Restoring the Historic Beginnings of American Education

Northwest Christian School. Two hundred decades after the American Revolution, America is still governed by its 1st Constitution. We are now the longest-running constitutional republic inside history on the world. To offer some perspective, France has had eight constitutions in the same 200 ages. Italy has had 54 constitutions in 200 years. Why have we survived so long? It is since our founding fathers built our Constitution according to a set of ideals which might be unparalleled inside the history of the world.

Abraham Lincoln mentioned, “The philosophy in the school room in 1 generation will be the philosophy of federal government from the next.” If our founding fathers had a successful philosophy of government, which obviously they did, then it’s quite fair that we glance back to the classroom to see what they taught.

Harvard:
Harvard will be the oldest ongoing university in the United States. Harvard made a variety of our founding fathers, such as John Quincy Adams, John Hancock, John Adams, and Samuel Adams.

Harvard’s original stated purpose for its students was: “To be plainly instructed and look at well the major end of the life and studies is always to know God and Jesus Christ….” 1 requirement of students was that “Everyone shall so exercise himself in reading the Scriptures twice a day that he shall be able to provide an account of his proficiency therein.”

Yale:
Yale also developed several founding fathers, men like Noah Webster, William Samuel Johnson, Abraham Baldwin. One particular of Yale’s requirements for its students read as follows: “Seeing that God could be the giver of all wisdom, each and every student, besides his private and secret prayer, will be present morning and evening for public prayer.”

Desert Christian School. Princeton:
Princeton, founded in 1746, created folks like James Madison, Benjamin Rush and John Witherspoon. John Witherspoon became an ordained minister and was president of Princeton University (1768-1776) until New Jersey sent him to Congress. In the course of those a long time at Princeton, the average graduating class was among 17 and 28 students per year. In the nine decades that Witherspoon taught at Princeton, the school graduated one President, one Vice President, three Supreme Court Justices, ten Cabinet members, twelve Governors, twenty-one U.S. Senators, and thirty-nine U.S. Congressmen, plus several who held state offices. A full one-third with the founding fathers have been trained at Princeton University.

What was the philosophy of an institution that developed so a lot of national leaders? Princeton’s founding statement was, “Cursed is all learning that’s contrary towards the cross of Christ.” It has been numerous decades since we have witnessed this sort of vision of godly leadership within society set prior to us.

The Foundational Documents:
You will find four documents which are considered the organic laws on the United States (i.e., the laws upon which all other laws are built): The Articles of Confederation, the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution along with the Northwest Ordinance.

The Northwest Ordinance tells a territory specifically what it has to do so as to turn out to be a state inside the United States. Article Three requires that no territory could turn out to be a express unless the schools in that territory were teaching religion and morality at the same time as understanding. As being a result, several express constitutions contain the following: “Forever within the colleges of this condition, religion and morality will probably be taught also as expertise.” You might desire to examine your condition constitution.

Seem at Fisher Ames’ philosophy of education: (He was the author of the 1st Amendment on the Constitution, which currently is mis-interpreted to mean we have to separate God and government.)

Clinton Christian School. “Why, then, if these new books for kids need to be retained, as they shall be, why should not the Bible regain the location it held like a school book? Its morals are pure. Its examples are captivating and noble. Along with the reverence to the sacred book that may be thus early impressed lasts extended and most likely, if not impressed in infancy, never takes firm hold in the mind.”

Nonetheless, today under our interpretation of Fisher Ames’ amendment, the Bible isn’t allowed for being studied in educational facilities. We have drifted far from the days when our country was founded. As can been witnessed from the founding documents of our most prestigious universities, education in America was founded not on the pursuit of information for the sake of expertise, but rather for the pursuit of know-how to glorify Christ. That happened and happens primarily via the study on the Word of God.

The freshman project of each in the founding universities in America was that the student be given a copy of the Greek New Testament and from it make a handwritten translation into English! Blessed are the educational institutions that still teach from the Bible and keep the Bible as the central source of training.