Listen on your favorite podcast player:iTunesSpotifyOvercastHeartRadioAmazon MusicBibliographyMockridge, Ella. (1961). Our Mendham Woodard, Colin. (2012). American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America. Penguin Books. https://www.amazon.com/American-Nations-History-Regional-Cultures/dp/0143122029Munsell, W. W. (1882). History of Morris County, New JerseyTheme Music:Howard Harper-Barnes / La Danse Timide / courtesy of www.epidemicsound.comTranscript:Working on this podcast about hometowns has me thinking a lot about why people move to Mendham. So I started asking everybody I talked to about their first impressions of this place. MELISSA: I thought it was the most beautiful place I’ve ever seenMelissa Saharko moved to Mendham with her family from the DC area back in 2017. MELISSA: We looked at houses in May and it just, this place sparkles, everything's green, the flowers are blooming... I love a small town Main Street. I love an old house. I love the character. And that’s the answer I hear a lot. Mendham’s got charm and character up the wahzoo.But if you’re putting down roots and starting a family somewhere, you’re going to be looking for more than flags on Main Street to seal the deal. Any parent worth their salt will tell you that education weighs heavily in choosing a new hometown. MELISSA: Maybe it's the crowd I run with, but everyone I meet who's moved to town in the last few years has little kids. They've moved here for the school system. (School sounds)Jessica Couto is a teacher at Mendham Borough’s Hilltop School. She also happens to be my neighbor. JESSICA: The curriculum is challenging, we have high expectations for our students…It's not just one factor that's leading us to have great schools. Mendham Schools are some of the best in New Jersey. Our two public elementary schools have been awarded blue ribbon status, based on academic excellence. Mendham Middle School is ranked 7th in the state - and that’s saying something. You remember how tough middle school is, right? And West Morris Mendham High School is an International Baccalaureate World School, which gives students an option to learn in a flexible and cross-disciplinary environment. By most measures, this means Mendham schools do an amazing job preparing their students for the future. But what makes Mendham schools so good? Is it because this is a highly educated, upper class community? Of course, that’s definitly a factor.But there’s another big reason why Mendham schools are some of the best in the state. And that has to do with…history! —(Theme)Welcome to Hometown History. A series about the iconic places and events that make a town someplace people call home. Stories that people can tell to their friends old and new about the place they live, did live, or will live: In my case, Mendham, New Jersey. —The best schools in the country, also known as the Ivy League, have three things in common, aside from being the best. First, where they’re located.If you pop open google maps, type in Ivy league, you’re not gonna get a map of the entire U.S. Instead, you’ll get a slightly zoomed in map of only a specific area of the country - the Northeast. Second, their age:Harvard, Yale, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton, Columbia, Brown and Dartmouth. They were ALL established before the revolutionary war. They’ve been around a while. And finally, FINALLY, and this is really cool: Who established these schools.William Tennet of Pennsylvania, John Harvard in Cambridge, James Pierpont of Connecticut. These guys had one thing in common. They were all ministers.(Church organ sounds)So what’s the connection between the clergy and education? And what does this all have to do with Mendham?To answer these questions, we have to know a little bit more about the early settlers of America. In fact, let’s take a quick detour into the classroom…this is an episode about education after all.(Classroom sounds)You guys, be quiet. Professor Woodard is here.COLIN: I'm Colin Woodard. I'm the author of six books, including American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America, which is a book about how regionalism is vital to understanding our country’s history…Colin Woodard is a historian, author and Pulitzer Prize finalist. His unique area of interest is a fascinating blend of history, culture, and politics. His 2011 book, American Nations, is all about how our colonial past shapes and explains the present. COLIN: Americans…don't know our history very well, and the history we receive is not always super clarifying or accurate.Now, the first thing you have to remember is that America was colonized by several different groups of Europeans at several different times in history. There were Spanish, French, Dutch, English, German, and even Scottish and Irish people. COLIN: They were entirely different cultures and indeed didn't expect ...
