We already know from (Pt. 1), that the Puritans displayed a special eagerness to provide for education and literacy as bulwarks against religious and cultural decline. However, throughout the colonial period, provisions for schooling remained very much a matter of local, and somewhat haphazard, arrangements. The belief that public, or free, schools and pauper schools were synonymous terms, and that such schools were only for children of the poor, long hampered the acceptance of the idea that publicly supported schools could and should exist for all children, regardless of social class, gender, religion, ethnicity, or country of origin.
The coming of the American Revolution and the influence of Enlightenment ideas began to challenge the laissez-faire doctrines of the colonial period, however. Thomas Jefferson felt that the thought of every man teaching is own children would only work for the economic elite, but would not translate to the masses. In 1779 Jefferson proposed A Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge. Jefferson’s general plan envisioned public support for secondary schools and scholarships for the best and brightest students to attend the College of William and Mary. But the foundation of his system was basic education for the mass of the population.
However, in spite of the pleas and schemes of these and other “founding fathers,” the new nation ended the eighteenth century with a patchwork pattern of schools, most of which were conducted under the auspices of private schoolmasters or sectarian religious groups. Schools essentially served private purposes and educational attainment reflected the religious, racial, class, and gender differences in society. Even so, the educational requirements for work and a productive life for most people in the latter half of the eighteenth century and the early nineteenth century were modest, regardless of one’s background. Skills and knowledge were often learned through one’s labor within the family or through apprenticeship. However, the economic realities and social conditions that ushered in the nineteenth century prompted renewed calls for expanded and better organized approaches to the education of the public.
By 1900 public education was so radically different and far-reaching that the common school movement of the 1800s is widely regarded as the most significant change or reform in nineteenth century American education. This dramatic change was precipitated by a number of factors, including industrialization and the rise of the factory system; labor unrest; the spread of merchant capitalism; the expansion and economic influence of banks and insurance companies; transportation advances brought on by steam travel on inland and coastal waterways and by railroad; burgeoning population growth (including the arrival of large numbers of Roman Catholic immigrants who challenged the social and cultural norms of the mostly Protestant citizenry); and the westward migration of settlers, many of whom sought to establish the eastern tradition of town schools on the frontier.
Religious division was not the only obstacle to universal acceptance of the doctrine of universal public education. A desire to maintain strict local control over schools put many advocates of statewide organization on the defensive. Intermixed with class, race, and ethnic tensions, demands for local control of schools was–and remains–a hotly contested issue. Opposition to taxation rose as an objection to publicly financed schemes of education during the colonial period, continued to provoke resistance. Related to issues of control and taxation were charges that government involvement in education was a repudiation of liberalism and parental rights. Advocates of this position championed the right of individuals to be left alone and responsible for their own lives.
Political consensus and compromise led state after state to adopt systems of common or public schools by the latter half of the nineteenth century. Although a few southern states had made progress in this direction before the Civil War, it was not until after that conflict that the states that had been in rebellion adopted legally mandated–but racially segregated–systems of public education. In 1855 Massachusetts had become the first state to abolish legal segregation; it took yet another full century for the United States Supreme Court to extend that practice to the entire nation by declaring in the famous Brown v. Board of Education decision of 1954 that the practice of “separate but equal” was unconstitutional. Other twentieth-century court decisions ended religious practices such as Bible reading and prayer in public schools. The ending of religious practices such as Bible reading and prayer happened in 1963. Religion was therefore inclusive in education in the New Colonies from the first successful colony, Jamestown, in the 17th century until almost the 21st century, which would have been 300 years, instead of the actual 263 years; and this is through the forming and establishment of the Independence of the United States of America.
Source: http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/1871/Common-School-Movement.html#ixzz0uttJfd38
This is what happened to God-centered education: Easily the most important of the NEA’s strategies is that concerning the content of education, for the socialist revolution wanted by the Progressives will have to be carried out by a younger generation indoctrinated in progressive, humanist values. The road to a humanist curriculum began in 1918 with the NEA’s Seven Cardinal Principles which stressed humanist ethical values to replace those of traditional religion. The expulsion of the Bible from the public school did not occur all at once. This writer, who attended the public schools of New York City in the 1930s, remembers hearing the school principal open each weekly assembly with a short passage from the Bible, usually a Psalm. When that practice stopped, is not known.
But the undermining of the Judeo-Christian tradition was well underway when in 1933 John Dewey and 33 other liberal humanists drew up and signed that extraordinary document known as the Humanist Manifesto. It reflected all of the influences of science, evolution, and the new psychology which were reshaping American education. It called for the abandonment of traditional religion and replacing it with a new secular religion better able to accommodate the new moral relativism inherent in a man-centered, godless world. That secular humanism is a religion is easily proven by the Manifesto’s own words: Source: http://www.sntp.net/education/nea_humanist.htm
I also found that there are on record founding/forming fathers who had strong Christian convictions.
Interestingly, Washington’s own contemporaries did not question his Christianity but were thoroughly convinced of his devout faith–a fact made evident in the first-ever compilation of The Writings of George Washington, published in the 1830s. Source: http://www.christiananswers.net/q-wall/wal-g011.html
“The highest glory of the American Revolution was this; it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity.” [July 4th, 1821] John Quincy Adams
“From the day of the Declaration [of Independence]…they [the American people] were bound by the laws of God, which they all, and by the laws of The Gospel they nearly all, acknowledge as the rules of their conduct.” [July 4th, 1821] John Quincy Adams Source: http://www.eadshome.com/JohnQuincyAdams.htm
James Madison is known as the father of the U.S. Constitution. He was also the fourth President of the United States. He was the primary author of the Bill of Rights and engineered the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Madison believed Christianity to be the foundation upon which a just government must be built. Writing on June 20, 1785, he stated: Religion [is] the basis and Foundation of Government.
On November 9, 1772, Madison wrote to his close college friend, William Bradford:
A watchful eye must be kept on ourselves lest while we are building ideal monuments of renown and bliss here we neglect to have our names enrolled in the annals of Heaven.
Source: http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/cdf/onug/madison.html
Here is some information on the changes that have taken place in the American Educational System since the Bible and Prayer were ruled out, so to speak.
http://www.inplainsite.org/what_happened_when_the_praying.html
http://heartofwisdom.com/blog/when-prayer-was-taken-out-of-school/
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I’ve had such a glorious day today in the presence of the Lord. I have truly been transforming in my spirit. I have been experiencing life as an empty nester, and it hasn’t been easy. In fact, at times my experience has been scary, just as there is good in the world, so is there evil. Evil has tried to assert itself into the seat of my thinking so that I will remain in bondage to my past through my thoughts. But God is faithful and He has done well to deliver my soul, my thinking, and I am eternally grateful. He has supernaturally given me the opportunity to benefit from this alone time that I have with Him, so I am not totally alone. He and I have been doing some spring cleaning in my mind, my thought life, putting to death old ways of thinking. In actuality, all those things that other people have said and done against me, and the things that I have said against myself, and the things that I have said against others, had to be dealt with. All that stuff equals NEGATIVITY. And my soul had to be made free from all of that negativity and I actually feel glory on the inside of me, there has been a change in my soul and spirit. I need and want to fill my soul and spirit with the fruit of praise and worship, not only because my soul wants to, but also because I need to in order to keep my spirit free from negativity. I have learned that negativity within, attracts negativity from without. (I share that just in case the Blue Bird of happiness is pooping all over your life excessively, examine your vibe.)
I just read over my earlier blog entries to encourage myself in my pursuit of Spirit. It is a pursuit because it is an act of will that is a conscious effort each day. I’ll admit that I have some competing distractions in my life that I don’t want to have to focus on. But, these distractions are making themselves painfully clear. It is clear however, after reading my earlier posts that I have somewhat lost my way. I’ve taken my eye off of my goal, and I must quickly make a shift. I must look past these challenges and refocus on my goal to live by the Spirit each day. “The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want, He maketh me to lay down in green pastures, He leadeth me beside the still waters, He restoreth my soul, He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name sake, Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me, Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me, Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies, Thou anointest mine head with oil, My cup runneth over, Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. This scripture is encouraging me now. So I will raise my head, dry my eyes and go forward, living my life centered in Christ. I do feel better in my spirit…
Living in the Spirit is something, you should know by now, I long for. To be able to step out of the chokeholds of life and into the pure manifestation of all that is God, and soar! Peter stepped out of the boat to walk upon water at Christ’s command, and it was at that moment that he began to live above his circumstances. He began to live in the supernatural realm of the Spirit. Peter chose to trust and obey God, and I choose to do the same.
