Walking in the Valley A bi-weekly column, featuring one Silicon Valley Christian's (a)musings on life's journey by Barbara Dahlgren

Educating America Column for the weeks of October 16-31, 2009

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Many might not know that public schools have their roots steeped in religion.  When the Industrial Revolution brought many to the cities in England, children had to work in factories and sweatshops six days a week, twelve hours a day.  They were uneducated and on Sunday, their one day off, often involved in crime.  Sunday Schools originated in England in the 1780s to provide basic education for poor children on their one free day from working – Sunday.  Thus we get the name Sunday school.

By the 1790s there were some Sunday schools in the United States as well.  Using the Bible as a rich resource, in addition to teaching rudimentary subjects, they would teach proper behavior, morals, and cleanliness.  For nearly thirty years, Sunday schools were part of an informal network of free schools operated by various religious and philanthropic groups.  By 1820 the number of these schools had grown to several hundred.

These schools were not public in the sense that they were public supported.  As mentioned before, churches and philanthropists supported them.  However, just about any child could attend.  Of course, the rich could always afford a great education and had no need of Sunday schools.  Eventually laws were passed, school taxes levied, and education became available for all.  It’s hard to trace the early years of how this happened because each state mandated its own laws and taxes.  Times change and Sunday schools were no longer a means to educate the poor.  Between then and now has been a hodge-podge of gradual government involvement until public schools have evolved from somewhere kids actually wanted to go into somewhere kids want to escape from.

For example, last October a New York Times editorial examined the alarming news that the United States has fallen to 13th place in world graduation rates.  Not only are we ranked behind South Korea and Slovenia but, according to a study from the Education Trust, a nonpartisan foundation that works for the higher academic achievement of all levels, we are now the only country where young adults are less likely than their parents to graduate from high school.

Maybe that’s why our public schools are going a little overboard with incentives.  Last June Chicago’s public school system gave a new car to twelve-year-old Ashley Martinez for perfect attendance.  Who cared that she couldn’t even drive the $15,000 Dodge Caliber for another four years?  When questioned about the reward (Would you believe that some people thought the reward was inappropriate?) public school chief Arne Duncan said the system had nothing to apologize for.  And of course tax payers foot the bill.  Some schools can’t afford supplies, but they can shell out $15,000 for a car for a kid who can’t drive.

Just think – all I got at age twelve for perfect attendance was a certificate and a pat on the head. 

Britain must be suffering from the same malady.  Statistically, over 200,000 kids cut class in Britain in any given week.  They tried fining parents to get kids to attend school, but it didn’t work.  Now children can win flat-screen TVs, game consoles, iPods, laptops, or trips abroad.  The result on attendance improving with these incentives has yet to be calculated. 

One must wonder when going to school segued from being a privilege to a burden?  Once only the rich could afford to learn reading, writing, and arithmetic – all skills we obviously take for granted. Poor children had to literally hold down jobs and bring their pay home to help their families.  I’m not advocating a return to child labor, but how do we instill children with a sense of educational responsibility instead of entitlement to play, play, play? 

Children aren’t totally at fault.  Teachers are overworked and underpaid.  Many times their hands are tied in dealing with bullies, gangs, and other problems because lawsuits occur if they don’t intervene or if they do.  Also our public school system is a reflection of a society rampant with abuses of drugs, alcohol, and violence.  Parental involvement is sometimes low through neglect or single parents working two jobs to keep food on the table with today’s economy.

Children aren’t totally at fault.  Teachers are overworked and underpaid.  Many times their hands are tied in dealing with bullies, gangs, and other problems because lawsuits occur if they don’t intervene or if they do.  Also our public school system is a reflection of a society rampant with abuses of drugs, alcohol, and violence.  Parental involvement is sometimes low through neglect or single parents working two jobs to keep food on the table with today’s economy. 

Bureaucrats who come up with catchy slogans like “No Child Left Behind” can be part of the problem not the solution.  They have no idea how to implement it.  Like the saying goes – nothing is impossible to the person who doesn’t have to do it.  And it doesn’t help when those in charge lack common sense like rewarding a new Dodge to a kid who can’t drive.  Maybe when that kid finishes public high school with perfect attendance they can get her a Mercedes Benz.  After all, they set the standard.  Someone’s lacking wisdom here.  You don’t have to be Solomon to see that.

Could it be we have come full circle?  Once again it may be only the rich who will be able to afford a good education by sending their kids to private school, home schooling, or providing tutors.

Several reasons prohibit churches bonding together to bail us out of this mess as they once did when offering Sunday schools to the poor.  First, government wouldn’t allow it.  Separation of church and state is so unbalanced one dare not mention God in a public school for fear of a reprimand.  Secondly, churches are so fragmented, it is doubtful they could all agree on a course of action.  To get them to bond together for anything is quite a feat. 

A woeful educational system is a sad state of affairs for the richest nation on earth.  The solution may be hoping for a super-hero to come.  I don’t think he’ll be in the form of a politician. 

The good new is that we Christians know just such a hero – faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.  His name is Jesus Christ.  The bad news is that we don’t know when he’ll make his appearance.  Until then those with kids in the public school system will need lots of ingenuity, creativity, and prayer to be sure they get educated in America.            

Be sure to visit this page often to read the next edition of Walking in the Valley. You can write to the author at bdahlgren@wcgsouthbay.org.