The Ron Paul Curriculum is an online homeschool curriculum created by the former Congressman Ron Paul.
How it Works
You pay a $250 annual membership fee, then $50 per course. You have one year of access to each course after buying it, and lifetime access to a few courses, such as Study Skills. Before purchasing, you are able to view the first five lessons in any course free! There is also a 60-day 100% money-back guarantee.
The courses consist of video lessons, presented alongside reading assignments. The individual coursework depends on the course. For example, math has daily math problems with answer keys to accompany the video, science has a weekly test or writing assignment, and business occasionally throws out something wild, like building your own website. These are just examples, but generally all courses, (except math), have weekly writing prompts to improve students’ writing ability and test their knowledge. Students are also expected to create their own blog, and post these weekly assignments on it. Never fear, there is a course teaching them how to do this!
The Teachers
The teachers who create the courses are each uniquely qualified to do so. In fact, several of them hold PhDs in their fields! Click here to meet the teachers.
Students do not have direct interaction with the teachers. However, they do have the ability to pause, replay, and speed up videos. Students can also interact with other students, ask questions, and report problems in the course forums.
Interaction on the Site
As mentioned above, students do not have direct access to teachers. Interaction occurs on one of the many forums. There is a forum for each course, where questions and discussions pertaining to the individual course occur. Students can ask each other questions, and help teach each other, on these forums.
There is also a forum for parents, and forums separated by grade for the students, where they can chat about non-school stuff just for fun. In addition to those, there are forums for reporting errors, and asking technical questions. Moderators regularly check these, and can assist with fixing any reported problems and helping parents figure things out.
Benefits
- The number one benefit of the Ron Paul Curriculum is that it gives the student independence and the parents more freedom. The student is allowed to choose their own schedule, their own work pace, etc. The parents are freed from having to be a constant part of their child’s school day, giving them more time for their own chores and hobbies. If the student needs help, there are other places he will go to ask before he asks his parents, so in that way the parents are also freed from having to learn the curriculum themselves.
- My experience supports this because if I have a question, I go to the forums first, and my parents second. Since starting the program, I have been able to do school completely independent of Mom and Dad, allowing him to work and her to go on errand runs with her mom and take up a few new hobbies.
- The next benefit is that there is no rule saying that the parents can’t learn the curriculum themselves. If they are interested and have the time, they can listen to the lectures themselves if they want to.
- My experience supports this also because there have been many times where a lecture concludes and Mom goes, “That was really interesting! Write down that lesson name, I’d like to listen to it later.”
- A family doing this homeschool curriculum also has more freedom in that they can travel more, take off random school days, and just generally have more time to spend than a public-school family.
- This is supported by my experience because I have done all of the above.
- The Ron Paul Curriculum (RPC) also provides a higher quality education because the video lectures don’t waste time, and there are no “busy work” assignments like you would find in a regular school.
- I testify! No busy work, and no time wasted!
- As an offshoot of the above benefit, the RPC gives an actually valuable, unique education because of the depth of the course materials and the advanced levels of the reading assignments.
- WAY more interesting classes, and WAY harder reading assignments that are actually educational! – Me
More Benefits
- The RPC frees students from having to deal with the distractions and limitations of other students.
- If you’re not in a classroom, then you don’t have classmates to bother you or hold you back!
- Nevertheless, the RPC simultaneously manages to provide a social element as well through the forums, and in a roundabout way through providing more time to hang out with friends outside of school.
- I have been able to start riding horses with a friend due to the RPC, and there is interaction with other RPC students on the forums.
- The RPC allows students to choose how in-depth they want to get into their classes. If you are super interested in a class, talk about it on the forum, look at the resources, ask questions, and so forth. If you are only taking a class for credits, watch the videos, do the reading, and move on.
- I, (as a student), testify that students have this ability.
- The RPC allows students to maximize their learning through giving them the ability to choose what order and at what time they do their classes. This allows them to work alongside their brain; certain people do better with math in the morning, other people can only stomach math right after lunch. The RPC gives them the ability to work with their brain and therefore learn better, rather than being forced into a rigid schedule that they did not choose.
- As a student having moved from public school to the RPC, I have found it very nice to be able to use the flexibility of my schedule to do classes when I see fit.
- The ability to work at one’s own pace.
- This is helpful, particularly in math, where I can watch a video once if I already know the topic, or rewatch a video ten times if I don’t understand.
Even More Benefits
- Freedom from outside obligations. In a public school, sometimes students are expected to perform outside work as a school assignment. An example of this would be community service. This is not fun and usually is not overly educational. With the RPC homeschool curriculum, you can focus on school only during school time. You get to choose how you want to spend the rest of your time yourself.
- I have found this to be WONDERFUL!
- Parents have a say in their children’s school and curriculum. You can’t have much more say in a homeschool curriculum than deciding whether or not you want to buy it and put your child through it can you? Plus, you can sample lessons for free, or even return a course for a full refund for up to 60 days.
- My family did this with my math course, when we realized that I actually needed the next one up.
- You don’t have to be dependent on shifty teachers who can get sick on you and suddenly leave you with a 90-year-old substitute who literally naps during math class.
- This is true, and that is a true example from my public-school days. All the videos are pre-made, and you can watch them even after their creators die.
- You also don’t have to worry about being treated differently than others. Everyone gets treated the exact same way with a premade homeschool curriculum. (Doesn’t matter how smart you are, or what you look like, etc.)
- This is true, I was singled out for my refusal to get tested weekly for covid in a public school. I was prevented from playing a sport and being in a play. Not so with the RPC.
- Finally, the RPC offers the chance to do your school with your cat on your lap.
- This is true, I, student, testify.
- *I suppose I should try to make the above statement sound like a really educational benefit. Hmmm. Well, this homeschool curriculum gives you the freedom to have more interaction with your probably-neglected pets. It also gives you the freedom to have support animals you never knew you needed. For an article on how spending more time with animals is extremely beneficial to your health, click here: https://newsinhealth.nih.gov/2018/02/power-pets#:~:text=Interacting%20with%20animals%20has%20been,supp
And if that’s not enough, here is a link to the actual benefits page of the Ron Paul Curriculum.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact me!