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).