The Next Thing: #optout

Yes, the system has failed us, so we need to unplug and create something new


We don’t have all the answers. It’s not completely clear how it’s all gonna work out. It never is, though. The powers that be now — the people who are in charge — don’t know how it’s all going to work out. The people who make decisions how 90,000 kids in Loudoun County are going to spend 35 hours a week… for 39 weeks a year…haven’t shown any talents for prognostication so far. That’s unlikely to change.

It’s fairly evident, though, that in the case of the school system, a simple lack of foreknowledge — or even a lack of competence — is not all that is at play. The issue is actually one of purpose. There’s a divide between what they seek and what we seek for our kids.

So the one thing we do know is that we must declare our independence. We have to extricate ourselves from the system that is continuing to disrupt and corrupt our families, our communities, our institutions. What happens after that is not under our control. The problem is that we won’t know what to do next as long as we’re fighting a behemoth whose main operational significance is that it DEMANDS 180 days a year of your child’s all-day rapt attention.

There is absolutely no way around it. An #armyofparents needs to find and understand what territory it is actually defending, and defend it. Either education is a community and family driven enterprise or it is not. If it is, then sending the army up against the battlements of a 100 year old entrenched system hyper-focused on inputs and the maintenance of its own existence… is not the most productive use of our time.

On July 4 we celebrated our independence from Great Britain. By then many had also made the decision that they weren’t going to send their kids back to an organization that continues to fail us and our children. 

But if we didn’t make that leap yet, know this: on September 18, 2021 we have our Constitution Day. Come celebrate with us at the Loudoun field center in Lucketts Virginia, and meet folks from all around… educators, parents, community leaders, and other concerned citizens who are ready to reassert the community itself, and not the educational bureaucracy as the backbone of our kids’ — and our — education.

On the Loudoun Field Center website:

On Facebook:

https://fb.me/e/1eRR8PZjT

Or join the GCN:

https://GC.IndED.us