Something Old and Something New

Education is taking some strange twists these days. After decades of being told

that education is getting easier to access all the time we find ourselves in the

middle of life-crushing student loans, schools closed for virus control, rioting in

the streets of communities where school was dangerous to start with, and “new”

ideas for learning at home all over the tv and internet.

Historically, one room school houses and home-schooling were the educational

format for many of our forefathers. In 1609 the Jamestown Colony was

experiencing an educational crisis. All children were taught at home. The leaders

of the Colony were concerned that the parents, while sufficiently teaching reading

and maths, were not doing an acceptable job of teaching the Bible. They

instituted the first public schools in America for the purpose of each child’s

learning of that most important book, the Bible.

Times have surely changed. One ninth grade boy in our local school was told that

while it is legal for him to bring a Bible to school, reading it in public would cause

too much conflict and it should be left at home in order to preserve the “law of

separation of church and state.”

Here at Upward International Schools, we are searching for solutions to better

provide quality education for today’s young people. We believe in educational

equity, the authority of parents in education, and of course, freedom of choice.

Along the way I will share lots of practical educational ideas but for now, well, it’s

just a thought from the Head.