A History Lesson...

Over the holiday break, we decided to take a quick jaunt to Colonial Williamsburg/Yorktown and Jamestown, otherwise known as the Historic Triangle.  This is a trip we have been wanting to take Maddie on for quite sometime so we headed north the day after Christmas.

We stopped along the way at Shirley Plantation, one of, if not the oldest plantation in Virginia, still owned 12 generations later by the Carter family. We then arrived to a cold rain in Williamsburg and took in a few of the indoor sites late in the afternoon.  We spent the remainder of the evening enjoying some 21st century entertainment, watching NCSU win the Belk Bowl.  We also took some time to plan the next few days activities and events so that we could absorb as much as we could in the short period we were there.  One of the events we planned was a lecture with Patrick Henry which was to commence at 10 am at the Governor's Palace gardens.

We arrived early only to find out that Patrick Henry was under the weather and George Wythe would be speaking in his stead.  It all worked out as Mr. Wythe elaborated on the importance of a classical education being made available to the nation and the necessity to keep laws short in length.  His recommendation was to keep them down to one page or less to avoid "unnecessary mischief" being embedded subsequent pages.  The particular bill he was upset about was a whopping 41 pages filled with all kinds of irrelevant fluff, imagine what our founding fathers would have thought about some of the bills that are passed today, such as health care reform!

The education portion of his lecture was very interesting, for it did not go into detail over what should or should not be taught, however it focused on educating our nation in the skill of thinking for oneself in the classical manner, questioning, debating, basic reading, writing and arithmetic.  It struck me how wound-up today's educational system gets over content of text books, zoning and redistricting, when such a large majority of our students don't have the basics mastered.  The detriment, described Wythe is that a government that allows for ignorance is one that is doomed for uprisings and class warfare.  Our current educational system certainly provides the notion that all are or have the ability to be educated, but as we well know, this education is very "surface" and the lack of depth and true self-improvement has created a society that knows more about the latest video game or Hollywood gossip than the very system that allows or limits our basic rights.

I could ramble on about this at length, however, my point is that the trip opened our eyes up to the challenges the budding country had and the challenges that our current nation still faces.  It also further reinforced the notion that our government was established not to dole out rights like rewards or provide us with everything we need to survive on a daily basis, however it was established to make sure that no one or government could encroach on our basic rights.  This was configured so that nothing could stand in our way as citizens who were using their minds and bodies to create a better life for themselves.  It was not originally contrived as a crutch on which to lean out of lack of ingenuity and effort.

We could all use a little more "schooling" on our country's foundation and three days did nothing but "whet" my appetite to educate myself more on this subject. If you get the chance, jump on 85N, head over to Petersburg, check out the battlefield and Blandford Church, take Scenic Route 5 which winds with the James River and then head into the Historic Triangle for a step back in time.

Brooke