Be the CEO, Not the Grunt of Your Child's Education

By Mona K. Koerner, PhD

Last week I had the opportunity to share my vision for what the future of education should look like in a workshop titled, "Be the CEO, Not the Grunt of Your Child's Education" at the 2019 CAPE-NM Homeschool Convention.  

For those who attended here is a copy of the slides and the bibliography with links to the video talks I referenced:

be_ceo_slides.pptx
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be_the_ceo_bibliography.docx
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The premise of this workshop is that a CEO casts a vision, makes strategic long-term decisions, and is responsible for increasing the value of the company's assets while a grunt, on the other hand, does the work that someone else comes up with and because God has granted parents with the authority to train children, parents should play the CEO role rather than the grunt role in their children's education.  ​

I went on to explain how the school model which permeates our society and our thinking places parents in the grunt role contrary to God's design.  The school model can even be present in our homeschools when we adopt curriculum based on standards established by someone far removed from the student and then we become a slave to that curriculum.  

The major barrier for us as parents to overcome in order to take on the CEO role, is that this school model is not only codified in law, it is embedded into our culture and thinking as most of us were raised within this model.  However, a better model is available to us today if only we have the courage to abandon the old way of thinking,  a model I call the Network Model of Education. ​

After briefly describing the school model, I discussed three reasons we should abandon the school model:  1. School is not equal to education; 2. the goals of school are not salient; 3. contrary to God's design, parents have no decision-making power in the school model.  
I then discussed what being the CEO of your child's education should include:

• possessing ultimate authority;
• responsibility for overall success;
• determining long-term strategies
• increasing the value (being a good steward) of your child's God-given gifts;
• having a vision and mission;
• only personally attending to the most important things;
• hiring and evaluating others;
• maintaining awareness of the landscape;
• assessing risks;  and
• setting goals.

The way this 'taking charge' can be implemented is by adopting a new means of organizing that mirrors changes taking place in our economy.  That is, our economy is moving away from organizations and institutions toward networks.  Some examples of network organization include Uber and Amazon.  By organizing education in a network fashion we can accomplish our goals more efficiently, and more cost effectively, because we are able to access greater resources.  It is also important because each network can be customized to serve the individual student and their needs, gifts, or temperaments.  

The means for implementing a network model of education are already available to us through the internet and a quickly growing number of platforms to learn anything such as Khan Academy, Outschool, Youtube, Udemy, AmazonInspire, Great Courses, Xed, online tutors, labs and so much more.  The challenge is not resources, it is shifting through the vastness of information to prioritize the best resources.  

Despite the availability of the technology to implement a network model of education, there are still two critical pieces missing.  They are: resources taught from a Biblical Worldview and opportunities to connect with real people in a non-virtual way.  Having our children learn from people is vitally important because it is relationships with great men and women that inspire and motivate us all to learn and grow.  

Parent Led Academic Network Team, Inc. (PLANT, Inc.) was established to help fill in these missing pieces by providing a platform for parents to connect with teachers, tutors, mentors and coaches who hold a Biblical Worldview.

Will you join me in implementing a network model of education and connecting to grow?
Promote yourself to CEO today!

Mona K. Koerner

Mona K. Koerner is a reluctant home educator turned passionate advocate after home educating for 10 years and learning more than in 25 years of school.