For those of you who have never heard of FPE, they are an accredited, classical academy offering interactive, online classes for K-12. All of FPE's courses are fully accredited by the National Association of Private Schools. Their philosophy is based on Judeo-Christian values and they are not aligned with Common Core.
They offer so many wonderful courses and I have known many people who have enjoyed their classes, so I was definitely excited when my 15 and 16 year old sons were offered the opportunity to take a class. You can see all of the high school classes they offer here, 6th grade and junior high courses here and elementary classes here. There are payment plans available for full-time students. The upcoming family courses can be found here. (Check out the two upcoming classes. The cost is free. They simply ask for a $50 donation for the professor's time.)
Family courses are courses where families are encouraged to attend together. What a wonderful idea! I loved that I was able to take the class along with them and have such meaningful discussions afterwards. FPE suggests that students in the Family courses be at least 13 years old. There are no papers or tests in the Family Courses. We were simply asked to read a chapter a week in the book to be prepared for the lecture and discussion that followed.
The course my boys took was called "Mother, Can I Trust the Government?" That particular class is offered once a year. The 8-week course was taught by Dr. Jake Jacobs, the author of the book of the same name that you can find here.
Dr. Jacobs is the president and founder of the Politically Incorrect Institute. He has degrees in American History and Biblical and Judeo-Christian Studies from the Arizona State University, Ashland Theological Seminary and North-West University. He has spent more than 27 years in the high school public and private school systems and at the college level teaching his passion for our Constitutional Republic.
You can see Dr. Jacobs engaging with students in the window. The slide he was discussing is on the right. There is a chat box below for all of the students (I blanked it out since it had the kids' names on it)
What I liked as a busy parent was that each class was recorded and we were sent a link of the recording the following day. When we did have to miss a class, it was there and we were still able to watch, learn and catch up with the class.
We learned so much from this class. And, I found out that the title of the class and book was intended to be a reference to Pink Floyd. My kids missed that point. But, they certainly did not miss how much there was to gain from the class. They have a greater appreciation of what was intended by our Founding Fathers when the Contitution was framed, what a Constitutional Republic really means and how we all have an obligation to know what our government is doing.
We look forward to taking the other Family Courses that are offered and perhaps delving into some other subjects. You should, as well. You would not be disappointed.
