Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

Who should control the education of our nation's children? Mike Smith shares historical answers to this question today on Home School Heartbeat.

Mike Smith:

Public schools today are filled with tolerance teaching in large part because parents and individual communities no longer control what is taught.

Colonial parents oversaw their children's education. Children were openly taught the faith of their fathers, with the blessing of those in authority. Article 3 of the 1787 Northwest Land Ordinance states:

Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.

Clearly the Bill of Rights, ratified just four years later, did not deny children the right to learn the truth about God. People of that day expected schools to support religion, morality, and knowledge.

As the nation grew, state leaders sought greater control over education. In 1837, Massachusetts appointed Horace Mann as its first state secretary of education. He created "normal schools" to standardize public education, and helped train professional teachers. As state control increased, parental control decreased.

In the 1860s, John Dewey, the philosopher-educator whose influence spanned two centuries, came on the educational scene. According to Dewey, schools should provide an "escape from the limitations of the social group in which [the student] was born," exposing pupils to a "broader environment."

Dewey opened the door for the modern-day tolerance teaching that makes parents and teachers opponents in the battle for the truth. And until next time, I'm Mike Smith.