Spent a fun morning doing Thanksgiving crafts with M while J napped!
Homeschool: An American History
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I am reading an excellent book entitled, Homeschool: An American History by Milton Gaither, which traces homeschooling trends from colonial times (exclusively homeschooled) to the shift toward government schools and now back again toward homeschooling. I love this quote from the book discussing the advent of widespread public schooling in the early nineteenth century:
"But perhaps the biggest reason Americans had long been patrons of schools was the age-old problem faced by mothers needing some time to do things other than take care of the kids. Schools for many were a place to dump the kids off for a while and hopefully get their minds improved in the process. Lucia Downing, a teacher in Vermont in the 1820s at a local district school, noted 'parents were glad to be relieved of the care of their offspring, and no one ever suggested a shortening of the hours.'"
"But perhaps the biggest reason Americans had long been patrons of schools was the age-old problem faced by mothers needing some time to do things other than take care of the kids. Schools for many were a place to dump the kids off for a while and hopefully get their minds improved in the process. Lucia Downing, a teacher in Vermont in the 1820s at a local district school, noted 'parents were glad to be relieved of the care of their offspring, and no one ever suggested a shortening of the hours.'"
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