Warning! Public Schools Aren't For Christians 

IF THE FOUNDATIONS BE DESTROYED

Psalm 11:3 "If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? " (Psalm 11:3). There are reasons for the deterioration of anything in life, and the most obvious reason is neglect. It is not that people want to have the results of neglect in their lives, it is just that in the busyness of life, untended problems take their toll. When my father-in-law was living, he owned a ten-unit apartment building, and I noticed how he constantly spent time maintaining the apartments. He never let even minor problems escape his watchful eye. I learned many valuable lessons over the years from observing him and helping him maintain that building.
In a similar manner, parents must maintain high educational standards for the sake of their children. It is amazing how decayed and fallen the educational system of America has become. In the last 35 years, the Christian educational foundations established by our Founding Fathers have been tragically destroyed.

HARVARD UNIVERSITY:

In 1636, Clergyman John Harvard contributed his personal library and property for the founding of the first college in America, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Within 16 years of the landing of the Pilgrims, America had a college "to train a literate clergy." Rules and precepts for the school's charter were formulated on September 26, 1642. They stated in part (original spelling retained):

"Let every student be plainly instructed, and earnestly pressed to consider well, the maine end of his life and studies is, to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternall life, John 17.-3 and therefore to lay Christ in the bottome, as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning. And seeing the Lord only giveth wisedome, Let every one seriously set himself by prayer in secret to seeke it of Him. "

THE OLD DELUDER SATAN LAW:

Shortly after Harvard was established, the colonists of Massachusetts and Connecticut wanted the children of their respective colonies to be educated in order not to remain ignorant of Christian self-government, nor to lack the ability to govern themselves according to God's Word. The leaders of Massachusetts and Connecticut passed the "Old Deluder Satan Law" in 1647. This law stated:

"It being one chiefe project of that old deluder, Satan, to keepe men from the knowledge of the scriptures, as informer time .... It is therefore ordered .... [that] after the Lord hath increased [the settlement] to the number of fifty howshoulders, [they] shall forthwith appoint one within theire towne, to teach all such children as shall resorte to him, to write and read ... and it is further ordered, That where any towne shall increase to the number of one hundred families or howshoulders, they shall sett up a grammar schoole for the university.

WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE:

William and Mary was founded in 1693 in Williamsburg, Virginia, through the vision of Reverend James Blair. The seminary-college became the home of education for many of the Founding Fathers of America. Men such as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, George Wythe, John Tyler, John Marshall, and sixteen members of the Continental Congress studied there. The school's charter, drawn up in 1693, stated the goals and purposes of the college: "William and Mary, by the grace of God, of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, King and Queen, Defenders of the faith, to all whom these our present Letters shall come, greeting.

"Forasmuch as our well-beloved and trusty subjects, constituting the General Assembly of our Colony of Virginia, have had it in their minds, and have proposed to themselves, to the end that the Church of Virginia may be .furnished with a Seminary of ministers of the Gospel, and that the youth may be piously educated in Good Letters and Manners, and that the Christian Faith may be propagated amongst the Western Indians, to the glory of God"

YALE UNIVERSITY:

In 1701 a Collegiate School at Saybrook, Connecticut, was started by ten Congregational ministers. The school was later moved to New Haven, Connecticut, and renamed Yale in honor of Mr. Elihu Yale, an American-born English merchant and governor of the East India Company. Mr. Yale donated books and materials from his fortune, totaling $2,800-a considerable sum for those days. He was instrumental in shaping the college bylaws, which stated the chief aim of education:

"Every student shall consider the main end of his study, to i4)it, to know God in Jcsus Christ and answerably to lead a Godly, sober life."

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY:

Princeton was originally called "The College of New Jersey" and was located in Princeton, New Jersey. Over the years the name was simplified to Princeton. Like all of America's early colleges, the school was established to train young men in "God's Holy Word and to become a useful ordainment to society." The sentiment of America's educators is seen in this quote by Princeton's first president, Rev. Jonathan Dickinson.

"Cursed be all that learning that is contrary to the cross Of Christ."

I wonder what Rev. Dickinson would think of America's educational system today. I shudder to think what he would think of the fact that the majority of Christian parents place their children in the schools as they stand today. You can see that America's early schools were intended strictly for the propagation of Christian principles and the refinement of the character of sinful man. Our Founding Fathers realized that America would be successful only if its citizens were a religious and moral people. They also knew that they must establish Godly schools in order to educate youth to control sinful passions by the reading of God's Word, the Bible. While President of the United States (I 801-1809), Thomas Jefferson chaired the school board for the District of Columbia, where he wrote the first plan of education adopted by the city of Washington. That plan used the Bible and Isaac Watts' hymnal as the principal books for teaching reading. His sentiments were as follows:

"The Christian Religion, when divested of the rags in which they [the clergy] have enveloped it, and brought to the original purity and simplicity of its benevolent institutor, is a religion of all others most ftiendly to liberty, science, and the freest expansion of the human mind "

The obvious deterioration of a nation is caused by the removal of God's principles, contained in His Word, the Bible. Even a passing study of Israel's forsaking of God's commandments will bear out this truth. America is foolishly heading down the same road that Israel traveled in forsaking God. Note the blatant violations that have transpired in the past 100 years, and weep for this nation. On June 25, 1962, the Supreme Court declared in Engel v. Vitale that it was unconstitutional to use the Bible in government schools, that,

"A wall of separation between church and state exists."

That disastrous decision opened a "Pandora's box" of attacks on Christian values in the government schools of this once-Godly land. The following summer, on June 17, 1963, the same Court ruled on the case of Abington v. Schempp and stated:

If portions of the New Testament were read without explanation, they could be ... psychologically harmful to the child "

In Stone v. Graham in 1980, the Supreme Court ruled that the Ten Commandments, which for centuries had been held in the highest honor by nations and various religions of the world, could no longer be placed on the government school walls of America. The Court said:

"If posted copies of the Ten Commandments are to have any effect at all, it will be to indue the school children to read, meditate upon, and perhaps to venerate and obey the Commandments....This is not permissible..."

 IT TAKES A FAMILY  

Proverbs 1:8-9 Mrs. Hillary Clinton wrote a book entitled It Takes a Village. The book falsely asserts that America's children need to be raised primarily by the community-a line of thinking prevalent in America today. Because of higher learning we have become a nation that believes that the "professionals" can do a better job than the parents. This idea is a great deception-especially for Christian parents. The Bible tells us that the instruction of children is the responsibility of the parents.

"My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother; For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck" (Proverbs 1:8-9).

The above Scripture does not say that the primary instruction should be left to government school officials, or the "village," but to the parent. If however, you choose to relegate your God-given responsibility, make sure that those you allow to teach your children are Godly and that the curriculum is Christ-centered-producing Christian virtues in the children which will then be "ornaments of grace."
Many Christian parents seem fearful that they do not have the intelligence to teach their children. The Bible declares that God "shall supply all your needs" (Philippians 4:19). Only recently have parents delegated the primary teaching of their children to others. Look back into history. Here are just a few of those who were taught primarily by their parents and relatives: Pilgrim Governor William Bradford, Jonathan Edwards, John and Charles Wesley, Wolfgang Mozart, George and Martha Washington, John Quincy Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, Florence Nightingale, and Woodrow Wilson.
The primary goal of the parent is to teach Godly, Christ-centered character, and this is something that all Christian parents can do. The ability to transmit knowledge will vary with parents' ability and educational background. In my experience, knowledge has come with maturity. Even relatively poorly educated parents, however, can take today's excellent curricula and learn together with their children. So the perceived weakness can be turned into a strength, as the students and parents learn together. You really can do this with your children!! In some ways, it becomes more fun for the children, as they become co-learners with their parents. And there is no better way to learn something than to teach it. But consider the danger of knowledge apart from Christ-like character. If this situation occurs, the result is frequently that the person only becomes a more clever devil. This is precisely the type of knowledge that is being imparted to young children in the godless government schools of America today.
The Bible says that the "natural man" (unsaved) does not understand the things of God. Why? Because the things of God are foolishness to him or her since he or she does not have the spiritual eyes received only when one is born again. I Corinthians Chapter 2, clearly shows that the wisdom of God is far superior to the knowledge of this world. According to God's Word, it is these eternal spiritual truths which parents have the responsibility to teach. However, government schools will not allow these essentials to be taught. Indeed, in the godless system currently in place, it would be impossible for the schools to do so.
The majority of Americans have mistakenly made the quest for higher learning the equivalent of an idol. Consider how often even Christian people will ask young people, "Where do you plan to go to college," or "What profession do you plan to follow?" Perhaps better questions would be, "What has the Lord been showing you lately?" or, "Where do you believe the Lord may be calling you to serve Him?"
It is amazing to think that the Israelites left Egypt with all its fancy systems of knowledge and its many conveniences of the day, in order to be intentionally led into the wilderness where there were no schools or market places. Perhaps the Lord had to deprogram Israel from the humanistic elements they had adopted while living in Egypt for more than four hundred years. Perhaps the Lord wanted to teach Israel that they needed to be completely dependent on Him, rather than on the Egyptian form of government and society.
A major problem with education apart from God is that it creates in the student a false sense of self-sufficiency and independence. It enables the student to believe he can provide everything he needs for himself. Now, think this through. Is that what God desires? Or does He desire us to be completely dependent on Him for His manna? The impression I get from reading the Bible is that the Lord delights in those who lean upon Him and feel utterly helpless. Even continued higher education is not an end unto itself, but only a tool that the Lord can use if He deems it necessary to accomplish His goals and purposes on behalf of those who yield to His leading. Think of all the Christian people you know, and consider what they studied in all their years of schooling. How often is this education the source of their current livelihood? In my experience, it seems that the majority of people have been led into completely different professions from what they pursued in college.
By way of testimony, I was what school officials today might call a "late bloomer." The report cards I received had notes on the back for my parents to read, such as, "Your son is retarded." They invented remedial reading programs to help me, but these were of no avail. The Roman Catholic schools in those days used corporal punishment to train students how to learn. In my case, they broke sticks over my knuckles and twisted my ears until I was sure they would be removed completely. The sisters literally tried to shake sense into me and flunked me to improve my plight, but none of this worked. I did not learn to read, spell, or write until I was in the sixth grade at twelve years of age. By the twelfth grade, in spite of public and private education, I caught up to my senior graduating class and graduated as an average student.
During these trying days I had only one strength, and that was my faith in the Lord Jesus. I was convinced that someday, He would use me for His glory, in spite of my being "retarded." This He has indeed done. Today, some forty years later, I can say that the Lord has blessed me abundantly and has prospered me beyond my own expectations. (Ephesians 3:20)
As I look back over my early schooling, I can honestly say, as I am sure you too will admit, I have learned more outside of school then I ever learned in school. Besides some useful skills I learned in school, I now find I have additional things which I would be better off "unlearning," by the renewing of my mind through God's Word. Therefore, Christian parents are far more qualified than unredeemed "professionals" to instruct their children in what really matters most in life. In most cases, all they lack is the desire and commitment to follow God in this endeavor, as you will discover, as I urge you to read on.