I just read an incredible book on the above topic entitled “Public Education and Indoctrination”. It knocked my socks off and changed my thinking on some things, but let me back up a bit.
You know, I figured I’d introduce homeschooling on this blog gradually, beginning with background so you’d get to know more about me and our life and other philosophies of living so when I got to some more ‘radical’ philosophies of homeschooling I would have laid a groundwork and my readers would be prepared and (hopefully) not think I’m a complete kook. However, this book has sparked such thought and another educational shift for me that I need to just dive in now!
I am a homeschooling mom to two children, a 13-year old girl and an 11-year old boy and yes, they have been homeschooled from the start. Like many homeschoolers, especially starting out, we did ’school’ at home. After all, that was the only model of education I, or anyone else I knew, had ever been exposed. Some years were better than others, some subjects went more smoothly than others, but there were challenges as well. At the annual homeschool curriculum fair one year I heard Andrew Pudewa speak. That was the beginning of my education about education. At his recommendation, I read “The Underground History of American Education” by John Taylor Gatto, followed by “A Thomas Jefferson Education” by Oliver DeMille, and was transformed. My entire view of education underwent a paradigm shift. I went from doing ’school’ at home to enabling my children to learn. There is a major difference, but that is for another post.
The problems with government education are not new. Nearly everyone agrees that the public school system needs help. This book makes the case that the problem with our education system is the government. Tax-based funding and compulsory attendance are the root of the problems with our schools. It is all about force. And just like government has no business establishing tax-supported churches and requiring attendance, they have no business establishing tax-supported schools and requiring attendance. Like I said, this is quite a radical concept, at least it was for me to wrap my mind around. Right now you are thinking, as I was, but what about….? What about a whole host of things. The book does a good job answering a whole bunch of “but what abouts?” – and I’ll let you read it to get those answers, but the bottom line is sovereignty. Whoever is responsible is the one who pays. Whoever pays is the one who makes the rules.
Thinking about this truth, I also see how it applies to so many other issues (health care?). In any area of life, if you want the control, you must take the responsibility. Part of the responsibility is paying for it yourself. We teach our children that if they want to make all the rules for their lives, they need to be solely responsible for themselves, which mostly involves paying their own way. Even if they were to earn the money to purchase and maintain a car, if the parents still pay for their upkeep, they can rightfully demand demonstrations of responsibility in order for the young person to enjoy the use of the car.
You can find the book “Public Education and Indoctrination” at http://fee.org/library/?search=public+education+and+indoctrination. If that doesn’t work, go to http://fee.org. Go to Library, then Print, then search for the title. It’s free and worth reading all 199 pages. Then let me know what you think!
For a paradigm shift on the whole concept of education I first read “The Underground History of American Education”. This tome is not easy reading. It’s also quite repetitive, which does help drive home the point. If you don’t need quite all the history, “A Thomas Jefferson Education” provides a good summary and then goes from there.
