Since I began my new career of working with teachers to help them “increase test scores, motivate disinterested students, and re-motivate themselves,” I have discovered there are a lot of teachers who are truly struggling with the difficulties of trying to reach students who have been dealt a “bad” hand, if you will, by life. Students who are in single parent home, no parent homes, homeless, without hope, without the “ability” to “do” school are becoming commonplace in the classroom. Many teachers are frustrated that the system seems to be more interested in “good scores” than in actually teaching the kids.
I was watching a program on PBS the other day about how Florida schools are working to form new tracts that will look at the individual student to see just what will work in each case to reach the kids. Then I hear about what the government is looking at, a “one size fits all” approach that will test the kids to see if they are learning. Every teacher I have come in contact with understands that this type of approach will not work! Every student has different learning styles, different and unique qualities, and different and unique needs. It is like the bureaucrats are throwing out ideas that may seem good to them but have no practical application in the actual classroom. They have become “out of touch” with what teachers are actually dealing with on a day to day basis.
Why do we educate? Education is as old as man. It is the process of “handing down” to the next generation all the truth, knowledge and history that has gone before. It first began as God, the Creator, began to educate Adam and Eve. He taught them that disobedience was costly but there is also forgiveness available for those who desire it. Now, I know there are those who don’t believe in the Creation Story, and I feel sorry for them, so for them education begins with man telling stories and demonstrating skills and making apprentices of the children in the home. The parents were the first educators and they did a good job. Then others began teaching in formal settings. This was usually reserved for the wealthy. Until relatively recent times, formal education was only for the rich or the very lucky. In many “developing” parts of the world, that is still the case. While most nations strive to provide education to the masses, many still struggle with the basics of survival. (http://www.worldwidelearn.com/education-timeline/index.html)
The church was among the first institutions to bring education to the masses. This is true in Europe as well as the US. The earliest known schools in England date from the late sixth century. ‘The conscious object of these early schools, attached to cathedrals and to monasteries, was to train intending priests and monks to conduct and understand the services of the Church, and to read the Bible and the writings of the Christian Fathers’ (Williams 1961:128). (http://www.dg.dial.pipex.com/history/text01.shtml)
Boston Latin School is the oldest school in America. It was founded April 23, 1635 by the Town of Boston, antedating Harvard College by more than a year. Establishment of the school was due in great measure to the influence of the Reverend John Cotton, who sought to create in the New World a school like the Free Grammar School of Boston, England, in which Latin and Greek were taught. The first classes were held in the home of the Master, Philemon Pormort. From the earliest years the town assigned public funds to the support of the school. It was eventually voted “to allow forever fifty pounds to the Master, and a house, and thirty pounds to an usher” (assistant teacher). In 1638, Pormort’s assistant, Daniel Maude, succeeded him as Master, and conducted classes in his own home until 1643. (http://www.cloudnet.com/~edrbsass/educationhistorytimeline.html)
So, like it or not, the church was instrumental in providing excellent public education for the masses. My, how times have changed!
Now we find our schools struggling, record high drop-out rates, and classes filled with students who don’t even know how to read! No wonder that teachers are frustrated and many of them desire to quit! Could it be that we need to get back to the basics? Maybe we should take time to find out what our kids really need and what are they truly interested in. I understand that we face mounting problems with discipline, lack of attention, tardiness, and kids that just don’t know how to “do school” and that don’t know how to submit to authority.
There used to be a solid home foundation that would back up the teacher if he or she had to discipline a kid. That has pretty much disappeared in this day and time. Many kids have no home foundation or parental support and others have parents who have checked out mentally and want to blame everyone else, especially the teacher, for the failures that their kids are having. How will we see this begin to change? I believe it will happen one student at a time!
Education is about life lessons. It is teaching how to develop your God given gifts and skills so that you can fulfill the purpose that you were born for. If a child doesn’t know what his/her purpose is, we must help them discover it. If they don’t have hope, we must give them hope! If they have no vision for their future past the next 3-5 years, we must help them discover one. That is why we educate!
Tags: church and education, education, education in America, history of education, homelife, improved test scores, John Cotton, PBS
