Women of Washington

Communicating America’s Founding Principles

Women of Washington is an educational organization with a focus on understanding local, national, and global issues that are critical to our world today.

Rethinking Education During the Coronavirus

Frequently attributed to the Chinese is the curse: "May you live in interesting times."  Thanks to China's obfuscation and duplicity, the entire world is now dealing with the Wuhan virus and indeed we are living in interesting times.  We grieve for those that have been made ill and possibly lost their lives to the virus.  Our hearts go out to the many employees that have lost their jobs and the tens of thousands of small businesses that make our lives easier, but now may go under.  For many of us, the revelation that our government could so quickly shut down our economy and trample our Constitution is equally horrifying. 

And yet, there are glimmers of hope and opportunity. Across the nation, fifty million K-12 students have been sent home from school, perhaps for the rest of the school year.  

1.  Some school districts continue to provide content online for the students.  This is a wonderful opportunity for parents to sit in the "classroom" with their children and see what they are actually learning.

2.  Knowing that parents are now watching, teachers and districts will have to be more careful about the ideas they are presenting to the children.  It will be interesting to see what Comprehensive Sex Education will look like when streamed into the home...


3. Parents are finding that they need to homeschool their children and perhaps they will find that they are more than capable of teaching their own children.  Parents are learning that a day's content can often be fit into a few hours of teaching and they are getting the opportunity to reconnect with their families.


Grandparents, if you have been concerned about what your grandchildren are learning, this is a great opportunity for you to roll up your sleeves and get involved in their education.

1.  Offer to tutor your grandchildren in your favorite subject: math, literature, civics, history etc.

2.  Get them copies of your favorite children's books, biographies, history or the classics.  Spend time reading with them.  There are many wonderful book lists available online.  Check out E.D. Hirsch's Core Knowledge website for his Core Knowledge Sequence and free curricula.  Order his books: What Every __ Grader Should Know (Amazon still delivers) 

3.  Provide games/activities that promote learning about science or the Constitution. Find a book on experiments and explore science with them.

4.  Teach them to cook your favorite family recipes.  This is a great way to learn fractions or if you cook like I do, you can teach them how to use a fire extinguisher!

5.  Get your grandchildren to help you put together family photos or make a family tree.  What a great way to make history come alive.

6.  For 11th and 12th graders, encourage them to take some of the outstanding free courses offered at Hillsdale.  

  Important Safety Tip:  With so many children now having computers in their rooms, make sure that when they are not "talking to their teachers" that the camera on the monitor is obscured.  Predators can access those cameras remotely and watch and even talk to the children in their rooms at night.

Even college students are getting the opportunity to question the value of the education for which they are going into debt.  Not only might they discover that they can get an education online for a fraction of the cost of a liberal college, but leftist professors are going to be less likely to spew their propaganda when it is on tape instead of live in front of a captive audience.  

There is an abundance of excellent articles now about the opportunity that is being made available to restore America education.  Take this time and explore a few: 
https://fee.org/articles/coronavirus-may-lead-to-mass-homeschooling/
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/03/20/helpful-tips-and-websites-for-parents-schooling-at-home/
https://www.heritage.org/education/commentary/school-closures-and-accidental-homeschooling-continue-here-are-additional
https://www.publicschoolexit.com/faqs

Stay safe and sane!
Your Education Focus Group