I bought some excellent home schooling materials for my middle daughter. There are several programs to chose from and these were easy to follow. I found that public school time was probably half just busy work as we could finish a 'day' in two to three hours. For the majority, it seems school has been more of a place to park the kids in working parent families. Now they are spinning off the smart kids into STEM programs.
My grandfather was partially home schooled and by the time he took pre entrance college exams, he knew maths including trigonometry and calculus. He could read classic Latin and Greek, was a whiz at English Grammar and History was delightful to him as he wasn't bogged down by having to learn dates of wars and the like. He was well educated in Civics and Geography as well, so, it was no surprise that he became vice president of the Erie Railroad at a young age.
I think of my old alphabet book. "X" is for "Xerxes." Not xylophone. Not x-ray. Xerxes, king of the first Persian Empire. *sigh*
Today's online teaching situation seems to have a lot of moving parts. I've heard that the older kids, for example, have learned to use this new world to their advantage. I'm not sure what that means, but I suspect they've found ways to appear to be paying attention in class when they're actually not. I'm sure they did that in the classroom, too; now it's probably easier. And, more stress on the teacher to keep track of their behavior. He/she can't just walk around the room and check. And, now that we're in a "new normal," a new layer has been added in terms of what money can buy. Today, someone needs to be with kids while they're online. Money can allow a family to hire someone. In addition, families with money can bypass the traditional system by bringing in credentialed teachers, and setting up learning pods, which they're doing. If I was a parent with money, I'd probably do that, too. I've read that some teachers have signed up to work for individual families and are making well over 6 figures a year. But, what happens in families where parents need to go to a job? I haven't heard of companies who say "We'll pay you to stay home until this crisis is over." If the family is not multigenerational, who's going to be able to stay home? And, what about teachers who don't feel they have the option to ditch the traditional system? You might have read that teachers are dealing with the stress of learning to manage an online classroom using technology provided by their districts. The technology isn't always reliable. It's very disruptive when technical issues interfere with the learning process. How do these teachers stay positive--if only for the sake of their students? And what about the support staff that Beth mentioned? How do they make up for lost wages? I think we have enough money through Federal sources to supplement the income of all workers who have lost income because of Covid, We could, for example, take a tiny bit of the $300 billion in gold that we're holding, convert it to cash, and give it to those workers. I believe we also have enough money to give all of our children a stellar education. On the other hand, expanding on John's remark that " ... the masses were likely illiterate." I remember, as a high school student, reading that the founding fathers didn't want everyone to be educated. It would have made us too difficult to "manage." As others have mentioned, I'm thankful I don't have children in school today. I'm not sure I could successfully navigate this chaos. Still, I'm not worried; I do think we're headed for better times! (My apologies if this was too long winded; I can get carried away )
@Sakkom Jelani BUT, carried away hopefully breathing at your normal rate! Especially eye-opening was your mention of founding fathers supporting education, but only limited to a select portion of the masses. I've heard this discussed in much detail before, and had forgotten much of it. Selling gold held by the government seems tricky. Selling implies converting it to some other exchange medium, perhaps unbacked currency, perhaps foreign currency. Currently (and for quite some time now, Covid being immaterial) the U.S. Dollar has skyrocketed in value compared to the other major world currencies. When my new wife and I traveled from Chicago to see her birthplace in Germany, April, 1972, The German Mark, British Pound, and Canadian dollar were several times the value of the buck; L = $4 USD. In the past year, I have seen the Canadian dollar posted in the casino cages at ~ $1 USD/ $0.70 Can.! We experience literally thousands of "Snowbirds" staying here-abouts each winter (Colorado River area, West-Central AZ), driving huge motor homes, RVs, campers, and so on. Many can be heard complaining bitterly about the exchange rate, as though they knew not of it's value before leaving home. But spend the money, they do! I, too, tend to "run-on" a bit, forgive me! Welcome to the Forum!! Frank
I'm sure you're right, Frank; it would be tricky to sell the gold. Maybe we could melt it down, stamp out coins of different denominations and make them available through banks or some other venue. I enjoy my flights of fantasy. Thanks for your welcome message!