I created the Ron Paul Curriculum. It is up and running, K-12.
It has enrolled a lot of families. What I am saying is not hypothetical.
Somewhere in the United States, there is a Roman Catholic bishop
who is a conservative. He probably doesn't say it publicly, but he would prefer
that the Latin mass were still in use. That world is gone.
He sees around him parishioners who share his beliefs. There may
not be a lot of them, but in a church with 77 million members in the United
States, there are several million of them.
The fact of the matter is this: there are a lot more than one
bishop in the United States who match this description.
He knows that there are nuns available for service who are about
to die. The average age of American nuns is at least 75
years old. These women are representatives of the older church. They
taught school for years. They are still mentally alert, and they would like to
provide something of value that will outlast them. They don't have much time,
but they are ready to work. They would work for free.
An entire curriculum, K-12, could be produced in 24 months by 24
volunteers. It could be produced in a year by about 50 volunteers.
In a church with 77 million members in the United States, plus
countless millions more in Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, Australia, and New
Zealand, there is a market for a Catholic curriculum in English. It doesn't
take a marketing genius to figure this out.
A single bishop who wanted to create a comprehensive curriculum
like this could do it with resources within his own diocese. But if he went
public with the proposal for such a plan, and he called for volunteers from
anywhere in the English-speaking world, he would have 1,000 volunteers so fast
he would have to hire someone to answer the emails. I am convinced of this. But
even on the assumption that I am wildly exaggerating, he could easily have 50
people.
The video-based curriculum could be placed on YouTube free of
charge, just as the Khan Academy is.
The curriculum could easily be produced by teachers with the
following tools: (1) a $300 piece of software, Camtasia Studio, (2) a $30 lapel
microphone, the Movo M1, (3) a copy of PowerPoint or the
equivalent in the free software, Libre Office. I am confident that there would
be donors within the diocese who would put up the money to supply the nuns with
this equipment.
This does not count the college professors or full-time teachers
in Catholic schools or even public schools who could do this over a summer
vacation. They would do it for free.
This project is so obvious that it is inconceivable to me that
some bishop has not figured it out. If a bishop has not figured it out, then
some mother superior should have figured it out.
There are millions of immigrants from Latin America in the United
States who have put their children into the American public school system. They
would like to have a Catholic education for their children. They would like to
keep their children at home because it is not safe in the inner city public
schools. They know the public school programs are third rate and are steadily
becoming fourth rate. They would like an alternative. The alternative could be
online for free within 24 months.
Why is it that there is not a single bishop anywhere in the
English-speaking world who does not understand this? How is it that there is
not a single mother superior somewhere in the English-speaking world who has
not figured this out?
Even without a mother superior or a bishop who has some vision of
the potential here, there are Catholic layman teachers who are conservatives
who would like to supply a comprehensive education tied to the classical
Catholic educational tradition. Yet nobody steps forth and volunteers to do it.
What about the Southern Baptists? If they thought the Catholics
were going to do this, there would be a bunch of Southern Baptists who would
give it a shot. It would appall them that the Catholics would do it without a
challenge from Southern Baptists.
October 31 is the 500th anniversary of Luther's nailing of the 95
theses on the door of the Wittenberg church. If Missouri Synod Lutherans
thought the Catholics were about to offer a free online K-12 curriculum, they
would organize to match them, course for course.
Presbyterians are the scholars of the Protestant world. If
conservative Presbyterians thought that the Catholics were going to do this,
they would form a study committee in each Presbyterian splinter denomination.
Within five years, there would be a decision to start a curriculum by reach
group. Within less than a decade from this decision -- though not much less --
there would be at least five Presbyterian curriculums online.
Then the Dutch would match them. The Dutch would not tolerate
American Presbyterians horning in on
Calvinist private schools run by school
boards dominated by parents.
Then "word of faith" cable-TV Pentecostal pastors would
see a profit opportunity: Holy Ghost-directed education. They would organize
online programs. Their ministries would own the programs.
What we need is interdenominational competition. We need
denominationally committed Christians who will not tolerate any of those other
denominations getting away with this. Obviously, they're not willing to fight
the public schools. They are all perfectly willing to let the public schools
steal their kids' minds. This has been true in the United States ever since the
1840's. But the thought that the Roman Catholics were going to do this would
outrage Protestants.
Therefore, I call on some mother superior to leave a legacy
behind. I call on some Catholic bishop to get his act together, educationally
speaking. Get that free online curriculum up and running! Show those
Protestants a thing or two!
If 20 million families then pulled their kids out of tax-funded schools,
maybe a majority of voters would start voting "no" on school bond
ballot propositions. Would that be so bad?
