College loan pressure starts shockingly early

In a lawsuit fluke, a judge ruled that 800,000 students should have their student debt canceled. Researchers took the opportunity to compare outcomes of students with canceled debt to students who did not have their debt canceled. Canceled debt improved student outcomes in all sorts of unexpected ways. More of them got married and had kids, […]

Careful with that language arts curriculum. Its original purpose was finishing school.

The word doomscrolling appeared for the first time in The New York Times, in an Opinion column about coronavirus. The Twitter feed about the first appearance of words in the New York Times is fun because it’s about when a word goes mainstream. It’s the hockey stick growth equivalent for a word. (Hockey stick growth is the word for startup success […]

Homeschooling minefield: the breakfast table

Homeschooling, parents are always looking out for minefields. There is no blueprint we can follow and there aren’t many established best practices. But the thing that makes it a minefield is we can’t see the danger before we step on it.

Stop public funding for colleges that don’t create social mobility

Colleges just announced that while most classes will occur online, schools will not reduce tuition. Students have tried to sue to get their tuition decreased and the schools have prevailed. College administrators are telling us online college is MORE expensive for schools than in-person college. But wait. Does this mean there is MORE VALUE in […]

Homeschoolers should lead the change to anti-racist US history

Right now schools have no idea how to teach online and kids will go to school irregularly this fall. It will take 20 years for school districts to dig themselves out of the Covid crisis and start thinking about what is actually important to teach. Meanwhile, the US history curriculum is already so outdated that […]

K-12 teachers are out of step with American workers

Parents are not doing Zoom school. They think it’s stupid. Yet teachers have been doing school day after day like it’s essential. A survey by Fishbowl reveals that the majority of professionals prefer to continue working from home. Except K-12 teachers. They prefer going back to working at school.

Teach your kid to read 100 books a semester

My son wanted to read The Communist Manifesto, and I told him, “Just read a summary.” He scowled. “I majored in political history and I read very few books. You don’t have to read books.”

When a parent and teacher disagree, the child suffers most

One of the most difficult parts of divorce is that kids have to manage conflict between parents. Parents who don’t communicate well often don’t realize that they end up putting the burden of adult communication on their kids. Kids are not equipped to deal with the stress of adult problems, but they end up feeling […]

How homeschoolers support the community

First of all, go go go Bernie! My favorite part of the caucuses is the face-to-face part. You have to engage with your community in order to have your vote counted. I know people complain that Iowa shouldn’t have so much weight in the primaries, but I think the act of caucusing should have weight […]

Is it possible to insure a parent who homeschools?

When I entered the workforce, Baby Boomers were in charge of everything, so I had all the accouterments of a job you planned to stay in until the day you turn 65. The Gen-Xers in the office designated our life insurance policies to Elizabeth Wurtzel and Mike D. Our workers compensation was so broad that […]

© 2023 Penelope Trunk