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Is State-Run Public Education Necessary?

By E. Ray Moore, Jr., Chairman of the Exodus Project

          When you grasp the Unitarian origins of state-run public schools you will see the enormity of the error of conservatives and Christians trying to fix or reform these schools. It is a profound error and indirectly helps the NEA and liberal left. The conservatives who fight to win school Board elections, serve on public school curriculum committees, and put abstinence education in the system are really helping the other side. I know this is a terrible thought, but it’s true. Some Christians now know this. They know intuitively that I'm right, but are still caught up in conservative K-12 public education reform. Public schools are an idol to both the liberal left and some conservative education reformers. Public schools are the only idol we have in common with liberals and humanists. We have rejected their worldview  in everything but our common support for public education.

If this were not true, the conservatives would give up their failed strategies.

Nothing works for the conservatives in education reform,  but they justkeep on and on.  They seem to lose every political fight to the liberal left on conservative public school reform vs. liberal humanist public school reform.

We have now gone from Goals 2000 to No Child Left Behind (NCLB), similar approaches, in that they both increase government involvement in K-12 education and leave the liberal left firmly in control of the agenda, funding and curriculum.

 Goals 2000 or NCLB, same old stuff.

Both groups continue feeding and fixing their poor idol called public schools. Time's up, time for conservatives and Christians to get off the "public school reform"  boat.

 The other problem with conservative reform is that it wastes time, energy and resources  that could be better used on setting up new Christian schools or helping families home school. IT’S BETTER TO DRAIN THE SWAMP THAN TO FIGHT THE MOSQUITOES. Pharaoh is not going to change, but perhaps the local Baptist pastor might start a church school if he had more information and could gain a Biblical theology of education.  Perhaps more Christian families would home school if we directed our efforts and message to the churches, pastors and families where we could really do some good. If 25-30% leave Pharaoh's schools in the next 7-10  years, they could collapse. In the Southeast and Midwest, with so many churches, this could actually happen, but we need workers in this Exodus Mandate vineyard and need them soon or we will miss the moment. VISIT OUR WEB PAGE ON HOW TO HELP.

 Note that the origins of this awful system started with the Robert Owen "communal" experiment in New Harmony, IN.

 Why don't conservatives or Christians serve on the lottery Board or serve on the Gambling Commission so they can tone down the harmful effects?  Why don't we reform or work to tone down the child pornography and make it soft porn like we had in the 1950's when porn wasn't so bad?  It sure would be nice if we could go back to the good old days of the public schools of the 1950's when I was a boy or go back to the pornography of the 1950's when it wasn't so bad. . You can see how absurd this argument is, but it’s just what you're doing when you try to fix the Unitarian, socialistic public schools. The public schools are not broken, but are working well according to their design and purpose. Public schools are the most successful enterprise of humanism and socialism in USA.

 Hello, does anybody believe in original sin?  These problems didn't start with John Dewey. He only finished what Horace Mann started. The final nail in the coffin occurred in 1962, 1963 with famous prayer and Bible reading decisions, but here we are complaining as if all this happened yesterday. Conservatives and Christians are only 160 years late waking up, and most still don't have a clue.

 The book by Samuel Blumenfeld, which is reviewed below, is an important read.  It's a liberating experience to learn you don't have to help reform public schools anymore.

          In His grip,

          E.Ray Moore, Jr.

          Chaplain (Lt.Col.) USAR ret

          www.Exodusmandate.org

          FRONTLINE MINISTRIES

          PO Box 12072

          Columbia, SC 29211

          tele (803) 714-1744

EVERY SO OFTEN I AM ASTOUNDED TO COME ACROSS A SOURCE OF HISTORICAL INFORMATION SO IMPORTANT THAT I BELIEVE IT BELONGS IN EVERY THINKING AMERICAN'S HOME.

THIS IS SUCH A BOOK.  PERHAPS BETTER THAN ANY OTHER

ONE VOLUME IT EXPLAINS HOW AND WHY WE GOT WHERE WE ARE TODAY.

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  Is Public Education Necessary?

Is Public Education Necessary? by Blumenfeld - $19.95

This in-depth history of public education tells the reader why Americans gave up educational freedom for educational statism so early in their history, allowing government to take on the responsibility of educating our children. (1992 ed, 366pp, pb) [Order]

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http://www.aobs-store.com/reviews/public_ed_nec.htm

BOOK REVIEW

Reprinted with permission from THE NEW AMERICAN

magazine, December 9, 1985

Is Public Education Necessary? by Samuel L.

Blumenfeld, Paradigm Company, Boise, Idaho, 263 pages.

If you believed Albert Shanker or the NEA, you would

think the near-sacred institution of public education

somehow predates the invention of the wheel, and that

public schools have performed the holy mission of

enlightening the ignorant masses from the dawn of

civilization.

Yet, as the decline in SAT scores, literacy rates and

graduate quality clearly shows, Americans have plenty

of evidence to conclude that our national public

education experiment has been a colossal failure. But

what can be done?

Perhaps before launching an attempt to reform the

government education system, it might be prudent to

determine why large-scale public education does not

produce better results. Before public servants force

taxpayers to part with even more of their incomes to

save America's government schools, it would seem to be

wise to consider the origins of the public school

movement itself. Then, perhaps, we can focus on any

fundamental weaknesses. Author Samuel L. Blumenfeld

has done the job for us in an excellent book first

published in 1981, and now republished by the Paradigm

Company.

Blumenfeld's 1984 best seller, NEA: Trojan Horse in

American Education, coupled with his very successful nation-wide speaking tour, has shaken the public education establishment to the core. Yet, it is Blumenfeld's 1981 little-known and underpublicized Is Public Education Necessary? that provides the fundamental reasons for the failures in our nation's public education system.

With meticulous research and testimony gathered from

relatively obscure 18th and 19th century sources,

Blumenfeld presents his brilliant revisionist history

of the origins of the public school monopoly in

America. Like a shrewd detective, he systematically

traces the theological, philosophical and historical

roots of education in the United States as it evolved

from the near-total laissez-faire system of our

nation's first 50 years to the ineffective centrally

controlled bureaucracy that it has become today.

Prior to 1805, Harvard University had been an

institutional stronghold for orthodox Calvinism in

America. In 1805, a liberal theologian named Henry

Ware was elected to the key position of Hollis

Professor of Divinity. Blumenfeld argues that this

"takeover of Harvard in 1805 by the Unitarians is

probably the most important intellectual event in

American history -- at least from the standpoint of

education." Because of it, Harvard "became the

Unitarian Vatican, so to speak, dispensing a religious

and secular liberalism that was to have profound and

enduring effects on the evolution of American

cultural, moral and social values." Thus began,

Blumenfeld believes, "the secular humanist world view

that now dominates American culture."

Unlike their Puritan forefathers who followed the

theology of Augustine and Calvin, the Harvard-based

Unitarians believed that "man was innately good,

rational, benevolent and cooperative." Like Rousseau,

they argued that man was "eminently perfectible" and

that the faults of men were caused by civilization and

a bad environment. The key to reforming the world was

to get all children away from the corrupting

influences of their homes and churches where they are

adversely influenced by parental and clerical

authorities. These children could then be molded into

the new enlightened Unitarian ideal. "To the

Unitarians, therefore, education became the road to

salvation." And zealous support for public education

became for them not just another social or political

issue, but a burning religious issue. The misguided

missionary zeal and the elitist attitudes of the early Unitarians are still prevalent among many of today's secular-minded government school advocates.

As Blumenfeld's account unfolds in chapter after

chapter, he details how Robert Owen (1771-1858) and

other influential socialists became involved in the

public school movement to achieve their own ends.

Their purpose was similar to that of their Unitarian

allies, except that these radical socialist reformers

sought not education, but "socialization" for the

purpose of leading America to the utopian dream of a

Communist society.

The mastermind behind the failed New Harmony, Indiana

commune, Robert Owen believed that the reason his

socialist experiment failed was because the masses

were poorly prepared as a result of their improper

education. If Communism was to succeed in America,

Owen and his followers believed that a compulsory taxpayer-funded education system had to be implemented. The purpose of their system would be to educate youngsters away from the evils of individualism, belief in God, and capitalist greed. Many prominent Owenites and socialists began their push for public schools by "operating covertly in secret cells in America as early as 1829."

Blumenfeld also chronicles the career of Horace Mann,

the idol of the public education elite. Mann, of

course, has been praised by most historians as the

father of American public education. Blumenfeld

writes: "If Mann was the father of anything, it was of centralized, state-controlled public education, governed by a state bureaucracy, and financed by taxes on property." Mann visited socialist Prussia and used its educational system as his model in building a network of compulsory primary and secondary government schools. Mann also founded a series of state-supported "normal" schools, or teachers colleges, designed to train teachers in the latest methods of molding young minds. Blumenfeld clearly detects the danger to our liberties presented by Mann's plans. He argues that "once a nation's teachers colleges become the primary vehicle through which the philosophy of statism is advanced, this philosophy will soon infect every other quarter of society...."

Blumenfeld's conclusion, is that public education is

indeed not necessary. He proved that from its very

inception, the public school movement has been

anti-student, anti-learning and anti-American. This

book is a valuable resource for individuals who seek

to grasp the true nature of the public school problem.

-- MARK D. ISAACS

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