Wednesday, April 1, 2020

Homeschooling and Online - Ahead of the Trends

 "Quit taking selfies. Come inside and do your homework."


I will remember the shock and revulsion expressed when we began homeschooling. I pointed out that Alexander the Great was home-schooled by Aristotle. LCMS history shows that the clergy who could not be ordained in Germany, because they were Pietists, became tutors in the homes of the wealthy. Paul Gerhardt was that kind of tutor before he was finally ordained.

Everyone is a homeschooler now.

For an LCA member, attending a WELS school was just as bad. But I had to tell WELS pastors that District President Hate-Good was on the board of Lutheran World Relief and worked with all the LCA leaders. I thought one WELS pastor was going to cry.

Hate-Good's Michigan District gave money to the United Nations, but I had to prove it to the innocent by citing the district minutes, year, and page number.

Private schools will take a big hit after people experience online's advantages. My mother wrote a paper when she was getting an MA in education, U. of Illinois. She described all the imposed interruptions in a public school class, plus the many other disruptions, whittling the actual learning time down by quite a bit. That was about 60 years ago.

I created an example blog for the MA classes I teach in adult education. A reader attacked me for being "a prostitute," because I taught online. As I recall, he had a Harvard connection. Every university and seminary was already online before the virus epidemic. Now people will wonder about why they need to pay for glorious marble halls, trimming the ivy on expensive and crumbling buildings, and sports teams where the coach (not the professors) are the highest paid employees.

 "We are all homeschoolers now."