Ron Paul Homeschool: An Unbiased Review
One of most questionable aspects of public education and the schooling model in general is a near total reliance on teacher-orchestrated instruction, with a clearly hierarchic classroom where the teacher is the dictator. This creates both emotional and intellectual dependence in students, failing to teach them the critical skills of self-education that determine whether they sink or swim in college and, later, in the job market.
The Ron Paul Curriculum, on the other hand, teaches children how to teach themselves from the third-grade level. Students of the Ron Paul Homeschool program become truly independent thinkers, learn to rationally deliberate, evaluate arguments and evidence and, ultimately, become indispensable members of whatever field they eventually make their life’s work.
It is important to state that Ron Paul is known by many as the libertarian congressman who ran for president twice in recent years. However, Ron Paul is also an avid homeschooling advocate, and he offers a conservative homeschool curriculum.
Cost and Content
This Ron Paul Homeschool review is from a pro-Western civilization and free-market perspective (see lowest price). The curriculum provides top-notch education from great teachers, such as Dr. Tom Woods. It does not use textbooks but focuses more on reading primary sources.
Each course includes five videos per week (for a total of 36 weeks), with lots of review each week to aid memory. There is also a weekly writing assignment for each humanities/social science course. A subscription is only $250 per year per family—whether you have one child or ten! (This gets you access to the forums.) You then pay $50 for each course you want to take. You can sample the first 40 lessons for children’s math and reading for free.
The Ron Paul Curriculum provides the basics of reading, writing, arithmetic, science, and history for K-8th grade students. For high school, there are courses in humanities (Western civilization, American history, American literature), social sciences (government, economics, business), natural sciences (biology, chemistry, physics), mathematics (algebra, geometry, trigonometry, calculus), and public speaking. There are even courses on how to pass CLEP and AP exams, which can earn students cheap college credit and save them money in the long run.
Western Civilization and Government Courses
This curriculum is worth it for access to Tom Woods’ courses alone. Woods has a PhD in history and is an advocate of libertarianism and free-market economics. Woods has three great courses for the Ron Paul Education Plan, but these courses can also be purchased individually from Tom Woods Homeschool Curriculum site.
These courses are great even for adults. Woods makes history and economics enjoyable, and he provides the kind of information that you just do not get from mainstream textbooks.
Someone may ask – is the Ron Paul Curriculum any good? It depends on the angle in which you look at the subject. This Ron Paul Curriculum review is aimed at giving a holistic assessment that can help you make an informed decision.
Pros and Cons
PROS
- It is affordable: Any family can pay the one-time fee and have access to loads of content that beat what you find in most homeschooling plans
- It is easy to use: The content is designed to allow the third-grader and more mature kids to be able to learn on their own.
- It aids speedy cognitive development: The children that use this platform have a high chance of acquiring hard and soft skills that are relevant for their career.
CONS
- It tries to get too much done: It is obvious that this program tries to accelerate the pace at which kids learn. This does not align with the conventional learning mode in our world.
- It opens children to high class information: Anyone that subscribes to the Ron Paul High School Program will end up being too conversant with information that would rather be in the custody of top government officials.
The Ron Paul Curriculum Reviews 2020 show that people are willing to step out of their comfort zone in terms of educating their kids but we must not forget the essence of education and what it actually intends to achieve in the lives of the young ones.
What should formal education accomplish?
The more I think about this, the more I am convinced that it should be geared to teaching students a love for self-taught knowledge. John Taylor Gatto is an evangelist for this kind of education. He was a master teacher. Then he quit. He saw he was wasting his life in tax-funded schools.
The Ron Paul Curriculum will teach students how to think by teaching them basic logic — different in different fields. After all, economics is not physics. Any attempt to make economics look like physics destroys economics.
It will teach them the fundamentals of each field so that an intelligent student has an idea about the happenings in our world. A person cannot learn the fine points in any field in one year. He can learn enough to say: “I’ve heard that line before.”
The truth is that the homeschool plan may be nice but it may not be able to relate with every student’s needs. Some people will fare well if they are in a conventional school setting. As much as advocates of homeschooling are trying to ignore this fact, we must keep bringing it to the fore in all our discussions in the education sector.
Conclusion
This Ron Paul Home School Review (updated for 2020) is designed to balance all the information that we have out there. It is not out of place to state that based on the facts at hand, the Ron Paul University content is unique in that it is strong in history, government, and economics—subjects that are too often neglected by mainstream education. Even better, these subjects are taught from a free-market perspective and are favorable towards Christianity. Ron Paul is a devout Christian (Baptist), and Reformed author Gary North has helped Paul develop the curriculum. Tom Woods is Catholic, but this should not be a problem for Protestants.
This is a resource that can be appreciated by all Christians and lovers of freedom. If you believe in capitalism, limited government, and the significance of our Christian and Western heritage, then the Ron Paul Curriculum is for you but I will not recommend this for those that hold other beliefs.