Good Monday Morning!
1. Question – What’s the role of your local
school board?
2. Thought – The success of this educational effort
was due largely to the careful selection of highly
conscientious people to serve on the school committees in
each community and supervise the public schools. Historian
John Fiske says these school committees were bodies of
“great importance.” Then he adds:
The term of service of the members is three years, one
third being chosen annually. The number of members must
therefore be some multiple of three. The slow change in
the membership of the board insures that a large
proportion of the members shall always be familiar with
the duties of the place. The school committee must visit
all the public schools at least once a month, and make a
report to the town every year. It is for them to decide
what textbooks are to be used. They examine candidates
for the position of teacher and issue certificates to
those whom they select. (Fiske, Civil Government in the United States [Boston:
Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1890] (The 5,000 Year Leap
by W. Cleon Skousen)
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil
is that good men do nothing.”
(Edmund Burke)