The Hybrid Homeschool Project
It might even be political
Last night I tried something new. Even though I have several low key LA Dodger baseball caps, I really only pay attention during the playoffs. Same thing with politics. This time I actually bought a ticket and went to a meetup of Braver Angels in Long Beach. I met a political candidate that I actually like, a lovely couple from Orange County and an actual old friend I didn’t recognize until after we spent 20 minutes talking. Other than the green beer called Pandan Perk, there were no unpleasant surprises.
I was just enjoying the company, as I did last week in Pacific Palisades hanging with a gang of creatives aligned with FAIR as I alluded to speaking about the previously cancelled. Quite honestly I don’t know what’s going on with me hanging out with politicians and Hollywood folks. Activists! Maybe I’m finding a new passion. Well, actually that is what’s happening, and once again I have launched my bursty butt into yet another project. So next time I go to a meetup, I’ll have something more interesting to talk about than me, which is how I like it. It’s not about me. I’m almost always going out to socialize simply to meet people and exchange ideas. I’m not so much a hustler, but maybe this is something I can hustle.
You see I just submitted a proposal for a presentation for the next Heterodox Academy conference for next year in New York City. This is something I think can gain traction. It’s the next step in my grand ambition to bring reason, discovery, humility and humor back to public life. I know, right? Under the auspices of the Foundation for Free Black Thought, the project is Hybrid Homeschool.
The broad outline of my interest is that social media has brought a revolution in a intellectually debilitating short attention span theater. A new generation of young adults and children are not reading long form anything. We are not managing the crossover into online information business well, and the result is that we have shallower, more brittle minds than we ought. If you have a moment, listen to a couple minutes of this: TLDR: A brilliant programmer who is on the cutting edge of the AI tech that is revolutionizing the industry advises everyone to engage in long form reading. “Be your own LLM”.
Hybrid Homeschool is all about getting K12 parents and students on track to possess and consume the challenging materials that will get them in to meritocratic markets and out of the low-skill doldrums of American labor. It’s going to require:
Value-based Education
Long Form Reading
Scientific Literacy
The presumption is that people who are underserved are not going to get high quality materials and influences from ordinary schooling. We don’t want to take them completely out. We want to give them what they lack. So here’s an excerpt from my proposal.
Californians for Equal Rights, and the National Society of Black Engineers as well as individual parents are pushing back against the impact of mandated Ethnic Studies in California and the suspension of the Essential Skills requirement in Oregon which they believe hinders families striving for quality education without resorting to private schooling.
Erec Smith, Mike Bowen & Connie Morgan of the Foundation for Free Black Thought describe the depth of these political and ideological agendas, the 'reasoning' behind them and their current effects on literacy and math skills. They will also discuss various prior and continuing successful efforts to address grade inflation and the dilution of K-12 curricula in California and Oregon public schools.
These efforts highlight guided methodologies, curricula, and online resources that parents can use to independently reform, supplement, or replace public schooling. These also include traditional and novel homeschooling methods with a particular focus on what many black mothers are doing, their motivations and results. We will report on various success stories and lessons learned from both educational and political efforts.
We propose a framework for the creation and sustaining of grass roots networking as well as institutional support and will provide materials for distribution. We hope to inform and inspire similar efforts.
My involvement with FBT often means speaking engagements and keeping abreast of what similarly minded organizations are doing. This is the list of some of the organizations that in our close orbit with regard to the genuine empowerment of parents and quality education.
I have made personal contacts with outstanding individuals serving on the National Science Foundation, The Cato Institute, Vertex Academies, UCLA, Hidden Genius, UTAX and signatories to K12 Math Matters. And of course being a current mentor and previous national officer for the National Society of Black Engineers, I have a personal interest.
What I want to see is that every family who is nurturing children for America’s meritocracy has access to the kinds of resources and mentorship that is commonly afforded only to affluent parents and legacies. We have seen what influence the Ivy Cabal can have on the perceptions of millions of Americans who are blinded to the truth about ‘flyover country’. We know that they can be dead wrong. I want noobs to have a work around. I want to be their sherpa. Our civilization depends on it.
I will be gathering resources and contacts, and regularly reporting on this in Tessellations and cross-posting interesting wins and losses here.