Steve Lambert got me thinking about assembly lines today with his post about Henry Ford and the price of education. Mr. Lambert talked about how much less expensive homeschooling is compared to public school education. And it's true: You could purchase any homeschool curriculum for your children and pay far less than the amount of tax dollars poured into public schools for a single child. What's more: You get to keep the books. I've blogged about this before. So: Right on!
But here's my question:
If public education is the "assembly line" version of school and homeschooling is the "handmade" option: Why is the Ford model failing to produce cheaper/better results?
At least part of the answer is obvious: Homeschool teachers work for free and there are no added overhead costs (such as a school building).
So this isn't a fair comparison. Sure. But I think there are several areas of life that are shifting into a new existence. We see it from time to time: Newspapers fold because people get their content online for free and no longer buy ads in the papers because they can sell their stuff more effectively online for free. Encyclopedias and dictionaries are moving online and are free (Wikipedia, anyone?). People are pouring billions of hours into these online "hobbies" that--like homeschooling--offer the world something incredibly powerful and effective for free.
And you can be part of that. Blogging certainly can be. And homeschooling certainly is. Pretty cool, eh?
~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Expectant Father
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