The current state of education is at a historic low. Academic trends have been moving down for years, and student's grades have followed. A quick look at standardized test scores reveal that America is no longer the academic leader that it once was. Even when the tests are watered down or the number of questions reduced, the results barely improve. In 1993, the $14 million dollar National Adult Literacy Survey found that even though most adults in the survey had finished high school, 96 percent of them still could not read, write, or do math well enough to go to college. That means there were only 4 percent could! Even more to the point, 25 percent of those that were surveyed "were plainly unable to read."[1] Why? Because traditional methods of teaching the foundations of reading, writing, and arithmetic have been put out to pasture and replaced with trendy named experiments that continue to produce poor results.
Not only have academics suffered, traditional family values or common sense morals have suffered just as much if not more. The Bible and prayer have been totally exiled from the government school system, and along with them biblical morality, and with no moral standard, children are left to develop their own idea of right and wrong with the aid of programs like Values Clarification and other outcome based approaches. But what are the results? Have we created the ultimate utopian citizen? Absolutely NOT! Children are killing other children and teachers too. More and more children are becoming victims of violent crimes while at school, teen pregnancy has increased many times over, and a growing number of children are on drugs. One of the worse parts of this last crisis is that many of these children are taking some form of legal psychotropic drug like Prozac, Ritalin, Luvox, and Paxil. Things are truly looking grim. Our youth are in desperate trouble today and in need of being rescued. But only with a return to a Bible based educational system can we hope to save them.
A quick look at the major discipline problems in schools from just over a half a century ago reveals quite a change since that time. The top seven school discipline problems in 1940 were: talking, chewing gum, making noise, running in the halls, getting out of turn in line, wearing improper clothing and not putting paper in the trash can. In 1987, the same questions were posed again and these were the answers: drug abuse, alcohol abuse, teen pregnancy, suicide, rape, robbery and assault.[2] But the truly sad part of all this is that the vast majority of parents, including Christian parents, never give their children's education a second thought. Institutional, state run, government education has, in just over 100 years, become the national norm. It has become a non-issue for the majority of parents! It has simply become what people do with their kids for seven to eight hours a day, five days a week. In his book "The Harsh Truth About Public Schools" Bruce Shortt asks of Christian parents: "Why are you educating your children in a pagan seminary?" He says "You're a Christian; you love your children; you know that the Bible instructs you to raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Yet, you send them for their education to an institution from which all vestiges of Christianity were driven out long ago."[3] So why do Christian parents do this to their children without ever considering the consequences? They do it, simply because that's how education is done today, and for some reason, most accept it without question.
Without a doubt, things are bad, and from the looks of it, they are not going to get any better by themselves. Left alone and allowed to continue on its same course, the educational system of modern America is doomed to a dismal failure, and in light of this, some kind of rescue effort is desperately needed. In his commentary for June 17, 2005, Dr. Albert Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary put it this way; he said "now is the time for responsible Southern Baptists to develop an exit strategy from the public schools." But exit to what? Do we move to a system of education that just mimics the public school system with a good dose of Christianity added in? No, that wouldn't be helpful. So where do we start? If the effort is going to be successful, we must focus our attention on the most critical areas first. For the government schools in modern America, the two primary areas of concern are: the academic and the moral. And while there are many other side issues, they all seem to stem from one of these two primary issues. So if the rescue effort is going to be even partially successful, it will need to focus on these two areas first.
WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD?
Let's take a more in-depth look at these two areas of concern. First, what does this academic decline mean for our children and their future? It will likely lead to our nation being surpassed by other, better educated nations. Since it is already happening on the academic front, it will soon happen on the economic front as well unless some drastic changes are not made. Colleges and universities are already spending more and more time teaching remedial programs to their students than they are advanced courses. Businesses are spending millions to train employees in basic math and communication skills before they are even marginally qualified. The end result can only be a loss of jobs and market share in our hi-tech modern world.
But while the academic decline is a crisis in itself, the greater of the two issues is the moral decline. Overall as a country, we are teaching generation after generation that man can determine truth apart from God, and the end result of this can only be spiritual bankruptcy. With programs like values clarification, school-to-work, OBE, drug awareness education, graphic sex education, and many others, children are creating their own value system; they are creating their own standards for right and wrong, and as a result, violence is at an all time high. This was clearly seen in the events of recent days. During the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in late 2005, we saw video after video of looters; bands of five to seven young people, wondering the streets of New Orleans breaking into shop after shop, steeling whatever they could take. They were not after food and water, but things like new shoes, jewelry, electronics, and guns. But not only is violence on an upswing, sexual immorality is rampant as well. Homosexual clubs are becoming common place on the public government school campuses of America. Every kind of sexual deviancy is being taught and even sanctioned from the American classroom. Drug use is also on a rise. But this time, the most common drugs are not the illegal ones, but they are legal forms of psychotropic drugs such as Prozac, Ritalin, Luvox, and Paxil. So yes, things are looking bad, we must intervene soon. If we do not, we may not be able to reverse the damage.
However, there is a ray of hope. With alarm after alarm sounding over and over, many sleeping parents have finally been awakened. Many are finally taking notice of the magnitude of the situation and have started seeking educational alternatives. This new awakening has given rise to several new alternative forms of education. Charter schools, private schools both secular and Christian, and even a renewed interest in home schooling are all making a difference in the current crisis. But will it be too little too late? Only time will tell. But if we ever expect to see any real change in the educational environment of our nation, then we must return to seeking God's will as the ultimate direction for all of our educational efforts. The Bible clearly tells us that: "if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land."[4] Only then, when we as Christian parents, return to a biblical model of education for our children; only then can we expect to see the positive results of God's intervening blessings. As Christian parents, we must do this; our children deserve it and our God demands it.
[1] Susan Du Plessis B.D., B.A. Hons (psychology), Dyslexia: Is the Shoe Perhaps on the Wrong Foot? , http://www.audiblox2000.com/dyslexia_dyslexic/dyslexia003.htm.
[2] Short, 176, and California Department of Education, in Sept, 1987, quoted in Homemade, http://www.bible.org/illus.asp?topic_id=965
[3] Shortt, 17.
[4] 2nd Chronicles 7:14.
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