ABOUT FAITH & FREEDOM

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Wednesday, August 21, 2024

President Biden: "Trump Supporters Can't Think, Can't Read Very Well"


President Joe Biden unloaded his anger toward his own Democrat comrades, who threw him under the bus by screaming and yelling at the Republicans Monday night. 

In his divisive rhetoric during his speech (therapy session?) at the Democratic National Convention, he said Trump supporters “can’t think, can’t read very well.”

That prompted a couple of thoughts.

Remember Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” line from 2016---referring to people who supported Trump?  

It also occurred to me that he has a point. But it isn't only people who support Trump who have received an inferior education in our failing public education system; everyone has been cheated by it.

Let's turn on the lights and see who actually destroyed our nation's education system, a system once ranked the best in the world.

Be informed, not misled.

President Biden said, “How can we be the greatest nation in the world without the best education system in the world? Donald Trump and the Republican friends, they not only can’t think, they can’t read very well.”

I'm glad you asked, Mr. President.

He's right. Public education is a failed system.

Earlier this year Pew Research Center reported that public education is miserably failing, causing kids to not learn basic skills like reading and writing:

We asked teachers about how students are doing at their school. Overall, many teachers hold negative views about students’ academic performance and behavior.

  • 48% say the academic performance of most students at their school is fair or poor; a third say it’s good and only 17% say it’s excellent or very good.
  • 49% say students’ behavior at their school is fair or poor; 35% say it’s good and 13% rate it as excellent or very good.
  • Teachers in elementary, middle and high schools give similar answers when asked about students’ academic performance. But when it comes to students’ behavior, elementary and middle school teachers are more likely than high school teachers to say it’s fair or poor (51% and 54%, respectively, vs. 43%).

For the most part, Pew reported that the deficiency in public education was generally related to poverty and lack of discipline. 

But these are symptoms, not causes, in my opinion.

Last year, the Seattle-based Discovery Institute published an article titled "Our Public School System Is Set Up To Fail—and It’s Succeeding."

In the article, Donald Nielsen wrote, "The recent national assessment is devastating, finding no educational progress in more than 30 years."

Neilsen said, "The recent report by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, sometimes referred to as the nation’s report card, is a devastating assessment of the condition of our nation’s schools. In short, there has been virtually no educational progress with our nation’s children in more than 30 years – and urban districts are the worst performers."

While I personally appreciate much of the Discovery Institute's work, again, the emphasis is more on symptoms than causes—mostly blaming poverty and its symptoms.

He says, "Detroit is far from alone in this education crisis. New York City spends a whopping $38,000 per student per year, and student learning results are mediocre. Instead of correcting its low levels of student proficiency, New York plans to lower the standard in both math and English language arts, with the hope that more students will reach 'proficient.' The same thing is happening elsewhere, notably California, where there is an effort to eliminate Algebra in the eighth grade so more disadvantaged children can compete."

Clearly, that's a problem that directly affects our nation because it devalues certificates and degrees earned in public schools. We are already seeing the results of this kind of action: Kids' grades look better because the bar is much lower. 

And politicians take credit for improving our education system with the hundreds of billions of dollars levied against property owners to educate our children.

Neilsen concludes, "It’s time to address the major flaws of the system and demand competence and accountability for performance. If we fail to do that, our children’s education will continue to languish as costs continue to escalate. Neither should be acceptable. Both our children and our country need us to demand better."

I agree. Totally.

The "major flaws."

Let's go back to the beginning. 

Founding Father Noah Webster is generally considered the "Father of public education."  He said things like, "Education is useless without the Bible." He also said that the Bible could be the sole textbook for a fully-rounded education.

He was a deeply committed biblical Christian.

One of the Pilgrims' greatest passions, next to religious freedom, was the education of their young so they could read the Bible for themselves. Before that period, most people heard from God second-hand.

Now, for the first time, God could speak directly to the common man if he could read.

And no one suggested the Bible was somehow to be removed from the public square. It was understood that our laws were derived from the Bible, and those laws sustain an orderly society.

Churches and their congregations began building schools to educate their children.

In 1636, Reverend John Harvard contributed his personal library and property to build the first college in the New World, which would eventually be named after him.

The mission statement of Harvard was to "train a literate clergy."

Princeton was born from the same motivation in 1748. So was Yale.

These three colleges became the headwaters of education in America. They eventually trained teachers who would establish the greatest school system in history.

However.

The "major flaws" began with their march into our education system.

Atheism, secularism, and humanism were largely philosophically imported from France, Germany, and England after our Constitution was written and after the death of most of our Founding Fathers.

These philosophies had little effect on America until the late nineteenth century.

M.I.T. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) was the first college in America founded by atheists in 1861, 72 years after America was founded.

This was followed in the twentieth century by the humanist's takeover of teachers' colleges and the moving of the headwaters of education to the citadel of secularism, Columbia University.

It was at Columbia University that John Dewey and his disciples produced so-called "progressive education," which has turned out to be totally secularist and has produced a failing education system.

Progressivism has no fixed values because secular progressivism eliminates Judeo-Christian principles and is based on relativism, which has no absolute truth.

This leads to Cultural Marxism, which creates a culture of rioting, lawlessness, and deception.

In the last couple of decades, activists from the LGBTQIA+ have infiltrated our public education system, forcing teachers to either join them as an ally or risk losing their jobs. 

Now, with the introduction of gender fluidity, our classrooms have become a petri dish of gender and social experimentation.

America is now paying the price. 

Returning God to His rightful place in the culture will solve the major flaws.

The biblical Christian Church has the responsibility to do so by presenting the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which changes lives and hearts.

Takeaway

 Alexis de Tocqueville, the great French historian, came to America to discover what made America Great. 

He wrote. 

I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers—and it was not there... in her fertile fields and boundless forests—and it was not there. . . . .in her rich mines and her vast world commerce—and it was not there... in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution—and it was not there.  Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power.  America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.

Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. Be Prayerful.