Having thought more about this, I have another idea; or, more precisely, a different flavor of the original idea. I wonder if perhaps the time has come to take a giant step backwards while leveraging modern technology. If local churches would form educational “co-ops”, manned by volunteer parents, kids could come to the local church building and use the facilities, plus their own laptops, for school; the kids would “attend” cyber charter schools of the parent’s choice. Parents could take turns serving as school “monitors” while kids completed their school work on their computers. The kids could have lunches and recesses together for “socialization” (although I’ve never been convinced what that means, or the value of it.) Age would not matter, since each student would be doing his/her own grade appropriate work on his/her own laptop and using his/her own study materials. This might even be a way for churches to develop education programs with very little to no overhead; if they only offered the service for their own memberships, it’s unlikely (at least for a while) that anyone could police them if their “extracurricular activities” were spiritually themed. The churches could include before and after school programs as appropriate, so that students could be dropped off by a parent on the way to/from work, and picked up the same.
- Churches would benefit from an additional membership/family building activity, and provide a valuable service to their congregation.
- Kids would be spared the frustration (and sometimes the trauma) of an unnecessarily long bus ride.
- Parents would have the peace of mind knowing that their children were in a reasonably safe place being monitored and assisted by people who not only love and care for their children, but also who could presumably be supporting the parent’s values as they answer question, provide direction, and otherwise engage with the students.
- If enough churches participated, local school costs could be significantly reduced. Maybe the answer isn’t closing less local schools; maybe the answer is to close more local schools – maybe even all of them! Church buildings, which often stand mostly empty and unused during the week, could be put to good use, the education system in general could benefit from increased use of, and leverage of, current technology, reducing costs and (one would hope) taxes, and children could receive a high quality “home school” education with a truly local and empowered school board.
“Back in the day” the church was the center of the community, not the school. Maybe it’s time for the church to step up to the plate and reclaim some lost ground. This may be one way to do it.