My Opinion on 5 Works about Education, Teaching, and Learning - Volume 12

This article is like a journey. A journey to colonial Massachusetts, ancient Athens, the magical land of King Arthur, and a small perfect society formed by Henry Ford.

'The Old Deluder Satan Act; Or, The Massachusetts General School Law of 1647'

Massachusetts has a long and interesting history of education. The first school founded in the American British colonies was the Boston Latin School in 1635. Five signers of the American Declaration of Independence attended there: Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Robert Treat Paine, and William Hooper. (Franklin only attended one year when he was 8, and then went to an English school the next year, and then left school to start working when he was 10, but he still technically went there for a short time.)

Massachusetts was also the first colony to pass a public school law in 1642. More famous are the adjustments made in 1647 by 'The Old Deluder Satan Act'. Here's the whole thing, with updated spelling:

"It being one chief project of that old deluder, Satan, to keep men from the knowledge of the Scriptures, as in former times by keeping them in an unknown tongue, so in these latter times by persuading from the use of tongues, that so that at least the true sense and meaning of the original might be clouded and corrupted with love and false glosses of saint-seeming deceivers; and to the end that learning may not be buried in the grave of our forefathers, in church and commonwealth, the Lord assisting our endeavors.

It is therefore ordered that every township in this jurisdiction, after the Lord hath increased them to fifty households shall forthwith appoint one within their town to teach all such children as shall resort to him to write and read, whose wages shall be paid either by the parents or masters of such children, or by the inhabitants in general, by way of supply, as the major part of those that order the prudentials of the town shall appoint; provided those that send their children be not oppressed by paying much more than they can have them taught for in other towns.

And it is further ordered, that when any town shall increase to the number of one hundred families or householders, they shall set up a grammar school, the master thereof being able to instruct youth so far as they may be fitted for the university, provided that if any town neglect the performance hereof above one year that every such town shall pay 5 pounds to the next school till they shall perform this order."

I disagree with this because it's against freedom. But, look at the reason. Why is it important to learn to read? So that people can directly read the Bible themselves so that they aren't deceived by false religious teachers. Compare this to modern government schools, which are secular for the most part, and often explicitly atheist. It's a complete reversal. The schools founded to teach religion are now against religion. That's an amazing development. There's a book called 'Systemantics' by John Gall that says all systems eventually do the reverse of what they were designed to do, and that appears to be the case with American government schools.

Reading this law helps remind me of a few important things. People are tempted to use bad means to what they think are good ends. Good intentions can lead to bad things. Once power is consolidated it usually stays consolidated. A little patience probably would have led to a much better free market system, but people are not patient and don't care to understand that they are part of the unfolding of history. Making an institution that doesn't need to be political part of the government means that there will be a political struggle for control that harms good people and helps bad people who don't have morals and are willing to use politics and education for their own ends and benefit. These combined reasons are why the education system can never really be fixed.

'Against Timarchus' by Aeschines 346 BC

This is part of a court case in ancient Athens which was a personal dispute. It's useful because near the beginning it tells us about education in ancient Greece. This is fascinating. Think about the schools you know while you read this.

"And it behooves us, I think, not only when we are enacting laws, to consider always how the laws that we make may be good and advantageous to the democracy, but when once we have enacted them, it equally behooves us, if all is to be well with the state, to obey the laws that we have enacted, and to punish those who do not obey them. Consider, fellow citizens, how much attention that ancient lawgiver, Solon, gave to morality, as did Draco and the other lawgivers of those days.

First, you recall, they laid down laws to protect the morals of our children, and they expressly prescribed what were to be the habits of the freeborn boy, and how he was to be brought up; then they legislated for the lads, and next for the other age-groups in succession, including in their provision, not only private citizens, but also the public men. And when they had inscribed these laws, they gave them to you in trust, and made you their guardians.

Now it is my desire, in addressing you on this occasion, to follow in my speech the same order which the lawgiver followed in his laws. For you shall hear first a review of the laws that have been laid down to govern the orderly conduct of your children, then the laws concerning the lads, and next those concerning the other ages in succession, including not only private citizens, but the public men as well. For so, I think, my argument will most easily be followed. And at the same time I wish, fellow citizens, first to describe to you in detail the laws of the state, and then in contrast with the laws to examine the character and habits of Timarchus. For you will find that the life he has lived has been contrary to all the laws.

In the first place, consider the case of the teachers. Although the very livelihood of these men, to whom we necessarily entrust our own children, depends on their good character, while the opposite conduct on their part would mean poverty, yet it is plain that the lawgiver distrusts them; for he expressly prescribes, first, at what time of day the free-born boy is to go to the school-room; next, how many other boys may go there with him, and when he is to go home.

He forbids the teacher to open the school-room, or the gymnastic trainer the wrestling school, before sunrise, and he commands them to close the doors before sunset; for he is exceeding suspicious of their being alone with a boy, or in the dark with him. He prescribes what children are to be admitted as, pupils, and their age at admission. He provides for a public official who shall superintend them, and for the oversight of slave-attendants of school-boys. He regulates the festivals of the Muses in the school-rooms, and of Hermes in the wrestling-schools. Finally, he regulates the companionships that the boys may form at school, and their cyclic dances.

He prescribes, namely, that the choregus, a man who is going to spend his own money for your entertainment, shall be a man of more than forty years of age when he performs this service, in order that he may have reached the most temperate time of life before he comes into contact with your children. These laws, then, shall be read to you, to prove that the lawgiver believed that it is the boy who has been well brought up that will be a useful citizen when he becomes a man. But when a boy's natural disposition is subjected at the very outset to vicious training, the product of such wrong nurture will be, as he believed, a citizen like this man Timarchus. Read these laws to the jury.

The teachers of the boys shall open the school-rooms not earlier than sunrise, and they shall close them before sunset. No person who is older than the boys shall be permitted to enter the room while they are there, unless he be a son of the teacher, a brother, or a daughter's husband. If any one enter in violation of this prohibition, he shall be punished with death. The superintendents of the gymnasia shall under no conditions allow any one who has reached the age of manhood to enter the contests of Hermes together with the boys. A gymnasiarch who does permit this and fails to keep such a person out of the gymnasium, shall be liable to the penalties prescribed for the seduction of free-born youth. Every choregus who is appointed by the people shall be more than forty years of age."

Draco ruled Athens just before 600 BC, and Solon just after. This is talking about schools operating 2,626 years ago. It sounds a lot like modern public schools. The government controls every aspect of the children: what they can and cannot do, who they can do it with, when they can do it, where they can do it. The parents are needed to provide room and board, and tax money. The government has always controlled the education of children because by controlling the education of children the government controls the populace and controls the society. And people want that so that they know others are being constrained and so that they don't have the responsibility of choice. Freedom has always been rare. It's always been a minority that have chosen to do something different.

This helped me realize that most people support the government controlling the minds of children, they always have and they always will. Government schools have always been tyrannical, and that's always been supported. Parents not turning their children over to a government will always be a choice of the few.

'The Sword in the Stone' by T. H. White 1938

The movie 'The Sword in the Stone' by Disney came out in 1963. I watched it as a kid and liked it. I liked Wart as a kid before he becomes King Arthur, and I liked Merlin even more. The crazy old wizard who tutors Wart. I didn't listen to the book until decades later. It adds more detail and is also quite interesting.

Merlin turns Wart into a fish to learn about predators and fear, into a hawk to learn about rank and unit structure, an ant to learn about obedience and lack of freedom, a goose to learn about peace, a snake to learn about history, a badger to learn about the uniqueness of humans. Wart meets Robin Wood and they interact with fairies, he hunts boar with royals and nobles, and he's given visions by a tree to see the development of long history.

Merlin may be the most iconic tutor in fiction. I took from this the importance of gaining perspective and learning through direct experience.

'Henry Ford, Educator, As I Knew Him' by Mrs. Dwight (Carrol Jean Smith) Lewis in The Dearborn Historian Volume 11, Number 1, Winter 1971

Ford is one of the most important and influential world figures of modern history. He popularized the car by making it affordable, and by taking manufacturing efficiency as far as it could go. Mass transportation and manufacturing fundamentally changed society. His thoughts about future manufacturing influenced Toyota in their manufacturing revolution. Ford also revolutionized the manufacturing of tractors with Fordson, which changed food production around the world. He popularized workers having fewer hours and higher pay. He was friends with and would go camping with Thomas Edison and Harvey Firestone. Ford and Firestone both wrote autobiographies with the same co-author, both good books, and Ford wrote a short book on Edison. He ended up getting heavily criticized for promoting that there are banking and war conspiracies. (What a crazy idea, that the banking and war industries would ever have any secrets among disproportionally represented groups. I'm sure that isn't always happening, even now.)

He also started several schools. He had an industrial school founded in 1916 that was self-funding through production and has good reviews from successful students. At the Henry Ford Trade School students could actually earn income while in school. He started the Ford English School for immigrant workers in 1914, which famously had a melting pot graduation ceremony celebrating people coming from their diverse cultures and becoming part of the American culture. He founded the George Washington Carver School in Georgia, he also funded churches and community centers for rural neighborhoods. He helped fund the Marth Berry Schools, which had a religious and industrial focus as well. He founded the Wayside Inn Boys School in Sudbury, Massachusetts for foster boys to learn farming. He funded an agricultural institute in England, and a whole town with schools in Fordlandia, Brazil to try to source rubber supplies. Along with a bunch of one-room schools in Michigan. The guy was like a machine of usefulness, pun intended.

This article was written by a student at another of his schools at Greenfield Village in 1929, with an opening celebration that included Ford, Edison, and President Herbert Hoover. Ford named it the Edison Institute, but it also included a school building from Ford's youth called the Scotch Settlement School. Ford had gone to school on and off while working on his family farm, and left school permanently after the 8th grade. Not only was the author of the article a student of the Greenfield Village School and Edison Institute High School, but so was her husband and their two children.

Here's her opening paragraph: "Mr. Henry Ford's definition of an educated person was "one who not only knows a lot, but knows how to do a lot of things." I'm sure all of you know of Henry Ford's Greenfield Village the spacious outdoor museum of Americana - but did you realize that Henry Ford was an educator as well as a collector? He felt that in the past, education had always been looked on as a way of preparing a person for life. This viewpoint was wrong, as far as he was concerned, because he believed that it lead the pupil to regard life and education as two separate experiences. The Greenfield Village school system was built, therefore, to benefit the child rather than to fit the child into any particular system. As a student, parent, and substitute teacher at the Village, I have had a unique opportunity to evaluate his philosophy from many angles."

Lewis notes how the entire village and museum complex was used for teaching in an interactive way. Every day opened with a short chapel service, and when the Fords traveled they would listen to the service from the school on the radio and then telegram them notes of congratulations. Not something I expected to read at all, but Ford is one of those people where the more you learn about him the more interesting he is. Ford would also bring famous and successful people to the school to speak to the kids. The students also did college level research presentations in the chapel.

The anecdotes in the article are amazing. Ford sent personal telegrams to all students on their first and last birthdays at the school. They had a Santa that actually came down the chimney. When it snowed too much and the bus couldn't run they picked up kids in horse drawn sleighs. They did events for the birthdays of Edison and Lincoln. Ford paid them for tending gardens. It reads like a utopia: "Also in the spring and fall and all throughout the summer, we were able to have horseback riding classes once or twice a week. We had 15 horses and 10 ponies and were instructed in the art of horsemanship including grooming our horses. About the freedom to be at the Village all summer, Mr. Ford said: "If education is in truth a part of life itself, why should it end for the summer for two or three months? Life does not break off that way and there would be less distinction between education and life if the former process were made as continuing as the latter." In addition to the horseback riding in the summer, we were welcome to swim, play tennis, weave, guide visitors through the Village or Museum (this job was a paying one) or just "wander" in the Village."

The school had weekly spelling contests for each grade. You would think with Ford being Ford that useful things would be the complete focus, but it was more than that. As Lewis states: "Mr. Ford has said, "It is never too early for the child to learn how to do something useful and begin to earn something. Teaching the child to earn a living is an essential part of this program; not merely to earn, but to live so that what is earned may signify something. Earning a living is an essential part of life; it should have a place in every educational system. Only after you have formed an acquaintance with how to do many things, will you be able to select a single thing on which to specialize. One man's trade may be another's hobby or a third's talent.""

What you start to realize going through the article is that it is amazing, but only possible with immense funding and the effort of a unique person. Ford threw money at a ton of things to benefit society, from a hospital (where Ford had the all students treated for free), to multiple orchestras, to funding George Washington Carver's work on chemistry to increase agricultural production yields. (They had a Carver laboratory at the school.)

It's amazing. Two evenings a week students did different work experiences, and were paid for their time. Music and dancing were a big part of the school. The days were so full that you had to manage your time well to fit everything in, because there was a full academic workload as well. You would think Ford would focus on industrialization, but he liked students to learn the history of the crafts. As Lewis states: "The usual school art program was supplemented by pottery and weaving, both arts being learned from the old to the new - from the hand process to the mass production process."

The school was so amazing that Lewis says high school graduation was one of the saddest events of her life because she was leaving.

A lot of rich people try crazy attempts to establish utopias that don't work out well. This article helped me realize that Ford might have actually been successful at establishing a type of utopia for a time.

'Mr. Henry Ford and the Education' at Greenfield Village by E. Lucile Webster in The Dearborn Historian Volume 13, Number 1, Winter 1973

This article is from a teacher at the Greenfield Village School from 1932 to when it closed in 1969. She was recruited from another school by a school director. Webster is being sarcastic when she says, "It was a challenge for me to work in the spacious outdoor Museum of Americana for the sum of $200.00 a month with a two-week vacation, sometime during the summer months." This is in the Great Depression when industrial workers averaged 65 dollars per month and farmers about 35 dollars per month, and two weeks of vacation a year becoming a norm was still a couple of decades in the future. Ford paid top dollar for the best teachers.

Webster states: "I worked in the Village thirty-seven years. During the years that Mr. Ford was alive he always took great interest in the schools and what the children were learning. He always believed each child was an individual and that children learned by doing and through everyday experiences. If we were studying science we went outdoors and saw the material such as trees, shrubs, insects, weather, soil, etc. We used books for research on the different subjects. For history we used the buildings and collections of the Village and Museum as an integral part of our education as long as the schools were open. If Mr. Ford learned that we did not have sufficient material to answer our questions he often purchased books and came to us with them. All subjects in the elementary grades used the surrounding material which made their studies all some to life. At first we used the McGuffey Eclectic Readers for reading, but later used more modern reading material. Neither Achievement Tests nor I.Q. Tests were used at first, but when we began using them the children had had such varied experiences that they compared very favorably with the national norms."

Webster worked with the elementary and middle school grades and has many interesting anecdotes, from Walt Disney coming and drawing pictures for the kids, to the social dinner manners: "The three R's were an important part of our day, too, but often I thought the lunch period at Clinton Inn took precedence. The children enjoyed taking their places at a table for four with a pretty white tablecloth and a napkin. Each table had two girls and two boys with the boy standing behind the girl's chair waiting to seat her properly. Then Grace was said in unison. The teachers were the supervisors the first few years, later replaced by a hostess. The children were served cafeteria style."

Early on dance classes were held in the engineering laboratory, and later a dance hall was built. There was a glass blower on site. Students would visit some of the Ford factories and the Masonic Temple. They would watch movies in the Henry Ford Museum Theater. Even the young children wrote for the school newspaper, named after the newspaper Edison had sold on trains when he was a kid. There was a house built that some of the girls would stay in with a teacher at times to learn how to run a household. 

Ford kept growing the place while he lived, as Webster states: "These are a few of the dedications which were held during Mr. Ford's time. The McGuffey School and the McGuffey Home were opened. The Foster House was dedicated. The Wright Cycle Shop and the Wright Brothers' Home were ready for the public. The George Washington Carver Memorial provided a place for Mr. Carver to live as long as his health permitted, then the building was opened to the public.

Greenfield Village children always provided the music and some of the speaking for these occasions."

Think, this student and teacher writing about the school are writing after Ford has been long dead, and after the school is closed. They can say anything they want, and they just say how amazing it was. This reinforces my notion that this was a type of utopia. I've been to the Ford House in a different area of Detroit. Now I shall have to go see this amazing complex as well.

Conclusion

In this article we have examples of the good and the bad. We have the unique examples of Merlin's teaching through experiences and Ford building an ideal society, the tyrannical government control shown in ancient Athens, and the seed of our failed modern government schools in colonial Massachusetts. Few will understand the lesson, many will believe what they are told to believe, as they have been trained to do.

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