Early American Education
Train Up A Child

“With a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence”, the signers of the Declaration of Independence said “we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

These highly educated men had much to loose. They new the value of a good education.

The Bible defines it this way “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it”. Prov 22:6

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, ... 2 Tim 2:15

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge... Hos 4:6

The Bible also says; The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Prov 1:7

The “Old Deluder Satan Law” created in 1647 exemplifies how Biblical education has always been a high priority in America

“It being one chief point of that old deluder, Satan, to keep men from the knowledge of Scriptures, as in former times, by keeping them in an unknown tongue, so in these latter times, by persuading them from the use of tongues that so at last the true sense and meaning of the original might be clouded by false glosses of saint-seeming deceivers, that learning might not be buried in the graves of our fathers, in church and commonwealth, the Lord assisting our endeavours…”

Fisher Ames, author of the first Amendment said “we can never allow the Bible to be placed in the back of the classroom”.

In 1789, after the constitution was created, the first law enacted, conveyed that any educational system which was to be considered part of America must teach these three things in this order; Religion Morality and Knowledge.

The Father of America's educational system under the constitution; Benjamin Rush wrote “A defense of the use of the Bible as a school book”. In that book Rush expounded upon approximately 12 reasons why the Bible should always be the primary text book in America and said "I lament that we waste so much time and money in punishing crimes and take so little pains to prevent them…we neglect the only means of establishing and perpetuating our republican forms of government; that is, the universal education of our youth in the principles of Christianity by means of the Bible; for this Divine Book, above all others, constitutes the soul of republicanism." "By withholding the knowledge of [the Scriptures] from children, we deprive ourselves of the best means of awakening moral sensibility in their minds."

In George Washington's farewell address in 1789 he said “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports..... And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle”. In other words; Don't even think you can maintain morality with out teaching it.

Accordingly, within 10 years after the the creation of the American Constitution, more educational institutions were created then existed 150 years prior.

The priority of a Godly education is also evidenced by a law that congress passed in 1838 which stated that military chaplains would double as teachers on military posts

It is this Godly education that played such a vital part in American Exceptionalism. But unfortunately we have allowed the publik school system to become hi-jacked and it no longer reflects Godly values .

The New England Primer was the text book that school children utilized as they began to learn how to read. It taught the alphabet like this; A = In Adam's Fall we sinned all, B=Heaven to find the Bible mind, C=Christ crucify'd for sinners dy'd. In the first three letters of the alphabet youngsters could be presented with the Gospel message.

Your children are your heritage and your responsibility. I encourage you to do what you must to fulfill your obligations to Yahweh God, your children and your self. Train up your child in the way they should go.