Online Homeschooling Crowns a New King on Time
By Mimi Rothschild
“My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas.”
Many from my generation remember reciting that solar system mnemonic as kids. Teachers are going to have to think of a new learning tool, as our solar system is now an eight-member family. The International Astronomical Union met on August 24th in order to discuss the definitions of celestial bodies. As a result, the icy planet Pluto has been demoted to “dwarf planet” status. Not wanting to hurt Pluto’s feelings, scientists have now crowned it the “King of Icy Dwarves.”
On the surface, this name change is rather innocuous. After all, teachers need only come up with a new mnemonic. However, if we look a little deeper into educational implications, we will uncover a serious limitation of public schools. Public school curriculum is embodied almost entirely in the form of traditional paper textbooks. These textbooks, aside from being “astronomically” priced, are only updated once every few years. Students are not given updated textbooks for up to ten years!
Homeschoolers, however, are on the forefront of innovative, up-to-date education. Online texts and e-books, such as the ones offered by Learning By Grace’s academies, are easy to update. In fact, our entire curriculum has already been changed to account for Pluto’s new status. Unfortunately, this is not possible for most educational institutions. And people say homeschool families are old-fashioned! Far from it, we are years ahead of the curve.
Julia Osborne, Science Editorial Director for Pearson Prentice Hall has stated that textbooks for this school year are already in traditional school classrooms, so for “most students this fall it will be out of date.” Even textbook manufacturers are admitting their limitations. Not only are they in danger of losing millions of dollars printing new textbooks, but they are also teaching our youth obsolete information. On the other hand, the students of MorningStar, Grace, and Jubilee Academies are always taught the most current material.
Here at Learning By Grace managed academies, we are ready to welcome the new King of Icy Dwarves, days after the status change. Hmm… “My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nachos?”
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