Mother, Should I Trust the Government? is an online, interactive class that was offered by FreedomProject Education over the past two months. FreedomProject Education is not offering this particular class at this time, but they have two other classes starting this spring.
When I initially heard about the class, I was intrigued. FreedomProject Education is an online private school providing a classical education with Judeo-Christian values. In addition to their online courses for grades K-12, they also offer special interest family classes suitable for students ages 13 and up. Families are encouraged to attend together so that they can discuss the materials outside of the class time. Our crazy schedule did not allow me to attend many classes with Addison, but I was able to attend one class session live. Thankfully, all of the classes are recorded so they can be watched at a later date.
Dr. Jake Jacobs wrote the book Mother, Should I Trust the Government? and taught the class to a group of both in-person and online participants. He comes from an education background with over 27 years of teaching experience at both the high school and college level. The class itself seemed very much like attending an actual college class. We weren't merely watching the lecture; we were invited to participate by using the text chat box in the online classroom. Dr. Jacobs did an excellent job of including comments and answering questions from the text box so that it was almost as if we were all sitting in the same room.
Much of Dr. Jacobs' materials focused on the founding of America. Addison said, "I really appreciate how deeply he went into the context of the actions of the Founding Fathers when they wrote the Constitution." I'm thankful that he took the time (several class periods) to thoroughly explain the philosophical backgrounds of the famous Americans who helped write our Constitution. Knowing their backgrounds and seeing how they explained their political opinions in other writings helps us to interpret their intentions when we read the Constitution more than two hundred years later. The later class sessions dealt with the Civil War and some modern topics.
This class showed me that I need to spend a bit of time during Addison's senior year covering current political events. When telling me her impressions of the class, she commented, "Due to my obliviousness about today's political atmosphere, it was hard for me to connect the Founding Fathers' actions to today's government so that I could form an educated opinion of how our government should be run." Thankfully, the class did more than just point out an information gap in her education; it inspired her to be more politically aware. She realized that she will be voting in the next presidential election and that she should start paying attention to political issues now.
Our Mother, Should I Trust the Government? classes met for two hours at a time for a total of eight class sessions. The next FreedomProject Education Family Classes are How to Think: A Crash Course in Critical Thinking taught by Dr. Juan Valdes and Bible as Culture: The Epistles of Paul and the Book of Revelation taught by Dr. Duke Pesta. Both classes suggest that families attend together, with a recommended minimum age for children of 13. The classes are offered free of charge, but FPE suggested that each family donate $50 to help pay for the instructor's time.
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