Veritas Goes Virtual!

Beginning with the 2012/2013 school year, Veritas will be Central Texas' newest (only?) local, online secondary school.  Founded in 2009 with a commitment to innovation unmet by any area program in either the public or private sector, Veritas has consistently charted new waters in secondary education.  That commitment has led us to this newest formatting change, enabling Veritas to go regional, national, and even international in working with teens engaged in their secondary education.

Unlike many online schools, however, that take your tuition money, send you the curriculum, and wish you "good luck" with completing the work, Veritas will offer both phone and email support Monday through Friday, from 8 in the morning until 8 at night.  Every student will be assigned to an experienced, professional teacher-mentor and have access to that teacher for twelve hours/day, Monday through Friday.  These mentors will be assigned to at most 25 students and be committed to each of their students academic success.

In another departure from the norm in online programs, Veritas teachers will conduct two phone conferences/semester with one parent of each of their 25 students.  This important communication will be in addition to the monthly academic reports that will be emailed to parents, summarizing their teen's academic progress to date.  Both parents and teens have access to an online academic calendar that details each day's assignments, special projects (i.e. book reports), and tests.  No other virtual school in the nation offers more (and most not as much) in the way of teacher support for their teens.

Veritas offers a unique option for local students (and any willing to travel to the Waco campus weekly).  For a small extra fee students may participate in an on-campus, face-to-face tutorial session with their assigned teacher once each week throughout the semester (excluding travel and holiday weeks).  This three hour, half-day session is also an excellent opportunity for students to interact with others working at their same level.

The incredibly low cost for this new, virtual program is $2,880/year for the "Core Program," a regimen consisting of 5 core subjects (history, English, science, math, and a foreign language or academic elective).  All textbooks (hardback or online) are included in the tuition fee.  Students need only have access to a computer at home and they are ready to go.  Veritas students may supplement their Veritas "Core" subjects with up to 7 additional, approved subjects, thereby limiting their total program cost for obtaining a Veritas high school diploma to only $11,520.

There are almost as many reasons for working from home to obtain a high school diploma as there are teens choosing to do so.  Regardless of that reason, however, Veritas is an option that every teen should consider before opting for any other program.  Every Veritas student, whether participating in the Core Program or only taking one class online, has the option of participating in our unique and exciting travel opportunities as well.  For more information on this, parents and students should check out our website, www.veritasvarsity.org and click on "Semester Travel."

Veritas is now Virtual!  Spread the word!

Home, Sweet Home!

It's always good to return home, no matter how wonderful your time away!  And so it was, that on this past Friday, October 21, at 2:15 a.m., Veritas returned home after three weeks on the road.  It was quite an eventful trip.  For those of you who have kept up with this blog you can attest to the truth of that assertion.  Nearly six-thousand miles, twenty-two states (10 capitals), 2 national parks, 1 national lakeshore, hundreds of thousands of color-turning trees, 1 back-packing trip, 1 celebrity sighting and 1 presidential "near-miss," we arrived home safe and sound twenty-one days after beginning this epic journey.

What's next for Veritas?  Well, Thanksgiving is just around the corner, followed soon thereafter by the Christmas Break.  We'll knuckle down for some serious on-campus instruction during these next couple of months, but hit the road again in January for our annual ski retreat to Beech Mountain, NC.  Of course, we're already looking ahead to our Spring Semester Trip to the last ten states (of the 48 contiguous states) not yet visited by Veritas.  I daresay that we're already in a very elect group of Wacoans (who else in our fair city has visited 38 of the 50 states?), but I'm not sure anyone else has been to all of the "Lower 48."

Visit our website, www.veritasvarsity.org for our trip photos.  Go to the "About Veritas" page, then look for "Photos 2011/2012 School Year" and activate the photo album. 

Till next time, this is Veritas -- discovering our world, making a difference!

Day Eighteen: "Not bad, not bad at all."

As we plan a day indoors due to heavy rains forecast for the area, this is a good opportunity to recap the trip for those who have not been following along daily (or even for those who have).  The following is a list of the "big events" that occurred daily during the past three weeks.

10/01:  Oklahoma City bombing memorial (OKC, OK)
10/02:  Eisenhower Presidential Library/Museum  (Abilene, KS)
10/03: Truman Presidential Library/Museum (Independence, MO); Gateway Arch; Museum of Westward Expansion (St. Louis, MO)
10/04:  Lincoln Home & Lincoln Museum (Springfield, IL)
10/05:  Hoover Presidential Library/Museum (West Branch, IO)
10/06:  Mall of America (St. Paul, MN)
10/07:  Voyageur National Park (International Falls, MN)
10/08:  Travel only (Voyageur N.P. to Michigami Shores, MI)
10/09:  Day hikes, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, MI; backpacking trek to Lake Superior
10/10:  Backpacking trek, con't; Au Sable Lighthouse, Pictured Rocks, MI
10/11:  Ford Presidential Museum (Grand Rapids, MI)
10/12:  President Hayes home/museum (Fremont, OH); President Harding home & memorial (Marion, OH)
10/13:  Mast General Store (Valle Crucis, NC)
10/14:  Carter Presidential Library/Museum (Atlanta, GA); MLK Historical Site, including museum, birthplace, burial site, & Ebeneezer Baptist Church (Atlanta, GA)
10/15:  President FDR's "Little White House" (Warm Springs, GA)
10/16:  Everglades National Park (South FL)
10/17:  Clearwater Marine Aquarium & Winter, the dolphin (Clearwater, FL)

We've traveled through 19 states (3 more to go on our return to TX), and 8 state capitals, visited 5 (of 12) National Archive Presidential Libraries/Museums, 4 additional presidential historic sites, 6 presidential gravesites, toured/hiked/camped in 3 national parks (from the Canadian border to the tip of the Florida peninsula), seen 4 of the 5 Great Lakes (camping on the shores of two of them), marveled at America's largest shopping mall, encountered and interacted with scores of people from various regions of our country and even different foreign countries, and met one of America's biggest box office "stars," logging more than 6,000 miles in the process.  Academically, we've been busy, too, listening (during travel time) to one work of fiction by David Baldachi and a biography of Winston Churchill (audio books) and reading (on our Nooks) both "A Farewell to Arms" and "The Old Man and the Sea," both by Ernest Hemingway; this in addition to keeping up with our normal workload in our five core subjects.  In the words of Bill Pullman to Will Smith at the end of "Independence Day," after a truly unbelievable mission has been successfully completed, "not bad . . . not bad at all."  This is so appropriate it bears repeating . . . not bad, Veritas, not bad at all.

Day Seventeen: Clearwater Marine Aquarium

Dolphins certainly seem to be the common denominator for the Florida portion of our Fall Semester Trip.  After starting and ending our day Sunday with dolphin sightings, first in the Everglades National Park and later off the coast of Pass-a-Grille Beach in St. Petersburg, Veritas made the short trek up to Clearwater today (Monday, Oct 17) to visit one of the most famous dolphins in the country.  "Dolphin Tale" hit local theaters across the country three weeks ago like gangbusters.  It has not only been enjoyed as a great family movie, but critics have embraced it as well, giving it the same rating (see rottentomatoes.com) as Avatar! 

Knowing we would be visiting Winter, the main character of "Dolphin Tale," in person the end of our trip, Veritas actually visited a local theater to view the movie the week we left Waco for the North Country.  Much of the movie was filmed on location so we recognized many of the sights in and around the marina and aquarium.  And of course there was Winter!  This unique dolphin lost its tale after getting entangled in a crab trap and was given no hope for survival, but she beat all odds to prove that no obstacle is too daunting if the will to overcome it is greater.  We arrived at the Clearwater Aquarium just in time to watch Winter and her surrogate mother Panama in their daily training session.  Enjoy the photos, and if you haven't yet done so, get out to see the movie -- I'm confident you'll be glad you did.

Day Sixteen: St Pete to St Pete . . . say what?

I'm asked all the time about the difficulty of planning and carrying out the road trips for Veritas.  Even though they involve relatively small numbers of teens, compared with traditional private schools, they are still potential logistical nightmares!  My answer is simple and straightforward, "Be Flexible!"  This, of course, is Rule #1 for any kind of travel.  When you over-plan and insist that everything go according to those plans, it's like trying to force the proverbial square peg into a round hole.  Try as you might, it just isn't going to work, so why bother?

Today (Sunday, Oct 16) was a classic example of this paramount rule in action.  We departed St Pete (St. Petersburg, as it's known to locals) at 7 a.m. with the intention of driving all the way to Key West, the last of all the Florida Keys spread out from the mainland to Castro's Cuba.  Our first stop of the day was the Everglades National Park, encompassing much of the southern tip of the Florida Peninsula.  We arrived just in time for the 10:30 boat tour of the mangrove land of 10,000 islands (this portion of the Everglades).  After our hour and a half trip, where we saw all manner of water fowl, including osprey and a bald eagle, and observed a number of dolphins feeding in the Gulf, we headed back to shore just as the rains came, and in the form of a tropical deluge.  The forecast had been modified with a 90% chance of continued downpours (through Tuesday) from the Everglades south to the Keys.  Since our time at Key West was all dependent on good weather for outside activity we had to cancel and return to St Pete.

Although sacrificing stops where we were guaranteed to see alligators up close and personal and having to forgo our tour of Ernest Hemingway's home in Key West, along with Harry Truman's version of FDR's "Little White House," we did make it back to St Pete in time to go the beach, play in the surf and sand for about an hour and await the sunset.  And as the photos here attest, a beautiful sunset it was.  We weren't the only critters playing in the surf, either.  At least 2 dozen dolphins traveled along the coast line not more than 100 feet from us, foraging and frolicking in a leisurely manner parallel to the shoreline.  All in all it wasn't a bad trade-off for what we had given up.  So our day began with the dolphins just off the Everglades and ended with even more dolphins just off the Gulf Coast of Central Florida.

Rolling with the whims of Mother Nature, this is Veritas -- discovering our world, making a difference!

Day Fifteen: Warm Springs to St. Petersburg, FL (500 mi)

We are making up for taking a day off from traveling, while in Beech Mtn, with the miles we have logged yesterday and today!  This morning we broke camp and made it to the state historic site of this presidential retreat for FDR by the time they opened at 9 a.m.  As has happened on several other occasions on this significant trip, our group was the only one in the museum's orientation film at the time of showing.  This site is not a presidential library, rather a favorite vacation spot for FDR during his entire presidency, so much so that he purchased over 1,000 acres and built a cabin for his personal use.  FDR first came to Warm Springs three years after contracting polio in order to avail himself of the healing, warm natural spring waters in the area.  He enjoyed so much relief from the waters that he purposed to return as often as possible during his stressful years as President.  This cottage was where he was on the day of April 12, 1945 when he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage that took his life.  He was actually posing for a watercolor portrait when the episode struck.  The state has controlled the site almost from the moment of his death and preserved it as a memorial to their adopted favorite son.

We concluded our tour of the museum, cottage, and grounds just before noon and set our compass on a southerly heading, with an ultimate goal of reaching Key West, FL.  When it became obvious we were not going to be able to get close enough (we were not going to repeat the previous day's experience of setting up in the dark) to reach that goal by the end of Sunday's drive we opted for changing our course once again.  This time I called my mom, who lives on the Gulf Coast side of Florida, in St. Petersburg, and informed her that we were going to invade her domicile for a quick one night stopover.  This enabled us to drive longer than we could have otherwise done, and put us a good hundred or so miles closer to Key West than would have otherwise been possible.

Our next blog entry may be after the completion of this next phase of the trip, as the current plan is to stay in state parks which typically do not have Internet access.  Unless we are able to find a McDonald's and borrow their access you may have to wait an extra day to hear about our visits to Key West and the Everglades N.P.

Incidentally, the temps here in Florida are in the mid-80s.  Skies are clear and the weather is splendid.  Tonight's sunset over the Gulf Coast was a dazzling red.  If the old sailor's adage is correct tomorrow should be another gorgeous day:  "Red sky at night, sailor's delight."

Enjoying perfect weather, this is Veritas -- discovering our world, making a difference!

Day Fourteen: Beech Mtn to Warm Springs, GA (607 mi)

The temperatures were in the low 50s when we left Beech around 8 this morning (Friday, Oct 14), but in the upper 70s when we finally stopped for the night at FDR State Park, near Warm Springs, GA.  Our primary destination for the day was the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library in Atlanta, GA, which we reached at 2:30 p.m.  This museum and library were part of a larger complex called the Carter Center, dedicated to the promotion of peace and resolution of political conflicts around the world.  The Carters are, without a doubt, among the most activist (doing humanitarian things), if not the most active, ex-presidential couples our nation has ever seen.  As an example, they have carved out time, for twenty-five consecutive years now, to devote a week to a Habitat for Humanity house-building project at various locations around the country.

The weather today was just spectacular.  We drove from NC to TN, then back to NC in order to get to where we needed to be, stopping on the TN/NC border (the 2nd place we crossed it!) to enjoy the views pictured among today's photos (see right column).  Color along the highway for most of the day was simply brilliant.  We added the state of South Carolina to our list of states visited as a school as we headed for the Peach State (GA) and Carter Center.

I had forgotten that there was now a national historic site in downtown Atlanta that includes the famous Ebenezer Baptist Church, Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthplace and childhood home, and the burial site for Martin and Coretta, along with a Civil Rights Museum.  Since this was only a few minutes from the Carter Center we added a quick visit to the MLK Historic District to our day's itinerary before fighting rush hour traffic on our way south and out of Atlanta.  It was an addition I was glad to have make.

As we were looking at options for where to camp tonight we quickly realized that we were not going to get too far from Atlanta before needing to stop; at this point we saw that FDR's "Little White House" at Warm Springs, GA was not much of a detour so we headed that way.  It was a bit of a stretch and we ended up arriving after dark.  This was our first time to have to set up camp after dark, but we managed fine; we would not have been able to do so at the beginning of the trip, but we're old pros at this camping business now so it was not a problem.  Turns out, though, that we picked the week-end of some big annual foot race that has over 1,000 participants; the starting point is in the park, and at 5 in the morning!  As a consequence of this, in spite of this park being the largest in the state, we got the very last available site.  Another example of the lucky star we've been following this entire trip.

Following that lucky star, this is Veritas -- discovering our world, making a difference.

Day Thirteen: Beech Mountain, NC

Here we are, two weeks into our 2011 Fall Semester Trip, and this is the first stop where we've actually slept in the same place two nights in a row!  But after logging our longest travel day yet yesterday we needed a day to regroup, relax, and reorganize for the final push to the finish line.

After a morning of accessing online texts and working on school assignments we drove down the mountain into Banner Elk for lunch at Dunn's Deli.  Afterwards we continued down toward a small village outside Boone, NC (yes, Boone, as in Daniel Boone for whom this western NC town is named) and a favorite candy store for Veritas students, located in the annex for a 100+ year old operating general store. 

For guests reading this blog this would be a good place to let you know that a 3-week semester trip is not normative, but circumstances this school year precipitated this somewhat longer than normal adventure.  These semester trips are an integral part of the Veritas regimen, but are usually 10 days to 2 weeks in duration.  Incidentally, for those wondering about how much extra (above tuition) these trips cost, you should know that all expenses are part of the low tuition fee paid by Veritas parents.  Not only is Veritas tuition competitive with every other private school in Waco, but it includes all these once-in-a-lifetime experiences.  Not only that, but our students complete their high school program in three years rather than four, thereby saving an entire year of private school tuition.  Inevitably, on these trips we encounter individuals from across this nation who are curious about seeing high school students from Texas visiting their corner of the world.  When they learn about the Veritas experience they are astounded that we are able to offer what we do at the low price charged.

But that's just part of what makes this Veritas -- as we discover our world and make a difference!

Day Twelve: Lake Erie to Beech Mtn, N.C. (633 mi)

We broke camp early (6 a.m.) due to a light drizzle that began right before sunup and were on the road by a little after 7.  We've all got this setting up and breaking camp down pat so we were able to do it in the dark and not miss a lick!  We had decided just the night before to make a run for it, and head all the way into the Veritas East Coast base, namely a condo we own in the Appalachians in western North Carolina.  This is our fourth visit to Beech Mtn since the school began in the fall of 2009.  As you can see from the mileage in the title of this entry it was a long haul, but since hot showers and warm beds awaited us at the end of the road we were happy to do it.

We had two stops on the itinerary for today, both presidential sites, though not "official" libraries operated by the National Archives like most of the others we've visited on this trip.  The first of these was in Fremont, OH, and was the home (from 1873 until their deaths) for Rutherford B. Hayes and his family.  There was a small museum operated by a non-profit association, but we chose to take the guided tour of the 31 room house.  Hayes and his wife (along with two of his favorite horses!) were buried on the grounds.  Our next stop was in Marion, OH.  The adult home for President Warren G. Harding was here, but closed, so we took our photos and moseyed on over to his impressive memorial and gravesite in a local cemetery (see photo) before getting underway again for the long haul to N.C., getting in around 12:15 a.m. (Thu).

Veritas has now visited historical sites (and/or libraries) for 15 of the 43 men who have served our nation as President, not a bad percentage.  We'll add two more during our remaining days on the road for this trip and two more during our spring trip to California (can you guess which two that would be?).

Experiencing our nation's history (not merely reading about it in a book), this is Veritas --discovering our world, making a difference.

Day Eleven: Grand Rapids to Lake Erie (267 mi)

If you guessed the 25th Amendment to my question about appointing a Vice-President, you were right!  The second clause of that amendment addresses procedures to follow when a V.P position is vacant.  Ford's appointment was the first time that amendment's provisions were needed.

As has consistently been the case, this presidential museum was top-notch.  All these libraries/museums under the auspices of the National Archives department of the federal government have just been of excellent quality.  Once again, all of us learned many things about the president for whom the museum was dedicated previously unknown.  For instance, did you know that Gerald Ford, Jr. was not this president's birth name?  He was legally adopted by his step-father when 2 years old and his name was changed.  I was reminded that three other future presidents served in Congress with Ford his freshman year (1947), John Kennedy from Massachusetts, Richard Nixon from California, and Lyndon Johnson from Texas!  Interestingly enough, there were a few remnants left from a huge international art contest sponsored by Grand Rapids.  Of the 1500 entries, 23 were on display at the museum -- all of great interest and quality.

After our three- hour perusal of the museum's many exhibits (along with a group of students from France!) we drove south to the Indiana border and then east into Ohio.  On a whim we decided to detour slightly to the Catawba Peninsula on Sandusky Bay in order to see Lake Erie.  We camped in Ohio's largest state park, the East Harbor S.P., right on the shore of the lake.  A local resident, a rather bold skunk, kept skirting our site, even going right through it at one point, to express his outrage over our encroachment on his territory no doubt.  I failed to mention that a couple of days ago we made another wildlife encounter while driving to the national lake shore, when a lone wolf darted across the road.  Much too big to have been a coyote, and broad in the shoulders, we're pretty sure this was indeed a wolf.  No moose(s) have been spotted, however.

This posting is actually being made on Day Twelve of our trip, as we wait the opening of the Rutherford Hayes Presidential Center in Fremont, OH.  We awoke this morning to a light drizzle which has persisted since; our first day to drive in the rain.

Check back later for today's events.  Meanwhile, this is Veritas -- discovering our world, making a difference.

Day Ten: Pictured Rocks to Grand Rapids, MI (340 mi)

We awoke after our night sleeping on the ground (no nice, comfy air mattresses when back packing) to a lake as smooth as glass.  What I would have given for a ski boat (and a water temperature at a reasonable level).  After another meal of rehydrated food (last night's chicken teriyaki was really pretty tasty; either that or we were all just so hungry after hauling in our gear it seemed tasty at the time), we took down our tents, packed our gear and trekked back out to the trail head.  We were all feeling pretty good about our accomplishment until we came across a couple packing about twice the amount of gear any of us carried, and not breaking a sweat doing it!  Oh well, I'm still proud of our group for their first backpacking experience.

As exhausted as we all were there was one more area of the park we really wanted to visit before our departure.  Unfortunately, this lighthouse was only accessible by a 1.5 mile hike.  Our legs felt like jelly, but we dragged ourselves out of our vehicle anyway and trekked to the sight.  We were glad we did.  The trail was strewn with leaves of all shades, though hundreds of thousands of leaves were still on the trees.  For much of the trail we could look through these trees and see Lake Superior just a football field's length away from us.  The lighthouse was bigger than ones we saw last year while on our trip to Maine's coastline.  Built in the 1800s it was a fully functioning lighthouse until the latter half of last century, warning ships away from the dangerous shoreline of the lake, where rocks lurk a mere six feet below the water's surface in many areas.

By the time we left the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore it was already early afternoon, and we had a long journey ahead of us.  But it was a trip that continued to eshew all manner of fall splendor.  There was the added bonus of taking a route (Hwy 2) that progressed right along the shoreline of Lake Michigan for many miles.  While crossing the bridge that spans the water from upper Michigan to the lower portion of the state we were able to look out both sides of our vehicle and see two of the Great Lakes, Michigan on the right and Huron on the left!

We've rewarded ourselves (after braving the wilderness last night and camping for nine straight nights) with a stop at a Comfort Suites motel tonight.  We're just outside of Grand Rapids, MI, on the north side of town, poised for our visit to Gerald Ford's Presidential Museum tomorrow.  President Ford was the only one of the modern day presidents (to build a library for the express purpose of housing all their presidential papers) to place the museum in a totally different town from the library.  The museum is here in Grand Rapids, but the library is in Ann Arbor, on the University of Michigan college campus.  Ford has another important distinction in history.  He is the only president to have been appointed to office, rather than elected.  Those of you who are my age will recall that Ford was appointed to fill the vacancy created when Vice-President Spiro Agnew resigned from office (foreshadowing what would happen to the president for whom he served).  I'll be extremely impressed if you can come up with the amendment to the Constitution which makes this provision for appointment of a vice-president.  I'll try to remember to tell you tomorrow.

Just another day in the life of Veritas -- discovering our world, making a difference.

Day Nine: Michigami, MI to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore (220 mi)

This may have been my favorite day of the trip; for fall color it was certainly without equal.  The yellows were still abundant, but so, too, were oranges, rusts, and reds.  Everywhere we looked it was a calliope of color.  Even before our arrival to the park it was impressive, but inside the park fall was just bursting forth all around us, and at every turn.  Some of the charming, two lane park roads were actually canopied by trees stretching their limbs overhead to create a natural arbor of sorts.  For this Waco boy who seldom gets to experience the season others in the nation call "autumn," it was just spectacular (and I thought I'd already seen some breathtakingly beautiful sights before today)!  I've just flat out depleted all my superlatives.

This entry is a day late due to camping on the shore of Lake Superior last night.  After arriving at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in early afternoon, we had time to do a bit of day hiking (to two different waterfalls) before parking at the trail head and reorganizing our gear for a backpacking expedition.  We had registered with the park rangers (so they could come look for us in the right place if anyone reported us missing!) and were off to Beaver Creek Camp.  After a very rigorous 1.8 mile hike (actually, I'm personally convinced someone moved that decimal over one place and we really trekked 18 miles) we arrived at our destination, the only ones on the beach as far as we could see in both directions.  We felt akin to the early settlers who arrived on these shores many years before us.  When the sun went down and the full moon shone forth in all its glory we could even more easily put ourselves in those predecessors' shoes (or moccasins, as the case may be).  We went to sleep with the sound of waves surging inland all night long, quite a singular camping experience.

That was our first school experience with back backing, and this is Veritas -- discovering our world, making a difference.

Day Eight: Voyageur N.P. to Michigama, MI (392 mi)

We had a lot of miles to cover today to get us to our intended destination.  We're dealing with an unexpected reality of many campgrounds already closed for the winter.  There are a few still open, but most of those will close Oct 15th, so we're just getting in under the wire!  The private camp in which we've pitched tents tonight is right on the shore of a lake with the same name as the closest town.  After dinner (I'm entering this blog while Dail cooks supper for all of us) the plan is to avail ourselves of the laundry and do some much needed cleaning of clothes, after one week on the road.

Today's drive took us through Duluth, MN and across a bridge spanning part of Lake Superior.  Halfway across the bridge we transitioned from Minnesota into Wisconsin.  Much of our drive across Wisconsin, on Hwy 2, was either within sight of Lake Superior or a few miles of it.  The color was vibrant for much of the day's route and, as we were still off the interstate highway system, close enough to appreciate to its fullest.  Temperatures are still amazingly mild; it is 8:15 p.m. and I'm sitting outside in a short-sleeved shirt!

Michigan is the 9th state (including Texas) traversed during our trip to date, all of those except Texas being "first-timers" for Veritas.  We won't be in many states (of the 20 we will drive through) that are repeat visits for our school.  If we were to turn around and head back home tomorrow we would have already seen and experienced more in the last seven days than any other group of Waco school kids has done in an entire "career" of schooling, K-12 years combined.  But there is so much more to see and do during the next two weeks.  Check back in periodically to learn exactly what that might include.

Don't expect an entry tomorrow night as we are actually parking and backpacking it into our camp somewhere in the Pictured Rocks National Seashore along Lake Superior and will not have computer access (or any number of other amenities!).  This will be another first for Veritas as all our camping to date has been at drive-up sites.  I'll try to remember to let you know how the backpacking food fares among our various palettes.

This is Veritas, discovering our world, making a difference.

Day Seven: Cloquet to Voyageur N.P. (265 mi)

This is the entry for yesterday, Oct 7.  One week out and we finally had our first day with clouds.  We even had a pretty good shower to go to sleep by; fortunately, by then our tents were up and supper was already out of the way.  Don't get me wrong, though.  The weather was still unbelievably unseasonal, at least regarding temperatures.  As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure we were the warmest yet for nighttime conditions, in spite of being the furthest north.

The drive to International Falls, on the Canadian border, was beautiful.  We were off the interstate all day, with much of our journey on two lane state highways.  It was obvious that most of the trees had already turned color prior to our arrival, but that is not to say the leaves were off the trees; such was certainly not the case.  The aspen and birch trees were at their zenith, showing forth a brilliant shade of golden yellow.  The wind was quite gusty (up to 35 mph) upon our arrival at the national park which gave the impression of driving through a rainstorm of leaves.  Little whirlwinds of spinning leaves were a common sight.

But other than a few deer, as startled to see us as we were to see them, we did not come across much wildlife.  No moose, no bear, no wolf.  I guess we'll have to make another trek to America's Northern Woods to witness any of these critters up close and personal.

To give an idea of the limited number of fellow travelers we've faced this trip, our camp was a state park just outside the national park.  Though planned with 59 sites, there were only two other parties besides ours camping by Lake Kabetogama (pronounce that any way you want; it's not as though anyone in Waco will know the difference!).  No flush toilets or showers -- this was a somewhat primitive campground -- but at least there were pit toilets available for use.  Incidentally, if you want a good laugh Google "vaulted" or "pit" toilets and read some of the homespun definitions and comments you'll see listed.  Dail and I have not had our giggle boxes turned on to this extent in a very long while.

This is Veritas -- discovering our world, making a difference!

Day Six: Twin Lakes to Cloquet, MN (250 mi)

OH MY GOSH!  The Mall of America is exactly what the word supercalifragilisticexpialidocious was created for!  There simply are not enough superlatives to otherwise describe this Mecca for American consumerism.  If you were guessing how many stores in this shopping phenomenon and guessed 100 you'd be way off; 200? Still wrong; 300? Uh-uh; 400? Nope; 500? Getting close;  540 is the correct answer, if you can believe it.  My daughter-in-law Bekah would think she'd died and gone home to glory to have experienced what we did today.  One store clerk told me of a friend who came from California for a week, specifically to "explore" the Mall of America.  That wasn't enough time!

The center atrium for this 4-story shopping complex is an amusement park!  The bottom level houses one of the nation's largest aquariums.  Lego has a store with these huge displays built entirely of Legos; we're talking 20 ft tall transformers, as an example.  We passed a couple of wall murals that were absolutely breathtaking, made entirely from Legos.  Incredible.  We spent 2 hours here and obviously barely scratched the surface.  If I took a group of students for the next 20 years (spending comparable time) we still would not be able to see all there is to see.


Let me close today's entry with this bit of trivia.  Do you know what geographic feature divides Minneapolis from its "sister" city, St. Paul?  If you guessed the Mississippi River you were absolutely correct.  And you know something that I did not, at least not prior to today's passage through this large, northern urban center.  Incidentally, the crossing of the Mississippi -- yet again -- marks the fifth place on the continent that we've (Veritas) crossed this incredibly important natural passageway.  Gee, I wonder how many other schools in the nation can make that claim!

With the entering of Minnesota we've now added six states to our steadily increasing list of the "lower 48" states that we've visited since the inception of the school in the fall of 2009; seven more to go while on our current expedition!

This is Veritas -- discovering our world, making a difference!

Day Five: West Branch to Minnesota (267 mi)

"Home, sweet home!"  Well, almost.  We are back on familiar turf (I35), though considerably further north from where we traverse this important transportation corridor week in and week out in Waco, TX.  After continuing west from Hoover's West Branch, IO to the capital city, Des Moines, we hooked a right and headed due north on I35.  We should be on this road to its end in Duluth, MN, which we'll reach tomorrow.  The weather is still spectacular, for which we're very grateful.  The last couple of days we've encountered the fall color anticipated for the trip, seeing oak and maple trees of various hues, though the predominant color seems to be a rich golden yellow.

As my blog entry of this morning (for Day Four) indicated, we began our day at the Hoover Presidential Library and Museum, operated by the National Park Service as part of the National Archives.  Dail & I were both intrigued to read about the life of a president we heretofore knew little about.  Orphaned at age nine Herbert grew up to be an accomplished mining engineer, at one time earning the highest salary of anyone of his time ($33,000/year compared to $6,000 for the governor of California, as an example).  His pre-presidency days were known best for his various humanitarian efforts in leading relief efforts for, at various times, the Belgian people during WWI, Russian children following the war, flood victims of the Mississippi (1929), and some 500 stranded Americans in Europe at the start of WWII (Hoover, a millionaire by this time, personally loaned over a million of his own money to these individuals to help them get home; all but $400 of this was eventually repaid!).  Hoover went through a long period he called his Wilderness experience following his departure from the White House in 1933, but after WWII his reputation rebounded and he became quite the respected statesman in his latter years.

After two nights of camping next to heavy traffic (that we could hear all night long), tonight's camp, Hickory Hills, at Twin Lakes, MN, just inside the MN border with IO, is ten miles off the interstate, definitely in the country, and about as peaceful and quiet as it could possibly be.  We're going to love it!


This is Veritas -- discovering our world, making a difference!

Day Four: St. Louis to West Branch, IO (334 mi)

I'm sorry, I realize some of you may do your best to avoid them, but there is just something especially comforting about the Golden Arches to the Sams Family when we are traveling.  My Veritas students get tired of the frequency of my stops under these symbols of American enterprise known worldwide, but I can't help myself.  This morning I am not only enjoying my McDonald's coffee (one of the best, in my humble opinion), but also availing myself of the free internet connection which all U.S. McD's now offer.  We did not have access at our campsite last night, which is why this entry, although for Day Four (Oct 4th), is actually being posted on Oct 5th.

We got away from St. Louis bright and early yesterday morning and made our way to Springfield, IL, the adult home for President Abraham Lincoln and his wife Mary.  Several blocks of the town are closed to naught but pedestrian traffic and the homes in this area are all circa mid-1800s, including the house Lincoln purchased as an aspiring lawyer in the 1840s.  He raised his children in it and still owned it at the time of his death.  We toured the home (no charge, as this is run by the National Park Service) before walking to the state-run Lincoln Museum and Library several blocks away.


The layout and means of imparting info for this museum was much different from the others we have visited thus far.  Everything was laid out around a central portico and many of the displays were life-sized figures showing various scenes from Abe's life, from his boyhood in the single-room log cabin of his birth, to an actual replica of Ford's Theatre and his death in 1865.  Of course, a lot of the space was devoted to the Civil War.  There was an interesting holographic exhibit that graphically depicted the various viewpoints regarding Lincoln's decision to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed slaves in the rebel states only, effective January 1, 1863.  There was another, very moving life-sized replica and diorama-like exhibit which showed Lincoln as he laid in state in the Illinois state capitol building in Springfield of 1865, playing popular ballads of the time in the background.

Later that day, in late afternoon, we recrossed the Mississippi River, this time at Davenport, IL.  No, we had not taken a wrong turn, but were intentionally heading back west to I35 (Des Moines, IO) where we will resume our northward progress to Minnesota.  In a few moments we're heading over to the Hoover Presidential Library here in West Branch, a booming town of 2,000 residents.  Hoover is certainly not known as one of our greatest presidents, but he was a life-long, faithful public servant and the library should have some great information about the early part of the 20th Century in America.

I don't have time to download and post any photos at the moment, but I'll be sure to include one or two of the Lincoln sites visited in Springfield (we also saw his gravesite -- hands down the most impressive of any of the presidential burial places we have visited to date) before adding any from today's events.

This is Veritas -- discovering our world, making a difference! 

Day Three: KC to St. Louis, MO (296 mi)

Like yesterday, we began our day with a visit to a presidential library & museum, this one for our 33rd president, Harry S. Truman.  This complex was two levels, located on a small hill overlooking Independence, MO.  The museum contained numerous exhibits of interest, from Truman's boyhood days through his post-White House years as a private citizen.  President Truman, his wife Bess, their daughter Margaret, and her husband were all buried on location in a beautiful courtyard that provided access to the four wings of the square-shaped building.  An eternal flame on one side of the courtyard was an impressive addition to this dignified, yet humble final resting place.

These museums are such a great way to learn about the men who have had the grave responsibility, at various times throughout our history, of leading our country,  They serve, too, as a visual (and often auditory) history lesson for the times in which these men lived and led.  Today we were able to see an actual life-sized replica of the White House Oval Office as it was furnished during Truman's years as president, and listen to an audio tape of the man himself orienting us to this most important work place in the world and explaining the story behind the artifacts we saw.  Do you suppose this might just be a bit more effective way of learning history than reading it in a book?  I should say so.

Let me digress for a moment to give you a small taste of what we learned (skip this paragraph if you don't think you can tolerate a mini-history lesson!)  The thing that impressed me most about Truman's years as president was how many difficult decisions he faced while in office.  Just weeks after being sworn in upon the death of FDR he was faced with whether or not to sign off on the bombing of Hiroshima.  There was a great exhibit quoting numerous important people (both then and now) who have vigorously debated the rightness (or wrongness) of his decision to use the atom bomb against Japan.  One of the opponents was actually the man who would succeed Truman as president, Dwight D. Eisenhower; I had no idea.  Another very important decision faced early by Truman concerned the establishment of Israel as an independent nation in 1948; should the U.S. recognize this new nation (thereby offending the entire Arab world), or should Truman go against the advice of his own Secretary of State and recognize Israel?  Truman followed his conscience, rather than the advice to do the politically correct thing, and determined to recognize Israel as a nation and give it his full support.  Truman was an advocate for civil rights for Blacks, but when thwarted by a Republican-led Congress from advancing that liberal cause he did what he could by ordering the U.S. military to desegregate and by appointing Blacks to federal offices.  In another test of his leadership he had to respond to the Soviet decision to block surface travel from the West into occupied Berlin in Germany.  The airlift he advocated showed the Russian's his commitment to democracy while at the same time avoiding outright confrontation and possible war.  And on and on the list goes.  By the end of his nearly eight years as president Truman was more than ready to leave the White House and return to private life.  Quite a remarkable man and impressive leader, although he left office with one of the lowest approval ratings ever given a standing president, below 30%.

We finished our day in St. Louis, touring the Museum for Westward Expansion, located underground beneath the Gateway Arch alongside the Mississippi River.  St. Louis is the third city where Veritas students have crossed over this mighty waterway, the others being Vicksburg, MS and Memphis, TN.  The Gateway Arch certainly makes this the most impressive of those three, at least in my opinion.  That arch is phenomenal, reaching hundreds of feet into the air and as wide across as it is high.  The museum was equally impressive, giving a great overview of the importance of St. Louis as the "gateway" to the West during the years of American expansion, covering events from the Lewis and Clark Expedition to the advent of the farmer in the mid and late 1800s.

Another beautiful day with clear skies and mild temperatures.  Here's hoping that pattern continues as we begin making our way north again (after two days of traveling east) tomorrow.

This is Veritas . . . discovering our world, making a difference !

Day Two: Abilene, KS -- Kansas City, MO (179 mi)

Boy, are we ever in trouble; only 500 miles north of Waco and my wife and I froze last night.  What will we do when we get to the Canadian border and it's REALLY cold outside?  Oh, well.  The AAA campground we stayed in last night, The Covered Wagon RV Resort, was a nice five-acre compound.  Tonight we're in a modest 75 acre campground, Basswood Resort, north of Kansas City. But I'm ahead of myself.

Our goal today was to get up, break camp and be at the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum when it opened at 9:00 a.m.  We were there at 9:03.  After viewing a 25 minute film on his life and the significance of his contribution to the two decades (40s and 50s) that bear his name ("The Eisenhower Years") we roamed the estate, toured his boyhood home (no indoor plumbing for Ike until he was 18 and about to leave home), and ambled through the museum, taking careful note of the many interesting artifacts and informative displays.  Three hours after our arrival we were on the road again.

A couple of notes, among the countless scores of things learned today about our 34th president, bear mention here.  This 2-term president oversaw the inception of the interstate highway system now taken for granted.  This was a massive undertaking for the federal government; it now includes over 46,000 miles of roadway at a cost of over 190 billion dollars, but money well spent I'm sure we'd all agree. The second point I'd like to make is that this former military leader's biggest contribution as president may well have been that he kept our nation out of war during an extremely tense era in relations between the U.S. and Soviet Union.  I was impressed with just how committed to peace this quiet-spoken man was.  Dwight David, his wife Mamie, and one of their two sons are laid permanently to rest on the grounds of the complex.  This was the 8th presidential grave site that Veritas students have visited in a two year period of time.

The weather today (as was the case yesterday) could not have been better.  We stopped a little early tonight because we didn't have it in us to take in another presidential library today and we have arrived at our next destination, Independence, Missouri, and the library and museum for the 33rd U.S. president, Harry S Truman.

This is Veritas -- discovering our world, making a difference!

Day One: TX -- KS (589 mi)

They're off and runnin'!  Veritas has begun its Fall Semester trip, and it's going to be a great one.  We got away from the school a little after 7 a.m. and arrived at the Covered Wagon RV Park in Abilene, Kansas around 6:15 p.m.  Our route today, for those who are plotting our course, took us up I-35W (thru Ft. Worth) to Denton, Oklahoma City, and Wichita, KS.  We were a bit surprised by a toll from the OK/KS border to Wichita, but it was only $2.  At Wichita we diverted from I-35 to I-135 north to Salina, KS.  The final leg was east on I-70 to Abilene, a charming little town and home of former president Dwight David Eisenhower.

Originally today was supposed to be strictly a travel day, but when I realized none of us had ever visited the site of the Oklahoma City bombing I decided to take the time to stop.  It was a good decision; I strongly recommend this visit to anyone passing through Oklahoma City.  The national memorial is just off the interstate (I-235), about a five minute drive from the exit.  The memorial is breathtaking.  There is an outdoor fountain and plaza on the site of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, with the logos/seals of the 17 agencies housed in the building etched into the pavement surrounding the fountain, one of which, of course, was the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms), a primary target of Timothy McVeigh, as retribution for the April 19, 1993 fiasco at the Branch Davidian Complex in our own back yard in Waco, Texas. Adjacent to this fountain/plaza is a block long reflecting pool, book-ended by two huge, granite walls with the times 9:01 and 9:03 engraved on these walls.  The pool commemorates the time of the bombing, 9:02.  A "field of chairs" is adjacent to the pool.  This is a grassy area with 168 chair-like, bronze sculptures representing each of the victims on that horrible day.  A very sobering memorial and one with a direct connection to our community, making it that more significant to us.

This is Veritas . . . discovering our world, making a difference!

Fall Color and More!

The Fall Semester trip for the 3rd year at Veritas gets underway this coming Saturday, October 1, 2011.  We have an exciting three weeks planned while on our 13-state whirlwind tour of the remaining states east of the Mississippi River not yet visited by Veritas students.  We hope to keep our followers informed of our progress on a regular basis throughout the duration of the trip, if not daily at least several times a week.  Watch this blog for those updates and photos along the way.

If you'd like to follow our progress you'll need a U.S. map that shows the eastern half of the country.  We'll begin by taking our own local I-35 north, but we'll stay on it all the way to the Canadian border!  Our first stop will be Abilene, Kansas where we intend to visit the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum.  This will be the first of a scheduled dozen or so presidential sites along our route.  Day Two should find us in Springfield, IL and the Lincoln Center.  From there we'll continue north to Minnesota, then east along Lake Superior, through Wisconsin to Michigan, then south, through Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia (Shenandoah National Park), eventually ending up in Florida.  Right now our plans include a visit to Florida's southernmost city, Key West, where we'll tour Harry Truman's "Little White House" and Ernest Hemingway's home, before heading back up the west coast of Florida (through the Everglades) and, eventually, back home to Texas.

You won't want to miss our running travel log of this spectacular adventure.  Be sure to check in regularly during the next three weeks to follow along and experience, if only vicariously, this amazing trip.

Necessity as the "mother of invention"

They say that necessity is the mother of invention, and an experience this past winter at Veritas was testimony to that saying's veracity.  I had come down with the same viral infection that plagued so many local residents.  It was a nasty little bug and a persistent one, with a hasty onslaught but a protracted departure.  I felt truly awful all week, but unlike teachers in a traditional program I could not simply call in sick and get a sub. 

The first two days of my illness I was able to make it through by shortening the school day, but by mid-week I had reached my limit.  What to do?  The "necessity" was giving me time to rest while separated from the others who might potentially be infected, but not lose any academic instruction time.  The "invention" was not anything new, rather a new application of an available technology -- Skype.  Skype, of course, is a means of communicating with others in live chat modes (audio and video capability) via the Internet rather than phone lines (landlines or wireless).  Conference calls are as easy as dragging multiple callers from the contact list to the call log.  And it's free!  That's my favorite kind of technology. 

The bottom line is that for the next two days the students and their sick teacher met each other online first thing in the morning and were able to stay in touch with each other throughout the school day.  The students conferred with each other, completed a biology test, did math together and were more motivated and interested in their school work than they would have been on campus.  One student began to wonder why "regular" school even exists.  That brings me to the subject for this blog entry.

There have been a lot of news spots during this economic downturn discussing how various businesses are responding to it.  One interesting result has been an increased number of businesses that allow their employees to work from home one or two days a week.  They have discovered -- as we did this past semester -- that staying at home does not mean remaining out of touch.  In today's technological climate it is not only easy to communicate with the office from home, but most of the tool's needed to do "office" work are also at home.  Why not save utilities, gas expense and other costs while at the same time improving the mental health of the workers by allowing them to complete tasks in the comfort of their own homes?  A true "win-win" scenario.  The application to the educational sector is probably evident, but I'll get back to that in a moment.

Here's another, equally important issue to consider related to "at home" work.  During this last decade a tremendous amount of attention was focused on security for the huge mega-campuses that have become so popular in recent years.  Hundreds of millions of dollars are being diverted from instructional uses to these security needs.  I wonder if we won't see a reversal of this trend as schools begin to look to the corporate world practice of stay-at-home employees and apply something similar to school instruction, particularly for older students for whom supervision and childcare is not an issue.

And here's the education-sector application of putting in one's "office" time while at home.  What if high school students could take their coursework online, from the privacy of their homes?  Virtual schools do exactly that, but although they have been around for a while they are not as prevalent as one might expect.  One significant reason for this may be that most virtual schools accommodate interaction between the stay-at-home student and online instructor, but provide no interaction between the students themselves.  But what if a school would provide that interaction, in a manner similar to what our students did during this past winter's flu season?

This next school year Veritas Varsity will be going virtual!  We are, once again, charting new waters in the educational arena by offering our program in a virtual format (online, in other words), but with unique programming to accommodate interaction between students and their instructors, but also among the students themselves.  In addition, our program will be extended to allow for on campus interaction one day/week for students living close enough to Waco to make that feasible.  And our exciting travel experiences that make Veritas a truly one-of-kind educational experience will be extended as an option to all our students, whether living in proximity to our campus or hundreds or even thousands of miles away, whether enrolled in our full-time program, or taking only one course online.

We've been on the cutting edge of educational ideas and reform since our inception in 2009 so this latest venture should not surprise our readers.  Once again Veritas has shown in action (rather than merely in words) that Veritas Varsity -- now virtual! -- is indeed, "an idea whose time has come."

Those "Aha" Moments!

On our website we post ten foundational premises that provide the philosophical footing for everything we do at Veritas Varsity.  The first of these stresses the need for education to address the "whole" child, his or her mind, soul, body, and spirit.  Another way of stating this would be that effective education has to reach out and grab the attention of the teen being educated, connecting with them on several levels.  This is the old relevancy argument that kids throw in the faces of their teachers on a fairly regular basis when they ask, "why do we have to study this?"  As annoying as that question is, it's certainly a fair one and one for which teachers must have a meaningful answer. 

Perhaps like us you've discovered that there isn't one pat answer to the question though.  It is a continuous, daily process to discover meaning in what we teach our students -- meaning, not just for us, but more importantly, meaning for them.  How do we connect, not just with our students' minds, but with their hearts as well (their soul and spirit, in other words)?  How do we make what we study not just relevant (though that alone is a worthy goal), but significant, interesting, challenging, maybe even life-changing?  I'm interested in your thoughts on this because it should be obvious that if I had a formula to follow by way of answering this question I could become a very rich man very quickly.  But that in itself is an important part of the answer -- there is no pat answer.

I'm convinced, however, of how NOT to connect with our students:  1) by sticking to the text (or the test, if we're in a state that uses minimum competency testing to determine the quality of what we do in the classroom), and 2) by staying in the building (the facility, the plant, the campus, you know -- the school!).  A significant part of the answer to this problem of relevancy is to get the kids' (and their teachers') noses out of their textbooks and bodies out of their classrooms and into the "real" world, connecting with real people (not just teachers) in real places (not just schools) and in real situations (not just canned lectures or presentations).  There is no question that every once in a while an "aha" moment of discovery and connecting the dots happens in the classroom, but learning, like serious conversations with our kids, can't be scheduled or planned, rather it happens in the context of living life.  Let me give a few examples from this past semester in getting our kids off campus and into their worlds.

In September we took our first of many college campus tours.  Our goal at Veritas is to begin exposing our students to various campuses around the state and across the country early and often to encourage and inform their decision-making processes related to the next step in their educational careers.  This September we visited Sul Ross State University.  The tour was not particularly professional or smoothe, yet several of our students were so impressed with what they witnessed in person that they are seriously considering this West Texas campus for their college choice.  I saw eyes widen and heard voices filled with excitement as question after question was asked about college life in this small, somewhat remote part of the state.

In October, on our semester trip to the east coast, students saw hillsides filled with trees that actually turn colors before falling to the ground!  I heard more exclamations of wonder and amazement at the vibrancy and variety of color than I would have thought teens capable of making!  On that same trip I saw this group of teens gather in their congressman's office (Chet Edwards, District 17 in Texas) and listen attentively to his plea to them to become active participants in their democracy.  A week later, while debriefing the trip at least one student said her most memorable moment was Chet's admonition to learn to disagree with one's fellow citizens while remaining respectful of their right to reach different conclusions on matters of importance.  That may be the single most important principle in participating in democracy, yet it probably would never have been learned from a text or a teacher sitting in a classroom.

In November we took the students to a From the Top (public radio) performance of young musicians at Baylor University.  These musicians, all under age 18, were not just talented, but served as life lessons for the importance of practice and hard work to make your dreams come true.  Meeting them in person after the concert was an eye-opener, too, as our students got to see that these were kids just like them -- talented, yes, but kids nonetheless.  Who's to say that one of Veritas' own can't be just as successful at some future date if they work hard enough to make it happen?!

From participating in a Star Party at the McDonald Observatory in Ft. Davis, Texas to playing in the snow on top of Beech Mountain, North Carolina, from visiting an amateaur photographer in Waco, Texas to seeing the homeless on the streets of Washington, DC, from sitting in on famous authors' lectures in Austin, Texas (Texas Book Festival in October) to sitting in Congressman Edwards' office in DC, from the Museum of the Big Bend in Alpine, Texas to the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum in Washington, DC, our students have had numerous "aha" moments during the past four months, all made possible because we did not confine our "learning" to textbooks or classrooms.  Indeed, although our academic regimen has been fairly impressive, much of what our students will carry with them into adulthood by way of memories has nothing at all to do with that regimen, but everything to do with what we introduced them to in the real world.

Nothing so powerful as an idea whose time has come.

The title of this week's entry comes from the tag line that ends most newsletters for Veritas Varsity.  The quote is from Victor Hugo who, though living 200 years ago, aptly characterized our conviction that we're on to something big with this social experiment called Veritas.  A more recent writer, Gregg W. Downey, editor of eSchoolNews, in an October editorial talks about "the avalanche of change" that is inevitible for our school system in America.  We're trying to ride the crest of that avalanche, so to speak, with the innovations we've implemented this year.  What about you?  What are you doing to prepare for this coming avalanche?

In his editorial Downey suggests that earlier movements for educational change died for lack of sustainability (or as likely, due to resistance among educators); i.e. after the 1957 scare resulting from the Soviet launching of Sputnik, or after discovery in 1983 that we were A Nation at Risk in danger of being overwhelmed by a tide of mediocrity.  Yet both these (and many others beside) crises faded into the proverbial sunset, having blazed across the educational landscape for a few years with only a few ongoing, lasting effects (No Child Left Behind?).  Yet Downey is sure -- as sure as Thomas Friedman that the world is flat and getting flatter everyday -- that this time there will be no running away from lasting change.  What's different?  The advent of technology -- hardware, software, the internet, digitilization and "the whole nine yards" that threatens to snap the constraints that have bound educators to date.  And like with Mother Nature's avalanches, there's simply no running away from this.  Just as outsourcing and off-shoring have permanently changed the landscape of business in America, so too education is in for a rude awakening if it seeks to continue doing business as usual.

I told my Veritas kids this past week, in one of my not-so-infrequent musings on why we do things the way we do at Veritas, that I'm convinced high schools in ten years will look very little like what is seen today.  I think more teens will get their high school diplomas online in virtual school programs.  Traditional schools will combine live student to teacher interaction classes with distance learning and virtual school offerings.  Why struggle hiring a chemistry teacher when you can go online and get the benefit of an expert in the field for less cost to the school or district?  Indeed, the concept of leaving home and going to a centralized location to be force-fed an education that might or might not be consistent with one's personal goals and needs will be one of the first things to get swept away in the avalanche that is coming.  The social structure of school as we now know it will seem very distant in the not too distant future!

Will schools still be places for gathering hundreds or thousands of teens together for a canned instructional program?  I think not.  Why should my teen take the same curriculum as my neighbor when he or she has none of the same goals or interests?  And make no mistake, a student's individual interests will play a larger than life role in the selection of courses taken in the regimen of this 21st century school.  Everything else is being individualized and personalized in this new techno-age, why not my teen's high school graduation plan?  The state-mandated tests that today assure standardized, most would say marginalized, instruction will be as passe as writing a letter to a friend across the country or world.

Doubtless, there will still be school campuses, per se; they just won't look a lot like the ones currently out there.  Districts passing bonds to erect new multi-million dollar complexes should really be looking for more relevant ways to spend that money, because these mega-campuses are also going to go out with yesterday's printed newspaper.  I'm hopeful, expectant rather, that schools like Veritas Varsity will still be needed in this new age.  We congregate daily, not for the purpose of standardizing instruction among our students, rather to collaborate with each other, discuss with each other, learn with each other, and encourage each other.  There is also the "real world" aspect of the program.  By getting off campus every week and including extensive domestic travel in our semester routine one focus for coming together becomes to go out together to see and experience our world.

A brave, new world is indeed coming.  Not the one imagined by Aldous Huxley perhaps, but one that I'm convinced will be as brave and courageous as it is new.  Say what you will about Veritas, we hardly cling to the status quo and although we make no claim to have discovered Huxley's (or anyone else's) new world just yet, we're certainly willing to take a few tentative steps in that world's direction as we seek to ride the avalanche that is coming to a safe harbor, rather than get uprooted or swept away by it.

Why Veritas? Why this blog?

Remember when your children first went to school, how excited they were?  They'd come home with handprint turkeys or letters meticulously written on those lined sheets of paper (with the d and p inevitably backwards), with word-by-word replays of what Miss Johnston told them about such and such -- in short, with smiles on their faces and enthusiasm in their hearts for absolutely everything they did at school.  Sadly, with each passing year those smiles were more infrequent and the enthusiasm less and less pronounced until, along about 8th or 9th grade that excitement for learning was replaced with protestations of "why are we studying this?" or "when am I ever going to use this stuff?"  Apathy had set in, big time, with its offspring of rebellion or withdrawal.  Instead of being engaged in their education as was once the case they are now entrenched in attitudes of resignation or rejection -- of an educational system that has abandoned them to an abyss of lectures, reading assignments from tomes too heavy to carry home, and teacher-centered instruction that leaves them gasping for the oxygenated air of relevance.  No wonder, in spite of a university system consistently rated the best in the world, the U.S. K-12 educational system is ranked among the lowest for the top 25 industrialized nations.

There are many things wrong with that K12 system, yet we cling to it as though to something sacred.  Our concerns at Veritas are for the secondary part of the system.  The school we have founded is committed to helping teens regain that passion for learning that once was theirs.  It is admittedly not an easy task.  The difficulty is compounded by educators who too often are the last to embrace new ideas and parents who, because of having been raised in the archaic system that refuses to change, are reluctant to encourage, much less embrace, genuine change.  Consequently, the educational system that has been in place since the beginning of the 1900s gets tweaked from time to time, but nothing of any real consequencial significance comes of it.  We were not interested in tweaking the system, rather in tossing it out and starting from scratch, thus Veritas Varsity's conception and founding.

However, in thinking outside the box and looking for real solutions and alternatives for how to educate our teens we have been anxious for news from others who are similarly committed.  Thus this blog.  If we can generate a meaningful dialog among parents and educators we feel that our goal for helping our students buy into their education with zeal and commitment can only be moved forward in a positive direction.  We don't expect everyone to agree with us, but don't disagree and stop there.  If you think we're off base, what do you think is the right base?  If we're naive, help us see the light as you see it.  If you think we're guilty of throwing the baby out with the bath water with some of our radical departures from tradition, tell us how, and why the "baby" is worth saving.  In short, don't react, rather respond -- thoughtfully, helpfully, keeping the end goal always in mind (an education that is not only relevant for this new age, but one about which teens can be truly passionate).