As you consider praying for your school, think about the kids who go there, your teachers and your principal. Your prayers could make a really big difference in the way things go for each of those people 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. We suggest you print this out and share it with others.

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Pray for the coaches, music and drama teachers and all those who have influence over the kinds of activities that are chosen in your school. Pray that they will choose wholesome and positive things rather than things that would make godly kids compromise their faith.
• 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.
• 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!

President and Mrs. Bush visit many schools each year. They want to be sure our country’s schools and teachers are supported well and are places where kids really learn. As you go back to school, remember to pray for teachers, because they have so much influence on kids. 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

These kids attended this sod school house in Oklahoma. Sod structures are made out of chunks of earth cut from the ground. This photo was taken around 1897. We are blessed to have a fantastic tradition of education in America. People built schools, even when there was no wood or bricks to build with! 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 Oklahoma, taken around 1897. It probably doesn’t look anything like your school!

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.

This photo shows Reuben Guild, schoolmaster in Dedham, MA, who went on to become Librarian and Historian at Brown University. Image courtesy of Brown University.

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.

This schoolhouse, built in 1855 in Dedham, MA is probably quite similar to the one that Mr. Reuben Guild began attending in 1827. Photo courtesy of Dedham, MA schools.

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:

1. Mr. Guild feels that students of his day don’t appreciate the Scriptures because they are too sweet.
2. 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.
3. 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.

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?

1. Mr. Guild thought all the routine and recitation was too hard for kids of his day.
2. 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.
3. 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.

If this girl were fortunate to have lived in Mr. Guild's day, she wouldn't have homework at all! Image courtesy of windsorschools.ca.

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.”

Even though this schoolroom is in a museum in Burlington, CO, it has some definite similarities with Mr. Reuben Guild’s classroom? What are they? Image courtesy of Schooldazeburlington.org.

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!

Portrait courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery.

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”

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

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”

We hope you are excited about going back to school! As you return to school, we want to encourage you to be very thankful for the privilege of going to school! There are kids all over the world who would love to be in school, but they are kept from doing so either by war, economic conditions or discriminatory laws.

As a kid who prays, we remind 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! God moves when kids pray!