Weekend Wisdom Of Our Founding Fathers: Education In America
“Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of the day.”
8-18-2023
As America’s children are making ready to head back into the “public school” classrooms, I decided to focus today’s article on the wisdom of history and education.
“When once a republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles; every other correction is either useless or a new evil."
Thomas Jefferson: copied into his Commonplace Book.
[Montesquieu wrote in Spirit of the Laws, VIII,c.12:]
Earlier this year (April 13th and 14th) I shared a 2-Part article on Substack; The American Crisis Continues; The Lost Principles. If we do not educate our people, how can we restore the lost principles of our Constitutional Republic?
When I read and study their words from the past, the wisdom and foresight of our Founding Fathers amazes me!
I wonder often why so many Americans today would choose to be enslaved by their government rather than to be a free, independent, and sovereign person. Is it too difficult to be independent? Is it too scary to be sovereign? Do Americans simply not know what those words mean or how real freedom truly feels?
I believe the problem regarding this issue is twofold.
Americans in general, especially our youth, have had life pretty easy for a very long time. They fail to understand what it is to “make it” on your own, to literally earn what you have. Many think they “deserve” this or that, but as we know, you only deserve that which you work to earn. Many Americans today, expect the government or others to subsidize their wants, businesses, and their education, but government cannot be trusted!
Government is not reason, it is not eloquence-it is force! Like fire it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master; never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action. George Washington
There is much debate today over education and the government’s role in it. I believe allowing government, which for the last many decades has proven itself to be irresponsible in the action of educating our children, is the other reason many in America now fail to understand this nation or appreciate the ideals of freedom, independence, and sovereignty. They have no clue as to what our founding principles are, or know what they mean or for what they stand. The teachers’ union and many of the individuals we have in teaching positions are ignorant of this nation’s principles. Those principles were tossed out of the publicly funded school system long ago.
Why would they ignore or distort American history? The answer is a simple but sad one; to gain control over the masses. They start with our youth and raise them to believe the lies of Marxism, socialism, and communism. They are taught that free enterprise is evil, and if you have worked hard and have earned more than your neighbor, you are a greedy capitalist.
Read the wise words of our Founding Fathers:
James Madison wrote the following to William Bradford in 1773:
“The principles and modes of government are too important to be disregarded by an inquisitive mind and I think are well worthy a critical examination by all students that have health and leisure.”
Samuel Phillips Payson stated the following in a Sermon he delivered in Boston in 1778:
“The slavery of a people is generally founded in ignorance of some kind or another; and there are not wanting such facts as abundantly prove the human mind may be so sunk and debased through ignorance and its natural effects, as even to adore its enslaver, and kiss its chains. Hence knowledge and learning may well be considered as most essentially requisite to a free, righteous government.”
Noah Webster wrote, On the Education of Youth in America in 1788:
“Every Child in America should be acquainted with his own country. He should read books that furnish him with ideas that will be useful to him in life and practice. As soon as he opens his lips, he should rehearse the history of his own country.”
“Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of the day.”
Thomas Jefferson in a letter to P.S. du Pont de Nemours, April 24, 1816
“A diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty.”
James Madison wrote to George Thompson in 1825
"When corruption has prevailed in those offices of government and has so familiarized itself as that men otherwise honest could look on it without horror, then we must be alive to the suppression of this odious practice and bring to punishment and brand with eternal disgrace every man guilty of it, whatever be his station."
Thomas Jefferson to W. C. C. Claiborne, 1804
Why does the current administration and the Democrat Party continually fight against School Choice? The inner-city schools are disasters. The scores of all of America’s students and graduates are dropping each year.
In many schools our students are being taught Critical Race Theory (CRT), that Climate Change is an existential threat (which it is NOT!), as well as perverted sex education. Truth and facts of biology are ignored. Our students are led to believe that math is racist, English is racist and that parents have no authority in their lives. The education system has been taken over by Marxists and communists and our children are their victims. Our schools are being irresponsibly administered by those who do not believe in freedom but believe in government.
I believe the “mostly peaceful” crimes of rioting and looting which are being committed by our young Americans, teenagers, and young adults, is a result of poor education as well as an immoral upbringing.
Americans are waking up to the unfortunate realization that our public school system is failing to educate our youth. They are now doing their utmost to indoctrinate our children in order to finish the job they started long ago, which is to destroy America. As one president put it, to “fundamentally change America.”
It’s time all parents took responsibility for their children’s education. If you are unable to home school, be involved with them in their homework. Take personal initiative to teach them and read to them the truth of American History! Our Founding Fathers were not saints, but they experienced the evils of oppression and were wise regarding Freedom, Liberty, and those “Inalienable Rights” given to us by God.
“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6 KJV
As parents it is our right and our duty to educate our children in all manners.
As stated in the preamble of the Constitution of the United States of America;
“WE THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
“It is universally admitted that a well-instructed people alone can be permanently a free people.”
James Madison Second annual message to Congress, December 5, 1810
Properly educating our children and our youth will Bring America Home. ©
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Thank you for your writing. My niche of knowledge is on George Washington and this Constitution for the United States of America. Please let's develop a dialogue - PresidentWashington@me.com