It’s back to school time in my corner of the world, which means a couple of things: 1. It’s time to hit the Dixon Ticonderoga pencil sales and stock up 2. I’ve pretty much given up on watering my garden. And 3. I will (hopefully) be blogging more consistently every week.
Thank you to those of you who have still popped in to say hello through the summer as I followed a more casual posting schedule. I’m ashamed to admit that I’ve been pretty inconsistent about visiting the blogs of others, but I have high hopes of scooping up that dropped ball as well.
Even though my kids are no longer small and in need of constant supervision and entertainment through the summer months, there’s still something satisfying about beginning a new, regular schedule. My youngest son is a senior in high school this year, my oldest is beginning his second year of college, and I will be working at school in a full-time capacity for the first time since my college boy was a baby.
It feels good and right to all be participating in the wonderful tradition of public education that began in the United States in 1647 as a way to thwart the schemes of the Devil. That’s when the Massachusetts Bay Colony crafted a law firmly stating the guidelines necessary to ensure that its young people would be able to read the Bible and wouldn’t be susceptible to tricky demonic scheming.
The law, known colloquially as the Old Deluder Satan Law because it begins with the words: “In being one chief project of that old deluder, Satan, to keep men from the knowledge of Scripture . . .” was a more specific version of a similar law put into place in 1642.
The earlier law claimed that the responsibility to educate the young fell to the community. It’s replacement expanded on that by instituting firm guidelines, stating that a community of at least fifty households must appoint a public educator. If there were a hundred households, then there needed to be a qualified master who could prepare the young folks for Harvard where they could take Satan-fighting classes like ENGLISH 183:”Taylor Swift and her World,” GERMAN 260: “Writing the Body in the Posthuman Age,” or GEN ED 1090: “What is a Book?”
These are actual course offerings from the current Harvard catalog. Take that, you old deluder!
Of course our public schools are more secular these days, but there’s still some truth to the assumption that an educated public is one that is more analytical and is therefore less susceptible to being misled by those with nefarious intentions.
I’d like to think that’s true, though the tone and quality of much of our public discourse leads me to believe we still have a lot of work to do. And so, I guess it’s time to get back to it. I’m armed with a stockpile of Dixon Ticonderogas, and I am ready.
Bring on the school year!
Author Sarah Angleton 
Wow going back into school – good luck and have fun
It has been fun so far, but after the first week of students, I am tired and ready for a restful weekend.
Oh, yes on the go all the time with a public face. Take care of yourself
Oh, dear God! How we need you in our schools, in our families, in our churches, and especially in our country.
Please draw people into an understanding of a so needed prayer mindset for our churches, schools, country, and our families.
We have become the frog in the kettle and are about to become dinner for the evil One.
I am a big fan of prayer. Even just some good old fashioned civil discourse and intellectual honesty sure would go a long way.
The offerings from Harvard are interesting. The “civil discourse and intellectual honesty” is going to take some doing but would be great to see.
Yes, it will take a big cultural shift, for sure.
When I was a student in Boston (quite some time ago) I could have taken a paper at Harvard entitled “Jesus as Woman”. As it was I simply used their library and “Parked my car in Harvard Yard”.
Ha! I’d love to just audit that class. Pretty sure I’d get myself in trouble if I had to turn anything in.
Congrats on going back to school. Hopefully it doesn’t interfere with your next book.
And, I always learn something reading your blog posts.
Thanks! I’m having fun so far. I think it may actually help with the next book some. My writing routine was lacking structure. Now I don’t have a choice.
I completely agree with your assessment that the “tone and quality of much of our public discourse leads me to believe we still have a lot of work to do.”
Let’s hope the work will pay off!
I’m trying to fight off my pessimism.
Me too. š¦
Do you ever run out of book ideas or do you have a backlog stacked up?
I keep hoping I will run out of ideas and can stop, but so far, I haven’t been that lucky.
Ha, drowning in ideas is definitely one of the better curses!
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