Monday, March 30, 2009
Fundraiser Survey
Our fundraiser committee leader Sarah put together a survey she'd like everyone to fill out. This will give her an idea of what you all like and don't like in fundraisers, and what to pursue this coming year. Please visit the website ncapfa.org to fill it out. Thank you!!!!!
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Library Books
Lynne had a great idea about saving books for the library. I did get some clarification from our board chairman that I need to share.
According to our accreditation as a school, we will only be able to have certain books in our library. They have to be books that correlate with our curriculum. I'm sure this also has a lot to do with being a classical academy.
The board will be providing us a list of approved titles for our library as soon as they can, and then we'll be able to weed out the unapproved ones. We'll probably need to do a lot of sorting on our own, so we don't inundate a few volunteers with all the books.
In the mean time it wouldn't hurt to save books specifically for our library. Hopefully we can get the list before our June Rummage Sale. Then we can sell any books that don't fit. I would guess that any classic books (unabridged) would be approved. If any of us have those to donate, hang on to them just in case.
I'll keep everyone posted as I hear more.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
JFAC budget figures
The Joint Finance - Appropriations Committee (JFAC) set the public education budget today. If you want to look at a list of the final figures the pdf is attached. The budgets still have to be voted on in the Senate and House. Here is an excerpt from Betsy's Blog on the topic.
http://www.spokesman.com/
blogs/boise/ Eye On Boise
All about it…
Here’s a link to my full story at spokesman.com on today’s historic public school budget-setting, in which public schools were given their first ever cut in funding from the amount they received the previous year, and here’s a link to the final figures on the school budget that JFAC set today.
Tonight on Idaho Public TV’s Idaho Reports, I’ll join Boise State University political scientist emeritus Jim Weatherby, House Education Chairman Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d’Alene, Rep. Bill Killen, D-Boise, Senate Assistant Majority Leader Joe Stegner, R-Lewiston, and host Thanh Tan to discuss the legislative developments of the week, including today’s budget-setting. Tune in and check it out; it airs at 8 p.m. today, replays on Sunday at 11:30 a.m. Mountain time, 10:30 Pacific time, and can also be viewed online here after it airs, along with the additional “After the Show” discussion.
http://www.newwest.net/
Principal Consultant
Gem State Community Development
Kuna, Idaho
"NO" on S1148
I got this information from the Idaho PTA. If you feel strongly about this, and want to have your voice heard, the information is below. Idaho PTA's stance is "no" on S1148.
Now is the time to contact your Legislators -
S1148
To All Idaho PTA Members:
Please Contact Your Legislators and
Urge Them to Vote "NO" on S1148
- ALCOHOL - RETAIL SALE OF LIQUOR BY THE DRINK
Background: S1148 is the product of the Governor's Task Force on Alcohol Beverage Laws. The bill contains decreases in the penalties for individuals or establishments convicted of furnishings alcoholic beverages to minors. Idaho PTA has resolved to support legislation that increases penalties for furnishing alcohol to minors.
Talking points: One of the purposes of Idaho PTA is to secure adequate laws for the care and protection of children and youth including laws pertaining to furnishing alcohol to minors. Alcohol use by persons under age 21 has been identified as a major public health problem. License holders as well as clerks/servers must be responsible and accountable for any sales of alcoholic beverages.
Idaho PTA does not support Senate bill 1148 as it reduces the penalties
for license holders.
How to contact your legislature: Go to the following link to contact your legislators
http://www.legislature.idaho.gov/howtocontactlegislators.htm
The complete bill can be found here: http://www.legislature.idaho.gov/legislation/2009/S1148.htm
Friday, March 27, 2009
What's in a name?
Our Art Program will soon have a name. If you want your vote counted, please vote in the poll on our blog ncapfa.blogspot.com. There are only a few days left! We'll announce the new "official" name at our April 2nd meeting.
Idaho legislative panel proposes cuts in payroll spending on teachers, school administrators
Brian Murphy - bmurphy@idahostatesman.com
Published: 03/27/09
Idaho’s legislative budget-writing committee approved payroll cuts for public school administrators and teachers Friday over Democratic opposition.
The budgets approved by the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee include a 5 percent cut in money from the state to school districts for public school administrators and a 2.63 percent cut for public school teachers and classified staff.
That doesn't necessarily mean employee pay will be cut by those percentages. The cuts are in payroll budgets, not individuals' pay. School districts, not the Legislature, set individual salaries.
Tom Luna, the state schools superintendent, worked closely with JFAC leaders in coming up with the payroll plan. He said the cuts should not cause any teacher to lose a job.
But the reductions could force some districts to turn to their reserve funds to make up for the shortfalls, school officials say.
Additionally, the measures approved by the committee include freezing the salary grid for teachers for one year and phasing out an early retirement program.
“Nobody in this room put us in this situation,” said co-chairman Dean Cameron, R-Rupert. “This situation was brought to us by the economy.”
The cuts passed the committee on a 16-4 party-line vote. Boise Democratic Sen. Nicole LeFavour said previous school funding decisions have put the state in a perilous situation.
“We’ve made our schools live so close to the bone that when we got here today, we are, in essence, breaking our public school system,” she said.
The committee also recommended an operations budget that includes disallowing high-density districts access to the cost-per-mile transportation program. This change will cost the Boise School District $1.4 million. The budget also eliminates the state reimbursement for busing on field trips.
The state would shift $20 million in general funds out of schools and replace the money with federal cash under the new economic-stimulus law. This decision led to a sharp exchange between Cameron and LeFavour. LeFavour called the move "irresponsible." Cameron compared the move to spending money out of a checking account or savings account. "It makes very little difference," Cameron said.
The state would use $60 million in stimulus money in the fiscal year 2010 budget. The state would not use any of the $114 million in its Public Education Stabilization Fund for the fiscal year 2010 budget, instead saving it to backfill the budget later if the economy continues to deteriorate.
Help Wanted
There are still a few positions we need to fill in the PFA. We also need a lot more committee members. Our hope is to have everyone involved, no matter how big or small you can help. A lot of these "jobs" are temporary, and some are for a full year. You can always sign up to help at whatever level you are able. If you can only help at home, please still sign up to help on a committee. You can let your leader know your time constraints or commitment level. Anything is helpful, even if it's making posters or phone calls. Do not feel you have to do something "big" to help. We value ALL efforts.
- All committees need more helpers.
- The Academy needs exam proctors.
- We need someone willing to organize and sell our t-shirts. (These will also be PE wear, so we need this in place before school starts.)
- We need someone to organize and run book fairs.
- We need a legislative representative.
- We need someone to take pictures at all our events (or multiple people willing to email photos).
- We need someone to organize and run our history/science fair.
- We need a public relations representative.
We are also putting together a governance structure (leadership tree) to show how things will work. We will hopefully have this finished and ready to present at our next meeting (April 2nd).
If you are hesitant to sign up for something because you are worried about the time and commitment level it will require, just remember that we will not do anything unless there is sufficient helpers involved to make it happen. If we don't have enough volunteers for something, the event won't take place. The PFA will serve our Academy and the children regardless, but to the extent we do things (on a larger scale) will depend on parental support. Our children will recieve as much or as little as the effort we put in. Our hope is to implement all the great ideas parents have, but we have to have willing helpers to carry them out.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Another uniform update
I went to JCPenney today. My kids needed new church clothes, so I'm purposely buying clothes that fit within the dress code so they can be school clothes, too.
There were two colors of khaki at JCPenney. One that matched TS Embroidery colors, and one was lighter. I brought my "samples" to match them up. Even at the "approved" retailers you'll need to be careful. I still think TS Embroidery is the perfect place to start, and use those to match everything else. So far she is cheaper than anything else. We found better sizing at JCP (better fits), and thankfully only paid pennies more. I even found a pair of shorts (according to the dress code) for less than a dollar! Only pair though.
They are also having a shoe sale (buy one, get one for $1). It comes out to about $15 per pair. You can find approved shoes anywhere, but these are really good quality ones.
I think it's a good idea to go to these stores and try things on. I now know what to order when we need more. You can save shipping by having it shipped to the store.
Remember, the only things that require embroidery are the polos, and the cardigans & blazers. The blazers will have the crest which is a patch. Your oxford shirts do not need embroidery. TS Embroidery has these very cheap.
JCPenney carries stain resistant & wrinkle resistant clothes. TS Emb is only wrinkle resistant.
I also did see the powder blue and maroon polos at JCP. They are cheaper at TS Emb, though. It comes out to about $12-13 a shirt at TS Emb and $15 at JCP (that inlcludes the embroidery price).
Lawmakers slash 5.8 percent for higher education
From The Statesman
Lawmakers slash 5.8 percent for higher education
Legislative budget writers are slashing 5.8 percent in state funding for Idaho's four-year public universities during the next fiscal year and using federal stimulus money to help temper student fee increases.Lawmakers on the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee on Thursday rolled out a higher education budget that spends a total of $398.2 million for the University of Idaho, Idaho State University, Boise State University and Lewis-Clark State College.
Last year, the Legislature allocated $447.7 million to the schools for the current fiscal year.
The proposal for the next fiscal year, which begins in July, knocks funding for Idaho public universities below levels established two years ago, when lawmakers set aside about $399.1 million.
"This is basically a bare-bones budget," said Sen. Dean Mortimer, R-Idaho Falls.
The committee approved the budget, but reserved the right to come back after lawmakers sort out a plan to save money by reducing paychecks for most state employees during fiscal year 2010.
Earlier this month, the committee decided to cut worker pay by 3 percent, while giving agency managers discretion to cut 2 percent more, including through layoffs and furloughs.
The proposal, however, hit a snag after lawmakers realized it may be illegal to reduce salaries for tenured university professors. The budget panel is seeking advice from Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden's office.
Under the proposed budget, the state would split $35.5 million in federal stimulus money for Idaho public universities and colleges over the next two fiscal years.
The bulk of the money - $30.6 million - would go to the four-year public universities, with the rest spent on community and technical colleges.
The federal payout for Idaho higher education will help fill in past budget shortfalls and alleviate some of the financial pressure on these schools to transfer the burden to students.
"It will be used to prevent higher student fees," Matt Freeman, a higher education budget analyst for the legislative services office, told the Associated Press.
The University of Idaho has drafted a proposal to increase student fees by more than 8 percent for the next school year. Boise State officials have said they are scaling back on a proposal to increase student fees by nearly 8 percent next year because construction costs have gone down. The school now plans to seek a 5 percent increase.
The state Board of Education will consider student fee proposals at an April 6 meeting in Boise. It is expected to review budgets for universities on April 16, when trustees are scheduled to meet in Moscow.
Freeze teacher pay, cut retirement perk
From The Statesman
ID House: Freeze teacher pay, cut retirement perk
For the second day, Democrats and Republicans in the Idaho House clashed over a plan to cut Idaho's public education budget.And for the second time the outcome was assured: Republicans who control nearly three-quarters of the chamber led a 49-20 vote, this time to cut $8.1 million from public education funding by freezing automatic experience-based salary increases and phasing out an early retirement incentive for teachers.
The vote was virtually identical to Wednesday's 50-20 decision to cut $4.2 million from state bus reimbursements to local school districts, including more than $1.4 million to the school district in Boise.
Democrats argued that Thursday's bill, which now heads to the Senate, will expose Idaho to lawsuits from the teachers union because freezing the pay for even one year could lower teachers' retirement pay.
Republicans said it's needed to balance the state budget.
"These are not fun times. We're not here with big smiles on our faces," said Rep. Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d'Alene and chairman of the House Education Committee. "We all have a common enemy here, and it's a bad economy."
Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna, who supports the bill, wants to cut Idaho's public education budget in fiscal year 2010 by $62 million, though Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter has favored a more drastic, $109 million austerity plan.
The measures voted on Wednesday and Thursday account for roughly $12.3 million.
Minority Democrats, outnumbered 52-18 in the House, again attempted to derail the vote. On Wednesday, they had forced the bus-reimbursement reduction bill to be read in its entirety; Thursday, they called for the bill to be sent back to Nonini's committee, arguing it is unconstitutional.
When that effort failed, Democrats said that suspending an automatic 3.75 percent pay increase, based on teachers gaining another year of experience, would likely provoke a lawsuit from the Idaho Education Association teachers union since it could reduce some educators' pension payments.
"The consequences of losing a year on the ladder will follow a teacher year after year," said Rep. Grant Burgoyne, D-Boise and a lawyer. "That, in my opinion, denies a teacher certain vested rights."
Teachers would still be able to qualify for a step up in pay based on their educational levels.
Democrats also said they wanted to use nearly $200 million in state education reserves and money from Idaho's share of the federal economic stimulus package, rather than making the cuts.
"I understand we have a hard economy," said Rep. Branden Durst, D-Boise. "I also understand we have hundreds of millions of dollars in stabilization funds we could use."
House Majority Caucus Chairman Ken Roberts, R-Donnelly, countered Idaho should protect its educational reserves in case the economy sours further in coming months. The deepening slump has already driven unemployment in the state to a 21-year high of 6.8 percent while reducing state tax revenue by a projected $400 million for the fiscal year through June 30, compared to fiscal year 2008.
Tapping those reserves now would be "setting ourselves up for a potential tax increase," Roberts argued. "That's one of the two scenarios we're going to be setting up: Either further cuts, or increased taxes. This legislation is a step in the direction of being able to manage our budget."
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Fundraising & Event Ideas
Below are a few ideas our fundraising committee has come up with. We need A LOT more. Think of anything and everything you'd like to see happen at our Academy. Keep in mind we are only gathering ideas at this point, and anything we do will have to fit our vision and mission, along with being able to afford it. But, we do want to collect ideas to make sure we have all the ideas on paper and collected for this coming year and future years.
Is there anything you wished your former school had? Is there anything you have been dreaming about, but never thought was possible? Are there any fundraising ideas that could also be fun for all involved?
Please share!
Nampa Classical Academy Parent Faculty Association 2009/2010
Fundraising-Social Event Ideas
Fall Opening Social/Hamburger Feed:
When: Before school starts or the first weekend of school starting?
Why: An opportunity to meet other families, teachers and headmaster.
Where: Held at a local park in Nampa (the one with the airplanes, or closer to the school site, like Lions?).
How: Family/Individual meal tickets: Food donated by Win Co (cupcakes, corn), Albertsons (cupcakes, water, bottles, chips), Fred Myer(water bottles, buns, condiments) , Paul’s (baked goods, chips), Walmart (cupcakes, buns, pop) Costco (buns, patties, pop, paper products), Sam’s Club (buns, patties, pop, paper products) and local farmers(corn)?
Tickets bought on-line through NCA PFA website with PayPal, so we can get an estimated headcount. Ticket disclaimer printed on tickets that we are not responsible for loss, accident or injury.
Menu: Hamburgers/hot dogs, Corn on the Cobb, Chips, Pop, Dessert.
Individual Booth/Food Tickets sold at event: Popcorn, Cotton Candy, Cupcake Walk, Su mu wrestling, Bungee Run, Rock Wall Fishing, Moon Walk. Some of these businesses will do this for free to advertise for their company.
Holiday PJ Breakfast:
When: First Saturday in December or the one before Christmas break.
Where: Community Church in Nampa?
Why: Unite families, raise money for academy.(Possibility of parents dropping off their kids and being able to get Christmas shopping done, supervised by teachers and volunteers) Everyone comes in their PJ’s, Christmas stories read by faculty, appearance by Santa, Christmas tree ornament craft.
How: Food donated by local grocery stores, craft donated by Michaels, or JoAnns?
Menu: Pancakes, syrup, sausage and bacon (pre-cooked kind?), milk and juice, (fruit?). Ticket prices per individual/family (limit of 6/family ticket?)
Popcorn Sales
Optional Christmas ornament craft: Ticket price/ornament.
Popcorn Sales:
When: every Friday at Lunch recess, kids can finish it during last half of day in class?
Where: @ the academy.
Why: Raise $ for school needs. (.50 / bag)
How: NCA PFA to purchase a commercial popcorn machine ($315-$475) and make profit by offering bags of popcorn on Friday afternoons for sale to the students for.50 each and at other fundraising and sporting events. Out of a student body of 600+ students if we had 15%-20% participation that would= 3-5 students in each class buying popcorn. If we sold 100 bags each week = $50 revenue, within 2 months the machine should be paid for?
Holiday Craft Bizarre:
Rent out a booth to local vendors @ the school gymnasium, (or church site until built?) and charge a nominal fee for the booth space. Each individual handles individual sales.
Is there anything you wished your former school had? Is there anything you have been dreaming about, but never thought was possible? Are there any fundraising ideas that could also be fun for all involved?
Please share!
Nampa Classical Academy Parent Faculty Association 2009/2010
Fundraising-Social Event Ideas
Fall Opening Social/Hamburger Feed:
When: Before school starts or the first weekend of school starting?
Why: An opportunity to meet other families, teachers and headmaster.
Where: Held at a local park in Nampa (the one with the airplanes, or closer to the school site, like Lions?).
How: Family/Individual meal tickets: Food donated by Win Co (cupcakes, corn), Albertsons (cupcakes, water, bottles, chips), Fred Myer(water bottles, buns, condiments) , Paul’s (baked goods, chips), Walmart (cupcakes, buns, pop) Costco (buns, patties, pop, paper products), Sam’s Club (buns, patties, pop, paper products) and local farmers(corn)?
Tickets bought on-line through NCA PFA website with PayPal, so we can get an estimated headcount. Ticket disclaimer printed on tickets that we are not responsible for loss, accident or injury.
Menu: Hamburgers/hot dogs, Corn on the Cobb, Chips, Pop, Dessert.
Individual Booth/Food Tickets sold at event: Popcorn, Cotton Candy, Cupcake Walk, Su mu wrestling, Bungee Run, Rock Wall Fishing, Moon Walk. Some of these businesses will do this for free to advertise for their company.
Holiday PJ Breakfast:
When: First Saturday in December or the one before Christmas break.
Where: Community Church in Nampa?
Why: Unite families, raise money for academy.(Possibility of parents dropping off their kids and being able to get Christmas shopping done, supervised by teachers and volunteers) Everyone comes in their PJ’s, Christmas stories read by faculty, appearance by Santa, Christmas tree ornament craft.
How: Food donated by local grocery stores, craft donated by Michaels, or JoAnns?
Menu: Pancakes, syrup, sausage and bacon (pre-cooked kind?), milk and juice, (fruit?). Ticket prices per individual/family (limit of 6/family ticket?)
Popcorn Sales
Optional Christmas ornament craft: Ticket price/ornament.
Popcorn Sales:
When: every Friday at Lunch recess, kids can finish it during last half of day in class?
Where: @ the academy.
Why: Raise $ for school needs. (.50 / bag)
How: NCA PFA to purchase a commercial popcorn machine ($315-$475) and make profit by offering bags of popcorn on Friday afternoons for sale to the students for.50 each and at other fundraising and sporting events. Out of a student body of 600+ students if we had 15%-20% participation that would= 3-5 students in each class buying popcorn. If we sold 100 bags each week = $50 revenue, within 2 months the machine should be paid for?
Holiday Craft Bizarre:
Rent out a booth to local vendors @ the school gymnasium, (or church site until built?) and charge a nominal fee for the booth space. Each individual handles individual sales.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Legislative Articles
A parent recenlty asked me why I keep sending legisltative news and articles related to education funding. If any of you were wondering the same thing, here is some of my response to her.
One of the purposes of a parent group is to stay informed with what is going on in legislation. Our founder, Isaac, is also a huge proponent of being involved in the legislative aspect that affects education. Some of the questions we keep getting from parents are related to things that are directly affected by these education cuts, and the final decisions made by our lawmakers regarding stimulus money. We won't know about busing, field trips, teacher pay, or anything affecting our "bottom line" until this legislative session is over, and all the decisions are made regarding education funding. Everyone needs to realize that everything is up in the air until these bills are passed, final decisions are made, and the legislative season is over. Since the information is timely and directly affecting everything our faculty and board are doing right now, I am sending along these articles to keep us all informed.
I also thoroughly enjoyed attending the Education Summit and PTA Legislative Day this year. It was great meeting many of our lawmakers, and learning about all the aspects that go into public education. I feel I am doing my duty as a citizen to be involved in this process, and support those lawmakers that are making decisions on our behalf. These people really care about our children, and I also feel it is our duty to be informed so we can make better judgments when voting on issues, and keeping people in government that support school choice. Being involved in the legislative process also sets a good example to our children that we care about our country, their future, making a difference, and supporting the Constitution.
One of the purposes of a parent group is to stay informed with what is going on in legislation. Our founder, Isaac, is also a huge proponent of being involved in the legislative aspect that affects education. Some of the questions we keep getting from parents are related to things that are directly affected by these education cuts, and the final decisions made by our lawmakers regarding stimulus money. We won't know about busing, field trips, teacher pay, or anything affecting our "bottom line" until this legislative session is over, and all the decisions are made regarding education funding. Everyone needs to realize that everything is up in the air until these bills are passed, final decisions are made, and the legislative season is over. Since the information is timely and directly affecting everything our faculty and board are doing right now, I am sending along these articles to keep us all informed.
I also thoroughly enjoyed attending the Education Summit and PTA Legislative Day this year. It was great meeting many of our lawmakers, and learning about all the aspects that go into public education. I feel I am doing my duty as a citizen to be involved in this process, and support those lawmakers that are making decisions on our behalf. These people really care about our children, and I also feel it is our duty to be informed so we can make better judgments when voting on issues, and keeping people in government that support school choice. Being involved in the legislative process also sets a good example to our children that we care about our country, their future, making a difference, and supporting the Constitution.
Anyway, the legislative season will soon be over, but I hope we all can continue to keep watch of what is going on in our government. Anyone who finds articles that directly affect education or our school, I ask for you to send them to the PFA! We would love to share these.
DI Clips
Here are some video clips of DI (Direct Instruction), the program we are using for Reading.
http://www.adihome.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=115&Itemid=119
Reflections Pictures
Here are pictures from the 2007-08 PTA Reflections program winners. They are amazing!
We'll be modeling our own Art Program after Reflections, but throwing in our flair. All types of art will be highlighted, including music, choreography, photography, dance, and more. We hope everyone takes the opportunity to participate!
Budget Cuts, Teacher Salary Freeze
From the Idaho Statesman
Idaho House passes bill to let school districts cut pay in emergencies
The Idaho House has passed a bill that would let school districts negotiate with unions over pay reductions and furloughs when the districts declare financial emergencies.Such emergencies could be caused by an economic downturn that cuts revenues.
The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d'Alene, has said the bill would give local districts what they need when there isn’t enough state money to keep paying teachers as much as they have earned in the past.
State law now prohibits school districts from working teachers fewer hours or paying them less from one year to the next. In a recession-ridden economy, school districts cannot ask teachers to take time off or reduce their paychecks. If revenues fall, districts can only cut the number of teachers they employ.
Another bill sponsored by Nonini earlier this year would have repealed the law protecting teacher wages and work hours and prohibited districts from signing multiyear union contracts. That triggered opposition, and the bill was set aside. The new bill has broad, bipartisan support.
The bill, House Bill 252, passed the House 69-0 on Tuesday and now moves to the Senate.
Idaho House Ed: Freeze teacher experience to cut costs
The House Education Committee backed public schools chief Tom Luna's plan to freeze salaries for teachers based on experience, which would help save the state $8.1 million in fiscal year 2010.Tuesday's vote was 10-6, with five Democrats and one Republican, Tom Trail of Moscow, opposing it.
If the bill becomes law, teachers won't advance on the salary grid based on experience, despite adding another year in the classroom.
The measure also cuts in half an early-retirement incentive for teachers over 55 who have worked at least 10 years. Luna plans to dump the incentive next year.
Agency spokeswoman Melissa McGrath says this will save money, in a year when public schools face at least $62 million in cuts proposed by his agency.
The Idaho Education Association opposed the changes.
Busing, Budget Cuts
Here is more information on busing, and budget cuts.
Thanks Erin!
Thanks Erin!
Here is an update on the school transportation bill that is moving through the legislature.
The complete bill can be found here: http://www.legislature.idaho.
gov/legislation/2009/minidata .H0256
Pub schools/transport support prog H 2nd Rdg * Note: Virtual charter schools do not have to make any changes - they still will receive the 85% reimbursement for transportation costs that are incurred from internet connections, computers, toll free phone lines, etc..
http://www.spokesman.com/
blogs/boise/2009/mar/23/field- trip-change-permanent/#c24590 Eye On Boise
Field trip change is permanent
Legislation that cleared the House Education Committee today would permanently end state funding for field trips and change how school districts are reimbursed for student transportation. The move is designed to save $4.2 million next year; click below to read the full story from AP reporter Sarah Wire.
Sorry ID kids, field trip may be canceled
By SARAH D. WIRE
Associated Press Writer
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The House Education Committee approved a bill Monday to stop reimbursing school districts for field trip costs and to change how school districts are reimbursed for transportation.
Lawmakers said the moves are designed to save the state an estimated $4.2 million in 2010. Unlike other cuts that are tied to the state’s current economic situation, the changes made by the bill do not have a designated end date. Proponents of the bill have said they will work to reinstate funding for field trips once Idaho’s economic outlook improves.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna has recommended cutting $62 million from the public schools budget for the fiscal year that starts in July. Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter has proposed $109 million in cuts.
The bulk of that money is expected to come from cuts to teacher pay and a one-year freeze on raises.
The transportation bill now goes before the full House. It is expected to move through the Legislature quickly because the state’s budget-writing committee plans to begin writing the public education budget March 30.
Jason Hancock, Education Department deputy chief of staff, told the committee that school districts can still schedule field trips, but the state will not reimburse the cost. Not paying for field trips could save the state $2.5 million in 2010.
“Any dollar spent on student transportation is a dollar not going to student education,” Hancock said.
He said the measure won’t hurt districts financially as long as they don’t schedule field trips.
The bill also requires 17 large school districts and 12 charter schools to get state reimbursement based on the number of students bused instead of the distance traveled. Changing the busing reimbursement is expected to save $1.7 million in 2010.
Currently Idaho school districts can choose which reimbursement method they use.
The change would cost the Boise Independent School District $1.4 million next year. The Lewiston Independent District would lose $30,000 up front.
The remaining 15 large districts would have to change their funding model but would not lose money up front.
Janet Orndorff, a Boise Schools trustee, said changing the reimbursement method will force the district to put more children on each bus, which is not safe.
“We understand the difficult times, we understand we need to make cuts, but we need to make sure we make those cuts in the right places,” Orndorff said.
Orndorff said the district would prefer to make cuts regarding new classroom supplies and new textbooks.
The bill also reduces how much the state reimburses districts, from 85 percent of transportation costs to 50 percent for all such costs except bus purchases and maintenance.
As an incentive to keep transportation costs down, the difference between 50 percent and 85 percent would be given back to the district through an annual grant. The grant would increase each year based on district growth and whether the district’s transportation costs remained below the state average. The excess money could be used however the district wished.
Opponents of the bill, including several education groups, argue that the state should use its rainy day funds to keep from cutting the 2010 budget for public education.
“When is it going to be raining hard enough to use those funds?” asked Rep. Branden Durst, D-Boise. “Seems to me we’re going to be waiting for Noah before we tap it. We need it now.”
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Help! Exam Proctors
Mr. Moffett is in need of exam proctors. If you are able to help out this year by administering the tests, we'd greatly appreciate it! Below are the dates and times. He is hoping for a 1 year commitment since there is training involved. He can't keep training people over and over. As you can see, the time commitment is not large since we can all trade off times. Not all of us will be used every day/time. Please contact Isaac directly if you can help ASAP. imoffett@ncacharter.org
April 14th & 15th
8 am-5 pm
Cross Roads Community Church, room 5 (same place as that of our board meetings)
I need several kids from each age group (early elementary, older elementary, middle school and a 9th grader or two for the 15th. They will need to show up about 1 pm.
Placement testing
April 21, 23, & 25
10 am-4 pm & 6 pm-8 pm
April 27, 28, 30, May 1
10 am-4pm
6 pm-8pm
April 29
10 am-4 pm
TS Embroidery, uniform info
I just went to Teri's house (TS Embroidery) and had my kids try on all the different styles and types. I would strongly suggest everyone do this. I bought one of each color of polos and pants/skorts so I can take these with me as I shop. She has great prices, but I really think you'll be able to find things other places even cheaper if you shop smart. You won't be able to match up colors right if you don't start with something on the approved list, though. The uniform policy does allow for flexibility, but if you start with the right colors and styles it makes it so much easier to visualize it all, and not make a mistake when shopping.
I'm going to pace out my shopping and not get caught in the rush. She said some styles and sizes take a couple months to get in. She will have on hand many of them, but sometimes they take a while. Don't wait! Don't get caught ordering everything last minute, and then not have your things done in time. The only things that require embroidery are polos and blazers/sweaters. That makes it easier, but you still don't want to wait. She does Idaho Arts Chater, too.
I'm going to pace out my shopping and not get caught in the rush. She said some styles and sizes take a couple months to get in. She will have on hand many of them, but sometimes they take a while. Don't wait! Don't get caught ordering everything last minute, and then not have your things done in time. The only things that require embroidery are polos and blazers/sweaters. That makes it easier, but you still don't want to wait. She does Idaho Arts Chater, too.
I have invited Teri to come to our PFA meeting and bring some samples. She may even have time to do fittings and orders as well.
Field Trips Canceled?
Below is an article from the Idaho Statesman. This is one of the many reasons why our PFA will be so vital.
Sorry kids the field trip may be canceled
A House Committee has approved a bill to stop reimbursing school districts for field trip costs and to change how school districts are reimbursed for transportation. Lawmakers say the moves are designed to save the state an estimated $4.2 million in 2010. Jason Hancock, deputy chief of staff for the Education Department, told the House Education Committee Wednesday that school districts can still schedule field trips, but the state will not reimburse the cost. State Superintendent Tom Luna has recommended cutting $62 million from the public schools budget for the fiscal year that starts in July. Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter has proposed $109 million in cuts. The bill also requires 17 big school districts to get state reimbursement based on the number of students bused instead of the distance traveled.
Sorry kids the field trip may be canceled
A House Committee has approved a bill to stop reimbursing school districts for field trip costs and to change how school districts are reimbursed for transportation. Lawmakers say the moves are designed to save the state an estimated $4.2 million in 2010. Jason Hancock, deputy chief of staff for the Education Department, told the House Education Committee Wednesday that school districts can still schedule field trips, but the state will not reimburse the cost. State Superintendent Tom Luna has recommended cutting $62 million from the public schools budget for the fiscal year that starts in July. Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter has proposed $109 million in cuts. The bill also requires 17 big school districts to get state reimbursement based on the number of students bused instead of the distance traveled.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Grant Writing Committee
JoLynn is ready to go with the grant writing committee. Any of you who are interested in helping with this, we'd REALLY appreciate it. The two main things we are hoping to gain grants for, or raise money for right off the bat, are uniforms and the Promethean boards. Time is of the essence! So, if you would like to help, please contact JoLynn at 447-7360 jmkinurse@hotmail.com
Thank you!!!!!
Friday, March 20, 2009
The Lost Tools of Learning
The Lost Tools of Learning
| That I, whose experience of teaching is extremely limited, should presume to discuss education is a matter, surely, that calls for no apology. It is a kind of behavior to which the present climate of opinion is wholly favorable. Bishops air their opinions about economics; biologists, about metaphysics; inorganic chemists, about theology; the most irrelevant people are appointed to highly technical ministries; and plain, blunt men write to the papers to say that Epstein and Picasso do not know how to draw. Up to a certain point, and provided the the criticisms are made with a reasonable modesty, these activities are commendable. Too much specialization is not a good thing. There is also one excellent reason why the veriest amateur may feel entitled to have an opinion about education. For if we are not all professional teachers, we have all, at some time or another, been taught. Even if we learnt nothing--perhaps in particular if we learnt nothing--our contribution to the discussion may have a potential value. However, it is in the highest degree improbable that the reforms I propose will ever be carried into effect. Neither the parents, nor the training colleges, nor the examination boards, nor the boards of governors, nor the ministries of education, would countenance them for a moment. For they amount to this: that if we are to produce a society of educated people, fitted to preserve their intellectual freedom amid the complex pressures of our modern society, we must turn back the wheel of progress some four or five hundred years, to the point at which education began to lose sight of its true object, towards the end of the Middle Ages. Before you dismiss me with the appropriate phrase--reactionary, romantic, mediaevalist, laudator temporis acti (praiser of times past), or whatever tag comes first to hand--I will ask you to consider one or two miscellaneous questions that hang about at the back, perhaps, of all our minds, and occasionally pop out to worry us. When we think about the remarkably early age at which the young men went up to university in, let us say, Tudor times, and thereafter were held fit to assume responsibility for the conduct of their own affairs, are we altogether comfortable about that artificial prolongation of intellectual childhood and adolescence into the years of physical maturity which is so marked in our own day? To postpone the acceptance of responsibility to a late date brings with it a number of psychological complications which, while they may interest the psychiatrist, are scarcely beneficial either to the individual or to society. The stock argument in favor of postponing the school-leaving age and prolonging the period of education generally is there there is now so much more to learn than there was in the Middle Ages. This is partly true, but not wholly. The modern boy and girl are certainly taught more subjects--but does that always mean that they actually know more? Has it ever struck you as odd, or unfortunate, that today, when the proportion of literacy throughout Western Europe is higher than it has ever been, people should have become susceptible to the influence of advertisement and mass propaganda to an extent hitherto unheard of and unimagined? Do you put this down to the mere mechanical fact that the press and the radio and so on have made propaganda much easier to distribute over a wide area? Or do you sometimes have an uneasy suspicion that the product of modern educational methods is less good than he or she might be at disentangling fact from opinion and the proven from the plausible? Have you ever, in listening to a debate among adult and presumably responsible people, been fretted by the extraordinary inability of the average debater to speak to the question, or to meet and refute the arguments of speakers on the other side? Or have you ever pondered upon the extremely high incidence of irrelevant matter which crops up at committee meetings, and upon the very great rarity of persons capable of acting as chairmen of committees? And when you think of this, and think that most of our public affairs are settled by debates and committees, have you ever felt a certain sinking of the heart? Have you ever followed a discussion in the newspapers or elsewhere and noticed how frequently writers fail to define the terms they use? Or how often, if one man does define his terms, another will assume in his reply that he was using the terms in precisely the opposite sense to that in which he has already defined them? Have you ever been faintly troubled by the amount of slipshod syntax going about? And, if so, are you troubled because it is inelegant or because it may lead to dangerous misunderstanding? Do you ever find that young people, when they have left school, not only forget most of what they have learnt (that is only to be expected), but forget also, or betray that they have never really known, how to tackle a new subject for themselves? Are you often bothered by coming across grown-up men and women who seem unable to distinguish between a book that is sound, scholarly, and properly documented, and one that is, to any trained eye, very conspicuously none of these things? Or who cannot handle a library catalogue? Or who, when faced with a book of reference, betray a curious inability to extract from it the passages relevant to the particular question which interests them? Do you often come across people for whom, all their lives, a "subject" remains a "subject," divided by watertight bulkheads from all other "subjects," so that they experience very great difficulty in making an immediate mental connection between let us say, algebra and detective fiction, sewage disposal and the price of salmon--or, more generally, between such spheres of knowledge as philosophy and economics, or chemistry and art? Are you occasionally perturbed by the things written by adult men and women for adult men and women to read? We find a well-known biologist writing in a weekly paper to the effect that: "It is an argument against the existence of a Creator" (I think he put it more strongly; but since I have, most unfortunately, mislaid the reference, I will put his claim at its lowest)--"an argument against the existence of a Creator that the same kind of variations which are produced by natural selection can be produced at will by stock breeders." One might feel tempted to say that it is rather an argument for the existence of a Creator. Actually, of course, it is neither; all it proves is that the same material causes (recombination of the chromosomes, by crossbreeding, and so forth) are sufficient to account for all observed variations--just as the various combinations of the same dozen tones are materially sufficient to account for Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and the noise the cat makes by walking on the keys. But the cat's performance neither proves nor disproves the existence of Beethoven; and all that is proved by the biologist's argument is that he was unable to distinguish between a material and a final cause. Here is a sentence from no less academic a source than a front- page article in the Times Literary Supplement: "The Frenchman, Alfred Epinas, pointed out that certain species (e.g., ants and wasps) can only face the horrors of life and death in association." I do not know what the Frenchman actually did say; what the Englishman says he said is patently meaningless. We cannot know whether life holds any horror for the ant, nor in what sense the isolated wasp which you kill upon the window-pane can be said to "face" or not to "face" the horrors of death. The subject of the article is mass behavior in man; and the human motives have been unobtrusively transferred from the main proposition to the supporting instance. Thus the argument, in effect, assumes what it set out to prove--a fact which would become immediately apparent if it were presented in a formal syllogism. This is only a small and haphazard example of a vice which pervades whole books--particularly books written by men of science on metaphysical subjects. Another quotation from the same issue of the TLS comes in fittingly here to wind up this random collection of disquieting thoughts--this time from a review of Sir Richard Livingstone's "Some Tasks for Education": "More than once the reader is reminded of the value of an intensive study of at least one subject, so as to learn Tthe meaning of knowledge' and what precision and persistence is needed to attain it. Yet there is elsewhere full recognition of the distressing fact that a man may be master in one field and show no better judgement than his neighbor anywhere else; he remembers what he has learnt, but forgets altogether how he learned it." I would draw your attention particularly to that last sentence, which offers an explanation of what the writer rightly calls the "distressing fact" that the intellectual skills bestowed upon us by our education are not readily transferable to subjects other than those in which we acquired them: "he remembers what he has learnt, but forgets altogether how he learned it." Is not the great defect of our education today--a defect traceable through all the disquieting symptoms of trouble that I have mentioned--that although we often succeed in teaching our pupils "subjects," we fail lamentably on the whole in teaching them how to think: they learn everything, except the art of learning. It is as though we had taught a child, mechanically and by rule of thumb, to play "The Harmonious Blacksmith" upon the piano, but had never taught him the scale or how to read music; so that, having memorized "The Harmonious Blacksmith," he still had not the faintest notion how to proceed from that to tackle "The Last Rose of Summer." Why do I say, "as though"? In certain of the arts and crafts, we sometimes do precisely this--requiring a child to "express himself" in paint before we teach him how to handle the colors and the brush. There is a school of thought which believes this to be the right way to set about the job. But observe: it is not the way in which a trained craftsman will go about to teach himself a new medium. He, having learned by experience the best way to economize labor and take the thing by the right end, will start off by doodling about on an odd piece of material, in order to "give himself the feel of the tool." Let us now look at the mediaeval scheme of education--the syllabus of the Schools. It does not matter, for the moment, whether it was devised for small children or for older students, or how long people were supposed to take over it. What matters is the light it throws upon what the men of the Middle Ages supposed to be the object and the right order of the educative process. The syllabus was divided into two parts: the Trivium and Quadrivium. The second part--the Quadrivium--consisted of "subjects," and need not for the moment concern us. The interesting thing for us is the composition of the Trivium, which preceded the Quadrivium and was the preliminary discipline for it. It consisted of three parts: Grammar, Dialectic, and Rhetoric, in that order. Now the first thing we notice is that two at any rate of these "subjects" are not what we should call "subjects" at all: they are only methods of dealing with subjects. Grammar, indeed, is a "subject" in the sense that it does mean definitely learning a language--at that period it meant learning Latin. But language itself is simply the medium in which thought is expressed. The whole of the Trivium was, in fact, intended to teach the pupil the proper use of the tools of learning, before he began to apply them to "subjects" at all. First, he learned a language; not just how to order a meal in a foreign language, but the structure of a language, and hence of language itself--what it was, how it was put together, and how it worked. Secondly, he learned how to use language; how to define his terms and make accurate statements; how to construct an argument and how to detect fallacies in argument. Dialectic, that is to say, embraced Logic and Disputation. Thirdly, he learned to express himself in language-- how to say what he had to say elegantly and persuasively. At the end of his course, he was required to compose a thesis upon some theme set by his masters or chosen by himself, and afterwards to defend his thesis against the criticism of the faculty. By this time, he would have learned--or woe betide him-- not merely to write an essay on paper, but to speak audibly and intelligibly from a platform, and to use his wits quickly when heckled. There would also be questions, cogent and shrewd, from those who had already run the gauntlet of debate. It is, of course, quite true that bits and pieces of the mediaeval tradition still linger, or have been revived, in the ordinary school syllabus of today. Some knowledge of grammar is still required when learning a foreign language--perhaps I should say, "is again required," for during my own lifetime, we passed through a phase when the teaching of declensions and conjugations was considered rather reprehensible, and it was considered better to pick these things up as we went along. School debating societies flourish; essays are written; the necessity for "self- expression" is stressed, and perhaps even over-stressed. But these activities are cultivated more or less in detachment, as belonging to the special subjects in which they are pigeon-holed rather than as forming one coherent scheme of mental training to which all "subjects"stand in a subordinate relation. "Grammar" belongs especially to the "subject" of foreign languages, and essay-writing to the "subject" called "English"; while Dialectic has become almost entirely divorced from the rest of the curriculum, and is frequently practiced unsystematically and out of school hours as a separate exercise, only very loosely related to the main business of learning. Taken by and large, the great difference of emphasis between the two conceptions holds good: modern education concentrates on "teaching subjects," leaving the method of thinking, arguing, and expressing one's conclusions to be picked up by the scholar as he goes along' mediaeval education concentrated on first forging and learning to handle the tools of learning, using whatever subject came handy as a piece of material on which to doodle until the use of the tool became second nature. "Subjects" of some kind there must be, of course. One cannot learn the theory of grammar without learning an actual language, or learn to argue and orate without speaking about something in particular. The debating subjects of the Middle Ages were drawn largely from theology, or from the ethics and history of antiquity. Often, indeed, they became stereotyped, especially towards the end of the period, and the far-fetched and wire-drawn absurdities of Scholastic argument fretted Milton and provide food for merriment even to this day. Whether they were in themselves any more hackneyed and trivial then the usual subjects set nowadays for "essay writing" I should not like to say: we may ourselves grow a little weary of "A Day in My Holidays" and all the rest of it. But most of the merriment is misplaced, because the aim and object of the debating thesis has by now been lost sight of. A glib speaker in the Brains Trust once entertained his audience (and reduced the late Charles Williams to helpless rageb by asserting that in the Middle Ages it was a matter of faith to know how many archangels could dance on the point of a needle. I need not say, I hope, that it never was a "matter of faith"; it was simply a debating exercise, whose set subject was the nature of angelic substance: were angels material, and if so, did they occupy space? The answer usually adjudged correct is, I believe, that angels are pure intelligences; not material, but limited, so that they may have location in space but not extension. An analogy might be drawn from human thought, which is similarly non-material and similarly limited. Thus, if your thought is concentrated upon one thing--say, the point of a needle--it is located there in the sense that it is not elsewhere; but although it is "there," it occupies no space there, and there is nothing to prevent an infinite number of different people's thoughts being concentrated upon the same needle-point at the same time. The proper subject of the argument is thus seen to be the distinction between location and extension in space; the matter on which the argument is exercised happens to be the nature of angels (although, as we have seen, it might equally well have been something else; the practical lesson to be drawn from the argument is not to use words like "there" in a loose and unscientific way, without specifying whether you mean "located there" or "occupying space there." Scorn in plenty has been poured out upon the mediaeval passion for hair-splitting; but when we look at the shameless abuse made, in print and on the platform, of controversial expressions with shifting and ambiguous connotations, we may feel it in our hearts to wish that every reader and hearer had been so defensively armored by his education as to be able to cry: "Distinguo." For we let our young men and women go out unarmed, in a day when armor was never so necessary. By teaching them all to read, we have left them at the mercy of the printed word. By the invention of the film and the radio, we have made certain that no aversion to reading shall secure them from the incessant battery of words, words, words. They do not know what the words mean; they do not know how to ward them off or blunt their edge or fling them back; they are a prey to words in their emotions instead of being the masters of them in their intellects. We who were scandalized in 1940 when men were sent to fight armored tanks with rifles, are not scandalized when young men and women are sent into the world to fight massed propaganda with a smattering of "subjects"; and when whole classes and whole nations become hypnotized by the arts of the spell binder, we have the impudence to be astonished. We dole out lip-service to the importance of education--lip- service and, just occasionally, a little grant of money; we postpone the school-leaving age, and plan to build bigger and better schools; the teachers slave conscientiously in and out of school hours; and yet, as I believe, all this devoted effort is largely frustrated, because we have lost the tools of learning, and in their absence can only make a botched and piecemeal job of it. What, then, are we to do? We cannot go back to the Middle Ages. That is a cry to which we have become accustomed. We cannot go back--or can we? Distinguo. I should like every term in that proposition defined. Does "go back" mean a retrogression in time, or the revision of an error? The first is clearly impossible per se; the second is a thing which wise men do every day. "Cannot"-- does this mean that our behavior is determined irreversibly, or merely that such an action would be very difficult in view of the opposition it would provoke? Obviously the twentieth century is not and cannot be the fourteenth; but if "the Middle Ages" is, in this context, simply a picturesque phrase denoting a particular educational theory, there seems to be no a priori reason why we should not "go back" to it--with modifications--as we have already "gone back" with modifications, to, let us say, the idea of playing Shakespeare's plays as he wrote them, and not in the "modernized" versions of Cibber and Garrick, which once seemed to be the latest thing in theatrical progress. Let us amuse ourselves by imagining that such progressive retrogression is possible. Let us make a clean sweep of all educational authorities, and furnish ourselves with a nice little school of boys and girls whom we may experimentally equip for the intellectual conflict along lines chosen by ourselves. We will endow them with exceptionally docile parents; we will staff our school with teachers who are themselves perfectly familiar with the aims and methods of the Trivium; we will have our building and staff large enough to allow our classes to be small enough for adequate handling; and we will postulate a Board of Examiners willing and qualified to test the products we turn out. Thus prepared, we will attempt to sketch out a syllabus--a modern Trivium "with modifications" and we will see where we get to. But first: what age shall the children be? Well, if one is to educate them on novel lines, it will be better that they should have nothing to unlearn; besides, one cannot begin a good thing too early, and the Trivium is by its nature not learning, but a preparation for learning. We will, therefore, "catch 'em young," requiring of our pupils only that they shall be able to read, write, and cipher. My views about child psychology are, I admit, neither orthodox nor enlightened. Looking back upon myself (since I am the child I know best and the only child I can pretend to know from inside) I recognize three states of development. These, in a rough-and- ready fashion, I will call the Poll-Parrot, the Pert, and the Poetic--the latter coinciding, approximately, with the onset of puberty. The Poll-Parrot stage is the one in which learning by heart is easy and, on the whole, pleasurable; whereas reasoning is difficult and, on the whole, little relished. At this age, one readily memorizes the shapes and appearances of things; one likes to recite the number-plates of cars; one rejoices in the chanting of rhymes and the rumble and thunder of unintelligible polysyllables; one enjoys the mere accumulation of things. The Pert age, which follows upon this (and, naturally, overlaps it to some extent), is characterized by contradicting, answering back, liking to "catch people out" (especially one's elders); and by the propounding of conundrums. Its nuisance-value is extremely high. It usually sets in about the Fourth Form. The Poetic age is popularly known as the "difficult" age. It is self-centered; it yearns to express itself; it rather specializes in being misunderstood; it is restless and tries to achieve independence; and, with good luck and good guidance, it should show the beginnings of creativeness; a reaching out towards a synthesis of what it already knows, and a deliberate eagerness to know and do some one thing in preference to all others. Now it seems to me that the layout of the Trivium adapts itself with a singular appropriateness to these three ages: Grammar to the Poll-Parrot, Dialectic to the Pert, and Rhetoric to the Poetic age. Let us begin, then, with Grammar. This, in practice, means the grammar of some language in particular; and it must be an inflected language. The grammatical structure of an uninflected language is far too analytical to be tackled by any one without previous practice in Dialectic. Moreover, the inflected languages interpret the uninflected, whereas the uninflected are of little use in interpreting the inflected. I will say at once, quite firmly, that the best grounding for education is the Latin grammar. I say this, not because Latin is traditional and mediaeval, but simply because even a rudimentary knowledge of Latin cuts down the labor and pains of learning almost any other subject by at least fifty percent. It is the key to the vocabulary and structure of all the Teutonic languages, as well as to the technical vocabulary of all the sciences and to the literature of the entire Mediterranean civilization, together with all its historical documents. Those whose pedantic preference for a living language persuades them to deprive their pupils of all these advantages might substitute Russian, whose grammar is still more primitive. Russian is, of course, helpful with the other Slav dialects. There is something also to be said for Classical Greek. But my own choice is Latin. Having thus pleased the Classicists among you, I will proceed to horrify them by adding that I do not think it either wise or necessary to cramp the ordinary pupil upon the Procrustean bed of the Augustan Age, with its highly elaborate and artificial verse forms and oratory. Post-classical and mediaeval Latin, which was a living language right down to the end of the Renaissance, is easier and in some ways livelier; a study of it helps to dispel the widespread notion that learning and literature came to a full stop when Christ was born and only woke up again at the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Latin should be begun as early as possible--at a time when inflected speech seems no more astonishing than any other phenomenon in an astonishing world; and when the chanting of "Amo, amas, amat" is as ritually agreeable to the feelings as the chanting of "eeny, meeny, miney, moe." During this age we must, of course, exercise the mind on other things besides Latin grammar. Observation and memory are the faculties most lively at this period; and if we are to learn a contemporary foreign language we should begin now, before the facial and mental muscles become rebellious to strange intonations. Spoken French or German can be practiced alongside the grammatical discipline of the Latin. In English, meanwhile, verse and prose can be learned by heart, and the pupil's memory should be stored with stories of every kind--classical myth, European legend, and so forth. I do not think that the classical stories and masterpieces of ancient literature should be made the vile bodies on which to practice the techniques of Grammar--that was a fault of mediaeval education which we need not perpetuate. The stories can be enjoyed and remembered in English, and related to their origin at a subsequent stage. Recitation aloud should be practiced, individually or in chorus; for we must not forget that we are laying the groundwork for Disputation and Rhetoric. The grammar of History should consist, I think, of dates, events, anecdotes, and personalities. A set of dates to which one can peg all later historical knowledge is of enormous help later on in establishing the perspective of history. It does not greatly matter which dates: those of the Kings of England will do very nicely, provided that they are accompanied by pictures of costumes, architecture, and other everyday things, so that the mere mention of a date calls up a very strong visual presentment of the whole period. Geography will similarly be presented in its factual aspect, with maps, natural features, and visual presentment of customs, costumes, flora, fauna, and so on; and I believe myself that the discredited and old-fashioned memorizing of a few capitol cities, rivers, mountain ranges, etc., does no harm. Stamp collecting may be encouraged. Science, in the Poll-Parrot period, arranges itself naturally and easily around collections--the identifying and naming of specimens and, in general, the kind of thing that used to be called "natural philosophy." To know the name and properties of things is, at this age, a satisfaction in itself; to recognize a devil's coach-horse at sight, and assure one's foolish elders, that, in spite of its appearance, it does not sting; to be able to pick out Cassiopeia and the Pleiades, and perhaps even to know who Cassiopeia and the Pleiades were; to be aware that a whale is not a fish, and a bat not a bird--all these things give a pleasant sensation of superiority; while to know a ring snake from an adder or a poisonous from an edible toadstool is a kind of knowledge that also has practical value. The grammar of Mathematics begins, of course, with the multiplication table, which, if not learnt now, will never be learnt with pleasure; and with the recognition of geometrical shapes and the grouping of numbers. These exercises lead naturally to the doing of simple sums in arithmetic. More complicated mathematical processes may, and perhaps should, be postponed, for the reasons which will presently appear. So far (except, of course, for the Latin), our curriculum contains nothing that departs very far from common practice. The difference will be felt rather in the attitude of the teachers, who must look upon all these activities less as "subjects" in themselves than as a gathering-together of material for use in the next part of the Trivium. What that material is, is only of secondary importance; but it is as well that anything and everything which can be usefully committed to memory should be memorized at this period, whether it is immediately intelligible or not. The modern tendency is to try and force rational explanations on a child's mind at too early an age. Intelligent questions, spontaneously asked, should, of course, receive an immediate and rational answer; but it is a great mistake to suppose that a child cannot readily enjoy and remember things that are beyond his power to analyze--particularly if those things have a strong imaginative appeal (as, for example, "Kubla Kahn"), an attractive jingle (like some of the memory-rhymes for Latin genders), or an abundance of rich, resounding polysyllables (like the Quicunque vult). This reminds me of the grammar of Theology. I shall add it to the curriculum, because theology is the mistress-science without which the whole educational structure will necessarily lack its final synthesis. Those who disagree about this will remain content to leave their pupil's education still full of loose ends. This will matter rather less than it might, since by the time that the tools of learning have been forged the student will be able to tackle theology for himself, and will probably insist upon doing so and making sense of it. Still, it is as well to have this matter also handy and ready for the reason to work upon. At the grammatical age, therefore, we should become acquainted with the story of God and Man in outline--i.e., the Old and New Testaments presented as parts of a single narrative of Creation, Rebellion, and Redemption--and also with the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments. At this early stage, it does not matter nearly so much that these things should be fully understood as that they should be known and remembered. It is difficult to say at what age, precisely, we should pass from the first to the second part of the Trivium. Generally speaking, the answer is: so soon as the pupil shows himself disposed to pertness and interminable argument. For as, in the first part, the master faculties are Observation and Memory, so, in the second, the master faculty is the Discursive Reason. In the first, the exercise to which the rest of the material was, as it were, keyed, was the Latin grammar; in the second, the key- exercise will be Formal Logic. It is here that our curriculum shows its first sharp divergence from modern standards. The disrepute into which Formal Logic has fallen is entirely unjustified; and its neglect is the root cause of nearly all those disquieting symptoms which we have noted in the modern intellectual constitution. Logic has been discredited, partly because we have come to suppose that we are conditioned almost entirely by the intuitive and the unconscious. There is no time to argue whether this is true; I will simply observe that to neglect the proper training of the reason is the best possible way to make it true. Another cause for the disfavor into which Logic has fallen is the belief that it is entirely based upon universal assumptions that are either unprovable or tautological. This is not true. Not all universal propositions are of this kind. But even if they were, it would make no difference, since every syllogism whose major premise is in the form "All A is B" can be recast in hypothetical form. Logic is the art of arguing correctly: "If A, then B." The method is not invalidated by the hypothetical nature of A. Indeed, the practical utility of Formal Logic today lies not so much in the establishment of positive conclusions as in the prompt detection and exposure of invalid inference. Let us now quickly review our material and see how it is to be related to Dialectic. On the Language side, we shall now have our vocabulary and morphology at our fingertips; henceforward we can concentrate on syntax and analysis (i.e., the logical construction of speech) and the history of language (i.e., how we came to arrange our speech as we do in order to convey our thoughts). Our Reading will proceed from narrative and lyric to essays, argument and criticism, and the pupil will learn to try his own hand at writing this kind of thing. Many lessons--on whatever subject--will take the form of debates; and the place of individual or choral recitation will be taken by dramatic performances, with special attention to plays in which an argument is stated in dramatic form. Mathematics--algebra, geometry, and the more advanced kinds of arithmetic--will now enter into the syllabus and take its place as what it really is: not a separate "subject" but a sub- department of Logic. It is neither more nor less than the rule of the syllogism in its particular application to number and measurement, and should be taught as such, instead of being, for some, a dark mystery, and, for others, a special revelation, neither illuminating nor illuminated by any other part of knowledge. History, aided by a simple system of ethics derived from the grammar of theology, will provide much suitable material for discussion: Was the behavior of this statesman justified? What was the effect of such an enactment? What are the arguments for and against this or that form of government? We shall thus get an introduction to constitutional history--a subject meaningless to the young child, but of absorbing interest to those who are prepared to argue and debate. Theology itself will furnish material for argument about conduct and morals; and should have its scope extended by a simplified course of dogmatic theology (i.e., the rational structure of Christian thought), clarifying the relations between the dogma and the ethics, and lending itself to that application of ethical principles in particular instances which is properly called casuistry. Geography and the Sciences will likewise provide material for Dialectic. But above all, we must not neglect the material which is so abundant in the pupils' own daily life. There is a delightful passage in Leslie Paul's "The Living Hedge" which tells how a number of small boys enjoyed themselves for days arguing about an extraordinary shower of rain which had fallen in their town--a shower so localized that it left one half of the main street wet and the other dry. Could one, they argued, properly say that it had rained that day on or over the town or only in the town? How many drops of water were required to constitute rain? And so on. Argument about this led on to a host of similar problems about rest and motion, sleep and waking, est and non est, and the infinitesimal division of time. The whole passage is an admirable example of the spontaneous development of the ratiocinative faculty and the natural and proper thirst of the awakening reason for the definition of terms and exactness of statement. All events are food for such an appetite. An umpire's decision; the degree to which one may transgress the spirit of a regulation without being trapped by the letter: on such questions as these, children are born casuists, and their natural propensity only needs to be developed and trained--and especially, brought into an intelligible relationship with the events in the grown-up world. The newspapers are full of good material for such exercises: legal decisions, on the one hand, in cases where the cause at issue is not too abstruse; on the other, fallacious reasoning and muddleheaded arguments, with which the correspondence columns of certain papers one could name are abundantly stocked. Wherever the matter for Dialectic is found, it is, of course, highly important that attention should be focused upon the beauty and economy of a fine demonstration or a well-turned argument, lest veneration should wholly die. Criticism must not be merely destructive; though at the same time both teacher and pupils must be ready to detect fallacy, slipshod reasoning, ambiguity, irrelevance, and redundancy, and to pounce upon them like rats. This is the moment when precis-writing may be usefully undertaken; together with such exercises as the writing of an essay, and the reduction of it, when written, by 25 or 50 percent. It will, doubtless, be objected that to encourage young persons at the Pert age to browbeat, correct, and argue with their elders will render them perfectly intolerable. My answer is that children of that age are intolerable anyhow; and that their natural argumentativeness may just as well be canalized to good purpose as allowed to run away into the sands. It may, indeed, be rather less obtrusive at home if it is disciplined in school; and anyhow, elders who have abandoned the wholesome principle that children should be seen and not heard have no one to blame but themselves. Once again, the contents of the syllabus at this stage may be anything you like. The "subjects" supply material; but they are all to be regarded as mere grist for the mental mill to work upon. The pupils should be encouraged to go and forage for their own information, and so guided towards the proper use of libraries and books for reference, and shown how to tell which sources are authoritative and which are not. Towards the close of this stage, the pupils will probably be beginning to discover for themselves that their knowledge and experience are insufficient, and that their trained intelligences need a great deal more material to chew upon. The imagination-- usually dormant during the Pert age--will reawaken, and prompt them to suspect the limitations of logic and reason. This means that they are passing into the Poetic age and are ready to embark on the study of Rhetoric. The doors of the storehouse of knowledge should now be thrown open for them to browse about as they will. The things once learned by rote will be seen in new contexts; the things once coldly analyzed can now be brought together to form a new synthesis; here and there a sudden insight will bring about that most exciting of all discoveries: the realization that truism is true. It is difficult to map out any general syllabus for the study of Rhetoric: a certain freedom is demanded. In literature, appreciation should be again allowed to take the lead over destructive criticism; and self-expression in writing can go forward, with its tools now sharpened to cut clean and observe proportion. Any child who already shows a disposition to specialize should be given his head: for, when the use of the tools has been well and truly learned, it is available for any study whatever. It would be well, I think, that each pupil should learn to do one, or two, subjects really well, while taking a few classes in subsidiary subjects so as to keep his mind open to the inter-relations of all knowledge. Indeed, at this stage, our difficulty will be to keep "subjects" apart; for Dialectic will have shown all branches of learning to be inter-related, so Rhetoric will tend to show that all knowledge is one. To show this, and show why it is so, is pre-eminently the task of the mistress science. But whether theology is studied or not, we should at least insist that children who seem inclined to specialize on the mathematical and scientific side should be obliged to attend some lessons in the humanities and vice versa. At this stage, also, the Latin grammar, having done its work, may be dropped for those who prefer to carry on their language studies on the modern side; while those who are likely never to have any great use or aptitude for mathematics might also be allowed to rest, more or less, upon their oars. Generally speaking, whatsoever is mere apparatus may now be allowed to fall into the background, while the trained mind is gradually prepared for specialization in the "subjects" which, when the Trivium is completed, it should be perfectly will equipped to tackle on its own. The final synthesis of the Trivium--the presentation and public defense of the thesis--should be restored in some form; perhaps as a kind of "leaving examination" during the last term at school. The scope of Rhetoric depends also on whether the pupil is to be turned out into the world at the age of 16 or whether he is to proceed to the university. Since, really, Rhetoric should be taken at about 14, the first category of pupil should study Grammar from about 9 to 11, and Dialectic from 12 to 14; his last two school years would then be devoted to Rhetoric, which, in this case, would be of a fairly specialized and vocational kind, suiting him to enter immediately upon some practical career. A pupil of the second category would finish his Dialectical course in his preparatory school, and take Rhetoric during his first two years at his public school. At 16, he would be ready to start upon those "subjects" which are proposed for his later study at the university: and this part of his education will correspond to the mediaeval Quadrivium. What this amounts to is that the ordinary pupil, whose formal education ends at 16, will take the Trivium only; whereas scholars will take both the Trivium and the Quadrivium. Is the Trivium, then, a sufficient education for life? Properly taught, I believe that it should be. At the end of the Dialectic, the children will probably seem to be far behind their coevals brought up on old-fashioned "modern" methods, so far as detailed knowledge of specific subjects is concerned. But after the age of 14 they should be able to overhaul the others hand over fist. Indeed, I am not at all sure that a pupil thoroughly proficient in the Trivium would not be fit to proceed immediately to the university at the age of 16, thus proving himself the equal of his mediaeval counterpart, whose precocity astonished us at the beginning of this discussion. This, to be sure, would make hay of the English public-school system, and disconcert the universities very much. It would, for example, make quite a different thing of the Oxford and Cambridge boat race. But I am not here to consider the feelings of academic bodies: I am concerned only with the proper training of the mind to encounter and deal with the formidable mass of undigested problems presented to it by the modern world. For the tools of learning are the same, in any and every subject; and the person who knows how to use them will, at any age, get the mastery of a new subject in half the time and with a quarter of the effort expended by the person who has not the tools at his command. To learn six subjects without remembering how they were learnt does nothing to ease the approach to a seventh; to have learnt and remembered the art of learning makes the approach to every subject an open door. Before concluding these necessarily very sketchy suggestions, I ought to say why I think it necessary, in these days, to go back to a discipline which we had discarded. The truth is that for the last three hundred years or so we have been living upon our educational capital. The post-Renaissance world, bewildered and excited by the profusion of new "subjects" offered to it, broke away from the old discipline (which had, indeed, become sadly dull and stereotyped in its practical application) and imagined that henceforward it could, as it were, disport itself happily in its new and extended Quadrivium without passing through the Trivium. But the Scholastic tradition, though broken and maimed, still lingered in the public schools and universities: Milton, however much he protested against it, was formed by it--the debate of the Fallen Angels and the disputation of Abdiel with Satan have the tool-marks of the Schools upon them, and might, incidentally, profitably figure as set passages for our Dialectical studies. Right down to the nineteenth century, our public affairs were mostly managed, and our books and journals were for the most part written, by people brought up in homes, and trained in places, where that tradition was still alive in the memory and almost in the blood. Just so, many people today who are atheist or agnostic in religion, are governed in their conduct by a code of Christian ethics which is so rooted that it never occurs to them to question it. But one cannot live on capital forever. However firmly a tradition is rooted, if it is never watered, though it dies hard, yet in the end it dies. And today a great number--perhaps the majority--of the men and women who handle our affairs, write our books and our newspapers, carry out our research, present our plays and our films, speak from our platforms and pulpits--yes, and who educate our young people--have never, even in a lingering traditional memory, undergone the Scholastic discipline. Less and less do the children who come to be educated bring any of that tradition with them. We have lost the tools of learning--the axe and the wedge, the hammer and the saw, the chisel and the plane-- that were so adaptable to all tasks. Instead of them, we have merely a set of complicated jigs, each of which will do but one task and no more, and in using which eye and hand receive no training, so that no man ever sees the work as a whole or "looks to the end of the work." What use is it to pile task on task and prolong the days of labor, if at the close the chief object is left unattained? It is not the fault of the teachers--they work only too hard already. The combined folly of a civilization that has forgotten its own roots is forcing them to shore up the tottering weight of an educational structure that is built upon sand. They are doing for their pupils the work which the pupils themselves ought to do. For the sole true end of education is simply this: to teach men how to learn for themselves; and whatever instruction fails to do this is effort spent in vain. Paul M. Bechtel writes that Dorothy Leigh Sayers (1893-1967) briefly entered on a teaching career after graduating from Oxford. She published a long and popular series of detective novels, translated the "Divine Comedy," wrote a series of radio plays, and a defense of Christian belief. During World War II, she lived in Oxford, and was a member of the group that included C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Owen Barfield. By nature and preference, she was a scholar and an expert on the Middle Ages. In this essay, Miss Sayers suggests that we presently teach our children everything but how to learn. She proposes that we adopt a suitably modified version of the medieval scholastic curriculum for methodological reasons. "The Lost Tools of Learning" was first presented by Miss Sayers at Oxford in 1947. |
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