While many of my friends and colleagues wait in hope of “reform”, I’ll continue my quest to change the world by investing my voice and my votes in an entrepreneurial theory of social change. While the world at large insists on celebrating and fearing great leaders, I will celebrate the power of the individual as expressed through innovation and voluntary interaction in the marketplace.
Tag: schooling
Episode 067 – Morgan’s Journey, and Welcome to the Podcast! (1h10m)
Episode 067 introduces Morgan Aldous as the new co-host of the Everything-Voluntary.com podcast as we talk about his journey toward voluntaryism. Topics include conservatism, the War in Iraq, raising chickens, his family’s small business, Freakonomics, Tom Woods and the Depression of 1920, his church mission, college debate team, the Mises Institute, unschooling, and more.
A Critique of Stefan Molyneux’s Discussion with Stephan Kinsella on Schooling
One of my strategies in sniffing out unequal or one sided relationships is to always shift the players around. Lets say a politician asked the question “How do you manage the behavior of the people?” Your response would likely be something like “Who are you? I am not your subject to be managed!” Of course you are probably thinking, well this is the difference between a young child who lacks experience and mental capabilities and an adult. I would somewhat agree, but also have strong disagreement. There is a little bit more subtlety at work.
Episode 066 – Unschooling Dads Panel (2h11m)
Episode 066 features a recording from the internet show “For the Love of Learning” of a panel of unschooling dads, hosted by Laini Liberti. The panel includes Robert Gottlieb, Hamilton Carter, Skyler Collins, and Kevin Sabourin. The topics discusses range from how each dad found unschooling to what unschooling looks like in their home.
Episode 065 – Skyler Interviewed on the Peaceful Anarchism Podcast (1h10m)
Episode 065 features an interview of Skyler by Peaceful Anarchism host Danilo Cuellar. The conversation is wide-ranging and covers such topics as Skyler’s books, voluntaryism, peaceful parenting, unschooling, Frederic Bastiat, voluntary communism, Democracy, property rights, spanking, kindness, addiction, and more.
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.
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.
Unschooled Kids Will Be Different
A concern I’ve heard regarding unschooled kids is that “they’ll be different”. What is meant by this is that they won’t have the same education, the same experiences, the same memories, the same cultural influences, yadda, yadda, yadda, as their “peers”. In my opinion, that’s just dandy.