The Disgraceful Condition Of American Education, Part 2

We have seen the degrading of our schools that I believe began in the late 1940’s that began the ‘dumbing down’ of our kids. I’m sure that it began long before that as tests from the late 1890’s show that today’s seniors in college couldn’t pass a high school graduation test from 1895.

Our Founders used the Bible as the number one schoolbook. Prayer was ALWAYS a big part of the start of the day. I grew up in the 1950’s and every day we would say the Pledge of Allegiance and there would be a short twenty-one-word prayer said at the beginning of the day. Today you would be arrested for such supposed blatant violations of the Constitution. In Massachusetts a student has to have a permission slip signed by the parent to participate in the weekly reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance. Our nation is being taken over by progressive liberals that hate religion in general and Christianity in particular.[1] Why was there such a emphasis put on prayer? Virtually all of the Founders believed that we needed His direction, guidance and protection to be successful. Benjamin Rush who was a physician, politician, educator, Founder of Dickinson College and many other things stated: The only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid in religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments.” As you can see our Founders had a much different view of education than we do today. It would do us good to re-adopt their view.

Early public schools in the United States did not focus on academics like math or reading. Instead they taught the virtues of family, religion, and community.[2] Imagine what our society would be like if we started this again? There is such an uproar over teaching Christianity in our schools that it’s frightening. I have two books from the Texas school’s system in the 1960 that centers on the Old Testament and New Testament. These books were part of the mandatory curriculum. Virtually all of our colleges and universities were established by ministers for the purpose of educating and raising up ministers. Many reading this may not be aware that most of our colleges and universities were founded by ministers for the purpose of raising up ministers. They were specifically designed as a ‘seminary’ but they were quite able to produce a minister as easily as a scientist or businessman.

William and Mary was founded by Reverend James Blair in 1692. This is the same William and Mary that removed the Cross from the chapel because it was too controversial. This institution was founded so that:

“The youth may be piously educated in good letters and manners and that the Christian faith may be propagated . . . to the glory of Almighty God.”[3]

Our Founders put a lot of emphasis on learning biblical principles as they believed that they were the best foundation for a successful life, business and society. By 1860 95% of our colleges and universities were under the direction of the church. To see these universities today you would never know that they were established by ministers. Today, most of their faculty are liberal, anti-American, anti-capitalist, and anti-religious.

There was no problem with the church being involved in the education process in the early years of America. In 1838 Congress passed a law that did two things. It required the army to have a chaplain on all army posts, forts, etc. and that chaplain would be the school master as well. By 1884 America had 370 universities and 83% were under the direction of a denomination. With the education system that we had America rose above all other nations and it is obvious that it was not a secular education system that achieved that level of academia. It was an education system that incorporated God’s Word and God’s principles into the lives of the students. In today’s education system that centers around secular humanism the quality of education has dropped America into the double digits, 26^th in the world.[4]

I mention all of this because we need to understand where we came from. If that is lost, then we will not know who we are and where we are supposed to going. Crime is rampant in our societies and Benjamin Rush warned of the dangers of removing the Bible from schools: “By removing the Bible from schools we would be wasting so much time and money in punishing criminals and so little pains to prevent crime. Take the Bible out of our schools and there would be an explosion in crime.”

Morality was a major concern of the Founders ads it should be a major concern for us today. Charles Carroll stated: “Without morals a republic cannot subsist any length of time; they, therefore, who are decrying the Christian religion, whose morality is so sublime and pure (and) which insures to the good eternal happiness, are undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security for the duration of free governments.” James Monroe echoed this concern: “The principle capacity of a free government is derived from the sound morals and intelligence of the people; and the more extensive the means of education, the more confidently may we rely on the preservation of our public liberties.” John Adams clarified the necessity of a moral life: “The foundation of national morality must be laid in private families. … How is it possible that Children can have any just Sense of the sacred Obligations of Morality or Religion if, from their earliest Infancy, they learn their Mothers live in habitual Infidelity to their fathers, and their fathers in as constant Infidelity to their Mothers?” Noah Webster expressed the need to develop moral behavior in the education system: “Education is useless without the Bible. The Bible was America’s basic textbook in all fields. God’s Word contained in the Bible, has furnished all necessary rules to direct our conduct.”

Today we have daycare centers in middle schools because schools are now handing out condoms in elementary schools! They teach that morality is relative to your situation instead of it being a set-in concrete principle. They no longer teach absolute right and wrong, but then neither does the church! Public schools are nothing more than a governmental indoctrination center for the global agenda, the New World Order.

E-Mail Roger Anghis: roger@buildingthetruth.org

FootNotes

Defining America’s Exceptionalism, Roger Anghis (Buildingthetruth Press, Littleton, CO, 2010)29
11 facts about the history of education in America
Defining America’s Exceptionalism, Roger Anghis (Buildingthetruth Press, Littleton, CO, 2010) 44-45
Defining America’s Exceptionalism, Roger Anghis (Buildingthetruth Press, Littleton, CO, 2010) 76