Legend:
RED LINES indicate a measure — greater or smaller — of combined authority & responsibility for the Aims of and the Resource$ devoted to education.

Reverence first ... then Duty

It is not enough to look at the Present state of Education. One must seek to understand its Past [Reverence] before attempting to shape its Future [Duty]. Thus the first assignment for anyone is to consider the history of education in the west, in America and in Wichita which we have done on the Say That Again page of this blog. Our intention must never be merely

to give the educator "cause to lament" in terms of more statistics but also
to help the educator "lament the causes" by honestly and thoughtfully diagnosing and treating them as is our reasonable duty.

Income Issues

An obvious question that shapes the Economy as well as Education is the need for income redistribution. This seriously distorts everything that depends on the functioning of the Family as the fundamental social and economic unit. Few persons contemplating Education reform seek an in-depth understanding of its causes and by so doing fail to realize that "addressing" that single issue might change the entire flow of forces shaping Education naturally.

What is a microschool?

A small mixed-age student population,
An innovative, customized curriculum,
Place-based and experiential learning,
The use of cutting-edge technology,
Focus on the community, belonging, problem-solving, and
An emphasis on mastering or understanding curricula and material.

WISE Expo2026 - Learning Lab

FAST-Wichita — https://fast-wichita.blogspot.com — is an attempt to gather

a conversationally convenient number

of experienced, local, representative persons

to consider and discuss

historical economic and ecological TRENDS that have led to
the present range of opportunities for and responsibilities of FAMILIES
to form and operate pre, primary and secondary SCHOOLS
in public, charter, parochial, private, micro, cooperative & home settings

for the purpose of incrementally

articulating what matters, what works and what fails in what settings,
identifying common/unique strengths/weaknesses of the alternatives and
improving educational policy and practice in Wichita and the world by
working together … and taking one step at a time.

FAST-Wichita is glad for this opportunity to join and encourage WISE, sturdy, pioneering teachers, parents and students daring … even welcoming … personal engagement with a microschool educational opportunity that may seem uncommon at this moment in history … even though it is startlingly similar to the legendary “one-room schoolhouse” that was the undisputed standard for education during the USA’s first century. You are going “back to the future” where you will find the now neglected familiar becomes a portal to the eternal.

Your path has maps charted by others, study them.

Say That Again — FAST survey of family and school trends since Richard II

The Aims of Education — Alfred North Whitehead, 1916 address

How to Start Your Own School — Robert D. Love, 1973 book e-download from

https://www.northfieldschool.com/cohorts/htsyos

Why Schools Fail to Educate — John Gatto, 1990 NY Teacher of the Year

Independent Institute 2021 summary of Really Good Schools — James Tooley

Your surroundings are vital to survival, respect them.

Education without Economy is powerless -

I, Smartphone — Larry Reed, Liberty International, 2025

Education or Economy without Ecology are meaningless -

Small is Beautiful, Chapter 6: The Greatest Resource -Education
— EF. Schumacher, 1973