03/18/2008
A recent USA Today report confirmed what most of us already knew: America has lost touch with its history. The story ran on February 26, 2008 and begins by saying:
"Big Brother. McCarthyism. The patience of Job.
"Don’t count on your typical teenager to nod knowingly the next time you drop a reference to any of these. A study out today finds that about half of 17-year-olds can’t identify the books or historical events associated with them.
"Twenty-five years after the federal report A Nation At Risk challenged U.S. public schools to raise the quality of education, the study finds high schoolers still lack important historical and cultural underpinnings of 'a complete education.'" (Teens losing touch with common cultural and historical references, by Greg Toppo)
This report only touches the tip of the iceberg. The fact is, the current generation of Americans is more "historically challenged" than any previous generation. The public education system has all but eradicated a healthy knowledge and respect for American history. I believe the indifference of public education to our great history is deliberate and intentional.
Not only is true American history not being taught, what is being taught is mostly a distortion of our history. For example, virtually every child in America can quickly identify Martin Luther King, Jr., as the father of the civil rights movement, but many, if not most, cannot identify George Washington as the Father of Our Country. Fewer still know that James Madison was The Father of the U.S. Constitution or that Sam Adams was the Father of the American Revolution. School children are indoctrinated in political correctness, but are taught nothing of the fundamental principles of liberty upon which America was founded.
By contrast, when I attended a public elementary school back in the 1960s, I well remember reading copious volumes on America’s Founding Fathers. In fact, I recall that our required reading included documents such as Washington’s Farewell Address. On the whole, however, today’s public school children do not even recognize names such as Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Benjamin Franklin, or Alexander Hamilton.
Beyond that, about the only references that are given about America’s Founders are insults, criticisms, and downright slander. Our Founding Fathers are referred to as racists, homophobes, extremists, etc. Even the faith of America’s Founders is mostly impugned in modern public education. Their deep reverence for God and the Bible is either totally ignored or, just as often, ridiculed. Hardly ever will a child learn that our nation’s Founders were mostly (by a vast margin) Christians. If there is any reference at all to their faith, they are simply called "Deists," (a belief-system which can be honestly applied to only a couple of Founders).
Without an understanding of our Christian history and heritage, however, people cannot possibly comprehend the principles that galvanized Colonial America and glued this republic together. Without at least a rudimentary understanding of Natural Law, one cannot possibly comprehend — much less appreciate — America’s Declaration of Independence, our war for independence, or the Bill of Rights.
Is it any wonder, then, that our country seems to lack both a rudder and a compass? Is it any wonder that multiculturalism is in the process of tearing our country apart? If things continue as they are currently going, these United States of America will soon become a regionalized, hemispheric, borderless state, without distinction or recognition. A nation without a history is a nation without a future.
In the meantime, it is not surprising that so many American families are completely bypassing the public education system and choosing to homeschool their children. Others are sending their children to private, Christian, or parochial schools, because public schools have become little more than massively-expensive incubators of violence, teen pregnancy, illiteracy, and anti-America propaganda. And that goes for many of our institutions of higher learning as well.
Add to a public education system that already reeks of failure the unbelievable situation in California, where the promotion of homosexuality is part of the curriculum and where homeschool parents are being threatened with criminal prosecution. It is perfectly understandable why an organized effort is underway in The Golden State called California Exodus 2008, which encourages and assists parents in removing their children from the public schools. (See the Exodus Mandate website here.)
This is also the reason why my staff and I worked so hard to put together The Freedom Documents, a compilation of 50 of our country’s great historical documents in one volume, under one title. The next printing of The Freedom Documents will be in June, 2008, but we do have a special early printing of some 30 copies of The Freedom Documents currently on hand, which may be purchased now. Or, readers may also reserve their copies of The Freedom Documents for the June printing now.
To order or reserve Freedom Documents, go here.
If we do not have a serious and concerted effort to restore knowledge and respect for America’s history quickly, this once-great land of liberty will not long survive. I applaud the efforts of many who are desperately trying to resurrect a hunger and thirst for American history. Unfortunately, in order to succeed at our task, we are competing against a heavily financed (by our own tax dollars) public education monstrosity that seeks to bury our history in the graveyard of irrelevance. We must not let that happen.
If you still have children at home, make reading and studying American history a high priority. Beyond that, prayerfully consider moving your children out of the public school system. Most communities have networks of homeschooling parents that can answer questions regarding the homeschool alternative. And, of course, most communities have a few — or in some cases many — private and/or Christian schools nearby.
If we rely on the public school system, the Main Stream Media, the entertainment industry, or even most churches to help teach America’s great history and heritage to our children, they will not learn it. And what they do learn will be nothing short of anti-America propaganda.
If our children are going to learn American history, they are going to learn it from their parents and grandparents.
So, Mom and Dad, what are you waiting for? Get busy!
Dr. Chuck Baldwin is the pastor of Crossroad Baptist Church in Pensacola, Florida. He hosts a weekly radio show. His website is here.
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