"You're an Incompetent, North. And You're Rude, Too!"
I live under the scrutiny of experts. Anyway, I guess they are experts.
Here is an example. I received an email from a stranger today about my style. Not my grammar. My style.
Parents do not pay for the individual courses that they purchase for their children."If they 'do not pay', then 'purchase' is not fitting. Maybe 'select' would be a better word, followed with a statement about the purchase of access to the tutorial forums instead.
I like what Dr. Paul stands for, but if this is the standard of Language Arts in these courses, I'd be worried.
She capitalized Language Arts. This is a tip-off. I am dealing with a woman who has a deep-seated longing to be a 7th-grade English teacher.
She was telling me that I am in desperate need of her stylistic gifts. And here I thought that, after 47 years of writing for the media, and after 50+ volumes of books, and after 36 years of writing direct-response copy, I knew how to communicate.
I was wrong.
So, I responded. "I strongly encourage you to adopt a different curriculum."
That is the truth. She should. She is exactly the kind of parent who will never be satisfied.
I got immediate confirmation.
I sincerely wish for Dr. Paul to succeed in this educational endeavor, but if anyone who writes with constructive criticism to better the site or the curriculum is met with such terse and rude responses, I cannot see how he can succeed. There are a lot of Ron Paul haters out there who would be dancing in the streets to see his endeavors fail and be subject to ridicule. This curriculum should aim to reach not only those who are rank and file libertarians, but also those that are not, and merely feeling out a new curriculum to put some truth back in their child's education. Those borderline parents who might have been encouraged to enroll their children in this program, which would only serve to better the next generation, would certainly be deterred by such a response as you gave to me. Mr. North, I implore you to carefully think out your responses, and not send out assumptive, knee-jerk reactions. We need more people on our side to win this revolution, not less. God bless.
God bless. Right.
Here ius another one.
This looks like it could become something very awesome; however some of the rhetoric on the site is unprofessional. (especially in the FAQs) For a home schooling program that espouses the importance of good writing (weekly essays from the 5th grade and on) the website needs to revise some of its sections to be read more clearly and have a less hostile tone. (I know we all hate the public schooling system but our children will be using this website, lets set a professional example for our budding entrepreneurs) I'm looking at you Ron Paul! I know you can write better than that! Anyways, very much looking forward to this when I have children. (I might take some courses myself, I dropped out and got a GED, this might fill some of my learning gaps for me.)
The world is filled with the walking wounded. I just don't know why they keep running to me.