The Disgraceful Condition Of American Education, Part 1

Our Founders believed that education, proper education was imperative to a prosperous nation. They put a high value on a good education. They believed that one of the most important aspects of education was to learn about their own nation. Noah Webster stated: “Every child in America should be acquainted with his own country. He should read books that furnish him with ideas that will be useful to him in life and practice. As soon as he opens his lips, he should rehearse the history of his own country.” We have failed to do this with the last three generations. We no longer teach about America except to say that capitalism is the cause of all the worlds problems. Our public education system has even made the teaching of our history illegal because of the strong Christian influence of the Founders. They claim the separation of church and state, which is a complete fallacy, but at the same time they allow islam to be taught in our schools. The ACLU and Supreme Court have made it very clear that the Christian religion cannot be present in any way in the public school system. On the other hand, it seems that any other religion is acceptable. Other religions, such as atheism, Buddhism, and Islam are being taught in our public schools. For the most part they do it under the guise of teaching “world religion.”

When they teach about Christianity they teach on the persecution of Christians by Christians without any historical context. They teach that the Crusades were a great sin of Christianity. In fact, the Crusades were, for the most part, Christians taking back land that had been taken by the sword of Islam.

When they teach about Islam they conveniently leave out the violent history of Islam. They don’t mention that Islam was rejected by most of those to whom Muhammad preached until he started using the sword to win converts. His message was convert to Islam or die. Later, when Islam controlled whole nations, Muhammad came up with another choice. This choice is called dimmitude, and it is paying a protection tax, a tax to protect against Islam, which could take 50% of what you owned and 50% of what you earned. They don’t mention that Islam has been responsible for more deaths in the name of their religion than all of the despots like Hitler, Stalin, etc. combined.[1]

Liberals, for some reason, have no problem with this violation of the Constitution but liberals usually pay little attention to the Constitution anyway. They complain about any Christian influence but are silent about the Islamic influence. What is disturbing about all of it is our kids are not learning about our foundation, the struggles our Founders endured or even the price they paid to give us the greatest nation the world has or will ever see. I would like to bring up some history of our education to lay a foundation for this series.

The Colonies began to require an education very early in our history. The first laws concerning education were passed in 1642 in Massachusetts and in 1647 in Connecticut. These laws were called the “Old Deluder Satan Act”. They were passed because they believed, rightfully so, that most abuses to the population by government was because of Bible illiteracy. “It being one chief project of that old deluder, Satan, to keep men from the knowledge of Scriptures, as in former time. . . . It is therefore ordered . . [that] after the Lord hath increased [the settlement] to the number of fifty householders, [they] shall then forthwith appoint one within their town, to teach all such children as shall resort to him, to write and read. . . . And it is further ordered, that where any town shall increase to the number of one hundred families or householders, they shall set up a grammar school . . . to instruct youths, so far as they may be fitted for the university.”[2] Note that the premium was placed on understanding the Word of God. All of the talk of separation of church and state was NOT part of our history. This concept was only enforced after the 1947 Supreme Court decision of Everson vs Board of Education that totally reversed the 156-year understanding of the First Amendment. There has been a push to get rid of the Christian influence in education almost as soon as our nation was established.

Our early education had very few books like we have today. In the 1600’s the schools, which were primarily the churches, used two books, The Bible and a book printed by Benjamin Harris in 1690 called The New England Primer. To understand the absurdity of the 1947 Supreme Court decision we need to look at two things; the 1806 letter by Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist Association, which is the basis of that decision and a comment made by the author of the First Amendment, Fisher Ames. Fisher Ames was a Founder and a patriot. It was Ames that worded the First Amendment as we know it today. Many believe that Thomas Jefferson was the author, but he was an Ambassador to France at the time it was written and ratified. Fisher Ames was a Congressman from Massachusetts in the first session of Congress and was involved in the writing of the Bill of Rights, specifically the First Amendment. On August 20, 1789 his wording for the First Amendment was adopted by the House;

Congress shall make no law establishing religion, or to prevent the free exercise thereof, or to infringe the rights of conscience.

A month later Fisher wrote an article for the Palladium magazine talking about the importance of early learning of Bible and of having the Bible as the main text in schools:

“We have a dangerous trend beginning to take place in our education. We’re starting to put more and more textbooks into our schools. . . We’ve become accustom of late of putting little books into the hands of children containing fables and moral lessons. . . . We are spending less time in the classroom on the Bible, which should be the principle text in our schools. . . The Bible states these great moral lessons better than any other manmade book.” [3]

To ignore the understanding that the author of the First Amendment had concerning the influence of the Christianity in the schools is arrogance on steroids. He was not the only Founder that believed that the Bible was an important part of education. Speaking of a prosperous political system George Washington stated: “Of all dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain it would that man claim the tribute to patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars.” His declaration that religion, Christian principles, had to be a part of a governments foundation for it to be successful not just for the government but for the people as well. The Father of American Jurisprudence, James Kent, stated concerning Christian principles and our laws: “Christianity, in its enlarged sense, as a religion revealed and taught in the bible, is not unknown to our law.” The first Chief Justice of the Untied States Supreme Court expounded on the type of person we should put into positions of authority: “Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty – as well as the privilege and interest – of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians as their rulers.”

What happens when we ignore the mandate to put godly men in places of authority? We end up with corrupt people who look out for themselves and ignore the values that made us a great nation.

E-Mail Roger Anghis: roger@buildingthetruth.org

Foot Notes

https://fortressoffaith.com/how-islam-is-being-introduced-into-our-public-schools/
Defining America’s Exceptionalism, Roger Anghis (Buildingthetruth Press, Littleton, CO, 2010) p. 43
Defining America’s Exceptionalism, Roger Anghis (Buildingthetruth Press, Littleton, CO, 2010) pp. 114-115