Henry David Thoreau wrote, "There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root." I truly believe the root of the evils in our society are bad ideas and the vast majority are thoroughly imbued in people during their school years.

It is important to distinguish evil ideas from evil people. I don't believe most people who work in the public school system are evil. Maybe none of them are. But the vast majority are in the grip of very bad ideas which they actively work to instill in schoolchildren. 

I promote homeschooling as the best alternative. My problem isn't just with public schools, it's the school paradigm in general - children segregated by age, forced to "learn" arbitrarily chosen subjects in 45-minute modules, stopping and starting this "learning ' at the command of a buzzer or bell. As John Taylor Gatto, NYC Teacher of the year 1989-91 and 1991 New York State Teacher of the Year observed, the whole system is absurd.

But us Gatto also observed, school isn't going anywhere anytime soon. So, how can we make childhood education better in the here and now?

Our old friend, Jim Ostrowski has just written a book on this called, Free the Children. He joined me on today's episode of Tom Mullen Talks Freedom to discuss it. 

Jim is a longtime activist devoted to direct action - the political fight is secondary to him in most cases. There are links to his book and online presence at the show notes page.

The other big news over the past few days is inflation. The latest number year-over-year is 8.5%, which is higher than a lot of people have seen in their lifetimes.

I remember double-digit inflation in the 1970s, but here's the rub: if inflation were measured in the 1970s the way it is measured today, it would have been lower than today's 8.5% number. 

So what we're experiencing right now is worse than anything in my lifetime. 

I saw this coming long before Russia invaded Ukraine, which is why I published a book in January about what really causes not only price inflation, but the boom-bust economic cycles that do at least as much damage as rising prices.

You can download a free e-book copy of It’s the Fed, Stupid​​​​​​ here.

It’s also available in paperback here. It’s priced at a pre-hyperinflation level so grab a few copies for friends if you can.

It makes a great introduction to the government’s most economically damaging institution for liberals, conservatives, libertarians, socialists, and independents alike.

It also helps me keep the lights on here so I can continue to bring you great content.