Why We Home Educate ~Part 2

It's never to early to learn ;).

Tori- November 11, 2002

One thing home educators seem to hear quite often is, "Well, MY school isn't like that!". Perhaps you do live in a "decent" school district but they are much fewer and further in between than many people would like to admit. That said, even a "decent" school district has its roots in humanist theology. I would like to use the next little bit to share some quotes with you from some popular figures of the past and present and let you see for yourselves where we have come from and where we are headed in the government school system.

 

Horace Mann has often been called "the father of public education". After he became the first secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education in 1837 he worked to establish a nation wide public school system. His desire was to create "a new religion, with the STATE as its true CHURCH, and EDUCATION as its MESSIAH". He also believed, "God will be REPLACED by the concept of the public good...". And this from a man who professed to be a christian! 

John Swett helped establish the state system of public schools and also served as state superintendent of California from 1863-1868. He believed that "the property of the state should be taxed to educate THE CHILDREN OF THE STATE". To clarify WHO were the children of the state he said, "Children arrived at the age of maturity belong, not to the parents, but to the state, to society, to the country." So, once we parents have completed the messy job of changing diapers and feeding infants, and our children have reached a certain level of maturity, the state will take it from there. What an uncivilized idea! 

And lest we think this is "all in the distant past", I introduce Dr. Chester M. Pierce who, in 1973, while representing The Association For Childhood Education International said, "Every child in America entering school at the age of five is MENTALLY ILL because he comes to school with certain allegiances toward our founding fathers, toward our elected officials, TOWARD HIS PARENTS, TOWARD A BELIEF IN A SUPERNATURAL BEING, toward the sovereignty of this nation as a separate entity. IT'S UP TO YOU TEACHERS TO MAKE ALL OF THESE SICK CHILDREN WELL by creating the international children of the future". Apparently, to Dr. Pierce, utopia consists of a Godless world government full of mechanical people...lovely. 

To change gears just a little bit I would also like to show you what some of the most respected men in Christianity had to say about education. Noah Webster said, "In my view, the christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government, ought to be instructed.".

Instruction in the Christian religion is certainly lacking in our schools today and that was prophetically seen as far back as civil war times by men like R.L.Dabney who realized that, "...the result of public education is to bring a larger number of children into primary schools, and reduce the illiteracy somewhat- which is a great delight to philanthropists. But the number of youths WELL EDUCATED and ESPECIALLY THOSE BROUGHT UNDER DAILY CHRISTIAN TRAINING IS DIMINISHED. So, the actual and consistant secularization of education should not be tolerated. But nearly all public men and preachers declare that the public schools are the glory of America. They are a finality, and in no event to be surrendered. WE HAVE SEEN THAT THEIR COMPLETE SECULARIZATION IS LOGICALLY INEVITABLE. CHRISTIANS MUST PREPARE THEMSELVES THEN, FOR THE FOLLOWING RESULTS: ALL PRAYERS, CATECHISMS, AND BIBLES WILL ULTIMATELY BE DRIVEN OUT OF THE SCHOOLS.". How sad to know that the current Godless state of government education was foreseen so many years ago and yet nothing substantial was done and here we are now, living with the EXACT conditions heralded so many years ago as the fate of our government schools should we continue down that current path. 

Martin Luther stated during the Reformation, "I am afraid that the schools will prove THE VERY GATES OF HELL, UNLESS they diligently labor in explaining the Holy Scriptures and engraving them in the heart of the youth.". Can you imagine a teacher diligently "explaining the Holy scriptures" in class. They would be fired! Separation of Church and State, you know. 

And that brings us to another interesting topic. Did you know that the phrase "separation of church and state" can be found NOWHERE in the constitution? It was actually penned by Thomas Jefferson in a letter to the Danbury Baptist association. Amendment 1 of the US Constitution requires, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;", and this wording was requested by states WHO HAD ALREADY ESTABLISHED A STATE RELIGION!They wanted to be sure that the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT couldn't affect their already existing state churches! Today the idea of the separation of church and state is allowing teachers to fold a little boys picture because it depicts Jesus as the Sustainer of the world! How utterly sad! And yet, a child who draws a picture of his "two daddies" is applauded as a symbol of "tolerance". Does this sound like the free exercise of religion that our founding fathers assured us?