NHEG-July-August2022

July August 2022
NHEG EDGUIDE July - August 2022
The intellectual achievements of colonial America were astonishing. Lawrence Cremin, dean of American education historians, estimated
the literacy rate of the period at between 80 and 90 percent. Benjamin Franklin taught himself five languages and was not
thought exceptional. Jefferson taught himself half a dozen, including Arabic. George Washington was unceasingly embarrassed by
his lack of formal education, and yet readers of his journals today marvel at his intellect and wonder why he ever felt insecure. It was
nothing for a man—or in some cases a woman—to learn algebra, geometry, navigation, science, logic, grammar, and history entirely
through self-education. A seminarian was usually required to know Greek, Hebrew, Latin, French and German just to begin his studies,
instruction which might take place in a log classroom and on a dirt floor.
This culture of learning spilled over onto the American frontier. Though pioneers routinely moved beyond the reach of even basic education,
as soon as the first buildings of a town were erected, so too, were voluntary societies to foster intellectual life. Aside from schools
for the young, there were debate societies, discussion groups, lyceums, lecture associations, political clubs, and always, Bible societies.
The level of learning these groups encouraged was astounding. The language of Shakespeare and classical literature—at the least
Virgil, Plutarch, Cicero, and Homer—so permeated the letters and journals of frontier Americans that modern readers have difficulty
understanding that generation’s literary metaphors. This meant that even a rustic Western settlement could serve as a kind of informal
frontier university for the aspiring. It is precisely this legacy and passion for learning that shaped young Abraham Lincoln during his six
years in New Salem.
Not bad for a society that hardly even knew what a government school was for generations, wouldn’t you say? Why
should we blindly assume today that we couldn’t possibly get along without government schools? Instead, we should
be studying how remarkable it was that we did so well without them.
When I think of the many ways that government deceives us into its embrace, one in particular really stands out: It
seeks to convince us how helpless we would be without it. It tells us we can’t do this, we can’t do that, that government
possesses magical powers beyond those of mere mortals and that yes, we’d be dumb as dirt and as destitute as
drifters if we didn’t put it in charge of one thing or another.
When it comes to education, Americans really should know better. Maybe one positive outcome of the virus pandemic
is that they will rediscover that they don’t need government schools as much as the government told them they do. In
fact, we never did.
Source: The Foundation for Economic Education (FEE)
https://fee.org/
FRIDAY, APRIL 1, 2022
BY KERRY MCDONALD
How Hybrid Schools Are Reshaping Education
They’re not exactly schools, but they’re not homeschools
either. They have elements of structured curriculum and
institutional learning, while offering maximum educational
freedom and flexibility. They provide a consistent,
off-site community of teachers and learners, and prioritize
abundant time at home with family. They are not
The growing interest in and supply of hybrid schooling across the country reflect a larger educational
trend away from traditional schooling and toward innovative, decentralized solutions.
cheap but they are also not exorbitant, with annual tuition
costs typically half that of traditional private schools.
The ability of these schools to emerge in varied and
spontaneous ways to meet local learning needs, and to
define their communities however they see fit, exemplifies
the promise of free-market education solutions and
the process of voluntary exchange. The unique structure
of hybrid schools makes it easier for entrepreneurial parents
and educators to open one, and often enables them
to avoid government regulation and oversight that can
limit innovation and experimentation.
Hybrid schools are, in the words of Kennesaw State University
Professor Eric Wearne, the “best of both worlds,”
drawing out the top elements of both schooling and
homeschooling while not being tied too tightly to either
learning model.
Wearne studies hybrid schools and is the director of the
National Hybrid Schools Project which seeks to better
understand this educational approach and why it’s been
gaining popularity in recent years. Wearne joined me on
this week’s episode of the LiberatED Podcast to talk more
about hybrid schools and how they are reshaping American
education.
Hybrid schools are as diverse as the people who launch
them and the communities they serve. Some of these
schools think of themselves as a group of homeschoolers
that comes together in a physical building for formal
learning several times a week, while other hybrid schools
think of themselves as formal private schools that meet
on a part-time basis.
In their new paper on hybrid schooling, Wearne and
his colleague John Thompson, acknowledge that the
autonomy and independence of these schools are
among their attributes. “One can imagine the policy and
regulatory issues that may arise from a set of schools
who custom-design themselves in ways that may make
them impossible for states and localities to categorize
consistently,” they write. “This may pose problems for
policymakers, but for these schools, this bespoke nature
is a feature, not a bug. These schools tend to avoid the
political battles involved in startup charter schools, and
are less of a financial lift to create compared to five-day,
conventional private schools.”
In his earlier research, including his 2020 book on the
topic, Wearne found that hybrid schools satisfy a rising
demand by families for smaller, more personalized, more
family-centered learning models rather than larger, more
standardized conventional schooling. In fact, Wearne
found that most of the hybrid school students in his sample
had attended public
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