Someone asked me recently if I could wave a magic wand and do one thing to improve American education what would it be. Without hesitation, I replied: Eliminate state compulsory schooling statutes. Stripping the state of its power to define and control education under a legal threat of force is a necessary step in pursuit of education freedom and parental empowerment.
Tag: schooling
“Meatless Mondays” and the Rise of Social-Emotional Learning in Schools
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced earlier this month that all New York City public schools would enact “Meatless Mondays,” avoiding any meat offerings during Monday school breakfasts and lunches beginning this fall. The Meatless Monday plan is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to government dictates on right and wrong, often using compulsory government schools to influence young people.
What Parents Can Really Do to Help Prepare Their Teens for Success
Regardless of how you may feel about climate activism, the key message to parents is that school can be stifling and anxiety-inducing for many teenagers who crave and need meaningful work. Adolescents are meant to come of age within the adult world, surrounded by a diverse group of mentors and engaged in authentic, real-life pursuits. This gives them both experience and personal reward.
The World’s Largest Socialist Economy
Who has the largest military system in the history of the human race? And who has the largest corporate welfare system to support the industrial arm of that military? Who has the largest public schooling program in the world? Could it be China, or India? I don’t know, but let me know if you are aware of real evidence that it is not the USA.
Lawmakers Want to Give Voting Rights to Teens They Treat Like Toddlers
Teenagers are capable of being valuable contributors to civil society. They should be granted greater freedom and responsibility. Lowering the voting age while trapping them in compulsory schooling gives teenagers neither freedom nor responsibility.
US Schools Are Leaving Students Ill-Equipped to Compete with Artificial Intelligence
We have long known that the robots were coming, but now that they are here, the mismatch between our modern education system and the technology-fueled workplace is glaringly apparent. As robots expertly perform routine tasks and increasingly assume broader workforce responsibilities, we must ask ourselves an important question: What is our key human differentiator?
Homeschoolers: Guilty Until Proven Innocent?
What struck me most about revisiting the Salem Witch Trials with my children was the fact that these English Puritans who had recently settled in Massachusetts Bay Colony had no presumption of innocence. Those accused of a crime at the time, both in the New World and elsewhere, were guilty until proven innocent. The presumption of innocence in trials, with court defenders and impartial juries, would take centuries to catch on.
EVC Podcast Network & The Voluntaryist Premise (19m) – Episode 274
Episode 274 has Skyler giving his commentary on the following topics: the launch of the Everything-Voluntary.com podcast network; his forthcoming podcasts on logic, stoicism, personal belief, and unschooling; an article he wrote in August 2018 explaining the premises and hypotheses of voluntaryism; and more.
On Entitlements II
Many are the reasons that people give in support of their preferred entitlements, which the guarantee of such by government necessarily entails the violation of other people’s liberties.
Why Steve Jobs, not Bill Gates, Was the True Education Visionary
When it comes to education reform, there are generally two camps: those who want to improve the existing mass compulsory schooling system through tweaking and tuning and those who want to build something entirely new and different. Not surprisingly, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was in the “think different” camp, advocating for school choice and vouchers, while Microsoft’s Bill Gates backed the Common Core State Standards and other incremental reforms within the conventional mass schooling model.