Most of the states are still locked down. Most Americans have submitted to the regulations. They will not submit indefinitely. The governors know this. They have to start lifting the lockdowns.
Some governors say that they will begin lifting the lockdowns in June. I hope they do. The economy cannot operate this way without sustaining serious losses. Still, I do not think it is likely that there will be a full lifting of the restrictions. The economy will not be freed up to where they were before the lockdowns were imposed. The social distancing regulations will persist in most states that have imposed them.
I do not believe that closed restaurants will all re-open and still be profitable. How can they maintain social distancing at lunch hours and dinner hours? Their business models require peak hours to maximize their income. This means filled tables and filled counters. Also, people cannot eat while wearing masks. But we are told that we must wear masks to keep others safe. How can people enjoy their meals this way? Why will they spend money to eat under these restrictions?
There has been one silver lining in all this. All 43 governors closed the public schools. This has forced the schools to adopt online homeschooling. For years, public school teachers have insisted that homeschooling is second-rate schooling. But for the last two months, all public school teachers have had to learn how to teach children who are at home.
Maybe there are still public school teachers who maintain that what they have been doing for the last two months is second-rate teaching. Maybe they have recommended that all of their students be held back a year. If so, I have not heard about this. I have not heard about a movement of public school teachers who have volunteered to teach two months online this summer to compensate for the second-rate educations they have provided over the last two months. Maybe you have. If so, please send me a link to a local newspaper article or television news broadcast about such a protest: RonPaul@RonPaulCurriculum.com.
A recent poll indicates that half of Americans are now more favorable to homeschooling than they were before the lockdowns. I wrote about this on my site: https://www.ronpaulcurriculum.com/public/10450.cfm.
If you have read my book, The School Revolution, you know that I believe in private schooling and homeschooling. In the same year that the book was published, I launched the Ron Paul Curriculum. It provides a comprehensive homeschool program based on video instruction and on-site readings. The program does not use textbooks. It is a libertarian version of the Khan Academy, except that it does not use the core curriculum methodology.
For parents who decide not to send their children back into the public schools in the fall, signing their children up for summer school with either my program or the Khan Academy's program is a way for them to join the resistance. The students can get ahead of other students who will go back to school in the fall. Of course, this assumes that all of the public schools will be reopened in the fall. That is not yet clear. It may be that in some states or some districts, the public schools will continue to educate their students online. I certainly think that this would be a good idea. It will cut the expenses of the schools. It will let children stay at home. That will certainly make it more difficult for bullies. I have dealt with the problem of bullies here: https://www.ronpaulcurriculum.com/public/department176.cfm.
Parents should have the option of where they want their children to be educated. If they want them educated at home, there should be no interference from local school authorities. There is now no legitimate reason for school authorities to tell parents that online education is substandard. The public schools have already acknowledged that online education is as good as classroom-based education. If it weren't, the school districts would not give full credit for the two months of online education that all students have received this year.
One way for parents to join the resistance movement would be for them to remove their children from local public schools in the fall and begin educating them at home. For those parents who don't want to use textbook-based education, and who don't want to spend 20 hours a week preparing lesson plans and monitoring their children's performance every day, the Ron Paul Curriculum offers an alternative.
Parents can preview every course. The first five lessons of every course are available for free. Parents and students can "test drive" every course here: https://www.ronpaulcurriculum.com/public/department185.cfm.
I recommend that parents enroll their students for the summer. We are offering a special discount for summer school. Normally, the cost is $250 per year to enroll the whole family. This summer, you can enroll the family for $20. Then you pay the usual $50 for each course. I recommend two courses. That will give the students and parents a good sense of what the course requires. It also will show the benefits of video-based education. I offered this last year, and I have decided to do it again. You can find out why video-based education is better than textbook-based education. The following report was written for homeschooling parents who have been using textbooks. It shows why this is not an efficient way to teach. At the end of it, there is a link for the special summer school offer. But it is best if you read the whole report in order to find out what video-based homeschooling is all about. Click here:
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