Our Story

Writing an undergraduate thesis in 2003 on Hawthorne and Longfellow first introduced Andrew to the vision of America shared by these two great American authors: America at its best offers people the opportunity to find rest—in the words of Emma Lazarus in her poem about the Statue of Liberty, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

Rest is central to education and therefore to our way of life as a democratic republic, which requires educated, engaged citizens to preserve the blessings we have received and to create better opportunities for future generations.

Education during and after the current pandemic will never return to what it has been. Now is the time for creativity and new possibilities. Now, more than ever, we need to bring people together to learn again how to speak to one another, which requires a common vocabulary, rooted in the study of American history and the American system of government.

The first chapter of the story began Fall 2020 with a socially-distanced classroom in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia at Atonement Academy, a hybrid school meeting twice weekly. The students in this first Wayside Cohort embarked on an educational journey in which they and their parents have an important and exciting part to play.

Will you join the renewal of American education?