests and is run for their benefit. Our overlords are happy this is the situation. However, they are so greedy and stupid that they are running the country into the ground. Average people are starting to figure out that our current governing elites are causing the rapidly accelerating decline of this country. We will see an increasing number of populist movements in the future trying to dislodge the Washington Uniparty from power. Pat Buchanan, the Tea Party movement and Trump were just the beginning.
Err……why don’t we just just “cut to the chase”, Ron ? :
Reality Fact:
There is _NOTHING_ in the US constitution that gives the federal government the power/right to be involved in education in any way, or form whatsoever!
Therefor I say:
“We’ve got to start us a new revolution
And get back to the old constitution
We’ve got to stand up and fight for the whole Bill of Rights
Its time to start over again”
Song: “New Revolution”:
Video Link
Regards, onebornfree
https://onebornfree-mythbusters.blogspot.com/
https://onebornfreesfinancialsafetyreports.blogspot.com/
Sorry, but they were not “copied” from Germany. They were set up by the sort of people who took people like the Suffragettes and Prohibitionists seriously.
Home schooling is a Fairy Tale concept, that is most available for upper income families (where a parent does not need to work, or may hire a tutor – Aristotle for Alexander).
Public Schools have a place in society. It depends on how they are utilized.
1. We paid close attention to what was taught to our children. Occasionally visited their teachers.
2. We taught other topics at home. A. Another language.
B. Extra reading (books).
3. Our children participated in School sports. Track, Soccer, Swimming.
Out of school-Boxing, archery, shooting, construction work.
4. Our children were not allowed to go on DATES, until they finished High School. Other parents (who had lost control of their children at the children’s age of 5), asked how we achieved/enforced such a policy. Our answer was one word: SHOTGUN.
Through High School, our children were so busy with education, sports, & other activities, that they had little time available to get into trouble. Upon entering Higher Education, our children were HEALTHY, STRONG, & able to make healthy decisions on their own. *They lost no time in making up for lost time in the area of (saying this politely), social interactions.
Statesman Ron Paul‘s political weakness is in the sphere of economy. It is only when he ran for the Presidency, that he decided he would not eliminate Social Security. He would just; (& I paraphrase) ‘ensure that it was properly apportioned for Elderly Retireds who needed it – in order to survive.’
The Real Issue:
The decisions facing our citizenry are of the most serious kind. Do we Return the Bullets of November 22, 1963, or not? Do we identify the elephant in the room, the MOSSAD, who terrorizes our ‘political leaders’ and controls our Puppet Government, our Country, from top to bottom?
We cannot vote our way out of this. [or change the subject]
Do we fight, or remain SLAVES forever? Do we, or do we not, Restore our Republic, that was destroyed in a hail of bullets (along with our last Constitutional president, John F. Kennedy), on November 22, 1963.
**Ron Paul – Do you have any advice beyond old ‘conservative’ shibboleths?
The Talk of the Town Trailer Estates Park Sociology Round Table opines as follows:
Granny Yiddell (bitter retiree) – All homeschoolers end up shy and unfortunate kids. Look at Jabber, he’s a freakin’ shut-in.
Mother (mother of a homeschooler) – I tried to homeschool Jabber, now he won’t leave the park. I don’t recommend it.
Jabber (shut-in) – Homeschooling is child abuse. It turns you into a shut-in like me.
Father O’Hair (wannabe priest) – Students need to interact with each other. The personal computer is the Devil’s Toy. In between periods, the homeschoolers are net surfing for porn and like subjects.
Bozero (Latino clown) – Don’t end up like Jabber, he is a LOSER!
Fiona (party fun lady) – You don’t learn nothing never at home. Look that was a triple negative. At least, I know Jabber, though he’s a loser.
Underaged teens could date → https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaperone_(social)
If there’s any good news on the horizon, the very fact that white liberal progressives were the ones that promoted the covid shots the most with almost 100% of them taking them, I don’t think most of them will be around much longer. According to the Guardian newspaper, 91% of Democrat party members have taken at least one shot while only 60% of Republicans have.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/17/counties-voted-trump-higher-covid-death-rate
“Home schooling is a Fairy Tale concept”
All education begins at home and for most of human history that was the extent of it for the majority of the population. It is only limited by the intellect and financial means of the parents and the availability of circles of people who homeschool around them. The people who say otherwise because they’re proud of supporting the school system (ignorant people) know they are lying. The school system is based on a pack of lies. The schools do not respect parents and can hardly be considered answerable to them. The schools collect rent on your property to enforce their will on your children through most of the day. Schools have more authority over children than parents, in many respects. People who believe the school day plus sports and a job (in construction, no less how old were these kids!) is the essence of a good education and preparation for life are one of the chief reasons for the ruin of the Western World.
It would be better to have regulated child labor, than to ruin the education of the intelligent in the school system as is done now. Working in that blacking factory was important for Charles Dickens.
Homeschooling through most of the school years for most children is the norm for many families (the numbers are large), widespread among many groups of people.
So why call it a “fairy tale?”
1. The Historic FACT: Home Schooling is a Fairy Tale for the overwhelming majority of Families, – – – who send their children to Public, or Parochial, or other variety of Private schools.
This is the reality. Deal with it!
2, A few upper income families Home School. Only a relative few. Deal with it.
3. Obviously, All families teach their children SOMETHING while they are at home. The Truth is, Almost ALL send them to one of a variety of public/private schools.
This is the reality. Deal with it.
You reveal yourself, especially your moral values, Mr. Rothschild:
So you advocate “child labor” for the sans culottes, and home education for “the intelligent.” For you, and many others, the discussion of “Homeschooling” is a class issue. And for you, the interests of the wealthy & powerful Oligarchs are paramount.
You might even break the Teachers’ Union while you are at it. Get those salaries and benefits – DOWN! No more public schools: No more taxes on the rich, No more teachers, —-JUST MORE MONEY for the Military Financial Complex, for the War Against Russia, for the Zionist Entity, and for Big Pharma.
At best, you are a prime example of someone who advertises (and actually believes) a Fairy Tale. Worse: You might even understand the unbalanced Fairy Tale you are endorsing. I doubt it.
Homeschooling reduces the amount of poisonous propaganda your kids get. But it is hardly enough to preserve liberty: you cannot preserve a snowball in the middle of Hell.
Thanks for putting on your shitlib hat, so everyone understands where you’re coming from.
No, it’s not a fairy tale, but it’s not fair to the single moms, negroes, illiterate immigrants from south of the border. It’s not the preserve of the “upper income.” (by whatever skewed definition the shitlibs have for that) It’s your job as a white normal person to send your children to school with them and have your child’s education ruined! Got it!
It was better for Charles Dickens to work in a blacking factory, as bad as it was, than to work in the sort of school today’s shitlibs would provide for the equivalent student today. Charles Dickens youngest son was unwanted, he died in Australia in poverty, unemployed, at about the age of 50. Now why? Because his father didn’t truly value the education of his children. Thank God he had to work in a shoe polish factory, or nothing of value would have come from the man.
People who value education can get it. The integrated public schools do not value education. The upper middle class public schools do not actually value intellectual development. The schools in America are opposed to basic education. They are intended to fit the unworkable prejudices of the shitlibtariat. They demand exorbitant payments every year so that they have a monopoly on indoctrinating children in their subhuman values. (the rainbow flag, abortion, etc). “Homeschooling is a fairy tale” – people who say things like this openly want to ban homeschooling. These types of people are going to have to be crushed.
Here is food for thought, especially for those who support “public education” and rally about the doctrine of “socialization” that they claim is lacking in “homeschooled” children.
Let’s look at what “public education” has to offer:
1. Cliques and rampant bullying, quite often the victims of bullying are punished more harshly for fighting back. Many times, bullies are part of a “protected” class–racial minorities, jocks, etc. There is strong official disapproval of students making friends outside their grade level. “Peer pressure” is used to push conformity.
2. Teachers that don’t teach reading writing and arithmetic. Pushing communist principles such as rabid environmentalism, blaming humanity for conditions beyond our control as well as pushing “communitarianism” (“it takes a village”)–actually communism. This also ties in with teacher-recommended feminizing and drugging (mostly boys) to make them “less fidgety” and more compliant–all for the “benefit” of the teacher.
3. Non-existent moral guidance...the communist concept of “values clarification”, allowing each student to set his own moral standard with no discussion permitted as to guidelines. A student dare not mention God or the Bible in “public school”–not permitted…discussing Islam and Judaism is OK…even field trips to mosques and synagogues are encouraged.
4. Sex education that normalizes homosexuality, transgenderism and other deviant practices, actually encouraging deviant behavior and downplaying and marginalizing heterosexuality and abstinence. Let’s not forget the current sexualization of children aimed at those as little as five-years old.
5. Insane zero tolerance practices, punishing students for pop-tarts shaped like guns or a student having an “unauthorized aspirin” or plastic butter knife. Of course, abortions and birth control are available without parental notification.
6. Lockdowns and backpack/locker searches by police utilizing “drug dogs”, getting the upcoming generation used to random unconstitutional searches. Quite often, students are “roughed up” by “school resource officers”…just because they can…Lockdowns should be reserved for prisons–not schools…
Since these “socialization” practices seem to be the norm in our “public education” systems, parents who send their children to these dysfunctional “indoctrination centers” are guilty of child abuse…
Children who are homeschooled actually do much better in life as they interact with and are comfortable with people of all ages.
True socialization takes place outside the classroom.
That’s because it’s only a few million right now (though growing faster since the PanicFest). Imagine if half the children got homeschooled. This would be a different country shortly thereafter.
It’s one thing you CAN make a difference with.
You are an optimist. Libtardism is a cancer. Unfortunately, in the US it has metastasized: the whole political and judicial system, every branch of federal government, all MSM, and most of “social media” are rotten to the core. All of these are beyond salvage. The disease appears terminal, the country moves faster and faster on the downward spiral.
I saw pockets of normalcy (you need to drive 10-15 miles off highway to see them), but I am not sure they can regenerate a sane country. It’s a pity: it used to be a good country, now going down the drain.
Public school does not teach people to think, it teaches them not to think.
I agree with what you said, except for this
‘pushing “communitarianism” (“it takes a village”)–actually communism.’
This is actually healthy, until it is applied beyond the village and becomes a national mandate.
Schools started as community efforts long before Karl Marx, and they worked.
Big government influence eroded the positive influence of this and replaced it with bureaucracy.
I agree with your entire 1st paragraph, AnonInTenn, including “You are an optimist”.
This is what Homeschooling is part of, getting out of the system or “off the grid”, so to speak. With a lot of people out of the system, we have a better chance of regenerating this country into something decent. People like Ron Paul are not going to stop the decent, especially the financial turmoil coming, but we need many more to help the place from turning Communist when things go bad.
That’s the Communists’ way, as you ought to know, taking advantage when a country is down on the ground. It’s not at all easy to come back from.
BTW, do you ever consider going back to Russia, the way things are going right now?
I think you meant to say: ‘people like Ron Paul are not going to stop the DESCENT’.
After all, as far as the DECENT people in society are concerned, no one is a better role model and exemplar of DECENCY than Dr Ron Paul.
Thanks. I could try to blame that on spell check, but nah…
From my own experience, Joe, based on a number of people I know, it’s the boosters that have done the most damage. I’m sure the ctrl-left types have gotten more of them too.
I don’t buy your support of “communitarianism”…
Sorry.
Public schools operate under the Prussian system which emphasizes conformity over free thought. Indoctrination and brainwashing were always part of the program. Independent sectarian schools were always seen as a threat, some states even attempting to abolish ALL private education.
In the USA, “Blaine Amendments” outlaw ANY public services to sectarian schools even if the services are ancillary and do not support sectarian aspects of the schools.
In Germany, homeschooling is effectively outlawed–conditions imposed by the Allies after the summation of WW2 which still apply today.
If I had my way, public education would be abolished.
When I went to school, before the authoritarian concept of ‘standards’ was fully implemented, concepts like creative writing were part of the curriculum. Things like the Science Fair, where new ways to do things were encouraged. Conformity of thought was not the end all of education objectives.
Conformity was intended to enforce discipline, where youngsters were to observe boundaries, but free to act withing those boundaries. Now, we have stupid rules which are ineffective at providing guidance, mindless limitations and overreaching consequences for trivial acts.