E14: E14: Connor Boyack and Corey DeAngelis want to put learning back in the hands of parents

Right Now with Stephen Kent

The public school system has made chaotic decisions over the course of the pandemic that, frankly, screwed over parents and students. But families can still take their kids' educations into their own hands.

On this episode of "Right Now with Stephen Kent," Stephen sits down with Corey DeAngelis, National Director of Research at the American Federation for Children, and Connor Boyack, President of the Libertas Institute, for a conversation about how teachers' unions don't have students' nor teachers' best interests at heart, the pros and cons of remote learning, the concept of "unschooling" and separating schooling from education, and what options parents still have to make sure their child has the most fulfilling education possible.

Subscribe to Rightly to watch their conversation and find out more details about the episode below.

---- Content of This Episode ----
00:00​​​​​ Episode Start
00:06 Stephen’s horrible, no good, very bad school year.
03:15 Why are teacher’s unions deciding when to open schools?
06:20 The ‘trust crisis’ among parents and students
11:00 Are we doing right by students or teachers?
14:30 The system’s great for union bosses. But for teachers? Not so much.
16:30 School choice: funding students, not schools
19:30 How to talk to kids about this past year
23:30 Silver linings? More support for homeschooling
26:45 Parents learn about the political indoctrination in public schools
29:40 The rise of pandemic pods
33:45 Why do we segregate students by age?
36:20 Stephen tries his hand at teaching during COVID
40:25: What do education and agriculture have in common?
42:50: Utah walks back truancy laws
45:10: Unschooling: Divorcing schooling from education
46:35: Three things parents can do to change schools
50:45: Good news! Stephen sold his crypto a couple weeks ago.

---- Reading List ----

Do schools kill creativity? (TED Talk from Sir Ken Robinson)
https://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_do_schools_kill_creativity?language=en

"Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life" by Peter Gray (Basic Books)
https://www.amazon.com/Free-Learn-Unleashing-Instinct-Self-Reliant/dp/0465025994

Randi Weingarten on Reopening Schools (C-SPAN)
https://www.c-span.org/video/?511782-4/washington-journal-randi-weingarten-discusses-reopening-schools

Randi Weingarten's Hilariously Awful Media Rehabilitation Tour (Reason)
https://reason.com/2021/05/21/randi-weingartens-hilariously-awful-media-rehabilitation-tour/

"Passion-Driven Education: How to Use Your Child's Interests to Ignite a Lifelong Love of Learning" by Connor Boyack (Libertas Press)
https://www.amazon.com/Passion-Driven-Education-Interests-Lifelong-Learning/dp/1943521115/ref=sr_1_4?crid=3JMVGS7LO7P1D&dchild=1&keywords=connor+boyack&qid=1622038189&s=books&sprefix=connor+boya%2Cstripbooks%2C152&sr=1-4

Fund Students, Not Systems (Educational Freedom Institute)
http://efinstitute.org/

---- Plugs for our Guest ----

Follow Corey DeAngelis on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/DeAngelisCorey

Follow Connor Boyack on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/cboyack