My parents were teachers and caught in the “public system” for many years back in the 1960s and 1970s, before my father found another career and my mother returned to private teaching (which she could do, teaching music and art). They both gave up a lot to escape the clutches of the government-run, tax-funded schools.

I learned from them and their trials, fighting the system, although I ended up spending my entire educational experience in the GRTF schools.  Still, I was more and more convinced as I matured that government-run, tax-funded schools (“public schools”) were dangerous and unproductive. That conviction has simply grown with the decades.

My sons were raised in a mixture of education, mostly home-schooling and private schooling. In turn, they are raising their children completely home- and commercially-schooled. Both of them did spend some time in the public system, and saw its problems directly. They did not “inherit” their opposition – even hatred – of those government-run schools.

A few days back, I referenced articles by Jacob Hornberger and Christine Smith regarding “public schools” and the role they have in promoting socialism, statism, and many other faults. See that commentary and links to their articles here.

Like them, I see the evils in government-run schooling, which is socialism. Even though many deeply conservative, and even some libertarians, refuse to accept that fact. I also see the problems with compulsory education, and all the side issues. And I have seen the products of that schooling. It is ugly.

So what, you may ask, is “commercial schooling?”

Commercial schooling is my term for the efforts to find more liberty-friendly alternatives to teach children and adults, both for those to whom home-schooling is not suited and those who do not have an option of private schools. Or who see and want to avoid the trap into which private schools have fallen. (That includes those schools which have religious affiliations.)

Home schooling requires at least one parent to be free from the traditional workplace, to be able either to work as a homemaker or at home. That is not always possible. And not all parents are knowledgeable enough and comfortable enough to teach their children. Parents who are themselves products of the “public system” are often lacking the knowledge and skills needed. For those people, there often ARE alternatives which fit under the home schooling umbrella. Most are a form of tutoring, either at home with the tutor coming there in person, or via phone and internet, or in a home child-care setting. Many are cooperative: families work together formally or informally to provide teaching to each others’ children. Often grandparents are involved.

Private schools are of course an option, and often (supported by churches or civic organizations) surprisingly inexpensive. But…

Most private schools are “me-too” schools that are virtually identical to GRTF schools except for a few additions or deletions to the curriculum and teaching practices. They are trapped by both regulatory limits and financial constraints. Too many have accepted some form of government funding – and therefore, control. But they are still far better than the “public schools” and many are very good. And more and more are rejecting the GRTF model. But you need to check them out carefully.

Commercial schooling, in many ways, is the natural extension of private (and public) tutors, as well as the child of businesses training other businesses. Whether in matters of safety and occupational health, information technology, or other technical and professional subjects. Commercial does not necessarily mean “for-profit” (or non-profit).

Commercial education means include internet (such as Ron Paul’s/Tom Woods efforts) and mixed programs that usually get grouped with home-schooling though done in a business setting. It can include child-care enterprises and even youth organizations (such as 4-H, FBLA, FFA, FHA, etc.). There are, in some cities and remote locations, actual schools that are provided by companies for their employees and families: expansion of older child care programs in some cases.

All of these are options to the traditional “public schools” (not just standard but “alternative” and “charter”) and private schools like Montessori, parochial (and other religious schools), and the elite places like boarding schools, military schools, and such.

And ALL of these are far superior to the government-run, tax-funded schools as they continue to deteriorate in real teaching and learning. While exploding with propaganda and indoctrination into a perverted view of, and acceptance of, the growing totalitarian, new-age religion society that the regressives, statists, and those who fear liberty are working towards.