One of the most viral posts this year involved a parent humbly begging the Crown for permission to take their child on an educational trip without risking the threat of force. The post reproduced a letter to a parent. The principal who signed that letter thought this highly unfair, since her goals were allegedly aligned with the parents.
Tag: education
POTUS
I have come upon a new usage for the term POTUS. Actually, it is an old usage. It refers to the position but not directly to the incumbent. This works in the same way as does the juxtaposing of tyrant and tyranny. Is there a difference between the Emperor of Rome, Caesar, Nero, or Caligula?
Episode 064 – Skyler Interviewed on the Living Joyfully Unschooling Podcast (48m)
Episode 064 features an interview of Skyler by Living Joyfully host Pam Laricchia from February 2016. They talk about his latest book, “Unschooling Dads: Twenty-two Testimonials on Their Unconventional Approach to Education,” and how Skyler and his family came to unschooling. LivingJoyfully.ca is a fantastic resource and podcast on unschooling.
Dealing with Princess Snowflake, a Government Employee
The woman sends home a list of math words, stripped of context, and defined with other words the kids probably don’t know. And my daughter has a much better vocabulary than most of her classmates, so if she has trouble understanding what is being said, I can only imagine the trouble other kids are having.
Home Education: A “Public Benefit?”
Random comment from the ‘Net: “I think a tax break for home schooled families is a great idea. However, you forget that we live in a community, and no man is an island. Those families do benefit from living in a community where others are educated.” Whoa! This argument cuts both ways: the community arguably benefits more from brilliantly-educated home schoolers than home-schoolers benefit from badly-educated children at government schools; therefore, the home schoolers might deserve a break.
The Back Story 002 – The Truth Behind the Department of Education (3m)
The Back Story 002 has Morgan Aldous answering the following questions: What is the Department of Education? Is Betsy Devos going to ruin our kids’ education? Is it worth spending hundreds of billions of dollars a year to keep the Department?
Pedants: Converting Good to Bad
Bureaucrats thrive on tidiness and regularity. The variations of real children are far too diverse and confusing for bureaucrats and pedants and certain economists. This zombie argument for the government provision of education should be nuked wherever it arises.
The Gruesome Reality of Statism
It is nearly impossible to calculate the amount of harm for which the state is responsible. Sure, you can theoretically count the dollars stolen, the people kidnapped and locked in state cages, and the individuals killed directly, but what is much more difficult to grasp is the scale of the harm caused indirectly by statism.
We Don’t Need The State To Educate!
Do we really need the State to educate? Most people believe this to be the case, especially for the poorest among us. But E.G. West and James Tooley – and several others – have looked at the actual history of education, and found something startling: mass education existed before heavy state involvement.
Children Are Not Interchangeable Cogs
Variations of this picture of educational cogs have been widely distributed in schools. Education works best, we are told, when all the parts work together. The picture shows three gears, arranged in a circle. If you remember your studies of mechanics, this arrangement cannot possibly work.