This is an abridged article of the Adult Schooling post on the Dissident-Homeschool telegram channel. To read the full post, go here:
https://t.me/dissidenthomeschool/150
This is not an article teaching people “how to adult”. Firstly, I find that phrase abhorrent, and you deserve some shame if you use “adulting” as a verb. However, if you have been completely let down and failed by the school system, and if you would like to remedy this, here are some things to try.
You will probably want to focus on a few subjects: geography (because you need to know where that hurricane can travel to), math (so you are not conned at the lumberyard), history (get to know your favorite Uncle) and language arts (come across as intelligent by being able to write decent texts, and spell properly).
Know Your World
For geography, start with maps, and by learning the towns, states and countries around you.
There’s a fun game app called Stack the States, and it teaches you the states of the USA by asking trivia questions. While being geared towards children, adults can use it to learn the states and their capitals, as well as some random factoids about the states.
Pick up high school material of map reading, so you can go places without using GPS. I would also recommend the book series Maps, Charts & Graphs by Modern Curriculum Press. Although it is for elementary students, it does teach how to read maps, charts, as well as graphs, it is concise and no-nonsense.
Knowing how to read and interpret maps, charts, and graphs will come in handy when you want to teach your kids about FBI crime statistics.
Learn Your Math
For brushing up on those math skills, I would recommend to focus on concepts you are not proficient in, but would like to be. If you find yourself generally stumped when you receive change at the store, then start there.
Here is a list of interactive math websites. Keep in mind that I have not filtered any of these, so some of the math websites may feature negros and degenerates.
I have also heard Khan Academy comes well recommended, although I would never recommend it for children, since it is riddled with Current Year Programming. You can also pick up a copy of ‘New Mental Arithmetic’ by Edward Brooks and do a few exercises each day.
Understand Your History
With regards to history, if audiobooks are your thing, I would recommend the book History of the United States Vol 1 by Charles and Mary Beard.
Most of the history books produced in the last thirty years are full of nonsense, with some notable exceptions. You will fare better in certain areas of history and science where there are no political stakes discussed that are relevant to the modern era. If a documentary aired on the History Channel or National Geographic in the last thirty years, you can almost certainly discard it as well.
‘The Greatest Story Never Told’ (2013) is a lengthy documentary about Hitler, the Holohoax and WW2 history. The documentary ‘The Truth About Josef Mengele’ by Aaron Kasparov is a good one to watch. There is also ‘Why Beauty Matters’ (2009) by Roger Scruton about the cult of ugliness that pervades modern art and architecture and contrasts it with the brilliance of our not-too-distant past.
If a podcast is your preferred teaching medium, ‘The History of Rome’ by Mike Duncan is overall excellent and delves into Roman history from the founding, to the fall of the western empire, as a story telling exercise. Amerikaner also has a good series titled ‘Great Men of Our History’, featuring good research and easy to listen to information.
On YouTube there is an astronomy and physics professor named David Butler who puts out great content on those topics. Although he is a bit dry, the images are mesmerizing and I find the subject matter fascinating. It is clearly meant for student consumption, and is appropriate for middle school and high school age, as well as adults.
YouTube also features a channel called Survive the Jive. This channel is rich with content on genetics and the culture of ancient Europeans. He has a channel on Telegram as well.
Refine Your Language
With regards to Language Arts, start by reading classics: works like Plato’s The Republic (Audiobook), Aristotle’s Metaphysics (Audiobook), the epic poem Beowulf (Audiobook), Homer’s Odyssey (Audiobook), Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar (Audiobook), Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations (Audiobook), and many more than I can list. You do not have to diagram sentences, but knowing all your prepositions will help you put commas in correct places.
If you want to improve on your handwriting, pick up a calligraphy handwriting book or keep a journal in which you try very hard to write neatly for a short amount of time each day. Short, daily repetition will give you better results than trying hard to write neatly for three hours once a month. This site offers easy explanations. You will also find yourself taken much more seriously if you can write legible notes, and nice-looking thank-you cards.
Improve Your Self
There is a lot of free material available to improve yourself. The most expensive bit about self-improvement is the time it takes to actually study up on a few things. Utilize your time wisely and choose the subjects that will get you the most gains.