Thursday, March 12, 2015

FreedomProject Education Mother Should I Trust The Government? Course and Book Review

FreedomProject Education Mother Should I Trust The Government?

I recently took an online course through FreedomProject Education. FPE is a nationally accredited private school which has courses that are based in classical education and a Judeo-Christian belief system rooted in the tradition of America's Founding Fathers and the US Constitution. They are also a huge opposer of Common Core and do not tolerate the use of it in any of their classrooms. They have courses that are for Kindergarten through twelfth grade, K-12. Go see what 2015 courses they have to offer. These courses are delivered live online through interactive classrooms to students all over the world.


Our instructor, Dr. Jake Jacobs, reading a passage out of his book.

The course I was asked to take is called "Mother Should I Trust The Government?". This course is for ages 13 and up. It is taught by the author, Jake Jacobs PhD, of the book by the same name as the course. To take this course we met online for two hours each Monday night for a total of eight weeks. This course was easy to access and I received an email before class every Monday that we were supposed to meet. This was a helpful reminder that I needed to click on the link provided to access the course. When the link was clicked we were whisked away to another page where the course power point loaded with the chat. You need the latest Adobe Flash Player if on a regular computer or Adobe Connect for your smartphone or tablet to participate. Along with the online course I received a softcover book by the same name authored by the course instructor, a mini book version of the US Constitution, and two bonus discs from FreedomProject Education: "Who Owns Your Children?" and "Common Core". We were tasked to read chapters from the book along with the course to better understand what was being taught. These reading assignments were very enriching and I ended up learning a whole lot about our history that I don't remember being taught in school.

I ended up taking the course by myself. I tried to persuade my 12 (almost 13) and 14 year old boys to sit in on the course with me, but they sounded bored and decided not to. They only listened in briefly while they were doing other things in the living room where my computer was that I took the course on. I had hoped my twelve year old history buff son, Jaedan, would be at least take part in it, but he showed little interest. I should have known the reason why. Two hours is long for a class. He can not sit still for that long! I even had a bit of trouble.

I am not a very verbal person when it comes to most political and government issues. I do not like to voice my opinions because I do not like causing conflict. Everyone has their own opinions and I understand and respect this fact.

This course is lecture and discussion based. In this course Dr. Jake Jacobs, talks about his convictions and viewpoints about the current government and things that happened in history that shaped our American nation. Some things I agreed with him upon and others I did not. This was to be expected and he was very tolerant of everyone's viewpoints. While he taught he sat behind a desk with a computer, notes, and reference material. While he was teaching we could interact with him and the other students by chat. On his computer he could see everything that we could and communicated back to us about our comments and questions on the chat while he was teaching. I only participated a few times in the chat when I felt compelled to do so and enter my two cents.

One of the movies and books that Dr. Jacobs recommended to us.

Some of the books that Dr. Jacobs recommended to us.

Throughout the course Dr. Jacobs referenced a lot of material. Some of this material came from other books and movies that he also recommended to us. He also quoted a lot of the prominent figures he was mentioning and each quote would appear on screen as part of his slide presentation so we could read it while he quoted. There were a number of slides with pictures, political cartoons, maps, and historical documents that also helped us visually throughout the class.

Lots of very interesting stuff was covered. There are some very important main ideas of the book and course. The first was that man governs our country, but man is infallible and could get corrupted by power, so the governing shouldn't be totalitarian over the people. Instead the governing should be just enough to keep the people safe and protected. The next was that we need to be a republic under God. Our nation's history is built upon the foundation of freedom and liberty. Over and over in history we see a lot of the wars were being fought because people wanted freedom and liberation from totalitarian rule and servitude. These people fought to get away from rulers that were power hungry. These rulers were just men or women put into power through circumstance such as bloodline or marriage. The one thing the Founding Fathers fell back upon was that we should put our full trust in not man (or woman), but God! This is why the words, "IN GOD WE TRUST" is stamped onto our currency. It is the national motto of the United States. The great question of this course and book is, "How much government do we want in America to protect Life and Liberty, and can that government be trusted?".

One of the many quotes that Dr.Jacobs used in the course.

Some of the people talked about were:
King George III
George Washington
Samuel Adams
John Adams
James Madison
Sons of Liberty
James Otis
Patrick Henry
George Mason
John Hancock
Penelope Barker
Richard Henry Lee
Haym Salomon
Roger Sherman
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Franklin
Alexander Hamilton
Abraham Lincoln
Barack Obama

Some of the topics covered were:
War for Life and Liberty
British Government
Confederate history
Stamp Act
Boston Tea Party
First Continental Congress
freedom of religion
various wars and battles
Boston Massacre
Republic
Declaration of Independence
REX LEX
LEX REX
Rule of Law
Libertarianism
Totalitarianism
Socialism
Nazi-ism
Communism
Federalism
Anti-Federalism
Revolution
Republican
Democrat
US Constitution
Ratification
Bill of Rights
Whiskey Tax
Sedition Act
Alien Bills
Land Tax
Constitutional Convention
Slavery
Three-Fifths Clause
Missouri Compromise
Secession
Progressivism
Judeo-Christian views

I liked the fact that the class recordings from the previous class could be viewed again after they were over as a refresher and that they can be viewed 24/7 until 60 days after the last class was recorded. This is wonderful and helps so much in case you came into the class late or missed something completely because you had to take a bathroom or food break. I also think that it is neat that they do this in case someone from my family does decide that they actually want to take the course after the fact.

There was a lot more that was covered than that listed above. I enjoyed learning about everything in the class and book. Both were very informative and interesting. Do I recommend this course? Yes, but make sure you can take time out of your day/night to participate.

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