Reforming American Education
It’s Not the Amount of Money; It’s the Amount of Truth that Matters
Americans especially, are bombarded with statements and books that declare “Our schools are failing.” President Obama even declared on March 11, 2009, in a speech to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce:
For decades, Washington has been trapped in the same stale debates that have paralyzed progress and perpetuated our educational decline. Too many supporters of my party have resisted the idea of rewarding excellence in teaching with extra pay, even though it can make a difference in the classroom. Too many in the Republican Party have opposed new investments in early education, despite compelling evidence of its importance.
The State Educational Technology Directors Association released a report April 2, 2009 that asserts technology has the “power to increase student achievement and engagement, and equip our nation's children and teachers with the knowledge and technological proficiency necessary to position America as a leader within the increasingly digital, competitive, and global economy.” The Partnership for 21st Century Skills released a report arguing that Americans believe education should include more than the “Three R’s” of reading, writing, and arithmetic and the incorporation of aspects of critical thinking and computer skills into curriculum is essential to the economic success of America in the twenty first century. Based on much of what our government leaders are declaring and what data demonstrate, many Americans may have thought at one point, “Our schools are not prepared to help our students learn what they need for work and life in this very different and constantly changing world…What should we do?”
There have been many responses to this question, especially during this present Administration, and many tend to revolve around throwing money at problems: “Buy more computers.” “Give more money to this project.” “Donate money to Candidate X’s campaign and he or she will make the changes needed for our students to succeed.” These responses beg the question: Is throwing money at problems the real answer to life’s challenges, or is there a better option?
Buying the latest, greatest gadgets no more educate people for future success than planting our feet in the dirt makes us a tree. If our schools are to adjust to the globalization of the world economy, then our perspectives and our behaviors have to change from their present humanist-based concepts back to the Judeo-Christian-rooted concepts that once made this nation great. We must get back to solid truths upon which the world was created so that when we do promote education reform and underwrite it with tax dollars, it will have a chance to succeed. We must therefore seek the perspective of the one who placed this world in motion: God.
The current Westernized philosophies of education teach that we should take the time to rationalize reality, postulate what actions can be taken to fix problems, and then put our ideas into action through SMART goals and well-funded legislation. While these are often necessary steps paving the road to education reform, we need to first understand that the devil is a liar and murderer and has been since the beginning (John 8:44), and he is intent on deceiving man into thinking he can be his own god rather than relying on the truths that come forth from the mouth of the living God. Satan knows that failure to incorporate the enlightening direction of the Creator will result in failure, and when man attempts to advance ideas based on his own understanding instead of that from the Truth, lapses in judgment will occur.
We find this strategy first used in the Garden of Eden when the serpent questioned God’s instructions to Adam and Eve. When confronted with temptation of self-sustenance rather than relying on God’s wisdom and provisions, Adam and Eve failed to regard God’s direction as life-giving and instead made an egocentric decision to partake of the forbidden fruit. This yielded the curse of imperfection throughout mankind (the Bible calls it “sin”), and when modern reformers attempt to make decisions absent of God and his direction, a revisiting of imperfection frequently occurs. When our leaders attempt reform vacant of the wisdom provided in the Bible, principally-similar mistakes to those made by Adam and Eve are made. This is one of the many reasons so many of our government programs that endeavor reform – those based on a separation of church and state philosophy – rapidly become money-pits that result in more economic harm than they do social benefits. Thinking that we can reform society absent the very being that created it is delusional.
Atheist-based reforms have been attempted before. The 18th century French Revolution yielded the miscreant Robespierre, the macabre guillotine and 40,000 decapitated gudgeons. Twentieth century and Marxist-based communism produced the gulags and the Glorious Revolution, not to mention the untold deaths of millions. And now one finds America attempting an atheist reformation in education, and the results have been unkind. Presently in a deplorable depression, Americans are turning to self-aggrandized government leaders to materialize physical solutions to spiritual problems, which is similar to placing a band-aid on a cancerous limb.
What does God have to say regarding education? We must first begin by identifying the source of wisdom and knowledge. That is found in Proverbs 1:7, which promulgates that the fear (reverence, veneration) of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. When a nation eschews its source of knowledge it then positions itself for much of the failures reported above. Secondly, Proverbs 8:1 asks rhetorically, “Does not wisdom call out? Does not understanding raise her voice?” God calls out to his creation and desires that they become wise. God desires that we make good decisions based on fundamental truths and experience and he reveals to us in Proverbs 8:32 – 34 that if we do listen to his calling and instruction we will be wise and blessed. Our schools are ill-equipped to instruct our children not because of a lack of funding but because of a lack of curricular-integrated Biblical-based truths. Should we get back to allowing prayer in the schools and teaching our children that they were created for a purpose, God will give our leaders the wisdom to make good decisions regarding education and he will also bless those efforts. This would include blessing what our tax dollars would purchase as well.
Lastly, we need to understand as a nation that God doesn’t just show up in our lives randomly. He sometimes selectively appears at advantageous times so that we can come to know him in his holiness. In Luke 5:1-11, the reader finds Simon in a similar situation as that of American education…frustrated with the results. Simon, also known as Peter, spent all night toiling at his career (he was a fisherman) and caught nothing. In fact, he and some of his companions were washing their nets, probably cleaning out all of the trash they had caught when Jesus confronted them. Peter’s response to Jesus’ instruction to again cast his nets out into the deep waters was at first met with bewilderment, yet his actions teach us not to depend upon our own understanding but on the omniscient wisdom of God. Peter replied, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.” To Peter’s and his companion’s amazement, they caught enough fish to sink two boats, and it was then that Peter became aware of his own insignificance in comparison to God’s holiness (Luke 5:8).
Another example of how God uses the mundane operations of life in order to incorporate us into his will can be found by reviewing the story concerning the calling of Moses in Exodus chapters three and four. Moses was minding his own business, tending the sheep of his father-in-law like he routinely did since he was a shepherd. One day, as he neared a mountain, God appeared to him in the form of a burning bush. We have to understand Moses’ mindset at that time, because he did not have the Bible like we do to understand God’s mind at that time. Moses simply was doing what he always did when God appeared. When he noticed an unusual event occur, he further investigated it (Exodus 3:3). It was when he reflectively inspected the famous burning bush that God spoke to him. God declared to Moses that he had “indeed seen the misery of his people…and am concerned about their suffering” (Exodus 3:7). Further, God told Moses that he – God himself – planned to free the Hebrew people from the Egyptians and wanted to use Moses as one of his instruments to do so. Many of us know the rest of the story: God uses Moses to accomplish his will and the Egyptian army is destroyed as the Red Sea collapses on them.
God sometimes waits for his creation to get into times so tough, so miserable that we have nowhere else to turn but to him. God never causes sin to occur, but he is capable and willing to use what man’s sinfulness creates to be worked into his plan of salvation for all. God can and is calling out for America to turn back to him so that he can heal our land (II Chronicles 7:14). Reform begins in the heart and then carries over into the physical, which in this argument regards the education of our youths. If America will return back to its roots of the Judeo-Christian principles that established this “one nation, under God,” we can then better answer education reform questions currently being debated among our national leaders.
Careful introspection of our fundamental source of education is what is required to make decisions needed to adjust to the rapidly changing world around us. If the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and fools despise wisdom and discipline, then America needs to give heed to the instruction that God offers in his Word so that he can begin to reform that which we have broken. One of the greatest faults of mankind has been our selfish belief that we are and should be the focal point of society. When we mindfully consider the truths of God – those that place him at the center of the universe – and ask him to work in our lives exceedingly and abundantly, and then to maintain his perspective for what he wants to do in our nation, it is then that our leaders can begin to bring about real changes that will positively affect the real problems we face. Our schools are not currently prepared to help our students learn what they need for work and life in this very different and constantly changing world because our schools have been forced through man-made legislation and judicial decisions to circumvent the source of knowledge and the one actually supervising the changes occurring in the world.
If American legislators genuinely seek to positively impact education, they then need to review the enlightened words of Founding Father and signer of the United States Constitution, Abraham Baldwin:
- As it is the distinguishing happiness of free governments that civil order should be the result of choice and not of necessity, and the common wishes of the people become the laws of the land, their public prosperity and even existence very much depend upon suitably forming the minds and morals of their citizens.
- When the minds of the people in general are viciously disposed and unprincipled, and their conduct disorderly, a free government will be attended with greater confusions and evils more horrid then the wild, uncultivated state of nature.
- It can only be happy when the public principles and opinions are properly directed, and their manners regulated.
- This is an influence beyond the reach of laws and punishments, and can be claimed only by religion and education.
- It should therefore be among the first objects of those who wish well to the national prosperity to encourage and support the principles of religion and morality, and early to place the youth under the forming hand of society, that by instruction they may be molded to the love of virtue and good order.
- Sending them abroad to other countries for their education will not answer these purposes, is too humiliating an acknowledgement of the ignorance or inferiority of our own ,and will always be the cause of so great foreign attachments that upon principles of policy it is inadmissible.
Once our nation returns to Biblical-based truths, we can then be sure that our education reform efforts will be blessed and our instruction will prosper (Proverbs 16:20).
