Calvin Synod Herald, 2011 (112. évfolyam, 3-12. szám)
2011-05-01 / 5-6. szám
12 CALVIN SYNOD HERALD School’s Out For Summer But “Johnny Can’t Read” “55” says the sign by the road, but with our modem cars that seems way too slow. However, fifty-five years ago a Pittsburgh newspaper featured a series on school under achievement titled, “Johnny Can’t Read. ” And the problem today is, his children and grandchildren may read more poorly still. Most of us have done some school bashing, asking why the poor results after all the money that has poured into education, one federal or state mandate or test after another. When Jay Leno goes “Jay Walking” and talks to people on the street about American history, national or world geography, or even current government, the answers are comic because of the ignorance they reveal. Unfortunately, some are being answered by students at colleges and even by teachers, as well as graduates of our high schools and colleges in other occupations. But why can’t Johnny read and teachers can’t teach? The answer can be found in two places. Beginning With The Students Many of us get these emails with modem parables, some patriotic and others less serious. One of them tells the story of a successful business man who was exhorting teachers to run the schools like a business. He related the reasons for his company’s ascendancy to national fame when a magazine chose his company as one of America’s best. When he finished, a teacher asked what he did when an inferior shipment was delivered to his factory. He responded that he sent them back. The teacher shot back, they couldn’t do that! “We take them big, small, rich, poor, gifted, exceptional, abused, frightened, confident, homeless, rude, and brilliant. ... We take them all: GT, ADHD, ADD, SLD, EI, MMR, OHI, TBI, DD, Autistic, junior rheumatoid arthritis, English as their second language, etc. We take them all! ... it’s not a business. It’s a school.” It Takes A Village After visiting numerous schools, the businessman agreed that schools could not control the quality of the material they had to work with, assuming that we need to give all children the maximum opportunity to thrive in today’s world. “But educators,“ he concluded, “cannot do this alone; these changes can only occur with the understanding, tmst, permission and active support of the surrounding community. For the most important thing I have learned is that schools reflect the attitudes, beliefs and health of the communities they serve, and therefore, to improve public education means more than changing our schools, it means changing America.” Education in America began with church schools. Not only the colleges and seminaries, but elementary and high schools were established and instruction given by churches and their appointed teachers, with a gradual shift to public education. Prof. Elwwood P. Cubberly wrote, in his book “Education In The United States,” “Schools, with us, as with the older European countries from which our earl settlers came, arose as children lof the Church. From instruments of religion they have been gradually changed into instruments of the State. The first schools in America were clearly the fruits of the Protestant Revolt in Europe. The Reformers everywhere had insisted upon the necessity of the Gospel as a means to personal salvation. This meant, carried to its logical conclusion, that each child, girls as well as boys, should be taught to read so that they might become acquainted with the commandments of God and learn what was demanded of them.” Churches and Education The Reformers developed their catechisms for the education of children and adults in the Christian faith, and so we have Ursinus’ Heidelberg Catechism and by Luther his Shorter Catechism. The latter wrote that he was concerned about children’s education. “I am much afraid that schools will prove to be great gates of Hell, unless they diligently labor in explaining the Holy Scriptures, engraving them in the hearts of youth. I advise no one to place his child where the scriptures do not reign paramount. Every institution in which men are not increasingly occupied with the word of God must become corrupt.” Because parents in colonial Massachusetts proved to be neglectful of their children’s education, the Puritan churches influenced the legislature to compel parents to educate their youth in learning and labor, “to read and understand the principles of religion and the laws of the country.” Soon state law compelled each town to have a school, “not to advance his personal interests, but because the State will suffer if he is not educated.” Prof. Philip Schaff taught at the Reformed Church Seminary in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and became a renowned church historian. “Republican institutions in the hands of a virtuous and God-fearing nation are the very best in the world, but in the hands of a corrupt and irreligious people they are the very worst and most effective weapons of destruction,” he commented. The Road Ahead With the ever increasing exclusion of Christianity in the schools today, it is not difficult to understand why our citizens of all ages know so little about the founding principles of America, and the root of its great success. When the failure of the current system is apparent, it is essential to look to a better way. That may compel us to look anew at education in the old pattern, with the involvement of the churches. The Reformed Church in Hungary, and neighboring nations, has rebuilt its school system, for the sake of the faith and the country, to provide the value system needed after the failure of communist indoctrination. It may also compel a new look at whether church schools may be needed in this nation, and the means of funding them. After years of failure, despite new school buildings and mandated standards, Johnny still can’t read. In the face of growing ignorance, moral decline and gross public corruption, all the options need to be reviewed, The revival of Church’s schools may be the answer, with the Gospel truth that sets humanity free to enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Rev. Albert W. Kovács FROM A NEW ENGLAND PRIMER Praise to God for learning to Read. The Praises of my Tongue I offer to the Lord. That I was taught and learnt so young To read his holy Word
