History of Education in Titusville

Our existing public or traditional education system was brought here from Prussia. They had developed a national education system to produce factory workers and soldiers because they lost to the French in one of the many wars in Europe at that time. They blamed it on the soldiers when it was really poor generalship (sounds familiar) and hence the need to develop a new education system. This fit with the industrial revolution idea of schools being efficient factories. Couple this with the idea that children are empty vessels to be filled with data and we have the foundations of our public or traditional education system.

Education becomes passive instead of an active process involving a child’s thinking and reasoning. Also, children are taught the same things using the same methods and at one pace. Children are still being “left behind”. Ever wonder why there are new methods, textbooks, etc.? It is because the foundation is wrong and the elites who run the system are always trying to find more efficient ways to teach. They ignore how the child was designed to learn - it does not fit the factory method. (Reference “Montessori, The Science Behind the Genius”, Angeline Lillard, Oxford Press, 2005)

This 1927 Topo map is a portion south of Titusville along Rt 8 in Cherrytree Township.

The one room school houses listed:

Dutch Hill Sch

Zerrer Sch

Shreve Sch

Center Sch

Rose Sch

These were in a five mile section. A most children could walk to a school within a mile of their farm or home. It appears most townships had 5 or more one room school houses.

One Room School Houses

Old topography maps of the area show school houses all over the county and within a mile or two of most farms. This one room school houses were run by the townships so they were based on local control. If you wanted to attend high school, some students stayed with a family in town during the week and went home over the weekend. I assume this was before mass busing. The one room school house did give students the benefit of a multi-age environment, where the older students could help the younger ones and model good habits. A student could also progress at his pace.

School consolidation began in the mid 50’s in our school district with superintendent Marshal Fisher leading the way (from conversations with Gretchen Fisher, his wife and Howard Newson, School Superintendent during my high school years). Marshall went to each township to convince the township supervisors to close their one room schools and join together to make bigger elementary schools that would feed the high school and the children would be bused to these schools. The main benefit was efficiency through centralization

Sputnik

A big event that greatly influenced education was Sputnik – the Russians beat us into space with the first satellite. As the cold war was in full swing, this was viewed as a huge blow to our national security and a reason to make big changes in our educational curriculum. The education elites felt we needed more math and science so this displaced a lot of humanities such as reading the classics, logic, speech and debate.

Local Effects

Speech and debate disappeared from the Titusville high school curriculum in the late 60’s (conversations with Dorothy Hipwell, who worked in the school system in the 60’s and 70’s). My education had only 5 or 6 classics. Displacing humanities with technical subjects is counterproductive as one needs to understand and communicate with other humans in teams to develop new technology and bring it to market. The classics teach about human nature – dark and bright sides, which can help a person develop good people skills and become good managers and leaders. Speech and debate also prepared students to express themselves effectively – another management and leadership skill. Also, the bedrock of moral and ethical teaching was eliminated along with the Bible. An advanced society need people with high levels of character. We are paying the price of this now.

Another casualty of adopting the factory method, was the Read and Discuss Method for higher education which is very effective at promoting deep thinking and expression of one’s ideas. The classics, logic and the Bible were studied at all levels and logic with rhetoric (speech and debate) was taught in high school with tournaments between schools being common.

Bible Taught in School

Some say they would not want the Bible being taught in school as it once was. A little background – in many churches the school teachers taught Sunday school so they were knowledgeable. I remember prayers in school up till 3rd grade then no more. At least God was recognized as the someone to be accountable to in loving and serving each other. In 1972 all religious training and praying in public school was eliminated by the Supreme Court. If you don’t teach about God or some other religion you are by default teaching students’ atheism, they are gods, the individual is the most important thing in our world. Religion is still taught in our public schools! The worship of self and government have always been major gods for many.

Our advertising and places like Disney promote this in our culture. The idea the we are accountable to a higher being and we are to serve others gives us purpose and meaning in life. Without this people lack purpose other than to satisfy themselves and this leads to depression and anxiety. (Reference – “Understanding Millennials and Loving Them Into the Kingdom of God” by George Barna, Family Research Center, Faith Family Freedom magazine, Spring 2022)

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Homeschooling

My wife, Charlotte, chose to set aside her Physical Therapy work to homeschool our three girls so they could be taught in a Christian setting and better quality. Charlotte research and experimented to find the best methods and courses for each girl. We were not pioneers but the 2nd generation that was pioneering online classes for high school. Our girls benefited from great teacher that became available online. One of their favorites was Mr. Callahan of Idaho who teaches four years of the classics which our girls enjoyed. He also teaches astronomy and rhetoric, all from his home. Our youngest has even gone to summer camps where they read a classic and discuss it around the campfire at his farm! All the credit goes to my wife, I was just the janitor and principle. The home school conventions in Harrisburg and Columbus and even local ones were very beneficial in this journey.

The Titusville Homeschool Co-op was founded in this time period and they had weekly classes at the Methodist church. We all benefited greatly from a speech and debate club started by Dr and Mrs. Hebda of Oil City. The moms all learned how to teach speech and myself, Dr Hebda and others learned debate. We had tournaments with other organizations in Pa and Ohio. This was invaluable as our girls learned how to effectively and in a winsome manner express and advocate for themselves and others.

Montessori - I remember reading an article on it in a homeschooling magazine and I did not get a favorable impression. God brought it around again in 2012 as I started reading about it extensively and went to a Christian Montessori Fellowship conference. I met Ed and Barb Fidellow and many others from around the country. Their mission is to bring together Christian Montessorians to expand our influence and develop training from a Christian perspective. They have done that and are close to getting the training program certified nationally. They have a training center in El Salvador and support other schools and training centers in Africa and Asia. It is exciting how God is growing this!

Revolutionizing Education

Why do we need to revolutionize education in this country? Simply because it cannot be reformed. I read a two-volume report on how to reform education recommended by Dr Mike Bright, Engineering Professor, Grove City College. It was tedious reading and two chapters on implementation very discouraging. The bottom line – we have an educational bureaucracy dependent on government money and not accountable to anyone. They resist change. The colleges and universities that teach teachers resist change. The existing teachers and school administrators resist change. So, all the recommendations the books had did not have a chance at being implemented. There are many wonderful, innovative teachers and administrators in the education system but they have many constraints that are frustrating and limit their potential.

Implementing Change

We need to create an education system that is so much better than the existing, that people see the extraordinary value and support it. This is the only way to bring about change for the better in our education system. This is at the heart my vision and God given calling. Starting with Montessori Primary we can build a new education system based on the child's designs and needs. Remember the Lincoln quote!

Why Montessori?

Maria was a doctor and used her powers of observation to see that children are already adept at self-learning and just need us to help them go beyond their home environment. They absorb knowledge and understanding from their environment starting before birth. God design them with an inner drive and director to lead this self – learning. Children are curious and learn by touching, moving and experimenting to discover new things. Learning is effortless in the birth to age 6 period.

Montessori developed materials to help them develop in all areas by trying them out with the children. If they were not attracted to them or did not discover something new, she discarded it and tried new ideas. The existing materials we use have been tested with children all over the globe, and they help the child develop their abstract thinking incrementally, step by step from concrete to abstract. Research has proven that children go through sensitive periods where the learn effortlessly and to a great depth. With the Montessori environment the teacher can see when a child is in a sensitive period and capitalize this by providing things that feed that sensitivity. A factory model cannot feed these sensitive periods. A Montessori teacher is trained to observe the child and this is something they watch for so they can feed these amazing periods of learning. Once this sensitive period has gone, it is gone. A child can learn to the same depth after but it takes much more effort and time.

Concrete vs Abstract

The factory or traditional model starts with the abstract, sitting at a desk, being still and listening to the teacher. This is the exact opposite of their design. This is the core problem and this is why the existing system cannot be reformed. Education reform has been around since the 50’s and it does not work – any internet search tells the story. There are many hands -on materials that can be used in a factory model but they are supplements to reinforce the lesson. They can be effective in helping students grasp the abstract concepts - again proving that if you start with the hands-on it could be much more effective for all.

Homeschooling vs Montessori?

Homeschooling has many advantages; it can be tailored to the child to a degree, can allow some movement, can better accommodate for learning differences and most importantly be a vehicle to reinforce our moral and religious values. It is still based on the factory model of pouring information into the student and therefore has all the shortcomings including keeping a child's love of learning alive. For me, publicly educated, it was my parents that fostered that love of learning because they were readers, Dad was always interested in new technology and we traveled a lot. My Grandfather was also a reader and traveled with us - reinforcement generationally! I developed an interest in WW 2 history and airplanes and read much outside class. I disliked that our history courses rarely connected so I had huge gaps in my timeline of history. When I discovered timelines in our homeschooling, that was a real revelation - I finally saw the big picture. In Montessori this is called Cosmic education. It give the older primary and elementary child this overall framework of history to organize his knowledge and see the big picture.

Montessori at Home

This gives the parent the advantages of a Montessori environment at home. I think it would work best with a trained Montessori teacher as a guide and coach. With Montessori there are no lesson plans – each child works through the material at their own pace. The documentation is in 3 steps – introduction. Familiar, mastery. A portfolio will have a representative sample of their work as usual along with the record of materials they have progressed to.

STEM Needs to have LEAD

Science, Technology, Engineering and Math – this is the modern equivalent of training factory workers and soldiers because there is no humanities. At PSU I saw this trend in person. They dropped 6 credits of humanities from an engineering degree (I graduated in 1981 BS Civil Engineering). I found out humanities is essential for an engineer to move up. All upward movement involves more entrepreneurial, management and people skills - not technical skills.

My proposal is that STEM needs LEAD or Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Acumen, Dream to be effective. STEM produces new technology but it is effectively exploited and developed through LEAD. We need speech, debate, logic and the classics (including the Bible) back in our curriculum in order to really grow our economy and workforce.