First, let me explain my qualifications for answering this question. I am a fully certified teacher in two states. I have credentials for teaching K-6 general education and K-12 special education. I have a BA in special education and a Master’s in Learning and Technology. I am currently a 6th-grade teacher in a public charter school and teach leadership and STEM. But my most important qualification for answering this question is that I homeschooled my own children for 24 years. (I did not teach outside of that during those years, but I did start a private cottage school and ran that for 7 of those years). You want to know why your grandson gets finished with assignments in such a short amount of time. It does not take as long in homeschool with 1 on 1 learning. There is no better learning situation than 1 on 1. You do not have interruptions like you do in a classroom. We were always finished with our core academic schoolwork at home in about 1.5 – 3 hours depending on the subject. Keep in mind, I have twins with autism as well (which is why I had the cottage school) and my other two sons had/have dyslexia. Continue reading
Get them Out ~ NOW!
I’m not a teacher, but I may be able to offer an opinion. Every time the government gets involved in anything, they screw it up. In this case, it’s because the public school system is required to keep kids working at the same rate. (I think the current fiasco is common core, which was preceded by No Child Left Behind.) These programs do more to hold back most students than they do to help less advanced students keep up. The kids who suffer the most are the ones who should be allowed to work far ahead, but that doesn’t fit into the system’s agenda, and teachers are already swamped with kids who need much more help. ~ Joyce the Trucker
A Republic, if You Can Keep It . . .
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
At the close of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, Franklin was queried as he left Independence Hall on the final day of deliberation. In the notes of Dr. James McHenry, one of Maryland’s delegates to the Convention, a lady asked Dr. Franklin “Well Doctor what have we got, a republic or a monarchy.” Franklin replied, “A republic . . . if you can keep it.”
Our Constitution created a limited representative republic. A republic is different from a democracy. In a democracy, the majority can directly make laws, while in a republic, elected representatives make laws. Basically, in a pure democracy, the majority has unlimited power, whereas in a republic, a written constitution limits the majority and provides safeguards for the individual and minorities. Continue reading
BRAINWASHED: How Black Lives Matter Hijacked Our Schools
I do not care one iota what color that each of your students are – get them OUT of the Government Controlled Public School System NOW! ~ Ed.
The Problem With White Parents?
When kids are pulled from failing schools, leftists blame the parents of white students.
For most parents, the 2019-20 school year was turned completely upside down and inside out thanks to the coronavirus-induced closure of school buildings. Millions of parents who were suddenly out of work themselves gained the added experience of shepherding their children through weeks of virtual school, with teachers doing their best to educate via computer. For some students, it was a welcome distraction they could handle, but for others it detracted from the hands-on classroom experience. Continue reading
Shame on US!
There is a reason for what is going on today in America. And it is each and every one of our faults because we’ve done nothing for the past 50 years.
The blame falls at our feet. Where do these people learn all of this America hating crap from? They learn it in our public school system. Here’s a dirty little secret no one wants to notice. The public schools are controlled by the government. Why? Because it is the government funding them. You pay school taxes to the government to have the government indoctrinate your children. Continue reading
Socialism in Education
It would be virtually impossible to find a better example of socialism here in the United States than the public schooling systems that exist in every U.S. state. Ironically, it is this socialist system that is primarily responsible for the widespread belief among non-libertarians that “the United States has never been a socialist country,” as New York Times columnist Timothy Egan stated in a recent NYT op-ed. (See my two recent articles “A Life of the Lie on Socialism” and “Socialism in America, 31 Years Ago.”)
It is worth noting that public schooling is a core feature of the educational systems in Cuba, North Korea, and Vietnam, all three of which are widely known as socialist countries. That’s because public schooling is a socialist system. Continue reading
Russian government recommended banning Wi-Fi and cell phones in primary schools
On July 17th, 2020, the Russian Ministry of Health published recommendations to schools to ban the use of Wi-Fi and cell phones in elementary schools. The Medical Department of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Russian National Committee on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection, prepared the recommendations together with the Russian Ministry of Health. Continue reading
Hand-In-Hand: Bad Programs, Wasted Money, and Our Government
Ronald Reagan once famously said, “I think you all know that I’ve always felt the nine most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’”
That baseball team of words should continue to terrify us.
When we look at government failures in the last 50 years, the list goes on and on. Remember the war on drugs? How’d we do on that one? Or consider child support for unwed mothers. Has that policy enhanced family life or damaged it across the board? The U.S. Department of Education is surely helpful. Yet are our children better educated today than they were in 1980? Continue reading
Are You Overschooling Your Kids?
This will be the first of a number of Homeschooling videos for this day – and THIS one brings up some of the most important reasons for Homeschooling, which sets the ground for the balance of today’s videos.
We will also return to our regular scheduled postings, but we feel that it is MOST important to get parents and grandparents to begin looking in New Directions. ~ Ed.
The Homeschool Homemaker: Clean and Declutter
… a breath of fresh air in these trying times
You Decided to Homeschool….. What Now?
I have home schooled my grandchildren now for 4 years. We are going into out 5th year. We pulled her out because we realized at the end of 4th grade she could not multiply or divide very well. She knew how to do it but when I asked her what 2×2 was it took her literally 5 minutes to figure it out. On top of that my daughter went in before Christmas break to make sure she was doing OK. Teacher told her she was doing great. After Christmas break report cards came out and she failed social studies.
How One Parent Homeschool’s Her Children
…a Basket of Choices!
Yeah, yeah – we know – school has already begun for the year – but we are reading of more and more examples of teachers spying on children at home through Zoom. It seems to make more sense to remove the children from the “system” and educate them at home.
“WHAT? But, just ho is going to do that? I mean, I have to work.” Well – it seems to me that you made another choice at one time in your life – to have and raise children… then WHY do you allow someone ELSE to raise that child?
Let’s get it done – and take this nation and our children back! ~ Ed.
Restoring The Original Purpose Of Schools
If you have read my past columns, listened to either my talk show, The Ron Edwards American Experience or my radio commentary The Edwards Notebook, chances are you have read or heard me declare that the government school system is the number one enemy of our republic. Years ago, when I first made that declaration, people disagreed with much vigor. Some said that I was looney for saying that, considering enemies like China, Islamic terrorists, Russia, hordes of illegal border crossers, etc. Of course, those are all major enemies. But in my opinion, none of them compare with the great enemy from within, the government school system. Since before the establishment of our great republic, there have been those in our midst who have desired to prevent the establishment of a republic where the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is recognized and honored. The reason being is that out of both Judeo and Christian principles came the wonderful concepts of unalienable rights, Liberty and Justice for all, equal opportunity and the right of self, family and property protection and much more. Continue reading
Schools Beat Earlier Plagues With Outdoor Classes… We should too!
In the early years of the 20th century, tuberculosis ravaged American cities, taking a particular and often fatal toll on the poor and the young. In 1907, two Rhode Island doctors, Mary Packard and Ellen Stone, had an idea for mitigating transmission among children. Following education trends in Germany, they proposed the creation of an open-air schoolroom. Within a matter of months, the floor of an empty brick building in Providence was converted into a space with ceiling-height windows on every side, kept open at nearly all times. Continue reading
The Stamp Act, 1765
A Spotlight on a Primary Source by George III
On March 22, 1765, the British Parliament passed the “Stamp Act” to help pay for British troops stationed in the colonies during the Seven Years’ War. The act required the colonists to pay a tax, represented by a stamp, on various forms of papers, documents, and playing cards. It was a direct tax imposed by the British government, without the approval of the colonial legislatures and was payable in hard-to-obtain British sterling, rather than colonial currency. Further, those accused of violating the Stamp Act could be prosecuted in Vice-Admiralty Courts, which had no juries and could be held anywhere in the British Empire. Continue reading
Responsibility…
David Crockett
The modern actor Billy Bob Thornton once said David Crockett in the film The Alamo was his favorite role. John Wayne played him, too. Every boy who grew up before the 1970s wanted to be Crockett. He was the “king of the wild frontier,” the man who wrestled bears and jumped rivers, the man with the sharpshooter’s eye who tamed the wilderness. He was larger than life; as one historian wrote, “His life is a veritable romance, with the additional charm of unquestionable truth. It opens to the reader scenes in the lives of the lowly, and a state of semi-civilization, of which but few of them can have the faintest idea.” Crockett was so popular because he was one of us, a common man without advantages who achieved great things on his own merit. He was the quintessential American. Continue reading
Natural Born Citizens: Understanding Who Can Be POTUS in a Nation Beset By Divided Loyalties
Every four years, we are reminded that the president of the United States must be a “natural born citizen.” But what does this even mean? Does it apply to everyone born in America, and is there a difference between a “native born” (one naturalized at birth by statute) and a “natural born” (one who does not require any naturalization) citizen?
That’s the thing: It’s never really been decided who is and is not a natural born citizen of the United States. In fact, there’s not even universal agreement that anyone born within the borders of the United States is a natural born citizen. Unsurprisingly, there is an ideological divide in the United States between those who believe anyone born here is a citizen and those who disagree. Continue reading