My Educational Theology 4: Education in America

As today’s western cultures and societies have evolved in the last 200 years, education has become a hybrid of the families’ vocational training and the religious communities’ religious training. Particularly in America, both early American families and the church founded a fourth institution—community education of children—to be a social benefit. The first public schools in America were established by the Puritans & Pilgrims in New England[1]. As America grew, expanded westward and prospered, this fourth institution began to be coordinated by the government. Originally schools in the west were established by citizen groups to the benefit of their children. As governments were organized and schools grew and education became of higher social premium and needed regular funding, schools came under the auspices of the local government. As local, state and federal governments grew in size and power and became increasingly liberal during the 1930’s, `40’s and `50’s, so did the power of the government over schools and the curriculum in the schools. During the late 20th Century, formal religion and religious teachings were forcibly removed from the public school system[2].

So western civilization has developed a culture in which the vocational training of children and much of their socialization has been given to the local schools. In America, that development has long been a part of our American culture and was embedded in Christian socialization and religious thought and ethics. Therefore, the secularization that our increasing liberal governments brought to our schools posed a difficult issue for American Christian parents. Do they leave their children in an increasingly secular training environment that has come under the influence of a secular-humanist system of thought and ethics and rely again on the family and the church to provide the religious and ethical socialization of their children or do they begin an entirely new brand of education that combines the more traditional American religious combination of vocational and religious education. Thus the Christian school movement of today shifted into high gear.

Recognition must be given to a number of Christian branches or denominations who have and continue to provide this combination of vocational and religious training for their children. They have set the model for the newer movement of “evangelical” Christians to establish their own versions of Christian schools. Many new evangelical Christian schools have followed the traditional models of the Catholic, Reform and Lutheran churches in starting schools in the basements of their churches.

Building on the American tradition of education and the model of older Christian denominations, a new unique feature in the modern rise of Christian schools is the multi-denominational approach to schools. This approach has at times proven difficult, yet very successful when schools are established to support the general Christian community (usually focusing on the Protestant evangelical version of Christianity to the exclusion of the Orthodox, Roman Catholic or Lutheran versions) in teaching shared values and doctrines. Christian schools have always been more than Christian people teaching “secular” topics such as math, reading, writing, the arts and the sciences. Christian education has always been about the dispensing and infusing of God’s truth not only through these “liberal arts”, but very specifically teaching young Christian children to “understand and obey the things Jesus taught” His disciples so that they may live godly lives, serve as witnesses of Jesus Christ to the lost[3], and teach others how to live godly lives[4].

[1] First public school promotes Christianity. Massachusetts Puritans found the first "free grammar school" in North America explicitly to teach religion. Puritan schools reflect the religious faith and values of a homogeneous community. Puritan minister John Cotton stresses "zeale is but a wilde-fire without knowledge." The Puritans' goal is to have a devout and well-educated community. Even in the 19th and early 20th century, U.S. public schools will remain de facto Christian institutions (1635: First Public School), (John Cotton). Also see America’s Godly Heritage [video] (Barton).
[2] (Barton)
[3] Acts 1:8
[4] 2 Timothy 2:2; 2 Timothy 3:16-17