• Rediscovering the Power of Family in Education

    Recently on the Schoolhouse Rocked podcast, host Yvette Hampton had an enlightening conversation with Alex Newman and Leigh Bortins on the Declaration of Educational Independence, and about the urgent need to redefine education in America. This thought-provoking interview discusses the reasons behind the growing recognition that the current public school system is failing our children and proposes an alternative approach rooted in the fundamental principles of family government. Recognizing the Problem: As the communication delved into the issue of government involvement in education, both Newman and Bortins stressed the importance of defining the end goal and principles underlying the educational system. As Newman states, “We need an end goal. We…

  • School Choice: Unmasking the Euphemism

    “It’s a beautiful thing, the destruction of words.” – George Orwell, 1984 As is so often the case in politics, pundits and activists give friendly sounding names to hot-button political movements to mask the true character of these matters. Abortion advocates are labeled “pro-choice.” Genital mutilation becomes “gender affirming care.” Illegal aliens become “undocumented workers.” Women become “birthing persons.”  This is certainly the case with the “school choice” issue. At the most basic level, the term “school choice” substitutes the concept of choice (options, opportunity) for the true focus of the movement, government education funding. School choice programs take on many forms – public charter school programs and virtual charter programs, magnet schools, intra-district…

  • Coronavirus and Common Core: The Future (and Past) of Public Education

    2020 has been a year of critical changes in education. Will virtual school and social distancing be the new normal? Will the millions of students who have begun homeschooling due to the COVID-19 pandemic continue as classroom learning returns to normal? Should they? One of the major effects of millions of students doing public school at home is that the heart of public school education is being revealed to parents who are paying attention to their children’s Zoom lessons. At the same time, our culture has been in a state of upheaval, in near civil war, and the roots of this culture war have been nourished in the public schools.…

  • Homeschooling in Russia!

    “I grew up in this country where, in a socialist country, communist country, which really tried to teach us not to think with their own heads. The government wants to make decisions for us. The doctors made decisions for us. In a country like ours, basically everything; your body, your soul, belongs to the government. You were not supposed to be asking questions or think outside the box.” – Andre Furmanov In this episode of the Schoolhouse Rocked Podcast, Yvette Hampton speaks with Russian pastor and homeschool dad, Andre Furmanov, about how and why he and his wife began homeschooling and what homeschooling looks like in Russia. Andre Furmanov came…