There is a story about two neighbors who grew up in a farming town. They had suffered through a long dry season, and there wasn't enough hay to keep the cows fed. So one of the neighbors came up with the idea that the two of them ought to go into the hay merchandising business. They bought a truck, drove to another state where they bought hay for $3.00 a bale. They then brought it home and sold it for $2.50 a bale.
After about two months in the business, one neighbor looked at the other one and said, "You know there must be something wrong; we're just not making any money."
Well, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that there is something desperately wrong with education in this country. A Washington Post poll indicated that people have less faith in the public education system in America than they do in either of the most maligned institutions in this country the military and big banks.
Jacques Barzun, a well known author, said in Teachers in America: "The once proud and efficient public school system of the United States, especially its unique free high school for all, has turned into a wasteland where violence and vice share the time of ignorance and idleness."1
I want to say at the outset of this message that I am not here to slam public education. Some of the finest people in society are those sacrificial servants who labor in our public school system, trying under extremely difficult circumstances to do the best they can to give our children the kind of education they deserve. At the same time, we do them and our children a disservice to keep our heads in the sand, and, with an ostrich mentality, pretend that there are not real problems with the system.
Over a hundred years ago, Dr. A. A. Hodge, of Princeton University, saw with an eagle eye the direction public education was taking. This was a great scholar who had a voluminous education and a tremendous intellect. Here is what he predicted over a hundred years ago:
I am as sure as I am of Christ's reign, that a comprehensive and centralized system of national education, separated from religion, as is now commonly proposed, will prove the most appalling enginery for the propagation of anti-Christian and atheistic unbelief, and of anti-social nihilistic ethics, individual, social and political, which the sin-rent world has ever seen.2
Was his prophecy correct? Did he know more then than perhaps we know today? Well, to address what he said, where we are, and where we need to go, I want to divide this topic up three ways:
I. The State Of Education
I don't want to bore you to death with statistics, but at the same time we need to take a good look not only at what our young people do know, but also what they don't know. In my generation we have spent over $1 trillion on education. Has money been the answer?
Let's look at the facts:
According to a 1994 report by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) the percentage of students who failed to obtain basic levels in U. S. history, was as follows: 36% of fourth graders, 39% of eighth graders, and 57% of twelfth graders.3
In reading, the NAEP reported deficiencies among 40% of fourth graders, 30% of eighth graders, and 25% of twelfth graders. Only 7%, 3%, and 4%, respectively, ranked at the advance level or higher in reading.4
It turns out that during the Clinton Administration, which the NEA believes has done such a sterling job with education, 66% of seventeen year olds cannot read at a proficient level. Reading scores at all age levels have fallen since 1992.5
Scholastic Aptitude Test scores reveal a steady decline. Between 1963 and 1991 the median SAT scores plunged.
Verbal: from 478 to 422
Math: from 502 to 4746
The disturbing downward spiral was best described by the report of the National Commission on Excellence in Education: "For the first time in the history of the country, the educational skills of one generation will not surpass, will not equal, will not even approach those of their parents.7
American Federation of Teachers' President, Albert Shankers, suggests that more than half of U. S. students would not qualify for admission to college in Japan or Europe. Yet, the college dropout rate ranges between 66% and 75%, and only half of our high-ability students receive bachelor decrees within seven years of high school graduation.8
Sad to say, but we are producing a nation of illiterates. While more than two hundred years of Christian education in this country produced a .04% illiteracy rate, what has our increasingly secularized education succeeded in doing? Well, in spite of the fact, as I have already mentioned, that we have poured more than a $1 trillion into the educational system, the illiteracy rate has increased 32 times. Today, we have 40 million illiterates! In addition, there are an estimated 30 million more functional illiterates in this country.9
Thirteen percent of American kids leave school with no reading skills whatsoever; more than in any other industrial nation.10
But what is even worse is not only do we have a problem with people who can't read, but increasingly of people who do not read. Between 1966 and 1990 the percentage of students who studied in the library dropped from 27.4% to 10.1%; those who checked out a book over the course of a year dropped from 51.6% to 26.7%.11
What is the result of both our illiteracy and illiteracy? A 1988 study by the Department of Education found that:
- 40% of high school seniors could not place the approximate date when the Constitution was written.
- 50% did not recognize Patrick Henry as the individual who said, "Give me liberty or give me death."
- 33% did not know that the Declaration of Independence marked the separation of the American colonies from Great Britain.
A recent study by the National Endowment for the Humanities found that 66% of high school juniors could not place the decade in which the Civil War was fought, or the half century in which Columbus discovered America.
Only 25% of eighth graders are proficient in mathematics, and school children in the United States trail their counterparts in other industrialized nations in standardized test scores in science, geography, and history.12
The problem gets even worse. Even the most prestigious colleges and universities are finding out that a high school diploma can be meaningless in terms of real achievement:
A recent University of Pennsylvania survey of more than 3,000 Ivy League students found that 35% could not identify the Prime Minister of Great Britain, John Major.
Three of four could not identify Thomas Jefferson as the author of the opening words of The Declaration of Independence.
Three of five could not name four Supreme Court Justices.
36% did not know who follows the Vice President in the line of presidential succession.13
But to show you what kids do know, in one study of District of Columbia children, students age 7 to 12 were asked to name as many presidents, and as many alcoholic beverages as they could. On average, they knew 4.8 presidents, and 5.2 kinds of booze.14
Rather than make any other comment, I am simply going to quote a report entitled, A Nation at Risk, released by the U. S. Department of Education in the 1980s. It said: "If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war....we have, in affect, been committing an act of unthinking unilateral educational disarmament."15
All of this is not to say there are not some wonderful students, teachers, principals, and administrators in our public school system. But, at the same time, there is no need to deny it, and no one can decry it, there is a problem.
II. The Shift In Education
What is even more alarming in the state of education is the shift that has taken place in what is being taught and what is not being taught in our schools, and the results of this shift.
You may find it interesting that the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which set aside federal property in the territory for schools, and which was passed again by Congress in 1789, states:
Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of learning shall forever be encouraged.16
Our forefathers had a vision that education would include religion and morality. But a shift of seismic proportions has taken place. According to the Thomas Jefferson Research Institute, 19% of our educational thrust in the 1770s was centered around moral values and religious beliefs. By 1926 that percentage was just 6%, and by 1960 the percentage was so small you could not measure it.
Cal Thomas, the noted columnist, captured the spirit of our educational age best, when speaking for the attitude that seems to come from the school to the home, he says this:
Don't parents know that their only job is to give birth to their children, and feed and cloth them? Then it is their duty to turn them over to state schools which will tell them that the reason they like bananas on their cereal is because their nearest relative is down at the zoo; that they need condoms in their pockets or purses; that 10% of them are homosexuals; and that America is no better than any other nation on earth, nor does it embody values and principles that are superior to those of other countries.17
Do we need to teach values in education? Do we need to teach character in education? Do we need to teach that character and values can only come from the God who created us? Well, Franklin Delano Roosevelt said, "To train a man in mind, and not in morals, is to train a menace to society."18
Richard C. Cabot, of Harvard University, said, "If there is not education of men's purpose; if there is no ethical basis at the foundation of education, then the more we know, the smarter villains and livelier crooks we may be."19
The great preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, said, "Education, without religion, is like the solar system without the sun."
What happens when God's rule is taken out of the school? Well, consider this: Compare what classroom teachers identified as the greatest threats to the educational process in 1940 and today:
- First on the list in 1940 was talking out of turn; today it is drug abuse.
- The number two concern in 1940 was chewing gum; today it is alcohol abuse.
- Number three in 1940 was making noise; number three today is pregnancy.
- The fourth most pressing problem in 1940 was running in the hall; today it is suicide.
- Fifth, sixth, and seventh on the list in 1940 were getting out of line, wearing improper clothing, and not putting paper in the waste basket; today they are rape, robbery, and assault.20
If that is not enough to rattle your cage, consider this:
There is an estimated 525,000 attacks, shakedowns, and robberies in the public high school every month.
Each year nearly three million crimes are committed on, or near, school property 16,000 every school day.
About 135,000 students carry guns to school daily; 1/5 of all students report carrying a weapon of some type.
21% of all secondary school students avoid using the rest rooms out of fear of being harmed or intimidated.
Surveys of school children revealed that their chief school-related concern is the disrupted behavior of their classmates.
Teachers have similar concerns. Almost 1/3 of public school teachers indicate that they have seriously considered leaving teaching because of student misbehavior.21
I do not want to belabor the point, though some probably feel I already have. But I do not want to simply curse the darkness; I want to light a candle. So I want to propose the following:
III. The Solution To Education
I want to give you four simple steps on how we can make a difference in our schools, whether they be public or private; and hopefully how we can enable the public school system to open up its doors again, and let God back in where He rightfully belongs.
Number one - Information - First of all, we must reaffirm the root meaning of education. The Latin verb from which the term comes, educare, means "to lead out of." The purpose of education is to lead out of ignorance and into wisdom; it is to lead out of immorality into morality; it is to lead out of wrong into right.
To reaffirm this meaning means you oppose relativism, which acknowledges no distinction between right and wrong, and it means you affirm truth that there is right and there is wrong, and children should be taught the difference. But along these lines, information also means you need to be aware of what is being taught to your children. You need to be aware of the curriculum that is being used. You need to be aware of any time when they are being taught to oppose your values and your sense of right and wrong.
Then there must be intervention. What I mean by that is, we must have the courage to stand up for what we believe. When something is wrong in our school, we need to have the courage to bring it to the attention of the proper people in the right spirit, in the right way; not backing down, not being intimidated by what they may call us or say to us. Let them know that we have the right to have a say, as a matter of fact, the say, in the education of our children.
One of my favorite stories is of the independent preacher, Jack Hyles, whose little kid was sent home with a book that he was supposed to read in school. It was full of filthy words, immorality, and blasphemy. He took that book down to the principal's office; stood there and said, "I want to tell you two things: 1) My son is not going to read this book; and 2) he's not going to be marked down in his grade for not reading it."
The principal started to say, "...But-...but...but." Dr. Hyles said, "No, there is no but about it. It is settled. I'm telling you now he's not going to read it, and he's not going to be marked down."
So they brought some egghead in, and this guy looked at Dr. Hyles and said, "Now Mr. Hyles, your son is not going to read anything in this book that he won't read on the rest room walls." Do you know what that preacher said? He said, "Yes, and when you make the rest room walls required reading, I'll be back in your office."
And thirdly, innovation. What I mean by that is we need some creative alternatives that allow parents the freedom of choice as to where they send their children to school. I don't believe school vouchers is a political issue, I think it is a moral issue. One of the members of the educational establishment vehemently opposes school vouchers, and this is his reasoning:
Surely parents will refuse to spend "their" vouchers on anything but "education" that strives to enforce whatever values they have with so much effort imposed on "their" children. Thus, [voucher plans] legitimate a series of petty tyrannies in which like-minded parents clubbed together to force-feed their children without restraint. Such an education is a mockery of the liberal ideal.22
What this man is saying is he is against vouchers because you might send your child to a school that will reinforce the values you are trying to teach your children, rather than the values some Washington bureaucrat wants to impose on your children. I find it interesting that when it comes to abortion, the government wants to give you the right to choose, and they want to pay for abortions with your money. But when it comes to education they do not want you to have the right to choose, and they don't want to pay for it with your money. (Notice I said your money, not their money, because the only money they have is your money.)
Finally, there must be intercession. We need to pray, first of all, for the principals, the teachers, the professors, and the administrators of our schools. We need to affirm them as much as we can and encourage them. They have a difficult job, and they need us in every way to stand by their side as much as we can, and love them, and help them, and support them. One thing I have learned is that no one can ever fight the prayers of God's people.
But I want to close with a quote from a dear lady named Nadiia Hunder. In 1989 she wrote a letter to the publication, Soviet Ukraine. Hunder's message ought to be read in every school in America. She wrote:
Today, as a consequence of an atheistic upbringing, we are knee-deep in alcoholics, drug addicts, other chemically dependent individuals, loafers, bums, criminals, savages, uncouths, dullards, cruel and frightful juveniles who commit crimes for the fun of it. These are people who are brought up by non-believer parents in an atheistic society. Christians lived with religion for a thousand years and provided us with a rich heritage, which we have succeeded in destroying without fire or flood...it would be a very good thing if, in restructuring the school curriculum, the education specialist included teaching of religion in our schools.23
When God's rule is taken out of the school, the children suffer most. God doesn't need the schools, but the schools need God. God grant that one day He will walk back into our schools, and godly young children and teenagers and men and women will walk out.
1 Cited by D. James Kennedy, Learning to Live with the People you Love, p. 124.
2 A. A. Hodge, Popular Lectures on Theological Themes (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publications, 1887), p. 283.
3 Cal Thomas, Think Before You Drink, July, 1996, p. 16.
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid.
6 Educational Testing Service, Annual Report, 1991 (Princeton, New Jersey: ETS, 1991)
7 National Commission on Excellence in Education, A Nation at Risk: A Full Account, ed. U.S.A. Research Staff, 1983.
8 Vincent Ryan Ruggiero, Warning: Nonsense is Destroying America, p. 12.
9 D. James Kennedy, What If Jesus Had Never Been Born?, p. 55.
10 Michael Wolff, Where We Stand: Can America Make it in a Global Race for Wealth, Health, and Happiness (New York: Bantam Books, 1992), p. 53.
11 Reported in the Chronicle of Higher Education, 20 November 1991, 839.
12 Thomas L. Gippen, "In Defense of Accurate History Education," Policy Insights, NO. 512, September 1993.
13 Rush Limbaugh, See, I Told You So, p. 190.
14 Edward Cline, "The Best and Worst of Everything," Parade, 30 December 1990, p. 5.
15 A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform, Report to the Nation and the Secretary of Education, United States Department of Education by the National Commission on Excellence and Education (Washington, D. C.: U. S. Department of Education, 1983), p. 5.
16 John W. Whitehead, "Freedom in the Public Schools: Standing Against the Tide of Secularism," Fundamentalist Journal, September 1985, p. 17.
17 Cal Thomas, The Things that Matter Most, p. 56.
18 Zig Ziglar, Raising Positive Kids in a Negative World, p. 47.
19 William J. Bennett, The Devaluing of America, p. 166.
20 William Kilpatrick, Why Johnny Can't Tell Right from Wrong, p. 100.
21 Ibid.
22 Philip E. Johnson, Reason in the Balance, pp. 158-159.
23 Cal Thomas, p. 118-119.