Posted on 04/08/2013 5:43:40 PM PDT by Tired of Taxes
Former Republican congressman and three-time presidential candidate Ron Paul has launched his own K-12 home-school curriculum to provide an “education in liberty like no other.”
The curriculum, which includes courses on “the economics of the Austrian school,” provides its K-5 program for free, meaning that students and families will be able to learn under Ron Paul for six years “without spending a dime,” according to one of the curriculum’s high school teachers, Ludwig von Mises Institute senior fellow Tom Woods.
“Here, students learn the basics of Western Civilization and Western liberty — how it was won, how it is being lost, and how it will be restored. (Not can . . . will.),” RonPaulCurriculum.com declares.
“Students also learn the basics of American history, the United States Constitution, and American geography. They get two courses on free market economics. They get two courses on government, including a how-to course on reclaiming America, one county at a time.”
The curriculum also provides courses in science and mathematics.
The curriculum for grades 6-10 should be available by September 2, and the entire K-12 curriculum is expected to be completed by December 2015.
An introductory video by director of curriculum development Gary North explains that Paul’s curriculum will “teach the Biblical principle of self-government and personal responsibility,” and will teach students both “the history of liberty” and also about “liberty’s rivals.” It will also teach about the Constitution and how the Constitution “has been hijacked.”
The curriculum will rely solely on primary source documents, not textbooks, which North claims “are screened by committees” and “dumb down the material.”
Students will also learn how to create their own YouTube channels and their own home businesses.
Paul is the latest in a series of conservative public figures to design their own educational programs for the youth of America. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich currently hosts “Newt University,” an online college course for Kaplan Higher Education Corporation. Gingrich recently devoted a lesson to the subject of driverless cars.
Conservative radio and television personality Glenn Beck has announced that he is planning an ambitious $2 billion Texas compound called Independence, USA. Inspired by the vision of Walt Disney, Beck’s Independence, USA claims it will incorporate a theme park, a marketplace where craftsmen and artisans can run their own small businesses, a multi-denominational church, a media center to train journalists, and a research and development center where people will be educated in the principles of liberty.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/04/08/ron-paul-launches-his-own-home-school-curriculum/#ixzz2PvEf59X2
Thank You Both!
The article says that the curriculum is “free.” If so, the students won’t be losing money on it.
What about the free lunch program??
Go to the site. It is just a loss leader. They do offer some content for free (stuff you can get pretty much anywhere online for free including some of Gary North’s other sits and YouTube), you have to pay for pretty much everything else, from forums, to tests, to a majority of the lessons.
RonPaulCurriculum.com
The actual cost is $250 per year +$50 per course (plus it looks like fees for the forums, etc). (a lot of that is even charged for K-5 they claim are free).
So it isn’t free.
Also, it also appears it doesn’t have curriculum for any of the basics for K-5 like math, they are recommending buying that from Khan Academy - http://www.ronpaulcurriculum.com/public/department52.cfm
I wouldn’t expect testing to be free. But it appears the curriculum itself is/will be free - much like Khan Academy and so many other educational websites/internet sources are.
For the record, I don’t know if the curriculum will be worthwhile or not. But it’s good for us all to know about it. I’m glad you posted your opinion of it, too, so that the idea can be batted around a bit here.
I think the fact that this is run by Gary North should send up a LOT of red flags. Heck, when even Ron Paul sites are trashing it, you know something is wrong. This is one step off of getting curriculum from Alex Jones.
The Khan Academy is free. The Robinson Curriculum is not free, but it has been around awhile and is an established homeschooling curriculum.
As a parent of a current 4th grader, I would not mind looking into this for my kid. I would probably view it as supplemental, though, not as his curriculum for the entire 5th grade.
I would suggest highly screening it first. The big red flag is the person who is making all this, Gary North. Not exactly close to a reliable source on anything.
Tom Woods is the guy behind the history subjects. Do you have thoughts on him?
The little I know of Tom Woods, I don’t think he is that bad at least in comparison to Gary North. No red flags go up on him. I have political and historical disagreements but I don’t know of any scamming or completely over the top kook stuff like North.
He seems to be along the lines of Chuck Baldwin or Pat Buchanan. If that is your cup of tea, probably fine.
I will definitely screen it first. Thanks!
I would be very careful about depending on someone like this for my curriculum.
just buy Robinson Curriculum. No need for this one.
ping
no... this would not work for us... perhaps bits and pieces of it would when we are studying American History... we strive to give our children a classical education... as close the the type of education Thomas Jefferson, John Monroe, John Calvin and Martin Luther received... one that would have been required to enter the doors of Princeton when Jonathan Edwards was its president...
however, i do see it being valuable in different circumstances... good for him...
good for you! to me, part of the beauty of homeschooling is customizing my children's education... i would not buy a canned curriculum, and i would not develop a canned curriculum... i have developed classical literature supplements, but not something that is all encompassing... and i sell mine... i do not give it away... i cannot afford to... it costs me in time and money... he sounds like a moron... most homeschooling mothers i know do not lack self-confidence...
Thank you for posting your research on this subject. This is the first I have heard of it but you’ve made some very good posts on this (and any others over the years).
I confess that if I were assaying to create a curriculum specifically for liberal arts - what is called social studies and English in elementary and secondary school - I wouldn’t lift a finger to create my own math curriculum in competition with Khan.Not that I suppose that Khan is the last and only word on math education - IMHO it would be good to see others “go and do likewise” to what Khan has done - but that Khan is definitely good enough, for anyone who has other fish to fry outside of math and science.
Khan is “good enough,” at the very least, and he gets pride of place as the pioneer of a very powerful form of schooling. And will IMHO have his place in the history of education, no matter who may come along behind him and do some things better - or just different, in some way(s) which some students might prefer.I certainly didn’t foresee YouTube as the enabling technology, but I argued back before the Internet that computers would become powerful educational tools which would greatly facilitate learning, back when the only software available was still “drill and practice” oriented. I showed Khan to a HS math teacher, and her response was “I guess my job isn’t as secure as I thought!”Whenever I talk to a parent who mentions that their child is having trouble in math, I tell them about Khan and tell them it’s free and they can’t afford not to check it out. I know that a couple of them are using it successfully to get their children up to speed in math. My brother’s grandson, for one . . .
Whether the curriculum is “recognized” or “accredited” is irrelevant to homeschooling. In fact, such a concept is actually against the whole idea of home education. If what you teach must be “approved”, that defeats the whole purpose of controlling your own kids’ education.
Barking Loon Press?
(Well, you asked.)
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