Fines Levied on Truant’s Parents (What I learned from Sam, #1)

Fines levied on parents of truants?

“What fines?” you may ask.

“For skipping school?”

“That’s tyranny!”

“We’ve got to do something about this!”

But where?

When?

Believe it or not, the first example of compulsory school attendance was in Württemberg, Germany in 1559.

It was Martin Luther who encouraged the development of government schools.

Recently, I was asked to enter the debate over present-day censorship.

Being asked, “When have you been censored,” my first response was, “In the school. I’m not allowed to read from the Bible in school.”

This got me nowhere. It was an argument I wasn’t ready to defend.

Now, only a couple of weeks later, I learned that the first state-supported schools were established according to a plan drawn up by Martin Luther. And it was John Calvin who developed the Genevan school system, as a way to train teachers and students in the “New Religious Order” of the Reformation.

Further still, Calvin’s model was used for the development of Puritan educational standards in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Even the laws and courts were expected to foster and maintain the external worship of God; to defend sound doctrine; and to adapt Christian conduct to human society.

And teachers used the Bible to teach how.

I learned this from Sam Blumenfeld, the author of Alpha-Phonics and How to Tutor.

Before Sam created his tutorial books, which have helped thousands of homeschool families to teach their children the three R’s, he spent many years researching and writing about public education.

As a proponent of home-schooling, I guess I need to vamp up my own education. So I’ve begun to read some of his works.

I’ll let you know what else I learn. (Just the facts, of course.)

by Meg (homeschooling mom of 9)

MS, Exceptional Student Education (Univ. of W. Florida) emphasis on Applied Behavior Analysis

MA, psychology (Grand Canyon University)

Bachelor of Arts (Northwest Nazarene University)

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