God Centered Education
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, Prov. 1:7
America’s founding fathers sought God’s leadership as they interpreted the form of government He would bless. They prayed diligently, debated forcefully and came to the conclusion – The 10 Commandments wrapped in Law, Love and Logic would provide the foundation for an emerging nation.
George Washington said, “Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail to the exclusion of religious principle. It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.”
Colonial America embraced the certain knowledge that to understand the universe, culture and mankind that we must first know the Creator. As our forefathers searched their Bibles, they found that the function of government was to protect life and property. Education was not a responsibility of early American civil government.
FREE-MARKET EDUCATION
For two hundred years in American history, from the mid-1600s to the mid-1800s, public schools as we know them were virtually non-existent, and the educational needs of America were met by the free market. In these two centuries America produced several generations of highly skilled and literate men and women who laid the foundation for a nation dedicated to the principles of freedom and self-government. The cornerstone of early American education was the belief that “children are a heritage from the Lord.” Parents believed that it was their responsibility to teach them how to make a living, but also how to live.
Without ever spending a dime of tax money, children in early America learned the basic academic skills of reading, writing, and ciphering necessary for getting along in society. Illiteracy was virtually absent in America, because parents taught their children how to read at their knees outside of a formal school setting. Coupled with the vocational skills children learned from their parents, home education met the demands of the free market.
Why is it important for us to understand the roots of American education? Our forefathers knew when, “…a nation or a people fail to acknowledge and give proper recognition of where our freedoms and liberty come from then they fail to pass that on to another generation. It is only a matter of time before that generation will slip down into oppression and bondage. They will lose their freedoms.”
What it will it take to strengthen the schoolhouse of America today? Does the solution reside in government? Or will the people of America determine the pathway of self-governance for future generations based upon time-tested precepts. A nation that:
- Opens the door for knowledge available to all
- Recognizes wisdom is an individual pursuit
- Values education built upon the highest common denominator, not lowest
- Believes responsible knowledge begins and ends at home
- Understands knowledge apart from our Creator is vacuous
American’s are a forward looking people, happy to embrace newness and innovation. We cannot return to a system that was not perfect – unable to supply education to every child regardless of color or gender. That was yesterday…but we cannot afford to forget the foundations of a nation that thrived and was built upon individual freedoms and corporate responsibility. Nothing can be more important the future generations of our nation – instilling knowledge that founded on wisdom; and, wisdom that seeks the highest good for all.