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- Back to School! Cool!
- What were America's first schools like?
- Your Prayer Toolbox--Tips for remembering to pray for your school.
- Tell kids about PPK with a free PPT prayer wristband!
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- Pray for America's schools! When you think about it, schools are really great places for kids to learn and grow and turn into wonderful people. But our schools need to be good places--not places where people get hurt or where they are taught things that don't honor God. So pray for our schools to be good and God-honoring during this year. Pray that God's peace will rule in our schools.
- Pray for America's teachers--starting with your own. Pray for them to do their jobs very well, asking God for His wisdom. Pray that they will have the time they need to prepare as well as the resources to do a great job.
- Pray for your principal and other administrators, that they will be excellent leaders, each one making their school a fantastic place for kids to grow and learn.
- Pray for the President! Even though he is still on his "working vacation" he is doing a lot of things. In fact, he will host champion cyclist Lance Armstrong on Saturday, so pray that the two men will enjoy a good ride together and be safe. The President will also travel to Utah and Idaho, Monday through Wednesday of next week, so be sure to pray for his safety and protection at all times.
- Pray also for the troops who keep on helping out in Afghanistan, Iraq and other lands. Pray that God will keep them safe and comfort their families and loved ones. Pray also that the President will have God's wisdom as he works with many world leaders to bring peace to the Middle East.
- Pray for the people working on the Iraqi constitution. Though they came very close, they weren't able to come to agreement on some really important points in the constitution. The first draft of the constitution was due on August 15, so they have asked for a one-week delay. It is so important that we pray for them to come to agreement, for if they are unable to agree and present a first draft of the constitution, they may have to go back to the start and re-elect a whole new parliament. Pray that Iraqi leaders will want to serve the greater good so the sacrifices made by our troops and our government leaders will not be in vain.
Secretary of Education—
Margaret Spellings |
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| Photo courtesy of the Department of Education. |
"Spellings" is a great name for the nation's top education leader, don't you think? As Secretary of Education, Margaret Spellings is responsible for watching over the education of every public school student in our country! She works to set standards for schools and teachers so that every kid can get the very best education possible. She gives the President advice on any matters that have to do with education, and she is also responsible to watch the budget for her department, making sure that all the money our government set aside for education gets to the kids, the schools and the administrators who need it most.
Ms. Spellings isn't a new face at the White House. She has been advising President Bush for the past four years on all kinds of matters like health care and immigration.
She was born in Michigan and moved with her family at a young age to Houston, Texas, where she attended public schools. She graduated from the University of Houston in 1979 with a bachelor's degree in political science. In addition to all the other things Secretary Spellings takes care of, she is a mom! In fact, she is the first mom to serve as Secretary of Education. With her husband Robert, she also has two sons, Britain and Robert as well as two daughters, one, named Mary, is just starting college. The other, Grace, is a middle schooler.
Secretary of Transportation—
Norman Mineta |
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| Photo courtesy of the Department of Transportation. |
Norman Mineta has a terrific record of service to our country, and he has several "firsts" to his credit. He became the first Asian-American cabinet member during President Clinton's administration and the first cabinet member to make the switch from a Democratic cabinet directly to a Republican one. He was appointed by President Bush at the beginning of his first term and has served with great dignity and success since January 2001.
In his job as the Secretary of Transportation, Norman Mineta oversees all the ways that people get around in our country--the waterways and highways, air travel and train travel, even the trucks that drive on our highways--all these are under his supervision. It is his job to ensure that travel is safe and fair for those who earn their living in transportation as well.
He has worked hard to make transportation safer in our country, and during the first four years of the President's term, Secretary Mineta and his team successfully delivered the lowest vehicle fatality rate ever recorded, the highest safety belt usage rate ever recorded, and the lowest rail fatality level ever recorded. He has also worked with the states to lower the rule on blood alcohol in order to prevent drunk driving accidents. That's a pretty impressive record, and it means that there are lots more Americans living without accidents and injury, which is great!
The Department of Transportation has 100,000 faithful employees and a $58.7 billion budget—that's a lot to keep track of for starters.
Secretary Mineta and his family were among the 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry forced from their homes and into internment camps during World War II—that was a very sad chapter in our country. After graduating from the University of California at Berkeley, Secretary Mineta joined the Army in 1953 and served as an intelligence officer in Japan and Korea. He is married to Danealia (Deni) Mineta. He has two sons, David and Stuart Mineta, and two stepsons, Robert and Mark Brantner.
Do this so that your children who have not known these laws will hear them and will learn to fear the Lord your God.
—Deuteronomy 31:13
Let us learn together what is good.
—Job 34:4
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| What does your school look like? Whatever it looks like, it's important to pray for your school! These kids were a part of Ms. Blanche Lamont's school in Hecla, MT in 1893. Hecla is now a "ghost town" but it was lively when these kids lived there! Would you like to attend this school? Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress. |
| Click HERE to enlarge photo. |
Are you excited about going back to school? It's that time of year all over America. Some kids are already back in school and some are going back very soon. Some get to wait all the way until after Labor Day.
Whichever describes you, we're hoping you had a great summer with lots of good things in it--rest, fun, refreshment, learning some new skills and maybe some time at Vacation Bible School or camp. It's important to be ready to go back to school. This week we will take a look at how PPT Kids can prepare for a great year. And we will look at what the school was like for kids who lived about 175 years ago.
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These kids were a part of a kindergarten in Boston's North End Industrial School. Would you like to attend this school?
Image courtesy of the Library of Congress. |
Click HERE to enlarge photo.
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As the school year begins, one of the best things a praying kid could decide to do is to pray regularly for his or her school. Praying for your school, the kids who go there, your teachers and your principal could make a really big difference in the way things go at your school this year. If you encourage just a few other kids to pray for your school, who knows how great the impact could be? Because our God is a loving and powerful God Who listens to the prayers of kids just the same as He listens to the prayers of anyone else, you can change your school and maybe your community--for God and for good!
When your school gets better and stronger, our country gets better as well, and that helps all of us! So here are some ideas to get you started:
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Pray for the school when you first set foot on the school grounds each day. Whether you are getting off the school bus or jumping out of your mom's car or just walking up the sidewalk, ask God to bless and help your school. Pray that His presence will be welcomed and felt there. |
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When you walk in your classroom, pray for your teacher. Pray that he or she will be strengthened by God to do a great job in a way that is pleasing to Him. Pray that your teacher will grow closer to God and learn to love Him more. |
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When you walk through the halls of your school or when you are out on the playground, pray for the kids in your school. Ask God to keep all of you safe, to help the kids who are hurting or are making bad choices, and to use you to shine for Him. |
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When you pass by the office of your school, be sure to pray for the Principal and the other people who have lots of responsibility for your school. Ask God to give them wisdom, helping them make the best decisions and giving them strength from Him to do their jobs. |
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When the school day is over, pray for the moms and dads of your school. Pray that they will do a good job loving and encouraging their kids, keeping a climate of strong morals and godly values in their homes. |
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Keep a Presidential Prayer Team for Kids sticker on something that you always have with you at school like a notebook or book. That way you can remember to pray for the President and his helpers whenever you see the sticker! |
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| Cassidy shares her support of PPT at school. |
One of our members wrote to tell us that she loves praying for the President and really appreciates PPT Kids because it helps her pray for her country. She reports that her parents use the PPT Kids Update at the dinner table while doing family devotions with the whole family--including her siblings, ages 13 and 8. The whole family appreciates reading the Update together.
When we asked you to tell us how you let others know about the PPT Kids in your school, Cassidy wrote to tell us her story. Here is what she said:
I enjoy the weekly e-mails from you so much. It allows me to pray for the leaders personally so that I feel I am helping my country in my own way. I learn new ways to pray for important U.S. leaders and their meetings. But best of all, every week my family and I read the prayer list and pray together. We have a crazy schedule, with 3 kids at 3 different schools. But at least one night a week we all have a nice dinner together and use the e-mail to pray for the President, his wife, soldiers, leaders, and many other things. It brings the family closer together, with each other and the Lord. Thank you for such a wonderful job you are doing!
The way I shared The Presidential Prayer Team's spirit was sticking the decal to the front of my high school assignment notebook. It comes with me to every class, and lots of people asked about it. That was my way of sharing my support for the President and support for prayer at the same time.
--Cassidy, 17, from Illinois
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This is a sod school house in Nebraska. Sod structures are made out of chunks of earth cut from the ground. Notice the smokestack coming out of the roof as well as plants growing on the roof, right along with the sod. In addition, the "restroom" is an outhouse--you can see it off to the right of the building. Photo courtesy of the
Library of Congress. |
What was it like to go to school in early America? Do you ever wonder if your classroom today has anything in common with the first schools that educated our citizens? In part, it would depend on where you lived! Here is a picture of a schoolhouse on the Great Plains of Nebraska, taken around 1903. It probably doesn't look anything like your school!
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| This photo shows Horace Mann, one of our country's first Secretaries of Education. His dress demonstrates what a school master in young Reuben Guild's day might have looked like. Photo courtesy of Eastern Illinois University. |
To get a feel for what schools were like many, many years ago, we took a peek at the memories of those who lived long ago. We went back to a memoir of a gentleman who went to public school in Dedham, Massachusetts in 1827--that's about 50 years after the American Revolution, and well before the start of the Civil War.
Mr. Reuben A. Guild attended school in the small town of Dedham, and from his report, he worked very hard in school and loved it very much. His school was under the strict guidance of a "Master"--a well-educated teacher who was trained in the classics and who was sure of his calling to teach young people. The school master was chosen by the most prominent families in the town. Mr. Guild began his education in 1827 at the age of six!
The only heat in the Dedham schoolhouse came from a fireplace and woodstove. The girls were seated on one side of the building, the boys on the other, all under the watchful gaze of the School Master whose desk was elevated high above theirs. Children of all ages attended the school--the littlest ones like young Reuben on benches at the very front of the room, the older ones in bigger desks in the back.
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| This one-room New England schoolhouse, built in 1828 is probably quite similar to the one that Mr. Reuben Guild began attending in 1827. Photo courtesy of Elan Michaels. |
The school day began promptly at 9:00 am when the children saw their schoolmaster approaching. They would scurry into their seats and await his direction. Lessons always began with the Scriptures. Students would stand and read portions of the Old and New Testaments. The Scriptures were used, not only to instruct children in the Christian faith, but also for instruction in history, literature and morals. Mr. Guild recalls how much he enjoyed learning the Psalms, the story of Job, the Prophets and many other teachings from Scripture.
Thinking back on this experience, Mr. Guild reflects, "All this and more, transcending in sweetness, majesty and power all other literature, is lost to multitudes of scholars of today, through a mistaken idea of liberality; or it may be through a concession to the ignorance or prejudice of a certain class of our population."
QUESTION 1
Read again Mr. Guild's quote above. Which of these statements do you think best explains what he means:
- Mr. Guild feels that students of his day don't appreciate the Scriptures because they are too sweet.
- Mr. Guild says that other literature is better than the Scriptures because it is more liberal and therefore will help them be more open minded.
- Mr. Guild feels sad that kids in his day didn't have to learn the Scriptures in school because the things he learned by studying the Bible in school were sweeter, higher and more meaningful than anything else a person could ever study.
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An early edition of the Aitken Bible--the one that was
probably used by students before Mr. Guild's time.
Image courtesy the Library of Congress. |
Young Reuben Guild and his classmates, ranging in age from six to sixteen also studied various readers, arithmetic and spelling while it was still morning. Then, he reports, "At ten o'clock the entire school practiced half an hour in penmanship, the master setting the copies and mending the quills which we used for pens."
They had recess--the boys separate from the girls--for just fifteen minutes. After more studies, they closed the morning at noon with a one hour break for lunch (called dinner). Students who lived too far to walk home would bring their food in a pail or basket and eat in the classroom.
The afternoon held studies in literature--poetry and prose as well as other works. They also studied geography, grammar, history and more. It was common for students to have to stand before the entire group and recite rules or facts from memory. Often the entire school would form two lines and "spell each other down" in a giant spelling bee.
In Mr. Guild's school, there was a special tradition for ending the day: "The final exercise was usually saying aloud in concert the multiplication table. When we came to 'twelve times twelve are one hundred and forty-four' we would clap our hands, rush from our seats en masse, and in less time than it now takes to call a school to order, the room would be cleared.
QUESTION 2
When you read Mr. Guild's fond reflections on his experience in school, what conclusion might you draw?
- Mr. Guild thought all the routine and recitation was too hard for kids of his day.
- Mr. Guild didn't feel that he got that much out of his school experiences--in fact kids in his modern day were probably better educated than he was.
- Mr. Guild is not only fond of the many rigors of his educational experience, he is sad that kids in his day didn't get to experience the same tough standards that were current when he was in school.
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If this girl were fortunate to have lived in Mr. Guild's day, she wouldn't be doing homework at her kitchen table! Image courtesy of
Microsoft Photo Gallery. |
Mr. Guild also makes a point of mentioning how there was no homework in his day. "This evil, so much dreaded and condemned by thoughtful parents and guardians of today, is one of the so-called modern improvements. In my boyhood days, not only did we study and recite all our lessons in the school room, but we even wrote our compositions and did not a little general reading." Mr. Guild goes on to say that he thinks that kids of his day have more problems and worries because they have homework.
Another interesting thing to learn from Reuben Guild's recollection is the ritual of cleaning up the school room to prepare it for a visit from the School Committee at the end of the term. You might think that the school committee was made up of concerned parents or administrators who are responsible to watch over the school. But in the early 1800's, schools were seen as a vital part of the religious education of all American kids, so the committees that governed them were made up of clergy. That's right. The town's pastors would visit to see how things were going at the school. They wanted to hear what the children had learned, observe their good behavior and hear their recitations. As well, at least one member of the committee would bring a message--almost like a sermon. Here's how Mr. Guild describes that "He would usually talk to us upon the importance of a religious character in life."
It's neat to read how Mr. Guild had so many fond memories of his "Old Schoolhouse!" When you look back seventy years on your first years of school, do you think you will have as many fond memories? We hope so. Whether you are homeschooled, go to public school or private Christian school, we hope you will use this school year to learn all that you can, working hard to be the best student you can be. That will surely please God Who loves and made you, but it might also bring a smile to Mr. Reuben Guild's face if he were still around!
Let every student be plainly instructed…the main end of his life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ.
--Harvard University's 1646 "Rules and Precepts"
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| Portrait of Benjamin Rush courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery. |
I know there is an objection among many people to teaching children doctrines of any kind, because they are liable to be controverted. But let us not be wiser than our Maker. If moral precepts alone could have reformed mankind, the mission of the Son of God into all the world would have been unnecessary. The perfect morality of the Gospel rests upon the doctrine which, though often controverted, has never been refuted: I mean the vicarious life and death of the Son of God.
--Benjamin Rush, Founding Father, Signer of the Declaration of Independence
All persons…having children…shall cause such to be instructed in reading and writing, so that they may be able to read the Scriptures and to write by the time they attain to 12 years of age.
--Benjamin Franklin
Cursed be all learning that is contrary to the Cross of Christ.
--Rev. Jonathan Dickinson, First President of Princeton University
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| Photo courtesy of the White House. |
Teachers are the lifeblood of our nation's classrooms. These committed and dedicated professionals are helping to shape our children's future and our future. For that we owe them our highest regard, our highest respect.
--Laura Bush
As you start back to school, we want to encourage you to keep prayer as a big, big part of every day. You will be amazed at what a huge difference it makes when you pray for your school! If you are homeschooled, you can pray for your mom, dad, sibs or others with whom you learn. The important thing is to commit it all to God in prayer and watch Him work!
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