Education
Inside a 1760 school for black children lies a complicated history of slavery and resilience

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (AP) – The Virginia Museum is nearly finished with renovations the oldest surviving school within the country for black childrenwhere a whole lot of students, most of them enslaved, learned to read a curriculum justifying slavery.
The Colonial Williamsburg Museum also identified greater than 80 children who lined the pine benches within the 1760s.
These include 5-year-old Aberdeen, who was enslaved by a saddle and harness maker. Bristol and George, ages 7 and 8, were owned by a doctor. Phoebe, age 3, was owned by local taverns.
Another student, Isaac Bee, later emancipated himself. In newspaper advertisements calling for his capture, his slave warned that Bee “can read.”
The museum is scheduled to dedicate the Williamsburg Bray School on Friday and plans to open it to the general public within the spring. Colonial Williamsburg tells the story of Virginia’s colonial capital through translators and a whole lot of restored buildings.
The Cape Cod-style house was in-built 1760 and still includes much of the unique wood and brick. It will anchor a complicated story about race and education, but additionally resistance to the American Revolution.
The school rationalized slavery through religion and encouraged children to simply accept their fate as God’s plan. Yet literacy also gave them greater freedom of motion. Students then shared what they learned with relations and other enslaved people.
“We are not shy about the fact that this was a pro-slavery school,” said Maureen Elgersman Lee, director of William & Mary’s Bray School Lab, a partnership between the university and museum.
However, she said that within the twenty first century, school takes on a different meaning.
“It’s a story of resilience and resistance,” Lee said. “And I put the resilience of Bray School on a continuum that takes us to today.”
To emphasize this point, the lab has searched for descendants of students with some success.
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They include Janice Canaday, 67, who can also be the museum’s African-American community engagement manager. Her lineage goes back to the disciples of Elisha and Mary Jones.
“It grounds you,” said Canaday, who grew up feeling little connection to history. “That is where your power lies. And that’s what gives you strength, knowing what your family has been through.”
The Bray School was established in Williamsburg and other colonial towns by suggestion founding father Benjamin Franklin. He was a member of a London-based Anglican charity named after Thomas Bray, an English clergyman and philanthropist.
Bray School was unique for its time. Although Virginia waited until the nineteenth century to enact anti-literacy laws, white leaders in much of colonial America prohibited the education of enslaved people for fear that literacy would encourage them to hunt freedom.
White school teacher in Williamsburg, a widow named Ann Wagertaught roughly 300 to 400 students aged 3 to 10. The school closed together with her death in 1774.

The school constructing became a private home before being incorporated into the growing William & Mary campus. The constructing was relocated and expanded for various purposes, including student housing.
Historians identified this structure in 2020 using the scientific method of examining tree rings within the wood. Last yr it was transported to Colonial Williamsburg, which incorporates parts of the unique city.
The museum and university focused on restoring the school constructing, examining the curriculum and finding descendants of former students.
The lab was capable of link some people to the Jones and Ashby families, two free black households where students on the school lived, said Elizabeth Drembus, the lab’s genealogist.
However, these efforts faced significant challenges: most enslaved people were stripped of their identities and separated from their families, so limited records exist. And only three-year school plans survived.
Drembus talks to the region’s inhabitants about their family histories and backward work. He also examines 18th-century property records, tax documents and slave diaries.
“When you’re talking about studying people who were formerly enslaved, the records were kept very differently because they weren’t considered people,” Drembus said.
Reviewing the curriculum just got easier. The English charity cataloged the books it sent to colleges, said Katie McKinney, assistant curator of maps and prints on the museum.
The materials include a small spelling primer, a copy of which was in Germany, starting with the alphabet and progressing to syllables, e.g. “Beg leg meg peg.”
The students also received a more refined spelling book, certain in sheepskin, in addition to the Book of Common Prayer and other Christian texts.
In the meantime, the school constructing was mostly restored. About 75% of the unique floor has been preserved, allowing visitors to walk where the children and teacher once set foot.
Canaday, whose family roots return to 2 Bray school students, wondered during a recent visit whether any of the children “felt safe here, felt loved.”
Canaday noted that Teacher Wager was the mother of not less than two children.
“Did some of her motherhood translate into what she showed these children?” Canaday said. “There are times once we forget to follow the principles and humanity takes over. I’m wondering how persistently this has happened in these spaces.
Education
Director Florida helps himself, ignoring the scanning on self -shaped

The director got involved in “scanning” to see what “he could escape”.
Gregory Lewis, director of Florida, was arrested in Polk for “Skip Scanning” in Walmart.
March 29 FOX 8 announced that the Winter Haven police reacted to Walmart on Cypress Garden Boulevard after shop managers informed that Lewis stretched the items by “scanning” or without scanning some products regarding self -mutilation.
The police accused Lewis of hiding a big packet of bulbs, bacon and frozen butterfly shrimp between foam plates to avoid paying the full price. After confrontation, Lewis confessed to the crime and called his actions “stupid”. He told officers that the idea got here from friends, saying that they talked about fraud, and desired to see what he could escape.
“We are sitting around, talking:” Hey, I did it. ” Let me try and see what I can escape, Lewis said in the camera’s police recording. “I did something silly today and I understand it.”
The former pedagogue James Barker said that Lewis’s actions influenced not only him, but on the entire educational occupation.
“More and more people are simply doing stupid things without any consequences, not only for themselves, but for the reputation of our profession,” said Barker.
Barker said the teachers must Pretend a transparent example To prevent children from making the same mindless decisions.
“He is the headmaster of the school, and now he was caught on this, so what example did he designate for children?” He said.
Lewis was accused of minor theft and released. According to the temporary curator Alricky Smith, Lake Wales charter schools placed him on administrative leave in anticipation of investigation.
Although scanning Skip might have been working in the past, it will not be so easy. Detailedists use advanced technology to detect theft during self -control.
In 2024 Las Vegas Review-Journal Walmart’s partnership with Digimarc, a technology company developing invisible water marks set in retail products. Water signs help you scan objects without Directly presenting the bar code.
It will not be known whether Walmart implemented the technology of all products or only the chosen part, however it is anticipated that imperceptible water signs will help reduce retail theft.
Education
Georgia High School Senior earns over $ 1 million for scholarships

As seniors of high schools throughout the country, they’re preparing to graduate and expect a choice in college, special congratulations are that one in every of the outstanding students in Douglas of Douglas. Mantavius Presley, an elder from Douglasville, Georgia, was adopted by over 60 universities and earned over $ 1 million in scholarships.
“When I was a little boy, I always said that I would go to the university, because people in my family will always talk about how much they loved their lives in college and how much (it really influenced them,” said Presley Good morning America. “So I always thought when I was a little boy, I just left and I would do something amazing.”
Presley didn’t waste time to make this dream come true. He began to use for universities on the primary day of his last 12 months, on August 1, 2024, during juggling with double registration, learning at work and lots of leadership roles was determined to search out schools tailored to his purpose of labor in the sphere of drugs. His dedication didn’t stop within the classroom – Presley is deeply involved in student organizations. He is the president of the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) and National Honor Society, the vp of each the Student Government Association and Class 2025, and even manages university teams and younger unions.

Despite his packed schedule, Presley attributes his success to the unwavering support of his mother, Chasite Green.
“She is my greatest cheerleader,” he said about his mother. “Always out of the way, always informing me that it is here for me, if I have any questions, if I need a advice, if I ever need a arm on which I resist, someone I will cry. If she does not know the answer, get with someone and finds an answer. She is simply always willing to help me and be with my website and give me inspiration and tips when I need her the most.”
“I am very proud of my son,” Green said in a separate interview for (*1*)11alive.
Now, as he looks to the long run, Presley says that his best selections include Morehouse College, Howard University, Xavier University and others. Hoping for attending a medical school and becomes an anesthesiologist, the senior considers schools with strong programs before the media.
“I am simply passionate about helping others, borrowing help whenever she needs,” he said about his future aspirations. “My biggest goal in life is to motivate people and help others, because you never know what someone is going through, and you can always help someone eat only with the word of inspiration, smile and even a hug.”
Thanks to this, the best way of considering and a powerful list of achievements Mantavius Presley is on the best track to exert influence – each in studies and outdoors.

(Tagstranslat) university scholarships
Education
Georgia is a step closer to the ban on cell phones in schools

The bill will now go to the governor’s desk for approval.
Georgia is a step closer to adopting regulations that might ban cell phones in schools, reports Associated Press. On Tuesday, March 25, the State Senate approved the bill 340 (“Act on freezing education”) with voting 54-2.
If it is signed by Governor Brian Kemp, mobile phones could be banned in classes K-8, in addition to to all personal electronic devices able to “sending, receiving or accessing communication, data or media.” Thus, almost every device with wireless communication, web access, messages, video recording, games, access to social media or data transmission.
“This bill is not just about scientists. It’s about the well-being of students,” said Senator Jason Anavitarte (R), who presented Billduring the debate. “Studies combine excessive use of the phone with mental health problems, reduced social skills and an increase in intimidation. We want students to be involved in school, meet friends during lunch and focus in class.”
Currently, nine states have introduced bans on cell phones in schools. Others run pilot programs or offer similar regulations. Georgia didn’t allocate any funds to implement such programs. Some states, comparable to the latest Mexico, put $ 10 million to the side to help schools shopping protected phone bags and other resources obligatory to implement telephone bans.
Some parents usually are not told for such a ban, citing the need Contact their children in emergency. School shootings are a major problem. In 2024, there have been 83 documented school shootings, on average almost two incidents a week during the standard 180-day school 12 months.
“What if this phone could save lives in an active situation?” Senator Rasaan Kemp asked, who supports the ban. “These are the real fears of the parent that we all usually think about. What if this phone is the last opportunity for my child to communicate with me?”
While the argument is Limiting the use of a cell phone You can improve the educational capabilities of scholars are widely supported, other debates about this problem are more controversial.
Recently, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He proposed a similar ban, but his reasoning aroused eyebrows. Kennedy, the Secretary for Health and Human Services, in an interview, said that the use of cell phones in children “causes electromagnetic radiation, which has been shown to cause neurological damage to children when it is around them all day, and causes cell damage and even cancer.”
However, neither the National Cancer Institute nor the World Health Organization has found credible evidence to support these claims, despite the years of research, According to NBC News.
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