Course Description: Without a thorough knowledge of the history of education in our nation since its 1607 founding, one cannot begin to propose ultimate solutions in education. This course examines the true story of American education to identify the root of the problems we face today and to highlight the means and the pathway of restoring the principles and character of our Republic.

Monday: True Education—the Biblical Model and Its History As education is the God-mandated means of knowing truth for freedom in Christ, and as God’s desire is that we walk in liberty, He gave us the mandate to walk in truth and to teach truth generationally. We are the stewards of the nation that God equipped to express Christian liberty in civil government as a model for humanity. You must counter the current rejection of that model with the understanding of liberty in Christ through educating your children to restore the Biblical Classical American model to humanity. We will begin our examination of the Colonial or Calvinist period (1607-1890) of education in America.

Tuesday: What Makes Biblical Christian Education Flourish? We will continue our study of the Biblical period of education in America. This period was for the first two centuries! During this time education developed out of the Pilgrim and Puritan desire to teach children to read the Bible so that they could apply its knowledge to every area of life: family, church, vocation, business, marketplace activities and civil government. American Christian education developed and flourished due to the tireless efforts of founding father Noah Webster, the “schoolmaster to the nation.”

Wednesday: Reclaiming the Original Purpose of American Education, Part 1. What went wrong? Why did Americans abandon private, mostly Christian education, practiced for two centuries, for statist education? How did Marx’s ideas and socialism creep into textbooks, lectures, and our children’s minds and hearts? In our study of education from 1830-1890, we will learn the story, motivations and worldview of Horace Mann, who advocated “non-sectarian education” resulting in the ultimate abandonment of Biblically-based education.

Thursday: Reclaiming the Original Purpose of American Education, Part 2. John Dewey and the Progressives took things a step further with their vision of the total secularism of American education, giving us a philosophy, curriculum and methodology divorced from Biblical truth. The results have been profound, reaching into every area of society: the family, church, economy, civil government, the media, the arts, and more.