Who Was John Dewey?

Posted on December 17, 2024 | by Elise DeYoung | Leave a Comment

By Elise DeYoung

If history teaches us anything at all, it is that ideas have consequences. Socrates’s ideas prompted his execution, the American ideas freed a nation, and Marx’s ideas killed 100 million people. Indeed, ideas have a cost. Perhaps this is why Scripture consistently warns of corrupt philosophies, bad company, and false teachers. A nation’s teachers have the power to mold its civilization, so some of the most consequential ideas are those believed and taught by educators. Thus, it is our responsibility as free people to keep our educators accountable for the ideas they teach.

Generally, we have failed to do this, and today, our education system is overrun with bad ideas. The consequence of education should be the creation of literate, well-rounded, educated citizens, and the American public school system has failed to do this. This is reflected in the numbers found by The Nation’s Report Card (NAEP):

26% of students are proficient in mathematics
32% of students are proficient in reading
24% of students are proficient in writing

Clearly, we are watching a bad idea unfold before our very eyes. But who promoted this bad idea? What inspired them to do so? Briefly put, government schools were first proposed by a communist utopian named Robert Owens (1771-1858). He believed that, through government-run education, he could condition the masses to accept communism, thereby creating a utopia. The Prussian elites were the first to implement this idea nationwide, and in the early 19^th century, they established a harsh education system that outlawed all alternative forms of education. Only a few years later, Horace Mann (1796-1859), inspired by the Prussian government, became the chief advocate of government schools in the United States and established the first Board of Education.

Shortly after Mann’s death, John Dewey entered the government school system. As Dewey grew older and formed his philosophy, he began to view public schools as impractical and oppressive, so he sought to reform the system that had educated him.

Because of his work in philosophy and education reform, John Dewey is a household name in academic circles. His disciples and critics hold two opposite views of him: Advocates of government schools laud John Dewey as a benevolent hero, while public school abolitionists slander him as a bad actor. Whether you believe he was a saint or a Soviet, because of his influence on education reform, we ought to soberly educate ourselves on John Dewey’s life and what he desired to accomplish through education reform. Dewey became known through his own education credentials, academic pedigree, and reform policies.

Early Life and Education

John Dewey was born in Burlington, Vermont on October 20, 1859. Even at a young age, Dewey was an excellent student and naturally born teacher. Here is a timeline of Dewey’s college accomplishments and university professorships:

1859-1874: Student; Burlington Highschool, Vermont
1874-1878: Philosophy Student; University of Vermont
1882-1884: Philosophy Doctoral Student; John Hopkins University
1884: Assistant Professor; University of Michigan
1888: Professor of Philosophy; University of Minnesota
1889-1894: Philosophy Department Chair; Michigan University
1894: Founder; University of Elementary School at the University of Chicago
1894-1904: Philosophy Department Chair; University of Chicago
1902-1904: Director of the School of Education, Chicago
1904-1930: Professor of Philosophy; Teachers College at Columbia University
1930: Retired, Professor Emeritus; Columbia University

With such an impressive resume, it is unsurprising that the Dewey name still carries weight in philosophical circles.

Philosophical Influences

While Dewey was rising in academia, a new scientific discipline was developing overseas. In 1879, psychology emerged when Wilhelm Wundt founded the Laboratory in Leipzig, Germany. Here, Wundt first practiced psychology and taught other educators to do the same. One such disciple was an American named G. Stanley Hall. While Wundt worked to establish the broad practice of experimental psychology, Hall focused his efforts on exploring the development of children. Following his time in Germany, Hall took up a professorship at Johns Hopkins University, where he established the first American psychological laboratory; remarkably, one of his first pupils was John Dewey.

The Premise of Psychology

As Samuel Blumenfeld wrote in his book Crimes of the Educators, the simple premise of Wundt’s psychology was that “Human beings could be studied like animals and could be conditioned to behave as society wanted. Man, in other words, was nothing more than a stimulus-response organism.” This premise sounds outrageous to Christian ears because Scripture tells us that God created man in imago Dei. However, this premise seemed self-evident to secularist thinkers living in the era of Darwinism. Consequently, this idea was at the center of Dewey’s theories. In his book Democracy and Education, Dewey writes extensively about how human behavior is caused by basic biological instinct and that a function of education is to harness that instinct and channel it toward productive social action.

The Tenets of Humanism

Psychology alone did not influence Dewey. Along with the title philosopher, psychologist, and professor, Dewey was a self-proclaimed humanist and one of the first signers of the Humanist Manifesto. A religion with the proud slogan “Good without God,” Dewey quite literally worshipped the idea of perfecting humanity. For example, in the second tenet of Humanism, we read, “Humanism believes that man is a part of nature and that he has emerged as a result of a continuous process.” Once more, progressive evolution is at the center of Dewey’s worldview and belief system.

By understanding Dewey’s view on humanity, we can understand why he focused on reforming education. Like Robert Owen before him, he believed that man was a “creature of circumstance” who needed to be trained like an animal. So, in an effort to further man’s progress toward perfection, Dewey captured the classroom and applied his theories to it.

Education Reform, Human Reform

Robert Owen once said, “To train and educate the rising generation will at all times be the first object of society, to which every other will be subordinate.” John Dewey, it seems, took this mandate as seriously as Robert Owen had meant it. Because he was born into a world that had accepted Owen’s public school, Dewey focused on perfecting the system that was laid out before him.

In his writing, Dewey explored the questions, “What is the purpose of education?” and “How is that purpose best fulfilled?” In Democracy in Education, Dewey considered the former question:

“There is more than a verbal tie between the words common, community, and communication. Men live in a community in virtue of the things which they have in common; and communication is the way in which they come to possess things in common. What they must have in common in order to form a community or society are aims, beliefs, aspirations, knowledge—a common understanding—like-mindedness as the sociologists say.”

He claimed that, in order to last, a society must transfer its shared values and beliefs to the next generation through education.

“The subject matter of education consists of bodies of information and of skills that have been worked out in the past; therefore, the chief business of the school is to transmit them to the new generation. In the past, there have also been developed standards and rules of conducts; moral training consists in forming habits of action in conformity with these rules and standards.”

To put it briefly, Dewey believed education’s purpose is to transmit past generations’ values, information, and skills, and he aimed to discover and establish a method of teaching that would fulfill this mandate. In Experience and Education, Dewey considers the two prominent education methods during his lifetime: traditional and progressive schooling.

Traditional Schools, Progressive Schools

He writes that the purpose of traditional school is “to prepare the young for future responsibilities and for success in life, by means of acquisition of the organized bodies of information and prepared forms of skill which comprehend the material of instruction.” He took issue with “traditional schooling” because he believed it imposed itself on unprepared youth, destroyed the desire to learn, and failed to emphasize practical learning. It must be understood that Dewey was not referring to homeschooling or independent education methods when he referred to “traditional schooling.” Rather, this was his classification of the public school system he had been raised in.

As an alternative to the “traditional schooling” he had experienced, Dewey promoted the benefits of progressive schooling:

“If one attempts to formulate the philosophy of education implicit in the practices of the new education, we may, I think, discover certain common principles amid the variety of progressive schools now existing. To imposition from above is opposed expression and cultivation of individuality; to external discipline is opposed free activity; to learning from texts and teachers, learning through experience; to acquisition of isolated skills and techniques by drill, is opposed acquisition of them as means of attaining ends which make direct vital appeal; to preparation for a more or less remote future is opposed making the most of the opportunities of present life; to static aims of materials is opposed acquaintance with a changing world.”

Dewey wanted to create a system of schooling where learning was subjective, experience was valued above lecturing, and practical skills were cultivated. He believed that through education reform, humanity could be reformed to be well-equipped, useful citizens ready to fulfill social duties.

The Consequences of Dewey

John Dewey believed his ideas would create the best future for American education, but have they? A nation is shaped by its educators, and for over one hundred years, millions of Americans have given up their children as test subjects in the largest education experiment in history. It is time to seriously consider the real consequences of Dewey’s education reform. In this series, we will consider John Dewey’s role in creating the literacy crisis in our nation, introducing humanist teaching in the classroom, and redefining the purpose of education.

It is time for Americans to take a serious and sober look at the ideas of the man known as the father of progressive education. Only through a proper understanding of John Dewey and his ideas can we correct the consequences in every public school classroom around the United States.

Elise DeYoung is a Public Relations and Communications Associate and a Classical Conversations^® graduate. With CC, she strives to know God and to make Him known in all aspects of her life. She is a servant of Christ, an avid reader, and a professional nap-taker. As she continues her journey towards the Celestial City, she is determined to gain wisdom and understanding wherever it can be found. Soli Deo gloria!

Homeschool Idaho: Exposing the School Choice Threat

Posted on December 3, 2024 | by Elise DeYoung | Leave a Comment

By Annie Grey

“Freedom is a state of exemption from the power or control of another; liberty; exemption from slavery, servitude, or confinement. Freedom is personal, civil, political, and religious.” — Webster’s 1828 Dictionary

Exposing the School Choice Threat

We homeschoolers tend to be a cautious bunch, being wary of mainstream narratives regarding education. Especially those that affect our God-given freedom to choose how our children are educated. The strength of our freedom was built on a foundation of independence and a consistent refusal of government funding. These freedoms have been fought for by pioneering homeschoolers who, in some cases, were jailed and had their children removed from their homes as punishment for upholding their God-given right to freedom. Learn more about Idaho’s homeschool history by reading my article “Free to Homeschool.”

Recently, these convictions have wavered as many homeschoolers have joined the School Choice movement. “School Choice” is a term thrown around in many different states to emotionalize a choice we already have. Every parent already has the right to choose public, private, parochial, home, or online school for their children. The School Choice movement isn’t about providing a choice. Instead, it is about who will pay for that choice. Touted as the miracle that will save the American education system, School Choice proponents hawk sales-pitch slogans like vendors at a carnival, making lavished promises and downplaying obvious risks.

Maybe you’re just now learning about the School Choice movement, or perhaps you already understand it. Regardless of where you are, as lead learners in our homes, we must strive to educate ourselves on issues that matter.

Homeschool Idaho Resources

That is why Idaho’s state homeschool organization, Homeschool Idaho, has created a webpage with a wealth of information regarding the School Choice argument. Regardless of where you live, all the resources are relevant to homeschoolers. Do you want to learn what School Choice is and what it is not? Then check out the “What is…” page. Are you curious about what UNESCO has to do with School Choice? Be sure to visit the “UNESCO connection” page. Do you know who School Choice actually benefits? If not, read the “Does it deliver?” page.

The resources I have outlined, and many more offered, were created to help you educate and equip yourself and other homeschool parents to engage with this topic. As Homeschool Idaho exposes School Choice, I encourage and challenge you to share these resources with your homeschool friends, family, leaders of your homeschool organizations, and your legislators.

Stand Up for Freedom

As the ones with the most to lose, we must guard against emotional arguments, flowery words, political rhetoric, and the rat trap of “free” money. Let’s not fall prey because we are uninformed. Rather, let’s hold our state’s homeschool organizations to a higher standard by taking an unapologetic stand for homeschool freedom. Together, let’s choose better.

If we wish to continue to walk in the rights and freedoms to educate our children as ordained by God, we cannot be uninformed or silent. As Paul wrote in Galatians 5:1, “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”

Annie Grey is a Christ follower, wife, and momma to two CC graduates. When she isn’t serving families in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming as an Area Representative, she is enjoying the outdoors in many ways, working on the family homestead, teaching group fitness classes, engaging with her young adults in thought-provoking and interesting conversation, or curled up reading a good book. After launching her arrows, she is grateful in this season that God is still using her to encourage and support families who wish to homeschool.

Against the Secular Humanism of Progressive Education

Posted on November 26, 2024 | by Jennifer Bright | Leave a Comment

By Brian Tonnell

Originally published as a Classical Conversations blog.

After speaking at a Practicum in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, I was listening to the radio on my way back to the hotel. American Family Radio was airing a program called “Crane Durham’s Nothing But Truth.” On this program, the speaker discussed the importance of philosophy, describing worldview as “the water in which we swim.”

If true, would we not expect to be engulfed in that water? To become a fish comfortable swimming in that water? Would not this philosophical ocean affect our children as well? And if those murky waters repulse us, what can we do about it?

Swimming in a Sea of Worldview

Indeed, we all swim in a philosophical ocean.

Our culture’s worldview surrounds us like water surrounds a fish. In the car, secular radio bombards us with the philosophies of Macklemore, Bruno Mars, Pink, Miley Cyrus, and Lady Gaga (look up their lyrics and you will instantly understand).

In our homes, the barrage continues on television. It is nearly impossible to watch more than five minutes without encountering a blatant disregard for Biblical principles. In the grocery store, magazine covers promote our culture’s prevailing philosophy of humanism, naturalism, existentialism, and so on. Video games, advertising, and even billboards round out the philosophical waters of our culture.

However, there is one more philosophical aquarium that so many children swim—the classroom.

The Philosophy of Public Education

As homeschoolers, we spend much effort decrying public education by pointing to statistics that indicate a broken system, but all we are really doing is pointing to the symptoms.

Perhaps a better understanding of the philosophy underlying public education will help us see the root cause of its brokenness. What kind of water fills the public education aquarium?

In order to understand the problems of our modern education system, we must look to the philosophy which undergirds it. To do so, we must go back in time to the late 1800s.

G. Stanley Hall: The Voice for Child-Centered Education

G. Stanley Hall had an overwhelming impact on our modern educational philosophy.

Hall was a psychologist, educator, and philosopher who founded and served as the first president of the American Psychological Association. He believed that educating children based on a core of required subjects was detrimental to their development.

Largely influenced by Darwin’s evolution theory and by Freud’s ideas on the human psyche, Hall theorized that emphasizing intellectual attainment was disadvantageous and that the child’s needs should be placed at the center of the educational system.

As a result, “Hall’s findings ushered in a new era of pedocentric schooling in which schools adapted to the needs of children.” In his own words, he believed that childhood “comes fresh from the hands of God” and that children were “not corrupt.”

While his intentions may have been pure, his theories had a marked influence on another pioneer of American education, John Dewey.

John Dewey: The Father of Progressive Education

During the late 1800s and early 1900s, philosopher John Dewey made his mark on history and is still considered the Father of Progressive Education. According to PBS.org, Dewey “was the most significant educational thinker of his era and, many would argue, of the 20th century.”

Dewey’s worldview was humanistic, which was clearly evident in his philosophy of education. In 1933, Dewey joined thirty-three prominent religious, educational, and philosophical leaders in signing the original Humanist Manifesto.

Now, in order to understand his philosophy, let’s take a brief look at the Humanist Manifesto.

The Humanist Manifesto

The stated purpose of the Humanist Manifesto was to establish a new religion—one that places man at the center of the universe. The document states, “While this age does owe a vast debt to the traditional religions, it is nonetheless obvious that any religion that can hope to be a synthesizing and dynamic force for today must be shaped for the needs of this age. To establish such a religion is a major necessity of the present.”

The first two core beliefs of this new religion strongly assert that evolution is fact and all things are self-existing rather than created.

The fifth core belief is that “modern science makes unacceptable any supernatural or cosmic guarantees of human values.” This same core belief insists that human needs will determine the value of reality.

In other words, the concepts of right and wrong are determined by “intelligent inquiry.”

The ninth core belief states that converts to the Humanist religion will cooperate to “promote social well-being,” which, according to the eleventh and thirteenth core beliefs, will be carried out by institutions such as education and government.

Interestingly, and perhaps not incidentally, this belief mirrors that of another religious movement of the time called the “Social Gospel.” Ask your local Challenge III student for more information about this topic.

The fourteenth core belief establishes socialism as the superior economic framework and hints at communism as the premier governmental framework.

Finally, in the last paragraph, “Though we consider the religious forms and ideas of our fathers no longer adequate, the quest for the good life is still the central task for mankind. Man is at last becoming aware that he alone is responsible for the realization of the world of his dreams, that he has within himself the power for its achievement.”

Interestingly, this last idea is stated much more succinctly in the second iteration of the Humanist Manifesto (1973): “No deity will save us; we must save ourselves.”

John Dewey’s Humanist Philosophy

So, if this was the philosophical water in which John Dewey swam, what sort of educational philosophy did the Father of Progressive Education espouse?

Dewey believed that education was “a regulation of the process of coming to share in the social consciousness.” Further, he believed “the only sure method of social reconstruction” was “the adjustment of individual activity on the basis of this social consciousness.”

His goal was to reconstruct society via the education system. He believed that the teacher’s job was “to select the influences which shall affect the child and to assist him in properly responding to these influences.” He believed that the “right character” of children should be formed by “the influence of a certain form of institutional or community life upon the individual and that the social organism through the school, as its organ, may determine ethical results.”

The Humanist’s Goal: Shaping Society Through Education

In a nutshell, he believed that society must be shaped via the school system, that the character of future generations should be molded by the governmental institution, and that the idea of right and wrong should be determined by rigorous inquiry.

Based on his godless, humanist philosophy, the waters of his educational philosophy fell squarely within the ocean of his humanist religion.

The Corrosive Effects of Humanism on Students

So what? If we buy into the idea that Hall and Dewey’s philosophical waters overwhelmingly affected our modern educational system, what results might we expect? Might we expect a generation (or more) of students to grow up sharing this philosophy? That seems reasonable.

Abraham Lincoln once said that “the philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.” If his statement is accurate, might we expect to see a government that swims in the humanistic philosophical waters?

To say that our government radiates humanism is to speak an obvious truth.

To say the same about the children of our culture is, perhaps, not quite as obvious.

After all, especially in the church, we try to flood our children with a philosophy very different from that of the world, a philosophy opposed to humanism. We try to surround our kids in the philosophical water of a biblical worldview.

However, as a good friend of mine very shrewdly stated, at some point, every one of our children will ask, “Who is lying to me?”

The Nehemiah Institute Study: Worldview Erosion over Time

The Nehemiah Institute asked the same question I ask now: How are our school children affected by swimming in the waters of our culture’s philosophy? They began tracking the worldview of high school students in 1988, and have administered PEERS tests that assess students’ worldview in politics, education, economics, religion, and social issues.

The results are telling.

In 1988, public school students from Christian homes overwhelmingly fell into the “Moderate Christian” worldview—in their opinion, God was relevant to religion, but to nothing else.

By 2007, the same demographic (public school students from Christian homes) overwhelmingly fell into the “Secular Humanism” category (and on the cusp of socialism). Even private school kids from Christian homes showed a striking trend to assimilate into their surrounding waters. They overwhelmingly fell into the “Moderate Christian” worldview in 1988, but by 2007, they were comfortably swimming in the waters of secular humanism.” Only in the very small number of private, Christian schools that actively taught a biblical worldview did the students’ philosophy inch away from secular humanism and toward biblical theism.

Swimming Against the Current

The point is: yes, the philosophy of our culture is the water in which we swim, and regardless of the type of fish you are, if you swim in nothing else, you will eventually be assimilated into that water.

Does this mean that all non homeschooling teachers are humanists and socialists? Of course not.

Many of my own family members and good friends have been public or private school teachers. They love the Lord and reject the godless philosophy of our culture.

However, regardless of the type of fish they are, they are forced to swim in the educational philosophical aquarium of our culture. Are we to then jump out of the ocean and migrate to a new water source in which to thrive?

How to Survive the Putrid Waters

Alas, no. That would defeat God’s purpose for His people. In the seventeenth chapter of John, Jesus prays that God will not remove us from the ocean, but that we would be protected from it while fulfilling God’s mandate to be light and salt to the world.

Even so, we are to be foreigners in this world, resisting the temptation to drink from or thrive in its putrid waters. Colossians 2:8 warns us to avoid being captivated by the hollow and deceptive philosophies of the world. And so, we must remain, but we must provide ourselves and our children a cove of fresh, biblical water for respite, training, discipling, mentoring, reviving, strengthening, and resting. The church may seem a good place to provide this, but in reality the church is looking more and more like the world every day.

You Are the Key to Resisting the Secular Humanism of Progressive Education

This task falls squarely on you and me, the parents of our future.

We need to set up our children for success by giving them safe waters in which to swim.

For me, Classical Conversations^® is a critical, key ingredient to this task for my middle and high school children. We need to control the influences that bombard our children, whether through music, media, entertainment, or education. We need to train them how to respond to the philosophical waters in which they will eventually be forced to swim.

Sounds a lot like John Dewey’s philosophy. So, what separates this idea from his ideas?

John Dewey’s “savior” of the next generation was man himself through the influence of the school, the state, and the godless religion of humanism. But the real Savior of the next generation is unknown to either the school or the state.

It’s not the responsibility of the state to train our children in the way that they should go. Rather, this responsibility lies solely with you and me.

We must train and educate our children to know God and to make Him known; to love Him with their hearts, souls, and minds.

We must train them to be salt and light so that when they are eventually forced to swim in the rancid waters of our culture’s philosophy, they will be able to impact the culture and make a difference for eternity.

Read other articles on this subject here.

National Homeschool Day of Prayer

Posted on November 1, 2024 | by Jennifer Bright

By Lauren Gideon

Pray, Pray, and Pray Some More

If you are a mom like me, homeschooling is not new to your family’s rhythm. My oldest is a senior, and I have been his primary teacher since he was born. Right now, my prayers naturally turn toward asking for wisdom for this new season and what lies ahead for him and our relationship. I also naturally pray through the changes our family has been going through this last year and the changes still to come. I pray over the new events and trials for others in my life. I pray for the “new trees.”

In the forest of my life, sometimes I lose sight of what’s going on around me because it all looks the same. Most people have heard of nose blindness to the smells we’ve become accustomed to, but could there be a blindness to the consistent rhythms of our lives? My cousin once told me of a lady she knew who would literally stand in the bread aisle and pray over which loaf of bread to buy. That has never been my style, but could there be a chance that I am missing out on paying attention to and praying for the things that aren’t new, the things I find ordinary?

Today is National Day of Prayer

When I learned of Homeschool Freedom’s National Homeschool Day of Prayer, my thoughts turned to prayer. Here is the list of ideas this organization suggests should inform your prayers.

PLEASE JOIN US AND OTHER HOMESCHOOLERS ACROSS THE COUNTRY AS WE:

Give thanks for the freedom we have to homeschool our children,
Pray for homeschooling families in your own nation and around the world,
Pray for upcoming elections and the impact they may have on homeschooling,
Pray for your state’s homeschool organization and its leaders,
Pray for your elected officials to recognize that the education of children is the responsibility of the parents, not that of the nation,
Pray for your own family—your homeschooling journey and the Lord’s guidance as you take that journey, your relationships with one another, your own children and their futures, as well as seeking ways your family can minister to others,
Rejoice in God’s mercy and His faithfulness in all things.

If you’re like me, it’s good to have these reminders to help us see what we have become accustomed to seeing. If you are reading this, I’m praying for you, too. Wherever you are in your homeschooling journey, I pray that you will see the tiny miracles of grace happening in yourself and in the lives around you, that you won’t take a single school day (which is every day) for granted, and that you will invest each moment for the sake of the kingdom and for the smile of your Father.

Read other blogs by Lauren here.

Lauren Gideon is the Director of Grassroots Advocacy for Classical Conversations^® and she teaches through an organization committed to raising citizenship IQ on U.S. founding documents. She and her husband homeschool their seven children on their small acreage, where they are enjoying their new adventures in homesteading.

Are All Men Equal? A Lesson in Logical Equivocation

Posted on October 29, 2024 | by Jennifer Bright | Leave a Comment

By Brian Tonnell

Republished from a Classical Conversations blog.

Is logic really relevant in today’s culture?

All men are equal. You have heard it touted by advocates on all flanks. In our Challenge B class, we have recently looked at current cultural issues that commonly use that argument: All men are equal and so should have equal rights. Turning this into a Categorical Syllogism, we arrived at:

All equal beings are deserving of equal rights. (Major Premise)
All men are equal beings. (Minor Premise)
Therefore, all men are deserving of equal rights. (Conclusion)

The battle cry in question comes from the Minor Premise.

Logical Fallacy and the Misuse of “Equal”

While this argument is logically valid, it is neither true nor sound. How so? As in any argument, debate, or even persuasive essay we must define the terms. What does “equal” mean? The dictionary tells us it means “the same as” or “of equal value.”

In the Minor Premise, the word suggests “of equal value,” equal worth. This was the original meaning. It invokes a sense of higher power, of higher authority, even though it is most often misquoted in order to eliminate the Source of that authority. “All men are created equal,” not “All men are equal.” Interestingly, many groups using this misquote from the Declaration of Independence are the same groups that vehemently pronounce the Declaration is not a “founding document” (thereby eliminating the idea that rights are endowed by the Creator rather than the State).

However, in the Major Premise, the word takes on a different undertone. Here, it abandons the original definition and mutates to the idea that all humans are “the same as” all other humans. The implication is that all humans with a pulse are worthy of equal rights. But is this true? Are all humans really equal in this manner? And are they all deserving of equal rights?

Standards of Behavior and the Loss of Rights

Yes, all men retain their value as creatures made in the image of God, but do all men retain their equal status, and thence, equal rights?

Do they maintain their status as “the same as” everyone else?

Prisoners do not. They are not considered “the same as” everyone else and their equal status is revoked. Once their behavior becomes illegal and they are imprisoned, they cede their right to take a walk in the park. Once a compulsive kleptomaniac’s behavior is discovered, he is no longer “the same as” the rest and loses his right to work at the bank. People who lie under oath commonly do not retain their right to maintain positions requiring great trust. Felons do not retain their right to carry a gun or to vote. People who promote marital infidelity or champion child neglect generally relinquish their right to give advice to newlyweds or new parents.

Our culture readily accepts this idea and has an established pattern of classifying some as not “the same as” the rest, based on their behavior. This societal norm denies rights to people based on illegal or immoral behavior. What does this mean? It means that while all men possess equal value, they do not necessarily possess or deserve equal rights.

So, what does “equal” mean in this, the Major Premise? In the much-used argument, it is obvious that “equal” does not mean “created equal,” it does not mean “of equal value.” Instead, it means “everyone is the same as everyone else, regardless of behavior.”

So, where does that leave us? We have a valid argument presented to us, but a term has tacitly changed its meaning midstream. In logic, this is called the Fallacy of Equivocation. An example: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4, KJV). Since you are a woman, you are not commanded to be obedient to God’s Word. Here, the term “man” changes meaning midstream, committing the Fallacy of Equivocation. And the argument logically falls apart.

The Importance of Logic in Understanding Culture

If we have an obviously fallacious argument, how is it that people are so easily convinced by it?

If we accept the idea that people lose rights when departing from established standards of behavior (and we do), then the only recourse is to deny that those established standards of behavior are legitimate. And that is where our culture has landed, in the land of denial. Deny that any standards of behavior exist and the fallacious argument now seemingly holds water. If we can be convinced that our nation was not founded on biblical standards of behavior, then we cannot appeal to those standards to prove our indictment of Equivocation. If you believe that our nation was not founded on God’s principles, you will assume you have the right to a godless school system and a godless government, and you will assume that you are “equal” to everyone else, regardless of your actions.

When the standards by which we define “equal” are rejected, the fallacy seems to disintegrate, and people become inclined to believe that any behavior is acceptable, and that their immoral, ungodly behavior has no effect on their status as “the same as” anyone else. Essentially, this is like proclaiming that your boss has no right to discriminate against you (or fire you) for stealing the company’s money, because stealing the company’s money breaks no standard of behavior.

Seems simple enough, but, unfortunately, our culture is full of gullible “bosses” who are more and more believing that stealing company money is not only acceptable, but is, indeed, noble!

Even the Challenge B students, eighth-graders with young minds, are beginning to grasp how valuable a tool logic is and how relevant it can be in our current culture. Giving them the tools and training to logically think through relevant issues is a critical advantage that Classical Conversations affords. And hopefully, by the grace of God, they will make a lasting impact on our culture, showing that while all men are created equal, any man can squander his status as “the-same-as-the-next-guy,” by departing from the standards God has laid out in life’s instruction manual.

Colorado: Vote AGAINST Amendment 80

Posted on October 23, 2024 | by Jennifer Bright | 2 Comments

By Elise DeYoung

Who is responsible for the education of children?

Traditionally, the United States acknowledged that the responsibility of educating children fell primarily on the parents of that child. This common consensus can be seen in Supreme Court rulings like the 1925 decision Pierce vs. the Society of Sisters, and in the Merriam-Webster 1828 dictionary definition of “educate.” The definition explicitly states, “To educate children well is one of the most important duties of parents and guardians.”

However, today, many of our leaders are offering a different answer to this question. They argue that it is primarily the government’s job to ensure that children are properly educated. Consider what James Dwyer, a Professor at the William & Mary School of Law, stated in an interview: “The state needs to be the ultimate guarantor of a child’s wellbeing.” Even President Joe Biden said in a speech to public school teachers, “They aren’t someone else’s, they are all our children.” Furthermore, our current education climate is dominated by the public school system, state regulations on education, and crackdowns on independent education. It is clear that, in the eyes of our leaders and legislatures, parents are no longer primarily responsible for the education of children.

This past year, this worldview shift took root in the great state of Colorado. In fact, this November, citizens of Colorado will vote on Amendment 80, which, if passed, would enshrine this novel idea into their state constitution. What is Amendment 80? What would be its effects? Should voters in Colorado support it in November? All of these questions, and more, must be considered by the citizens of Colorado so that they can be prepared to vote either “Yes” or “No” when the ballot comes their way.

“To educate children well is one of the most important duties of parents and guardians.”

Amendment 80

Amendment 80 reads, “Section 1. In the Constitution of the State of Colorado, add section 18 to Article IX as follows: section 18. Education – school choice (1) purpose and findings. The people of the state of Colorado hereby find and declare that all children have the right to equal opportunity to access a quality education; that parents have the right to direct the education of their children; and that school choice includes neighborhood, charter, private, and home schools, open enrollment options, and future innovations in education. (2) Each k-12 child has the right to school choice.”

Briefly put, this amendment seeks to enshrine four claims in the state constitution:

All children have the right to equal opportunity to access a quality education.
Parents have the right to direct the education of their children.
School Choice includes neighborhood, charter, private, and home schools, open enrollment options, and future innovations in education.
Each K-12 child has the right to School Choice.

While these things may sound appealing, there are severe implications that must be considered before you vote on Amendment 80.

A Warning to Colorado

Parental rights vs. Child’s rights

The amendment is centered around the idea of a child’s right to quality education. The first problem, of course, is that if you give children rights, then you practically abolish parental rights. Parental rights” are a negative right, while a so-called “child’s right to education” is a positive right. Carolyn Martin, Director of Government Relations for Christian Home Educators of Colorado (CHEC), defined a negative right in her article Right to an Education? as “the requirement of someone else not to interfere in your ability to obtain something.” Conversely, Martin explains that positive rights “are a requirement of someone else to provide you with something.”

Parental rights require the government to ensure that nothing obstructs a parent’s ability to fulfill their God-given responsibility to raise and educate their children. This right is turned upside down. If we implement “a child’s right to education,” suddenly it becomes the government’s responsibility and jurisdiction to provide “quality education” for all children everywhere. The immediate effect of this is the government can no longer “stay out of the way.” It must oversee, regulate, and manage the education of all children to ensure that a child’s so-called “right to quality education” is protected. As soon as we permit the government to oversee our children, we abolish parental rights.

How is “quality education” defined in Amendment 80?

The second problem with Amendment 80 is the vague language of “quality education.” The big question this amendment fails to answer is, who gets to define “quality education”? UNESCO (United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization), the globalist organization that is actively working to globalize education, defines quality education as DEI education. Their website says that it is their job to “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.” When you sit down to educate your children, is teaching them diversity, equity, and inclusion your top priority? Hopefully not. But that is the priority of the elites who openly work to control your child’s education.

Parental rights require the government to ensure that nothing obstructs a parent’s ability to fulfill their God-given responsibility to raise and educate their children.

While the state of Colorado may not adopt UNESCO’s radical view of “quality education,” we must recognize that its definition has the potential to be hostile to a classical, Christian education. Most likely, its definition will look more like the public school system where the Bible is banned from classrooms, sex education is taught for all ages, and patriotism is cast to the side in exchange for progressivism.

In short, this amendment would enshrine in the Colorado Constitution that “The government is responsible for the education of your children.” This is such an egregious assault on parental rights and the natural law that organizations like CHEC are speaking out against this amendment and warning parents about the severe implications.

Protect Education Independence in Colorado!

In November, it is up to the voters of Colorado to protect your state from this blatant infringement on parental rights. Educate yourself on the amendment, share this information with your friends and family, and vote “NO” this November to protect your education independence.

For more information on what is on the Colorado ballot this November, visit coloradosos.gov.

Additional Resources

Listen to ‘Weaponizing “School Choice” to Control ALL Education’ by Alex Newman
Read ‘Citing UN Treaty, Scotland Assigns Overseer to Every Child’ by Alex Newman
Read ‘Right to an Education?’ by Carylon Martin

Elise DeYoung is a Public Relations and Communications Associate and a Classical Conversations^® graduate. With CC, she strives to know God and make Him known in all aspects of her life. She is a servant of Christ, an avid reader, and a professional nap-taker. As she continues her journey towards the Celestial City, she is determined to gain wisdom and understanding wherever it can be found. Soli Deo gloria!

Relating Science to Faith

Posted on October 22, 2024 | by Jennifer Bright | Leave a Comment

By Jonathan Bartlett

Originally published in the Classical Conversations blog.

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.” Proverbs 9:10 KJV

The question of how science relates to faith is one that seems to baffle many people, but this need not be so. This is a foundational issue, because the approach that a person has to this question will also influence how they think of faith in a wide variety of situations. Most people take one of three main approaches to the relationship of science and faith.

Approach 1: Science and Faith Cover Different Topics

One approach that is popular among theologians is to separate science and faith with a great wall preventing any entanglements between the two. This view was popularized by Steven Jay Gould, who used the acronym NOMA, which stands for “non-overlapping magisteria,” to describe it. In this view, science and faith cannot conflict, because they cover two different subjects, which do not overlap at any point. Science covers the objective, evidence-based principles and facts, and faith covers value-oriented ideas and ultimate meanings. This is also often called the fact/value split.

This view is endorsed by a wide variety of organizations, including the National Academy of Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The stated goal of this approach is to clearly demarcate the lines between faith and science so that neither one crosses into the other. It also takes into account the differences in methodology, and assumed differences in content. For instance, science, in large part, uses the inductive method for determining truth, while faith is about trust and hope. Philosophers have long pointed out that science is unable to deal with questions of value and morality on its own, so NOMA simply implements the converse as well—if science cannot reach morality, then neither will faith be allowed to reach facts.

Of course, in reality, this split really does not work. Christianity does make claims that relate to the natural world. God has revealed Himself in history, and this has affected nature and history. Therefore, evidence, facts, science, and faith all come together. In addition, scientists are always trying to expand the scope of what science covers—and they should do this.

Therefore, at least in theory, NOMA blunts both science and faith. However, in practice, most people who claim NOMA actually mean “science deals with whatever it wants to, faith deals with whatever science hasn’t gotten to yet”. For instance, the concept of “free will” would seem to be a question of faith, and yet the National Academy of Sciences, which openly subscribes to NOMA, has published supposedly scientific papers that deal with the question of free will.

The NOMA position even finds its way into many church denominations. While most do not have official positions supporting NOMA, one usually finds very few voices within the church willing to present any explicitly Christian view of science, or any science topic, except for Christ’s resurrection. Instead, the furthest they are willing to go is to express disapproval when scientists attempt to derive ultimate meaning from their theories and observations.

Approach 2: Science and Faith in Conflict

Another approach to science and faith is the “conflict” or “warfare” idea. In this view, science and faith are essentially contradictory ways of viewing the world. A scientific view of the world necessarily puts a person in conflict with religious modes of thinking, and a person of faith necessarily takes a negative view of science and scientific methodology. In this approach, any overlap between positions of science and faith are taken to be purely coincidental.

This approach takes science and faith to be two full, mutually incompatible worldviews. That is, any given question can be answered in a scientific framework, just as it can be answered in a religious framework. Therefore, science and faith “compete” for the answers to each of life’s questions. Note how different this is than NOMA. Under NOMA, science and faith are both given limits to the scope of inquiry. In the “conflict” idea, science and faith are not limited in scope, but form two mutually incompatible ways of addressing the same question.

The interesting thing about the “conflict” idea is that it is usually only held to by atheists and agnostics—it is almost never held to by Christians. It is usually held to by people who have expanded science into a religious position itself. Christians always have room for science, but atheistic materialists (people who think that the physical world is all there is) must expand science to fill their own religious needs. Unfortunately, popular news coverage nearly always assumes the “conflict” approach, and does not realize that Christians don’t find a necessary conflict between the two.

If this approach is so one-sided and non-sensical, why does it keep coming up? The fact is, in nearly every aspect of life, there are tensions between ideas. There are tensions between ideas in various disciplines, or even within a single discipline. None of these tensions means that there is a necessary conflict between two positions—this is simply the natural result of having incomplete knowledge. As long as our knowledge is partial and imperfect, there will always be tensions among the various ideas we hold onto.

This makes it easy for detractors of Christianity to paint faith positions as being anti-science. One needs only to find an issue, no matter how marginal (or tenuous), which may be in conflict with some person’s faith position, and then proclaim, “See—faith and science are irreconcilable!” In addition, in fact, most of these are based more on interpretation of the evidence than anything else.

Approach 3: Faith Seeking Understanding

The best approach I have found for integrating science and faith is the “faith seeking understanding” approach. In this model, faith is the total worldview, and science operates as one of many approaches for finding truth within that worldview. As Christians, we find truth in many places. We turn to history to find the truths of the past. We turn to science to find the truths of nature. We turn to philosophy to find the nature of reason. First and foremost, we turn to the Bible to find the truths that govern the other truths. In such an approach, science is certainly one of the means that we use to find truth.

However, science plays a subservient role—it is a discipline whose results are to be judged and weighed by people of faith, it is not the judge over faith.

It is interesting that the coherence of science itself relies on this model. Science itself relies on, but does not provide, a way to test for truth. While science demands that theories correspond with the preponderance of physical data, there are usually many theories, which have the same or similar correspondence. This comes as a surprise to many—most people assume that there is always only one theory, which is valid for a given set of data. The fact is, in many cases, the test for scientific truth is an aesthetic one. Scientists opt for theories, which are simple, elegant, and concise—in other words, beautiful theories. The only valid justification for this is that we expect this because of the nature of God that faith reveals.

This also means that, as Christians, when we participate in science, we should bring the expectations of Christianity with us. For instance, in my own research, I use as a starting assumption the idea that the genome is a designed system. Using that understanding, I have a better appreciation for what is happening within the genome. Since I believe that it is designed, I can reasonably compare it to other designed systems and make inferences and predictions based on those comparisons.

Teaching Our Children about Science

So how does this help us teach our children about science? We must teach our children, in every subject, to think about how various ideas make sense (or do not) within the context of Christianity. When we find ideas that do not make sense, we should ask ourselves—is this because of a lack of knowledge or a wrong interpretation of the evidence? If our goal is to bring every thought to the obedience of Christ, this must include science.

This does not mean that we should ignore subjects, which we have trouble integrating with our faith. Though future posts will cover this issue in more detail, we simply should attempt to understand such subjects thoroughly, teach ourselves to scrutinize the subjects well, and hold each idea to account under Christ.

You can see this “faith seeking understanding” approach reflected in the curriculum at Classical Conversations. Phil Johnson’s book, Defeating Darwinism by Opening Minds, used in the Challenge B curriculum, is one of the best introductory books not just on creation and evolution, but on the whole notion of academic study in any discipline from a theistic viewpoint. Likewise, the Apologia science curriculum used throughout the Challenge program also points in the same direction.

Check out Classical Converations^® blogs and Homeschool Freedom Action Center blogs.

The Hypocritical Public School Evangelist

Posted on October 16, 2024 | by Jennifer Bright | Leave a Comment

By Elise DeYoung

“Deeds survive the doers.” — Horace Mann

The origin of the public school system has all but been forgotten in the Western world. We seem to be under the impression that government schools have always been and always will be. However, a quick glance into history dismantles this ignorant idea. To understand the origin of government schools, we must examine a few basic questions:

Who came up with the idea of government-run education?
When was the first public school established?
What is the goal of public education?

American citizens, specifically parents, deserve to know the answer to these simple contextual questions because, as Aristotle observed, before you can know what a thing is, you must understand what it was designed to do. So, what were the public schools designed to do?

Origin of Government Schools

The idea of government schools was first proposed by a man named Robert Owen. Owen was a utopian collectivist who wanted to use universal government education to condition populations to accept the conditions of communism. Sounds promising, right? If you are not familiar with Owen and his work, I encourage you to read Global Utopia and Government Schools.

Continuing down the timeline of public education, we then become acquainted with a man named Horace Mann. It is likely that you have a vague recollection of Mann, though he is not talked about nearly enough. You may remember him as the father of public education or the great public school evangelist. However, I would propose that history remembers Horace Mann for what he truly was—a cynical theorist and a hypocritical reformist.

Born in 1796 to a poor farming family in Franklin, Massachusetts, Mann was largely self-educated because he could only attend school six weeks out of the year. During his childhood, he applied himself to studies at the Franklin public library and eventually attended Brown University in 1816, where he graduated as valedictorian. In 1822, he furthered his studies at Litchfield Law School, and the following year, he practiced law in Dedham, Massachusetts. His career in law was short-lived because, in 1827, Mann ran and won an election for the Massachusetts House of Representatives, where he would serve for six years.

When Horace Mann was elected to the Massachusetts State Senate in 1835, it became evident that he had a promising political career. With such a bright future ahead of him, Mann’s colleagues, friends, and family were shocked when he threw it all away in 1837 and turned his attention to radical education reform.

“Public Education is the cornerstone of our community and our democracy.”
— Horace Mann

The First Board of Education

Mann’s great ambition was to establish a nationwide, mandated, government-run, and controlled school system. He wrote, “Public Education is the cornerstone of our community and our democracy.” Some may counter that democracy is the cornerstone of our democracy, but regardless, Mann strongly believed that he would be the patriot to establish the American “cornerstone” of public education.

He quickly recognized, however, that before this could happen, these measures had to be executed on a local scale. In Massachusetts, there were a few publicly funded schools here and there (the first of which had been established in the 17^th century by Puritans with legislation called the “Old Deluder Satan Law of 1647“), so Mann turned his attention to the creation of the first Board of Education. This he accomplished very rapidly in 1837, and that same year, Mann accepted the position of secretary to the Board.

The function of the Board of Education was to oversee all education in the state of Massachusetts. It was so well-liked by legislators and politicians that only thirty years later, President Andrew Johnson promoted it to the federal level and was given the official title “The Department of Education.” However, according to the Department’s history, only one short year later, it was demoted to an Office of Education “due to concern that the Department would exercise too much control over local schools.”

Happily for Horace, unhappily for the American people, it was reinstated by Congress in 1979. In 2024 alone, the Department’s budget was 90 billion dollars. With so many billions of dollars at its disposal, Americans should begin asking the question first posed by politicians in the 19^th century: “Does the Department exercise too much control over local schools?”

This pressing question was clearly not a concern of Horace Mann because after establishing the Board of Education, his interest was piqued by the Prussian government, which had been actively imposing a universal government-run and controlled public school system for decades. What did this system look like? And could it be duplicated in the land of the free? In 1843, Mann traveled to Prussia to answer these questions.

The Prussian Model

In 1806, Frederick William III, King of Prussia, was defeated by Napoleon at the battle of Jena-Auestedt. In reaction to this embarrassing defeat, the Prussian elite blamed the independent and freethinking Prussian population for Napoleon’s victory rather than their own military miscalculations. They decided they no longer wanted soldiers and citizens who could think for themselves; instead, they wanted submissive people who they could move around like pieces in a game of political chess.

“The goal was to make the bulk of the population compliant servants rather than free individuals who could think for themselves and create and enrich the Prussian culture.”^[1]

It was then that the Prussian leaders learned of Robert Owen’s idea to implement a government-run and controlled school system to shape and condition the population. According to Owen’s account, they agreed with the utopists that complete collectivism could only be accomplished through state indoctrination. By 1819, this system of schooling was firmly established throughout Prussia.

The Prussian model of education segregated the population into three tiers, or “social rank,” based on what education they received:

Akademiensschulen (Academy schools) prepared students to be future policymakers and leaders. They were taught a wide range of subjects and learned to think critically, write well, read profusely, and strategize.
Realsschulen (secondary school) prepared the “professional proletariats” to be useful to the upper class. They became engineers, doctors, lawyers, and architects.
Volksschulen (elementary school), or “people’s school,” taught most of the population to be submissive, passive, and obedient. In practice, they were functionally illiterate and were only taught history that would fuel blissful patriotism.

This was the system that Horace Mann observed in his trip to Prussia. His response to such intellectual atrocities was not to condemn the government for manipulating its citizens and turning the populace into intellectual zombies. Far from it! Instead, he lauded the Prussian government and raced back to America to replicate this system of federal-centric schooling.

Eventually, in 1872, the Prussian government banned all alternative schooling methods, including private schools and homeschooling, according to the Prussian School Inspection Law of 1872. The Law stated, “By annulment of any contrary regulations in individual regions, the supervision of all public and private school and educational institutions is solely under the control of the state.” ^[2]

“Education of the state, by the state, for the state,” as Alex Newman wrote in his book Indoctrinating Our Children to Death, might be a utopian dream; however, the results it immediately produces are far from heavenly:

Reduced illiteracy and test scores
Compulsory tax-funding
Government-prescribed curriculum
National testing
Government-run teacher training and certification
Students are tracked by vocational and academic aptitudes.

Today, the country of Prussia no longer exists, but it is clear that government schools have long outlasted their founding nation. Indeed, “Deeds survive the doers,” as Horace Mann once wrote. Since 1872, government schools have been producing the same results—dumb populations and government control. With such disastrous results, why did Horace Mann export this failing education reform into his own country?

Horace the Hypocrite

Like Robert Owen before him, Mann was driven by utopian fantasies. He believed that he was responsible for ensuring their implementation in the land of the free by establishing a government school monopoly. For example, he wrote,

“Education…beyond all other devices of human origin, is a great equalizer of conditions of men — the balance wheel of the social machinery…It does better than to disarm the poor of their hostility toward the rich; it prevents being poor.”

This is the message that was paraded around the United States and sold to millions of parents. “Give us your children to raise and train, and we will end world hunger,” seems to be the official slogan of Horace Mann.

Why is it that utopians always steal liberty under the guise of “ending poverty?”

The obvious and immediate challenge to Horace’s statement is if he truly wished for education to be “a great equalizer of conditions of men,” why on earth would he travel to Prussia (a country that was intentionally segregating its population on the basis of education), laud its inherently unequal educational system, and then spend the majority of his professional career working to have it implemented in the United States?

Maybe he believed the public schools just hadn’t been done right yet. Perhaps he truly believed in his mission and really thought children would get the best education in the classroom. You would hope, at least, that Mann would align his own life to the philosophy and schools he mandated for others.

On the contrary! The truth is that Horace Mann refused to send his own three children to a public or “common school,” and instead, he personally homeschooled each of them! Perhaps Horace’s nickname should have been “Horace the Hypocrite.” If he did not believe his own children should go to a public school, why did Mann want them nationalized in the first place?

Horace, the Cynical Reformist

The reality is that Horace Mann feared and distrusted two groups of people: parents and Catholics.

“Horace Mann and his 19th-century education reform colleagues were deeply fearful of parental authority—particularly as the population became more diverse and, in Massachusetts as elsewhere, Irish Catholic immigrants challenged existing cultural and religious norms.” ^[3]

Because utopians believe it is their responsibility to perfect mankind’s environment and thereby perfect man himself, they cannot trust individual parents to raise their own children because “what if they do a poor job?“

“From a hundred platforms, Mann had lectured that the need for better schools was predicated upon the assumption that parents could no longer be entrusted to perform their traditional roles in moral training and that a more systematic approach within the public school was necessary. Now, as a father, he fell back on the educational responsibilities of the family, hoping to make the fireside achieve for his own son what he wanted the schools to accomplish for others.”^[4]
Jonathan Messerli, Mann Biographer

As Mann said, “We who are engaged in the sacred cause of education are entitled to look upon all parents as having given hostages to our cause.” Those “hostages,” of course, are children. Children, who Mann viewed as test subjects in Robert Owen’s case study.

The only thing more terrifying than a parent doing a “bad job” raising their children, in the eyes of Mann and his utopian friends, was Catholic parents raising their children in their faith.

The Massachusetts state legislator commented on the influx of Irish Catholic immigrants, saying, “Those now pouring in upon us, in masses of thousands upon thousands, are wholly of another kind in morals and intellect.” ^[5]

This was more than a question of “How can we help these people assimilate into American culture?” This was a question of control: “How can a diverse group of people with specific cultures, faiths, and traditions be controlled under one political dogma?” How, indeed?

Robert Owen taught that in order to control a people, you must first control their minds. And so, he instructed his followers, the Prussians and now Mann, to commit themselves to this pursuit of intellectual control.

“To train and educate the rising generation will at all times be the first object of society, to which every other will be subordinate.” — Robert Owen

We must understand that Horace Mann did not have decent motives in imposing government schools on America. He did not believe in the cause. In reality, he was a cynical theorist, hypocritical reformer, and a secret homeschool dad. This is how he ought to be remembered.

The Legacy

In 1848, shortly after his visit to Prussia, Mann resigned as secretary of the Board of Education to take the seat of John Quincy Adams in the US House of Representatives. In 1853, he stepped away from politics for the last time and became the President of Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Here, he spent a lot of his time writing and training his students to further his plans for establishing Prussian education in the United States. You can find his writings here.

While at Antioch, Horace Mann inspired a class of graduates with the words, “Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.” There is hardly any doubt that, when he died in 1859, Mann believed he had won a great victory for the utopian cause through his American education reform.

Regretfully, for future generations of American children and families, the deeds of the Prussian elites and Horace Mann have outlived them. Even 187 years later, we still live under Horace Mann’s government agency, the Department of Education, which dogmatically and obsessively dictates what millions of children are taught every single day.

Somedays, it can seem that we are inching ever closer to a time when “all public and private schools and educational institutions are solely under the control of the state,” as it was in Mann’s beloved Prussian education system.

But we must not be discouraged because, though the deeds of Horace Mann outlived him all these years, our deeds today can outlive us as well. If we continue to fight for the educational independence we desire and deserve, our children and their children will live to see a day where the government does not raise children and where utopian theories are not imposed on populations; rather, they will live in a free country where true, free-market, God-honoring education flourishes.

[1] Delphine, R. (n.d.). “The Prussian Model of Education.” STEMiteracy. Retrieved September 10, 2024, from https://www.stemiteracy.org/the-prussian-model

[2] “School Inspection Law of March 11, 1872.” GHDI, Retrieved September 10, 2024, from https://ghdi.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=670#:~:text=School%20Inspection%20Law%20of%20March,the%20control%20of%20the%20state

[3] McDonald, K. (2017, May 1). “The Devastating Rise of Mass Schooling.” FEE. Retrieved September 10, 2024, from https://fee.org/articles/the-devastating-rise-of-mass-schooling/

[4] Messerli, Jonathan. Horace Mann: A Biography. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1972, p. 429.

[5] McDonald, K. (2017, May 1). “The Devastating Rise of Mass Schooling.” FEE. Retrieved September 10, 2024, from https://fee.org/articles/the-devastating-rise-of-mass-schooling/

a boy concentrates on his homework, studying the design of airplanes

Right to an Education?

Posted on October 8, 2024 | by Jennifer Bright | 2 Comments

By Carolyn Martin (CHEC Director of Government Relations)

Originally published in the CHEC blog.

There has been an international push over many decades to create a right of education for children. The United Nations (UN) through UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) has been at the forefront of this push and they have established several treaties beginning in 1960 with the UN Convention Against Discrimination in Education. Interestingly, the United States (US) has declined to ratify these treaties. Homeschoolers fought hard against the ratification by the US Senate of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) since it was signed by the Clinton administration in 1995. Despite this, individual states and the federal government have been implementing various aspects of these treaties through their lawmaking process for years.

Parental Rights or Rights of the Child

In Colorado, we have seen for some time now a shift away from parental rights to the rights of a child, including when it comes to education. There have even been some attempts this year to put the right of a child to a quality education in the Colorado Constitution. Under the biblical order of the family, it is parents who steward the rights of children until they are capable of handling the responsibility of exercising their rights on their own.

Positive Rights vs. Negative Rights

Attorney Kevin Boden, from HSLDA, gave those who attended the class at CHEC’s Homeschool Day at the Capitol a quick lesson on the difference between positive rights and negative rights. Negative rights are the requirements of someone else not to interfere in your ability to obtain something. He referred us to the 4th Amendment guarantee to be secure from unreasonable searches and seizures without probable cause. The government is responsible for making sure they do not infringe on our right of property. Positive rights are a requirement of someone else to provide you with something. Here, he referred to the 6th Amendment right to a speedy trial, which the government must provide through its taxpayer-funded judicial system.

The parental right to direct the upbringing, care, and education of their children is a negative right. The government must secure that fundamental right given to us by God and not infringe upon it. A right of a child to a quality education is a positive right. It would require the government to provide for the education and ensure the quality of it. Home education would be subjected to greater scrutiny because the government would have a duty to evaluate the quality and content of the education being provided by the parents. Nature’s law is based on negative rights, not positive rights, but the world system is trying to move all nation states toward the positive rights structure through the UN treaties.

Ideas have Consequences

Ideas have consequences, and we must be careful to choose wisely what ideas we support and stay true to God’s order for the family and education. As the election season heats up, let’s make sure we ask probing questions of those who want to represent us! Do they support parental rights, and what does that mean to them? Do they know the difference between children’s rights and parent’s rights? How will they ensure we have the freedom to home educate our children without government intrusion?

Our parental rights are in danger, and we must stand together to preserve them.

Colorado Amendment 80 is on the ballot on November 5. Before you walk into the voting booth, educate yourself and inform others to do so as well. Amendment 80 could open the doors to unintended consequences in our fight for educational independence and protecting our homeschool freedoms. As citizens, it is our responsibility to be informed of what our government officials are doing!

Carolyn Martin serves as CHEC’s Director of Government Relations, working for you and other liberty-loving families to protect homeschool freedom, parental rights, and religious liberty at the state capitol. Subscribe to the CHEC blog for Carolyn’s regular updates here, learn more about legal issues in Colorado here, and donate to support Homeschool Freedom here. Contact Carolyn directly at carolyn@chec.org.

Kentucky Amendment 2 Compromises the Independence of Private Education

Posted on October 4, 2024 | by Sadie Aldaya | 1 Comment

By Sadie Aldaya

The purpose of education is to know God and to make Him known; therefore, we believe education, like religion, is a sacred pursuit outside the jurisdiction of the state.

Kentucky Constitutional Amendment 2 would allow state funding for non-public education.

The Kentucky legislature passed Amendment 2 earlier this year. It will be on your ballot this fall. Amendment 2 will change the fabric of the state government by changing the Kentucky Constitution.

In a Nutshell

Amendment 2 can potentially compromise Education Independence. The language of the amendment and the existing authority by law could give taxpayer money to independent homeschoolers, leading to possible government oversight and regulation of their homeschools or legally changing the definition of the homeschooler in the state.

Below is a summary of the amendment’s language, concerns, and possible implications for Kentuckians. At the bottom of this news bulletin, you will find background information on government-funded homeschooling and resources.

Summary & Details

Section II of the amendment reads as follows:

“Section 2. IT IS PROPOSED THAT A NEW SECTION BE ADDED TO THE CONSTITUTION OF KENTUCKY TO READ AS FOLLOWS: The General Assembly may provide financial support for the education of students outside the system of common schools. The General Assembly may exercise this authority by law, Sections 59, 60, 171, 183, 184, 186, and 189 of this Constitution notwithstanding.”

Concerns & Possible Implications

Section 186: “All funds accruing to the school fund shall be used for the maintenance of the public schools of the Commonwealth, and for no other purpose.“

Would Section 186 Necessitate Private and Homeschools to Become Public Schools?

We have seen instances in other states where homeschoolers opt in for a program, and they are no longer legally classified (with its protections) as homeschoolers.

In Arizona, for example, the student is legally referred to as an “ESA student” and no longer qualifies as a homeschool student by law, as stated by the Arizona Department of Education. “ESA students…are not considered “homeschool” students by state law.”

Section 189: “No portion of any fund or tax now existing … shall be appropriated to, or used by, or in aid of, any church, sectarian or denominational school.”

Would Amendment 2 Contradict Section 189?

Section 189’s language seems to be very clear on this matter.

The South Carolina Supreme Court recently ruled that the Education Scholarship Trust Fund (ESTF) (Act) was unconstitutional for this reason.

Watch Out for Policy Creep

Although the amendment does not pass School Choice law, we must acknowledge that it provides the opportunity for such legislation and the opportunity for policy creep in Kentucky. To aid your understanding of Education Independence and School Choice, here is an article to help you. In Addition, investigate the resources below before you vote on Amendment 2.

Protect the Constitution & Education Independence on Election Day

Kentuckians can protect the state constitution and Kentucky from future bad policy.

Before election day, explore the resources below and share this urgent information. Protect Education Independence in your state and vote against the public capture of private education.

You Are Invited!

Classical Conversations cordially invites members of the community to an open forum to discuss Amendment 2. This important event will occur on October 9, 2024, from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM at the Warren County Public Library, 175 Iron Skillet Ct., Bowling Green, KY 42104.

Join us for an engaging discussion led by Robert Bortins, CEO of Classical Conversations. This event serves as a conservative Christian rally for education independence.

Resources

Sadie Aldaya is the Manager of Research & Policy for Classical Conversations^® . Sadie and her husband homeschooled for over 20 years. She served as a Classical Conversations field representative for 15 years, providing community and support for other homeschooling families. Sadie’s passions are to stop government encroachment in areas where they have no authority or jurisdiction and to see Christians return to a biblical Christ-centered worldview.