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News Item - Important Issue November 2011 |
The Lost Tools of Learning by Dorothy Sayers sparked a fire in educational circles that set many homeschoolers on the path of training their children in the home.
While that book made home education more accessible, there’s a trend mushrooming that could make it harder. And it has to do with lost tools of learning.
Namely, books. Thanks to the advances in and popularity of digital technology. Think eBooks. Think iPads. Think phone apps. That technology makes it much cheaper in one sense to publish a book since there are no paper, binding, and printing costs. At least on the publisher’s end. Digital technology also makes it easier to keep books current, allowing for last minute updates or new information with just a few clicks of the keyboard. Almost sounds like music to the ears of cash-strapped homeschoolers. But wait, there’s a note that is amiss, a chord that should strike concern. By making eBooks and similar applications so affordable, it is making the cost of printing books skyrocket. The result: every major publisher is expanding their line of eBooks and diminishing the number of hardcopy books. Print lists are being slashed so drastically that it is already becoming difficult to find curriculum on certain topics. Particularly from given perspectives. Try finding an affordable, comprehensive history curriculum that has not been subjected to the revisionists. Or finding a comprehensive science curriculum that is not laced with evolution. But it doesn’t stop there. Many “classics” are not being reprinted. We’re not talking about books that were written hundreds of years ago and are in public domain. We’re talking about basic, key resources, references, and relatively recent books that provide comprehensive surveys of subjects. “So what?” you say. “We’ll just find the book online.” That’s fine if you can find it. But the information gatekeepers that provide the technological framework for these digital outlets also hold worldviews contrary to what most homeschoolers hold. They have no desire to proliferate anything that goes against their views. Look at what happens to a video that exposes liberal biases. It gets blacklisted and disappears from the electronic airwaves. And in one sense, we homeschoolers are to blame. There are so many “freebies” available on the Internet that families don’t even bother with curriculum. They piece-meal worksheets together with little thought as to how this conglomeration meets the needs of their students in a systematic way. Bottom line, it is going to become harder and harder to find printed materials. If you have a book that you consider essential, hang on to it. If you find a workbook particularly helpful, don’t throw it out even though it has been written in. When you travel, visit used book stores and look for older textbooks and publications that fit your worldview. Begin now because the blitzkrieg is happening faster than we realize. 474 Words |
