History of American School

I read a really interesting article about the history of education in America from the Christian Law Association.  Our current system of mass education was led by Horace Mann, who fought for a government-controlled education based on the Prussian model.  Instead of allowing various religious groups to establish their own schools, the state would instill more secular beliefs in the children.  Thus began what would be today's unbelievable interpretation of the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights as "separation of church and state".  Just to clarify, the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution reads:  Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or of the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.  Somehow removing prayer from school sounds like a breach of our First Amendment Rights.  I was glad to see in the side notes that the Board of Education in Texas still has an understanding of our Bill of Rights.  Did you know that Texas is the only state that was an independent Republic before joining the union of the United States?  I often wonder if things got too bad in the U.S. government, if Texas would once again become an independent republic.  Also interesting, to me, is that our state governments have had the right to establish laws concerning religion.  Anyway, if you're interested in the article, you can read it by clicking here.

I also read a couple of interesting articles at Parent at the Helm.  One was about how three out of five community college entrants needs remedial help.  Many are coming into school at only a third grade reading level!  The other article was about how young children over the past 60 years have changed the way the play because of a change in toys, change in our society and environment.  The changes have been detrimental to children's cognitive and emotional development.  The conclusion was that kids need more time to be creative and imaginative in play, and we all need to be in less of a rush to be drilling them in facts for testing.