Homeschooler Lani Rodriguez shares the secrets to her great academic success with the Ron Paul Homeschool Curriculum. Why let government schools turn kids into drones when there's a much better way? Easy for the parents and inspirational for the students. Interested? Go to: http://www.RonPaulCurriculum.com for more information and to try the program for FREE!
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Why I Chose Homeschooling
00:07:47
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| Hello, everybody, and thank you for tuning in to this special report on homeschooling at the Ron Paul Liberty Report. | |
| We're going to have a special guest today, somebody that has taken homeschooling in the Ron Paul curriculum, and her name is Lonnie Rodriguez. | |
| Lonnie, welcome to our program. | |
| Hello! | |
| Hi! | |
| I'm very happy to be here. | |
| Well, that's wonderful. | |
| And you've been in homeschooling for a few years, and it seems like you know something about it, and that you've enjoyed it, and that you have done well. | |
| And we'd love to hear stories about that. | |
| What is it about homeschooling? | |
| You know, before we started the program, I said something about you might be lucky that you're in homeschooling, and you said, yeah, probably. | |
| When did you find out you were lucky? | |
| And what was it that really dawned on you that you were glad that you were in homeschooling? | |
| Well, I realized that the kind of mental state that I'm in is not typical of someone that would perhaps be in public school. | |
| Like, I'm aware that I have all these opportunities and these ambitions and stuff. | |
| And I think that being homeschooled has really helped develop that, you know. | |
| I think that if I was in public school, I would be stifled a little bit, you know, like all my ambitions, I wouldn't be as motivated. | |
| You know, it just really worked for me. | |
| And seeing other people being in public school, and they complain, you know, it doesn't work for them. | |
| I realize this works for me, and this is really working for me, and I can be successful. | |
| And this is going to help me be successful. | |
| I'm very glad. | |
| That is wonderful because I think you used a word that I like, and that is motivation. | |
| Because everybody wants to be educated, and we all want to be smart and all this. | |
| But you know, it's motivation because it's motivation that makes you decide whether you're going to work at it because the other stuff doesn't come automatically. | |
| You don't turn on a switch. | |
| You have to have a reason to. | |
| So that is great that you discovered that early on. | |
| And when did that happen? | |
| Did your parents talk to you about it? | |
| Or did you know somebody else that was homeschooled? | |
| Or how did that happen? | |
| Well, I was in fifth grade and I came back from class one day and I felt like awful. | |
| Like I was, I felt completely unmotivated in class. | |
| And my dad was like, my brother had been homeschooled for maybe a couple years before that. | |
| And my dad told me, you know what, I think it's time for you to be homeschooled because you're completely bored in class. | |
| You're not doing stuff that you should be doing. | |
| You're not learning anything. | |
| You're just wasting time sitting there doing busy work. | |
| You know, the environment that you're in is not really helping you become a person, helping develop your personality, your skills, or anything. | |
| So my dad said, you know what, I think would be best for you if we homeschooled you. | |
| And I said, I agree. | |
| And that's when I left. | |
| And that was in fifth grade. | |
| I was, I think, 10 years old. | |
| I can't remember, really. | |
| Well, that's pretty neat that that happened. | |
| But I wanted to find out from you, when did you discover that? | |
| Well, no, first I want to mention something else about, you know, the situation you were in and why you were bored with that. | |
| There is a writer about homeschooling who's a strong believer in homeschooling, but he's a pretty harsh critic of the government schools. | |
| And he described it like a prison, you know, that you're locked in there and you don't have any freedom to cultivate your mind. | |
| Is that a little bit too strong, or did you sort of feel that same way? | |
| I felt the same way. | |
| And my brother, who had been homeschooled, he was doing online schooling, the government one, Florida virtual schools. | |
| And he felt the exact same way. | |
| And so when I became homeschooled and I went to the Ron Paul curriculum, my brother also transferred with me to that and stopped doing Florida virtual schools. | |
| But public school, very much so. | |
| That's actually the word that we use to refer to it. | |
| We say prison because it is a very, it feels like a very similar environment. | |
| You stifle these kids and their creativity. | |
| You try to put them into boxes and stuff instead of allowing them to grow. | |
| You're stuck in a building, like you're stuck there for however knows how many hours, and then you go home and then you have to do more work. | |
| It doesn't just stay there. | |
| It comes back with you, which I don't agree with. | |
| So I would agree that public school is very much very prison-like. | |
| What happened in the homeschooling? | |
| Was there something that you decided that you liked that you didn't realize it and you were surprised that once you had a little bit of freedom of choice and exposed other things, was there something in studying that you liked especially? | |
| Well, I think a really big part of it is the fact that I get to teach myself, that I'm the one doing all this stuff of my own accord. | |
| Nobody is looking over my back and saying, you have to do this. | |
| It's not like that. | |
| And I think that having the responsibility, taking that responsibility and doing all that work myself, that really motivates me. | |
| And that's a part of it that I really, really love. | |
| That I get to do all this and it feels like it's for myself and I'm doing it all myself. | |
| And it's my own education that I'm taking into my own hands and not leaving it in the hands of, you know, someone who went, I don't know, who has a diploma, but who knows if they should really be teaching you because you're you. | |
| It's your education. | |
| I think you should be in the one in control of it. | |
| Well, your parents must have been pretty pleased with this because our program they're designing, you describe it, that you're in charge and you're a success because you're motivated. | |
| But parents, you know, can help and advise and guide people, but parents don't, you know, we have heard others in other curriculum where the parents have to spend a lot of time and sit next to them and help and be the instructor. | |
| So I think that parents, did your parents enjoy that? | |
| The fact that you're doing all this on their own and relieve them of paying, you know, have to pay a lot of attention? | |
| Well, there was never really a discussion on them teaching me all this. | |
| It was very much so, this is your education. | |
| You are going to teach yourself. | |
| That was a really big part of me becoming homeschooled in the first place. | |
| When I became homeschooled at first, when I first started, I had a lot of trouble adjusting to that, to the fact that I was only teaching myself. | |
| I didn't have a teacher telling me what to do and how I should do it. | |
| I had to figure it out by myself. | |
| I'm the one in control of doing all these classes and everything. | |
| I'm the one in charge. | |
| And I had a lot of trouble adjusting to that. | |
| So my dad kind of helped me with that at the beginning, but he very much pushed me to help me realize that this should really be happening by myself, that I should be able to do this. | |
| And it happened. | |
| And now I'm doing all this work and it's all mine. | |
| My parents can do whatever they want during the day. | |
| And I do my own thing. | |
| They do their thing. | |
| There's no looking over my shoulder. | |
| They don't have to do that when they know that I am motivated enough and responsible enough to do all the work that I need to do. | |
| Now, you know, Dr. North, who originated this idea of this curriculum, along with Tom Woods, put a lot of effort into it. | |
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Learning on My Own Terms
00:02:37
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| They have a lot of videos available. | |
| Were the videos helpful to me? | |
| It seems to me like this would be an advantage because I listen to lectures and take a few notes and then I wouldn't have them. | |
| But people describe to me, well, in our case, it's very easy. | |
| We just go back and listen. | |
| Has it worked that way for you? | |
| Yes, it has. | |
| It has. | |
| And I think the fact that college is a lot of lectures, you know, watching someone talk and speak, I think the fact that the video lectures really helps you set up for that environment. | |
| I think that's a very good idea. | |
| And the fact that you can watch it in your own page, you can go back and forth. | |
| You know, if you need to re-watch it, you can. | |
| The information's still all there. | |
| I think that's a very big plus and a very, very good idea. | |
| You know, it's not reliant on somebody who teaches you and then that's it. | |
| You know, what you there was there is that that's it. | |
| With the videos, you can go back and read, you know, or listen when you need to. | |
| It's very much at your own pace. | |
| Now, when you watch these videos, do you take notes or you just watch? | |
| Sometimes I take notes. | |
| If it's something that I'm particularly like, there's a lot of information for me, if it's a subject I'm not super strong in, I will take notes sometimes. | |
| But sometimes I just listen and then I supplement it by going reading more stuff about it. | |
| For example, the topic of the lecture, I go and look something up and I read all about it, and that's also how I supplement what I just learned. | |
| I read about it of my own accord. | |
| When you do that and see something that really excites you, maybe a sentence or a paragraph or a page, do you ever do any printing out of special things like that? | |
| No, I don't do any printing out. | |
| I very rarely print stuff out. | |
| But I do bookmark a lot of stuff. | |
| I have many, many, many bookmarks of many different sites and stuff. | |
| I have bookmarked articles that I've read about a subject that I just found so interesting that I was like, I got to say this. | |
| I got to read this again sometime. | |
| That was great. | |
| So I do have many, many bookmarks, but I don't print stuff out very often. | |
| Do you have a favorite subject that you like and you enjoy? | |
| If you had to pick one of the many things that you've studied and will be studying, is there one thing I say, oh boy, I'm just getting this. | |
| This is a new book or something. | |
| Is there one subject that you really look forward to a little bit more than the others? | |
| Well, I am a big fan of the literature courses. | |
| I think they're great. | |
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Optimistic Future in Education
00:04:35
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| And I admit that when I was a little younger, I didn't really understand the value of it, but now I do. | |
| And I read these. | |
| I'm like, wow, this is just great literature. | |
| And I'm really paying attention and really absorbing this. | |
| And I really enjoy reading that stuff. | |
| I'm also a big fan of math. | |
| I do a lot of math, and I really, really love math. | |
| It's one of my favorite subjects. | |
| So those two are definitely my favorites, the literature and mathematics. | |
| Well, what are your long-term plans? | |
| Because you are going to have a very positive future from my estimation. | |
| But do you have plans laid out in the next three, four, five years, college and this sort of thing? | |
| Or are you still feeling your way on that? | |
| Definitely. | |
| I have a lot of big plans for the future. | |
| I want to get my GED soon when I turn 17. | |
| Then I'm going to attend college. | |
| I want to become an architect. | |
| That's something I'm very interested in. | |
| I have a lot of big aspirations, and I think that being homeschooled has really helped me develop that. | |
| I think the whole environment has really helped motivate me and helped me develop these aspirations. | |
| Well, my guess is that your parents are probably very proud of your achievements and your success. | |
| Right? | |
| So that is wonderful. | |
| No, and I'm so glad you came on because our goal is to get more people involved. | |
| And you're a good spokesman because I think you've convinced me we're doing the right thing after I talked with you. | |
| So this is very good because I wasn't homeschooled, but those government schools weren't quite as bad a few years ago when I went there. | |
| But I think there's a greater need than ever, and you've already alluded to that, the conditions of the schools and the social conditions are that there's needs more for getting out of that system. | |
| So I think there's a great future. | |
| I've worked on the assumption that education is very important. | |
| People have to know and understand before they can get involved in their work or politics or anything else. | |
| So this is something that I think is very vital. | |
| And you've already described, you know, the classics and literature and math and all these things. | |
| And I'm convinced that you're much further ahead than the average public school student. | |
| But it's something that I think is very important. | |
| And I see that homeschooling and alternates, alternate schooling, I have nothing, and there's a lot of good public school teachers, but it's the system that is bad. | |
| Yeah, it's very, I had a very good teacher in public school. | |
| I had the same teacher for about three years. | |
| He was an excellent teacher. | |
| But the fact that he was just stuck in that school system that really stopped him from doing what he really wanted to do for the students, he ended up leaving and becoming a nurse. | |
| But he was an excellent teacher. | |
| I was very lucky to have him. | |
| And then the year when I didn't have him was the year that I left public school. | |
| Yeah, that's true. | |
| But what I've worked on over the years is to make sure that these options are open because there was a time not too many years ago there was a concerted effort to close down all homeschooling and private schooling. | |
| And that's still a possibility someday that people don't want to hear the truth sometimes and they will try to silence us. | |
| But right now, it's a powerful movement and there's people like you who are benefiting and there's no way they should be able to do it. | |
| All we need are more people like you understanding the importance of it, willing to stand out and be able to promote an option because I think you have heard and I hear it all the time on the mess that we have and the social chaos that's going on and all the rules and the regulations and the controls on speech and all these things. | |
| It's just terrible and it's opposite of liberty. | |
| And that, of course, was one of our goals too in this program is to promote and understand liberty in the real sense in the market and also about why we shouldn't be marching around the world. | |
| So I see this as an option. | |
| I'm optimistic about it. | |
| But I really get optimistic when I meet somebody like you. | |
| So I want to thank you for being on this program today. | |
| All right. | |
| And you're welcome. | |
| And I want to thank our audience today for tuning into this special report on homeschooling. | |