By Libertatem Fidelium (read Part One here)

David Barton, in his book “Four Centuries of American Education”, gives a list of the ways education was secularized, beginning in 1962. Here are a few things from his list: 

“Voluntary prayer was forbidden; The inclusion of Scripture was terminated; Elective classes on religion were halted; The Bible was ordered out of school libraries . . . Religious artwork was covered; Religious content in student papers and speeches was forbidden and even penalized, with students being given a zero if they wrote on a religious topic; Invocations were excluded from graduations and athletic events . . . The names of previously celebrated holidays (e.g., Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, etc.) were changed to become completely secular (Fall Break, Winter Break, Spring Break).”

In short, the vision that the founders had for American education had been completely abolished.

Therefore, what? The point is this: as religion has been taken out of American education, its schools have also become less succesful academically. One example of this is to look at school questions from the 19th century compared to academic knowledge today. Consider the following elementary math problem from 1862: “How much money must be given with nine $100 shares at 15% discount, in exchange for eight $100 bonds at 2% discount?”

The next question is not only an elementary math problem from 1877, but a mental elementary problem, meaning that the student had to solve this problem in his head, without paper or pencil. “A boat worth $864 – of which ⅛ belonged to A, ¼ to B, and the rest to C – was lost; what loss did each sustain, it having been insured for $500?”

Both of these problems are from “Ray’s New Intellectual Arithmetic”, one of the most popular math texts in early America. What elementary students today could answer these questions? What adults, even? In the 1960s and 70s—before the long-lasting effects of secularization of education had truly hit—the United States still had some of the best-educated young people in the world, Patrick Kiger claims in his article “Boomers Once Led the World in Education. What Happened?”. However, things have changed since then. Studies nowadays (after the complete secularization of schools) show that U.S. students, when compared with other developed countries, hug the middle in international assessments—well below other industrialized and technologically advanced nations. In 2015, the PISA cross-national test found that the U.S. now ranks 38th out of 71 developed and industrialized countries in math and 24th in science, and that younger children in lower grades do better than those in higher grades, which seems to suggest that the longer American students stay in school, the less they seem to know.

This data shows a very interesting tie between education and religion. Why did education fall when religion and morality were removed? The answer is because religion encourages people to have good principles and morals, leading them to work hard for good things that will bring them success. Because religion and morality are the foundation of the American Republic, it makes sense that when religion was removed from education, that education would be less successful academically. There are also other consequences besides the lack of academic success. When people have no solid foundation, which comes from religion, they are more easily convinced and tricked into doing things that take away theirs or others’ liberty. The founders wanted to prevent this by including religion in education, but We the People have forgotten their reasons and have left the path they wanted us to stay on. 

Sources

Barton, David. Four Centuries of American Education. WallBuilder Press, 2004. The full list is on Page 46.

Ray, Joseph, 1807-1855. Three Thousand Test Examples In Arithmetic: Drill Exercises for Review. Electrotype ed. Cincinnati: Wilson, Hinkle & Co., 1862. “Article 217 – Stocks,” #4.

Ray, Joseph, 1807-1855. Ray’s New Intellectual Arithmetic. Cincinnati: Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co., 1877.  “Lesson LXI”, #13.

Kiger, Patrick. “Boomers Once Led the World in Education. What Happened?” AARP, 19 June 2013, https://blog.aarp.org/bulletin-today/u-s-global-education-rankings-slipping-boomers-once-held-strong-lead.

Desilver, Drew. “U.S. students’ academic achievement still lags that of their peers in many other countries.” Pew Research Center, 15 February 2017, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/02/15/u-s-students-internationally-math-science/.