Have you ever wondered why schools got rid of woodshop? Why they got rid of home ec? Well, it was because in 1983, the “geniuses” at the department of education released this report: A Nation at Risk. The department of education was founded in 1980. Which means it only took the federal government three years to destroy the education system. The report concluded that American academic performance had been declining for the last twenty years. Doing so allowed them to extend the school day, mandate certain subjects and control schools with standardized testing. So in response to this pressure, schools abandoned woodshop. They abandoned home ec. Seven years later, the Sandia Report came out, which explained that back in 1960, only rich kids did standardized testing, because other kids didn’t plan to go to college. By 1980, poor people and people of all demographics were taking these tests. This made the overall averages look like they were going down. In reality, nearly every group was doing better across the board. Of course, we already know how things have gone since 1983. This is why so many families are homeschooling, because 18 year olds aren’t graduating with any skills at all. Our students do carpentry. They learn engineering. They do STEM projects. They learn to cook. Look what they do in our live graphic design classes. Elementary students. Just look at these. One student made Sonic. An another a business card. She’s a 14 year old author. Go follow her, and checkout my private homeschooling community, as well as my books.
Brett Pike is the Author of the Cubs to Bears book series.
He is also the creator of Classical Learner’s Homeschools Connected community & curriculum – bringing together thousands of like minded people and providing them the resources to give their kids an education worthy of freedom. You can learn more about Homeschools Connected here.