Episode 2: America’s Education Past and Future
Religion, morality, and knowledge were the pillars on which education in America was built. These pillars cannot be found in today’s education system. Why is that?
The battle to tear down these pillars, which destroyed our western Christian paideia, started long before our time. I will share more details soon.
Government leaders believed that if public education was secular and no longer instilled religion, morality, and knowledge in students, then the nation would be better off if states returned schools to the church.
Dr. Rush wrote several educational policy papers. He gave many reasons why the Bible should always remain a textbook in American education. At the end of one of his papers, he left his readers with this warning.
“In contemplating the political institutions of the United States, I lament that if we remove the Bible from schools, we waste so much time and money in punishing crimes and take so little pains to prevent them . . . For this Divine Book, above all others, favors that equality among mankind, that respect for just laws, and those sober and frugal virtues which constitute the soul of our government.” (4 Centuries of American Education, David Barton, page 25)
Gouverneur Morris, signer of the constitution, further emphasized Dr. Rush’s point by saying:
“Religion is the only solid basis of good morals, therefore, education should teach the precepts of religion and the duties of man towards God.” (4 Centuries of American Education, David Barton, page 25)
Crime statistics today prove these statements to be true. The Supreme Court ruling in the Engel v. Vitale case in 1962 and the Abbington School District v. Schempp case in 1963 prohibited prayer and Bible reading in schools, severing the pillars of religion and morality from our education system. The Abington v. Schempp decision reversed more than two hundred years of legal precedent, prohibiting the Bible and its instruction in schools. According to the court:
[I]f portions of the New Testament were read without explanation, they could be and. . .had been psychologically harmful to the child [student]. (Separation of Church and State, What the Founders Meant, page 15)
I love how David Barton responds to this outlandish claim.
What an amazing pronouncement: the Scriptures can cause psychological damage—that is, exposing students to Biblical teachings (such as the Golden Rule, the Beatitudes, and the Good Samaritan) can cause lasting brain damage! (Separation of Church and State, What the Founders Meant, page 15)
If that is not a lie from the pit of Hell, I don’t know what is? In fact, a laughed at the absurdity of it.
The court continued its purge of God and religious morals from schools when, in Stone v. Graham, the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional for students to voluntarily see a copy of the Ten Commandments. The court explained:
If the posted copies of the Ten Commandments are to have any effect at all, it will be to induce the schoolchildren to read, meditate upon, perhaps to venerate and obey the Commandments. . .[T]his. . .is not a permissible. . .objective. (Separation of Church and State, What the Founders Meant, page 14)
Another ridiculous claim from the court. Should students voluntarily look at the Ten Commandments, they just might obey them, and that would be unconstitutional. So, we want our kids to steal, kill, and commit adultery, among other things? And don’t we have laws against stealing and killing?
How are these rulings and claims panning out for us and our children? David Barton shares some statistics in his book, Separation of Church and State, What the Founders Meant.
Following the Court’s 1962-1963 decision to exclude basic religious teachings from students, violent crimes increased 700 percent. . .In fact, crime so exploded among junior high students that the federal government began separate tracking of murders, assaults, and rapes committed by students ages 10-14. (significantly, none of these categories of statistics existed before the Court’s decisions—that is, these crimes occurred so infrequently that separate monitoring of these problems was unnecessary). (Separation of Church and State, What the Found Meant, page 15)
Also, following the 1962-1963 court-ordered removal of religious principles from students, teenage pregnancies immediately soared over 700%, with the United States recording the highest teen pregnancy rates in the industrialized world. Similarly, sexual activity among fifteen-year-olds skyrocketed, and sexually transmitted diseases among students ascended to previously unrecorded levels. In fact, virtually every moral measurement kept by federal cabinet-level agencies reflects the same statistical pattern: the removal of religious principles from the public sphere was accompanied by a corresponding decline in public morality. (Separation of Church and State, What the Founders Meant, page 17)
When I was in high school, I participated in our school’s abstinence program. As a high school student, I spoke to junior high students about abstinence and my reasons for choosing it. This program was only in place for a year or two and I never knew why it went away. David points out that opponents claimed it was religious teaching and therefore the courts shut the program down.
As a current educator, I can say that a leading cause of early teacher burnout is student behavior, coupled with a lack of parental support. In fact, today a teacher is more likely to be reamed out by parents and then reprimanded by administration for reprimanding a student for inappropriate behavior, than not. When did it become wrong to expect a child to follow directions given by an adult? I do not think it is unreasonable to ask a child to stand in a straight line and walk through the hallway without talking. Yet walk into any public school today and you will find adults battling to get students to do this one simple thing. With backlash from parents, most educators have given up and ignore the behavior.
I could tell you story after story of student behavior that will shock most people. Putting a safe hold on a student is common, as educators work to keep the child and those around them safe. A family member made the comment, “Kids behave like that?” after I told them about an incident where a kid knocked me flat on my back while I was attempting to help them calm down. It was not long after that, they signed up to volunteer at their local school. Needless to say, they are not volunteering any more.
Why are kids so out of control, and why aren’t we doing anything about it? You can thank the progressives who started tearing down our western Christian paideia by dismantling our education system over the past 100 years.
Now that you have some history about the foundation of our American education system, it’s time to look at how and why it changed. This is where that Josiah experience is going to come in. Over the next few episodes, you will learn things that will blow your mind, but before we get into that, let’s go over what western Christian paideia is.
In episode one, I shared David Goodwin and Pete Hegseth’s simplified definition of paideia. 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)
Paideia is the foundation of all cultures and their vision of the good life. Ever wonder why other countries that we pour our military resources into cannot maintain a republic like ours when we pull out? It is because their paideia is not the same as ours. Their vision of the good life is far different from ours and it has been cultivated within them from a young age.
Let’s break the Western Christian Paideia down. I love how Pete and David do this in their book Battle for the American Mind. Much of what is coming next comes from pages 48-50 in their book.
1. Western: refers to any civilization that descends from the convergence of Greece, Rome, and Hebrew cultures dating back roughly 2,500 years. It envelops nearly all historical Christendom. (Battle for the American Mind, page 48)
2. Christian: This ties back to what I said in episode one. Today, most of us view Christianity as a personal religion, but this is not accurate. Recall when I said 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. Our forefathers viewed Christianity as being a certain kind of kingdom that superseded the rulers of this world, but was transacted through the church. The church and the state were intertwined in civilization because both had separate but related roles to play. Western civilizations once recognized that the state resides under the eternal King. (Battle for the American Mind, page 49)
3. Paideia: It motivates our decisions and behavior through our affections cultivated in us at a very young age. Because it influences each person in a culture, paideia forms a culture. Effecting how we vote, whether we marry, have small families, or large families, whether we are productive or start a revolution. (Battle for the American Mind, pages 49-50)
Western Christian Paideia is a particular type of paideia that was intentionally created for a self-governing people. It is unique to the west and America was founded on it. (Battle for the American Mind, page 50)
You can see in the history we have covered over the past two episodes how our founding fathers leaned on WCP (Western Christian Paideia) as they debated and worked through creating our founding documents. Documents I urge everyone to read and familiarize themselves with. Very few American citizens today are familiar with our founding documents because they have not been taught for several generations. Seems odd that our educational system does not teach from the founding documents.
This is because our WCP has been slowly replaced with a progressive paideia over the past one hundred years through our education system. David and Pete give a great comparison between the WCP and the progressive paideia on page 54 for their book Battle for the American Mind.
WCP: A lifelong search for greater meaning in life.
Today: Search for a job.
WCP: Seek wisdom.
Today: Seak facts.
WCP: Study history and classics.
Today: There’s nothing worth knowing that wasn’t just thought of.
WCP: Teach the application of reason.
Today: Preach the acceptance of indoctrination.
WCP: There is a divine order, revealed in Christ.
Today: There is humanist anarchy.
WCP: Strong-spirited citizens who are better together.
Today: Weak-spirited citizens who better serve the state.
Paideia is powerful, and the education system is the driving force behind it. So how did we lose our WCP? And how do we get it back, because it sounds a lot better than the paideia we have today? Come back for the next episode as we examine these questions.
I have given you a lot to think about. Please do the research yourself and don’t just take my word for it. I highly recommend you read David Barton’s books, 4 Centuries of American Education and Separation of Church and State, What the Founders Meant, and Pete Hegseth and David Goodwin’s book, Battle for the American Mind.
Resources and Links
Blog Post: https://literaryscape.com/educational-awareness/episode-2-americas-education-past-and-future
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/
