Episode 1: America’s Education Past and Future
Welcome to the Educational Awareness podcast. I am excited to kick off our series, America’s Education Past and Future. This is a topic I have wanted to discuss for a while now, and I finally found books written by experts that helped me put it all together.
With that being said I want to make sure you know that most of what I share during this series comes from three books: 4 Centuries of American Education by David Barton, Battle for the American Mind by Pete Hegseth and David Goodwin and Separation of Church and State, What the Founders Meant also by David Barton.
You will also hear several references to the Bible because it is my standard of truth. Its history and wisdom resonate with our current social condition. As we dig in, you will discover that education has been the driving force behind today’s society.
Some of you are reaching up right now to turn this off and listen to another podcast or your favorite song list. Because you do not want to hear another rant. I promise this is not what this is. Rather, I am sharing what I have learned from my research on education in America. If you hang with me throughout this series, you will discover things you never knew and will walk away with a whole new outlook on education in America.
I have been in education for the past fifteen years. During this time, I have taught in general education classrooms, served as the building's EL teacher, and taught special education. I have been a curriculum director for the past six years and continue in that role today. My time spent in education is half and, in some cases, less than half the time spent in this career by most retired educators. Even after this short time, I can still see a dramatic difference from my first years of teaching to now in our student’s behavior, academic abilities, and parents' outlook on education.
Unfortunately, these changes are not for the better.
For those of you who are educators, nod if this scene sounds familiar. You are sitting in a data or staff meeting. Your administrator is showing you graph after graph of how students’ academic performance is stagnant or declining. As educators, we want all students to succeed, so the conversation shifts to what is the problem and how do we fix it. You soon find that you have used every tool in your toolbox. The meeting ends with no clear solution and you walk away feeling defeated.
I know educators are nodding their heads right now. At some point, you have experienced this. For many of us, this has become the norm when entering meetings to discuss student data.
In recent years, I have said it is a society problem. We have a dysfunctional society, and education is at the root of it. When I say that I am not putting blame or shame on educators because, without realizing it, we are a product of the same system that is failing our children today. What if I told you there was a real solution? That education in America was not always this way.
I tired of riding this Ferris wheel of teaching strategies with no positive impact on our students, which led me to asking deeper questions and finding answers. There will be things that shock you, challenge you, and give you hope. When this series is complete, you will have what I call the "Josiah experience”.
In 2 Kings 22, King Josiah hears the word of the Lord read out loud for the first time. His first response was shock and grief at learning that their nation was so off course from God. After a time of reflection and repentance, he instituted reform across the country, bringing the people back to God.
Scholars estimate that God's word had laid unread for an estimated 200-250 years before public recitation. Multiple generations went through life not knowing their true history and how God had commanded them to live. Instead of leaning on God’s truth, they were relying on their own truth. Does that sound familiar?
However, King Josiah steered his nation back toward God. I am going to take you back to the beginning of education in America and bring you up to the present. You will go through the Josiah experience up to the reform, because an educational reform has not happened yet for us.
Did you know America is entering its fifth century of education? While we have made great strides in technology, our cognitive and reasoning have lagged far behind. Consider these questions from an 1862 4th Grade Geography test used in Chicago Public Schools. (David Barton, 4 Centuries of American Education, page 3)
1. How many degrees of longitude are there?
2. How many degrees wide are the temperate zones?
3. What is a water-shed?
4. Name the principal animals of the frigid zones.
5. Name the different races into which mankind is divided.
6. What is a monarchy?
7. What portion of the people on the globe are Pagans? What portion Christians?
Books and notes were not allowed. These were all written response questions, not multiple choice.
Now consider these questions from a basic math test used in elementary math class in early America. Note that problems were expected to be solved mentally. No pencil and paper were allowed. (David Barton, 4 Centuries of American Education, page 4)
A boat worth $864 - of which 1/8 belonged to A, ¼ belonged to B, and the rest to C – was lost; what loss did each sustain, it having been insured for $500?
On a farm, there are 60 animals – horses, cows, and sheep; for each horse there are 3 cows, and for each cow there are 2 sheep: how many animals of each kind?
If 7 men can do a piece of work in 4 days, in what time can it be down if 3 of the men leave when the work is half completed?
Or try these questions from an 1882 history text. (David Barton, 4 Centuries of American Education, page 5)
What is a “writ of habeas corpus”?
What is a bill of attainder?
What is an ex-post-facto-law?
Enumerate the powers denied to the several States.
What are bills of credit?
How many adults today can answer these questions? And yet just over a hundred years ago, elementary students in America could answer these questions. These facts were the first to hit me hard and make me ask; what happened to our education system?
In 4 Centuries of American Education David Barton shares that a law professor in Alabama requires his graduate level law students to read the Federalist Papers. Those students regularly complain to their professor about how difficult it is to read this text. The professor responds with, “I understand. This book was not written for someone at your educational level; this book was written for the common, average, upstate New York farmer of 1787. Perhaps some day you will attain the educational level of those early New York farmers.” (page 6, 4 Centuries of American Education)
Wow. How is it that our ancestors from four centuries before us had a higher level of education than our graduate students of today when most stopped attending school at eight grade?
To answer this question, you must first understand the history of education in America and how it has been deliberately altered over time.
Did you know other countries used to come observe our education system, write books on it, and share it with their fellow countrymen?
That is shocking for most of us to hear. We have spent our entire lives being shown the data that we are not up to snuff in the academic realm. Yet there was a time when our education system produced citizens whose knowledge and reasoning skills out paced the world. So, what happened?
To fully understand the drastic change in the quality of our education system, we have to start at the beginning.
Abraham Lincoln is known for his quote, “The philosophy of the schoolroom in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.” Our founding fathers believed the same thing. They held education in high regard.
Did you know that the first educational laws in America came from the early settlers? Many of them had experienced harsh persecution through the Inquisition and the Crusades. They were convinced that widespread illiteracy and lack of Biblical knowledge led to these atrocities.
During these dark ages, the Bible was kept from the common man. Only a priest could have one. With people not having access to the Bible and many not being able to read, they had to take the priest’s word that he was speaking the truth. Multitudes of people became slaves to the whims of those put in charge. Their lack of biblical knowledge and understanding prevented them from reasoning and exposing the lies from the pulpit. They became unwitting participants of brutal persecution in the name of Christianity.
Early American settlers believed that if the common man could read and study the Bible, they would understand the limits on government set forth in God’s word. Armed with this knowledge, they could shut down government misbehavior before it could take root and spread like wildfire across the nation.
In 1647, they passed America’s first public education law, “The Old Deluder Satan Act.”
It being one chief project of that old deluder, Satan, to keep men from the knowledge of the scriptures, as in former times keeping them in an unknown tongue, so in these latter times, by…
The law required towns of over 50 families to hire and maintain a schoolteacher. They were to teach reading and writing.
Even our first higher education institutions held this philosophy on education. Harvard trained several of our nation’s leaders like John Adams, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Fisher Ames and numerous others. Harvard’s mottoes were:
“For Christ and the Church.” And “For the Glory of Christ.”
Harvard admonished:
“Let every student be plainly instructed and . . . consider well, the main end of his life and studies is to know God and Jesus, which is eternal life (John 17:3), and therefore to lay Christ in the bottom as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning.” (4 Centuries of American Education by David Barton, page 6)
They also instituted specific educational practices:
“Everyone shall so exercise himself in reading the Scriptures twice a day that he shall be ready to give such an account of his proficiency therein.”
Yale was another early institution of higher education. They produced graduates such as William Livingston, Noah Webster, Jared Ingersoll, Lyman Hall, and others. These graduates were signers of the Declaration and Constitution. Yale admonished:
“Above all, have an eye to the great end of all your studies, which is to obtain the clearest conceptions of Divine things and to lead you to a saving knowledge of God in his Son Jesus Christ.” (4 Centuries of American Education by Dabid Barton, page 8)
Both prestigious schools provided an education based on knowing Christ and studying Biblical principles. Princeton University produced more of our early American leaders than even Yale and Havard. They, too, shared in the same philosophies of Havard and Yale.
Dr. Witherspoon, the founder of Princeton, knew that: government was a reflection of its citizens; if Americans became profane and immoral, their government would also become profane and immoral; and history has demonstrated conclusively that such governments do not survive. Consequently, it was simple logic that any true friend of America would promote religion and morality. (4 Centuries of American Education, by David Barton, page 12)
Take a moment and reflect on that statement. Do you see it proven true today?
Some of you are no doubt thinking teaching scripture in school does not guarantee a moral government. That is true in that it would not produce a perfect moral government, because no man is without sin, however history shows us that society built on Christian principles wreaks far less havoc and destruction than one that does not.
David Barton shares statistics on atrocities throughout history perpetrated by both Christians and anti-Christian regimes. Although none of the atrocities he mentions are justifiable, the statistics show that a Christian society brings a swift end to these attacks and has far fewer casualties. David points out that:
If one tabulates the loss of lives occasioned by “Christian” conduct (excluding Hitler, since it is proved that he was anti-Christian), the total which may be laid at the doorstep of Christianity over the past two thousand years is well under 5 million; however, the number of lives lost at the hands of non- and anti-Christian leaders in just the 20th century alone is over one-hundred million. (4 Centuries of American Education, by David Barton, page 16)
When the claim that a Christian society was no better than a non-Christian society was raised over two hundred years ago, John Witherspoon a signer of the Declaration responded with:
“Let us try it by its fruits. Let us compare the temper and character of real Christians with those of infidels and see which of them best merits the approbation of an honest and impartial judge. Let us take in every circumstance that will contribute to make the comparison just and fair and see what will be the result . . .In which of the two is to be found the greatest integrity and uprightness in their conduct between man and man? The most unfeigned good-will? And the most active beneficence to others? Is it the unbeliever or the Christian who clothes the naked and deals his bread to the hungry? Ask the many and noble ancient structures raised for the relief of the diseased and the poor to whom they owe their establishment and supports.” (4 Centuries of American Education, by David Barton, page 17)
Benjamin Franklin asked: “If men are so wicked with religion, what would they be if without it?”
The founders believed schools were an appropriate means to encourage the religion, morality, and knowledge that is needed for good government and the happiness of mankind. Encouraging religion in schools was not deemed unconstitutional by our founders, but necessary. So much so that states could not join the union without the following provision or something similar in their state’s constitution. (This is from Ohio’s state constitution.)
Religion, morality, and knowledge, being essentially necessary to the good government, and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of instruction shall forever be encouraged by legislative provision. (4 Centuries of American Education, by David Barton, page 20)
I highly encourage you to look up your state’s constitution and see what it says pertaining to education. Our founding father’s intention with the separation of church and state was not to remove God from our schools, but to keep one religion from being the ruling religion of our nation. They had lived in a country where the church ran the government, which resulted in the persecution of anyone who did not conform to the one religion.
It should be noted that Christianity is not a religion, but a belief in Jesus Christ and a desire to live according to God’s word. There are many who call themselves Christians and each attend churches of different denominations.
An interesting side note that we will dig into later in this series is that the phrase separation of church and state is not in any of our founding documents. It was penned in a letter by President Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist Association of Danbury. We will discuss that further later.
Our education system develops our paideia. We will dig into this more in the next episode, but I want to introduce you to David Goodwin and Pete Hegseth’s definition of paideia in their book, Battle for the American Mind.
Paideia, simply defined, represents the deeply seated affections, thinking, viewpoints, and virtues embedded in children at a young age, or more simply, the rearing, molding, and education of a child. (Battle for the American Mind, by Goodwin and Hegseth, page 44)
As we wrap up today’s sneak peek into America’s education history, I want to draw you back to Dr. Witherspoon’s statement.
“Government was a reflection of its citizens; if Americans became profane and immoral, their government would also become profane and immoral; and history has demonstrated conclusively that such governments do not survive. Consequently, it was simple logic that any true friend of America would promote religion and morality.” (4 Centuries of American Education, by David Barton, page 12)
Again. Do you see it proven true today? And is the track we are on today leading to the future you want for your children and grandchildren?
I hope you come back for episode two as we reveal more of America’s educational history, which is imperative to know in order to take us back to an educational system that breeds success, not failure.
Resources and Links
Book- 4 Centuries of American Education by David Barton: https://shop.wallbuilders.com/index.php/four-centuries-of-american-education.html
Book – Separation of Church and State, What the Founders Meant by David Barton: https://shop.wallbuilders.com/index.php/separation-of-church-state-what-the-founders-meant-book.html
Book – Battle for the American Mind by Pete Hegseth and David Goodwin: https://battlefortheamericanmind.com/
