Would you be interested in a Pagan or Earth-based private school for your children?

Question

Would you prefer a commuting or residential situation? How about a correspondance school/homeschooling program done mostly online? How much would you be willing to pay for each service? What sort of curriculum would you expect? How much time/money/effort would you personally be willing to put in to make it happen?

My own thoughts? A combination of all three possibilities (residential, commutor, and online homeschooling program) would be ideal, with prices adjusted accordingly. I personally could only afford about $300 per month, that's $150 per kid. I wouldn't want to send them to a residential program, but I'd pay that for a commutor program, though I suspect it's worth more. Homeschool wouldn't be an option for me (If I stayed home I wouldn't be able to afford it anyway). I would expect a broad curriculum including comparative religions, fine arts, Latin, literature, natural science, mathematics, pre-college writing, alot of hands-on experience. I'd be willing to put alot into it.

Public education is a failure. I work at a University. Half the kids come in there completely unprepared for college level math and incapable of writing a simple essay. And more than that haven't got a clue how to format simple business correspondance. The majority of history taught in public schools is false. Science is handled with kid gloves, lest it upset the creationists, and sex ed says only Sex is bad, don't do it. Yay. Let's repress them while they're young.

Further, public schools discriminate against Pagan children with impunity. Children who are mocked for their Pagan religion, when they report it to authorities receive this -- "Well, do you have to call it Pagan? Isn't there another word you could use that isn't so... inflammatory?" Symbols of their faith are forbidden and accused of being linked to gang activity. And even in comparative religion classes, our religions are most often left out.

Oh, and most of the new college students have to take 1-2 semesters of remedial math before they can take college level math. Most of these have to repeat these remedial courses at least once. I know. I file the repeats.

Ah. I'd forgotten about age level. Yes, I was thinking 10-12 and up. (I said 12 originally, but my partner and my 10 year old son talked me down to 10)

Answer 1

i think that's an excellent idea. as long as it was fully accredited like other schools, with licensed teachers, i'd definitely send a child there. i'd rather see it done hands on than homeschooling. it would be good for the children to gain the socials skills they would develop in a normal school setting. it would be good for them to be in a group of peers as well. i don't see commuting to be a problem. i'm not sure how much i would pay though, i guess it would depend on my child's desire to attend. if it were available i'd probably wait until my child was around middle school, or even high school age. i would rather them choose for themselves willingly that they wanted to attend, rather than be made to go there. for the curriculum, i would expect the basic courses that you would get at any other public/private school. although for the electives i think things like courses on herbs, stones, etc would be extremely interesting. courses like those would be apt to keep a student curious and interested.

sorry i answered those out of order =)

in reply to your added details about age: perhaps there are enough mature/educated younger children out there that would benefit from that as well. i had a momentary lapse when i forgot that most pagan parents tend to educate their children better, at least in the sense of them being more open and understanding to things. a child that embraces it would likely be more ready to attend than someone who wasn't sure or who's parents didn't educate them. besides, the younger they start the more time they have to learn and grow. good point!

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

I'm sorry, I don't mean to insult you, but your whole concept sounds so full of baloney to me. Schools are failing because parents are failing. They can't help with their childrens homework because they don't know the material or they're too busy climbing the corporate ladder to help their kids. The answer is NOT to start stuffing their minds with all of this earth-mother crap. I don't know what the answer is, but paganism or earthcentered instruction is just a fancy way of saying let's just piss off and try to look and sound artsy while we do it!

Answer 4

Absolutely not. I would prefer a Christian Education to anything Pagan or "Earth-based"

Answer 5

never, i believe in public education...