Fines Levied on Truant’s Parents

EducationHomeschooling

Jul 2

Written By Meg Rayborn Dawson

Painting of a young boy wearing overalls and carrying a fishing rod. He is walking down a grassy path with a spaniel dog running alongside him,

What I learned from Sam, #1

Fines levied on parents of truants?

“What fines?” you may ask.

“For skipping school?”

“That’s tyranny!”

“We’ve got to do something about this!”

But where?

When?

A painted depiction of Martin Luther in front of a group of people pointing to a document that has been pinned to the door of a building — Martin Luther

Believe it or not, the first example of compulsory school attendance was in Württemberg, Germany in 1559.

It was Martin Luther who encouraged the development of government schools for the purpose of moral instruction. These schools required religious instruction from the Bible, and if students did not attend school, their parents were fined.

John Calvin and the Genevan School System

John Calvin developed the Genevan school system, as a way to train teachers and students in the “New Religious Order” of the Reformation.

Further still, Calvin’s model was used for the development of Puritan educational standards in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Even the laws and courts were expected to foster and maintain the external worship of God; to defend sound doctrine; and to adapt Christian conduct to human society.

Painted portrait of John Calvin — John Calvin

And teachers used the Bible to teach how.

Samuel L. Blumenfeld, the author of Alpha-Phonics, is standing in front of a copy of his book. He is wearing a gray suit jacket with a blue tie and a light blue collard shirt; he is an older man with gray, receding hair. — Samuel L. Blumenfeld author of “Alpha-Phonics: A Primer for Beginning Readers”

I learned this from Sam Blumenfeld, the author of Alpha-Phonics and How to Tutor.

Before Sam created his tutorial books, which have helped thousands of homeschool families to teach their children the three R’s, he spent many years researching and writing about public education.

As a proponent of home-schooling, I guess I need to vamp up my own education. So I’ve begun to read some of his works.

I’ll let you know what else I learn. (Just the facts, of course.)

Meg Rayborn Dawson

Meg Rayborn Dawson is a homeschooling mom of 9 and the author of Dyslexic No More: Saved by the ABC’s. She holds an MS in Exceptional Student Education with a focus on Applied Behavior Analysis from the University of West Florida, an MA in Psychology from Grand Canyon University, and a BA from Northwest Nazarene University.