Schoolchildren across the country recently skipped school or walked out of class to rally for new restrictions on our economic and personal liberties in the name of fighting “climate change.” Instead of punishing students for playing hooky to promote a political cause, many teachers and administrators allowed, or even encouraged, students to skip school to attend these events. Public schools have also given students the day off to attend pro-gun control rallies.
The trend toward allowing students to miss school for political protests is an example of how indoctrination in left-wing ideology and politics has replaced actual education in many government schools. Some teachers may have seen their students’ eagerness to show support for authoritarian policies like the “Green New Deal” as confirmation of the teachers’ success in convincing students that the “science is settled” regarding climate change. The truth is that science regarding the causes, extent, and effects of climate change is far from settled. But you won’t learn that in most government schools.
Misleading students on climate change is far from the only, or even the worst, example of how student education is being shortchanged in order to promote socialism and its cousin, cultural Marxism. Government schools in Seattle are implementing a program called “Math Ethnic Studies.” As the title suggests, this replaces traditional mathematics with a curriculum built around the insane idea that math is not an objective truth, but a construct reflecting the interests of society’s dominant economic, social, and racial groups.
Among the questions the students are supposed to ask in this new curriculum are, “how is math manipulated to allow inequality and oppression in society?” and “who’s to say what is right?” In other words, two plus two may or may not equal four depending on one’s group identity.
Students who take this course may not be qualified to become scientists or engineers, but they will be qualified to agitate for expanded welfare and new limits on free speech in the name of “social justice.”
The politicization and dumbing down of government education does have an upside: it is leading more parents to pull their children out of government schools and homeschool instead. Homeschooling allows parents to ensure their children receive a quality education that does not undermine their political or other values.
Parents interested in providing their children with a quality education should consider my homeschooling curriculum. The Ron Paul Curriculum provides students with a well-rounded education that includes rigorous programs in history, mathematics, and the physical and natural sciences. The curriculum also provides instruction in personal finance. Students can develop superior communication skills via intensive writing and public speaking courses. Another feature of my curriculum is that it provides students the opportunity to create and run their own businesses.
The government and history sections of the curriculum emphasize Austrian economics, libertarian political theory, and the history of liberty. However, unlike government schools, my curriculum never puts ideological indoctrination ahead of education.
Interactive forums ensure students are engaged in their education and that they have the opportunity to interact with their peers outside of a formal setting.
I encourage all parents looking at alternatives to government schools — alternatives that provide children with a well-rounded education that introduces them to the history and ideas of liberty without sacrificing education for indoctrination — to go to RonPaulCurriculum.com for more information about my homeschooling program.
The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity is a project of Dr. Paul’s Foundation for Rational Economics and Education (F.R.E.E.), founded in the 1970s as an educational organization. The Institute continues and expands Dr. Paul’s lifetime of public advocacy for a peaceful foreign policy and the protection of civil liberties at home. Visit http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org