Learn in Freedom™ Internships

Over the last several months I've seen parents discussing on-line how to find internship opportunities for their children. Many parents have found opportunities like that in their neighborhoods, but some are still looking. The parents think it is important for their children to have work experience with other adults to obtain letters of recommendation for college admission and scholarships. That matches what I hear from colleges about what the colleges are looking for in applicants. I've been seeing the on-line discussions of parents looking for internships, and thinking, "It's too bad I live in Taiwan now and can't help out any homeschooled young people looking for internships." I've done a lot of research on college admission, and I'd gladly write a letter of recommendation for any homeschooled young person I could get to know in an internship project.

Meanwhile, another part of my brain has been trying to figure out for months how to improve my Web site. I now live in a place where Internet access is slow and I can't spend much time on-line doing research anymore. Then one day I had the "duh" reaction and I realized that if I turn some of my to-do items for my Web site into internship projects, I could possibly meet the needs of homeschooling families while the children of those families gain some internship experience. That would give me a basis of knowledge for writing a persuasive letter of recommendation. Maybe this idea helps me by helping someone else.

So I'm offering here to set up internship projects that involve communicating by E-mail about research (some off-line, and some on-line) or about promotion of my Web site. These are things I can't do myself (because I'm too busy and have slow Internet access), my wife can't do (because she's even more busy and more of a piano person than a computer person), and my children can't do (because they're still too young). But any homeschooled teenager is probably able to do many of the things I have in mind, and anyone who does them well would win my gratitude and a glowing letter of recommendation for college admission, a scholarship program, or whatever. What I have in mind is internships in the classic sense--unpaid slave labor--so there are plenty of other activities your children may find more worthwhile. But a person who participates in the internship program would

to see whether you can stomach having your children have any contact with the site's author (me). I love homeschooling and I'm generally encouraged as I see how homeschooled young people are turning out as they grow up. I want to tell the world about that. I have a FEW projects in mind that involve only limited use of E-mail to communicate about off-line research, but most of the projects I have thought of would involve much use of on-line time, and considerable Web surfing--which is a concern for some parents of teenagers. And as I said, the pay is crummy, unless the experience itself is worthwhile to you.

So I offer my Learn in Freedom! internship program to anyone who is interested. I need the help. Maybe you need the help I can provide. (I can write a glowing letter of recommendation a lot faster, leaving more time for my family, than I can do the projects by myself.) I'll give the most glowing recommendations to young people who use their own initiative to think up ideas I never thought of for improving how my site supports homeschooling. Maybe your children would enjoy the experience of helping others learn about homeschooling. There is no upper or lower age limit on my internship program, and I will accept several applicants (as many as I can give proper attention and mentoring to), matching applicants to projects that most fit their interests. Most of the projects have no rigid time limit, but I'd like them to get done before I'm old and gray and before your children have grown up and left home. Please let me know if you are interested.

A general State education is a mere contrivance for moulding people to be exactly like one another: and as the mould in which it casts them is that which pleases the predominant power in the government, whether this be a monarch, a priesthood, an aristocracy, or the majority of the existing generation in proportion as it is efficient and successful, it establishes a despotism over the mind, leading by a natural tendency to one over the body.
John Stuart Mill On Liberty (1859)

Feel free to contact the Learn in Freedom™ site owner, Karl M. Bunday, at any time. Fill out this site's Google Docs comment form or email or send postal mail to the Learn in Freedom webmaster as you like.

webmaster@learninfreedom.org

Karl M. Bunday
P. O. Box 1858
Minnetonka, MN 55345

Learn in Freedom Internship Program