I have long heard praise for the Ron Paul Curriculum, and Tom Woods has been amazing at selling it. I assumed it was in line with my values for parenting. I thought it taught children to be assertive, independent and critical thinking- autonomous, long before some magical age where they become adults.
After reading the founder, Mr. Gary North’s (not Ron Paul, details in following link) discussion with several students in the RPC student forum pasted from one of the student’s personal blog, I was shocked at the fallacy of "appeal to authority" that Mr. North perpetuates, at least in regards to who he deems not to be his equals. I teach my children the opposite of what this man believes at least as demonstrated by his actions/behavior towards students in this discussion. He seems to think there are obvious or apparent rules for society which directly contradict my parenting. He has gone beyond baby boomer mentality in his stigmatization of young people who he believes not only should shut up, obey and respect him, but also in his cruel sense of punishment and public shaming for an articulate young lady who challenged his authority.
But it's worse, I just read about Gary North’s religious background here and his own apparent conviction in an Old Testament doctrine of law which is frankly scary. He once made the case for public stoning and every bit of his case advocates irresponsibility. According to his own writings, he wants people to do heinous acts and feel no accountability or remorse for their behavior. And he wants society unified in their lack of personal accountability to their conscience. This goes against the case for less governments I was given through people like Larken Rose. Larken reasons that if most humans had to be personally responsible to enforce the laws they propose, they would likely reconsider most of them.
After considering Gary North’s archaic views and seeing his treatment of students, I can't think of a single human less qualified to instruct my children. Throughout history, the monsters who pulled off the worst atrocities were not this blatantly transparent in their sense of (in)justice and promotion of a lack of accountability among the commons.
"For this reason," as the Shark's say, "I'm out."
I also question why Tom Woods, a very smart man, would associate himself with this program. But hey, I consider myself a smart, compassionate woman, and before I discovered the issues with not only the founder of this program, Mr. North, but also with how he treats his students, I was telling everyone I know (based on Tom Woods' glowing endorsement) to buy this program. In fact, just a week ago I was asking Tom if I could buy lifetime, universal access to the program for a slight discount on the annual fee multiplied by 12 years. Ol' Woods saved me thousands of wrong-spent dollars by denying my request. So, perhaps, Woods will see to it to promote a better program or write one himself without such an unscrupulous character lurking in the shadows. There certainly is a consumer demand for it.
Suddenly, I feel like I should design it. Here we go again. Hahaha! I get too many ideas in my head about what I want done right and how I must do it all myself. Obviously, I "could" do this, but F#$% it all. I just don't want to take on one more thing this year.
If you want to get involved or support the curriculum on Building Better Boundaries I have been developing, drop a message with the title “Boundaries” to my email TheSovereignMom@gmail.com and I will place you on the top of my waiting for my new course. I will also send you updates so you can be the first to join when I launch on September 21st. In addition, you will also be the first to receive access to the FREE FB group for people working on Building Better Boundaries with me!