Could such a go-it-alone ideology ever be truly progressive—by which I mean, does homeschooling serve the interests not just of those who are doing it, but of society as a whole? via Homeschooling and unschooling among liberals and progressives. – Slate Magazine. WTF? In what universe are engaged, educated, independent kids not good for society [...]
The latest Hardcore History podcast elegantly covers about 500 years of history in four years; from the Fall of Rome in the 476 CE through the general Christianization of the Germanic tribes shortly before the Crusades. Coincidently, my son and I spent about 4 hours in the car driving back and forth to Richmond this [...]
Fredericksburg Christian Lower (Elementary) caters in fast food every single day. Monday – Pizza of undetermined origin. Tues – KFC Wed – Subway Thur – Salsarita’s Fri – Dairy Queen Really? This is what they are teaching kids about healthy eating? This is a $7000 a year private school, you’d think they could do better [...]
This is a great blog post from Laura Grace Weldon (author of Free Range Learning) about her efforts to get the school system to work with her son, whose learning style was more than one standard deviation from the mean. The school, of course, just wanted to label the kid as ADD and drug him. [...]
Since the 1980s, the main driver of Finnish education policy has been the idea that every child should have exactly the same opportunity to learn, regardless of family background, income, or geographic location. Education has been seen first and foremost not as a way to produce star performers, but as an instrument to even out [...]
A school board member, successful in the real world by any measure, takes his local 10th grade achievement test. He fails. This does not surprise me at all. Last year when Breck was preparing for the SAT, I was getting the SAT question of the day via email. I did fine on the verbal section, [...]
During the month of October, my 17 year old son has been accepted to college, awarded a significant scholarship, and been invited to interview for a full ride. He also improved his rating in fencing to C, which puts him into Division I. His 15 year old sister won a national level horse judging competition, [...]
I linked to the Punk Rockers Make Great Parents article on Facebook and G+ a few days ago. However, I was thinking about it again. I don’t subscribe to the idea that the point of parenthood is get the kids into college. However, I have to admit that I’ve been feeling pretty damn good about [...]
I left this as a comment on Google +, but it got long enough to become a blog post on its on, so I’m sharing it here too. The article linked below is a middle school teacher thinking out loud about how we teach history in the US. It’s mostly about the wars, and the [...]
Me, at IgniteDC #7. The official video, when they get it posted, will have sound direct from the soundboard. So it might be a little louder. Still, this is not bad – just turn up your volume. Thank you to Jeremy for the A/V work.
In high schools, the vocational arts have all but vanished. We’ve elevated the importance of "higher education" to such a lofty perch that all other forms of knowledge are now labeled "alternative." Millions of parents and kids see apprenticeships and on-the-job-training opportunities as "vocational consolation prizes," best suited for those not cut out for a [...]
via n+1: Bad Education. This article sums up just about everything we’ve been talking about around here with regards to college costs. College costs up 900% since 1978, or about 650% in excess of inflation. The “everybody must go to college” mentality led to the government making easy money available to do so. The demand [...]
When the Wall Street Journal finally folds, we may look back on this as the beginning of the end. If somebody had presented me with just the text of the article, I would have guessed it came from The Onion. But it’s actually a serious Op-Ed from The Wall Street Journal. The position of the [...]
Career advice columist Penelope Trunk believes that Generation Z (the ‘Net generation) is going to revolutionize the workforce because they are much more likely to be homeschooled. Generation Z will revolutionize education | Penelope Trunk. Gen X is more comfortable working outside the system than Baby Boomers. Gen X women are fine quitting their jobs [...]
Does a $40,000 a year education that comes with an elite degree deliver ten times the education of a cheaper but no less rigorous self-generated approach assembled from less famous institutions and free or inexpensive resources? Seth’s Blog: Buying an education or buying a brand?. Two smack downs on Harvard in a row? This is [...]