In 1924, archeologists in modern-day Libya discovered mass child graveyards in ancient Carthage and gawked with disbelief. Did ancient Carthage’s religious or political beliefs so blind Carthaginian parents that they were willing to sacrifice their children? The revolting idea was denied for decades until 2014 when Oxford University published an article proving the Carthaginian ritual of child sacrifice.
A century later, our refusal to acknowledge the evidence is equally untenable. While not sacrificing their lives, millions of Christian parents are unwittingly surrendering the souls of their children by enrolling them in public schools. The evidence is undeniable: for generations, American parents have trusted the government school system hellbent on indoctrinating students with secular, materialistic ideologies. The consequence is clear: The American future is on the brink of collapse, and the responsibility to fix this disaster rests on the parents who have entrusted their children [or heritage from the Lord (Ps. 128)] to the state.
Our modern educational catastrophe evolved from the 18th-century Prussian model, designed to cultivate compliant subjects and industrious factory workers. Philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte engineered this Prussian model. He viewed compulsory schooling as a tool to indoctrinate kids, not educate them. Fichte wrote in his work Education,
“Education should aim at destroying free will so that after pupils are thus schooled they will be incapable throughout the rest of their lives of thinking or acting otherwise than as their schoolmasters would have wished … When the technique has been perfected, every government that has been in charge of education for more than one generation will be able to control its subjects securely without the need of armies or policemen.”
This Prussian model, rooted in secular humanism, was then imported to the United States by 19th-century politicians. American churches fought tooth and nail against this compulsory government education for the first fifty years. Alexis de Tocqueville wrote, “As late as the 1830s, it was noted in America that education was everywhere in the hands of the Protestant clergy.” As of 1900, two-thirds of high school children were still educated at home or in the church. A. A. Hodge, the President of Princeton Theological Seminary, wrote just before his death in 1886,
“I am as sure as I am about Christ’s reign that a comprehensive and centralized system of national education, separate from religion, as is now commonly proposed, will prove the most appalling enginery for the propagation of anti-Christian and atheistic unbelief, and of antisocial nihilistic ethics—individual, social, and political—which this sin-rent world has ever seen.”
Thinkers like Hodge, however, were not opposed to the government education system as long as it adhered to Christian beliefs. Christians and secular humanists momentarily found a compromise: public schools would be widespread if they kept a Christian foundation. Emphasizing punctuality, obedience, and repetitive memorization, this new American system mirrored industrial settings, with influential figures like John D. Rockefeller shaping it to prioritize practical skills over the intellectual arts. That ‘appalling enginery’ of secular education untethered from Prayer, Scripture, and Christian Doctrine proved victorious in 1962 with the publication of Engel v. Vitale, which stated that any public preference for Christianity in education violated the First Amendment, declaring that education must be done without reference to a higher power. Christianity was quietly relegated to Sunday mornings, and children were taught to live without regard for their Maker each of their six days of labor, reversing the Fourth Commandment’s insistence on the Lord’s Day. Instead of daily education being an application of weekly worship, worship was now an extracurricular stapled to the back page of a week of practical and worldly pursuits.
Fast forward six decades, and the current education system in the United States is spiraling in every metric. 66% of American students lack proficiency in reading, 73% lack proficiency in writing, and 64% lack proficiency in mathematics. The consequences of this educational freefall are exemplified by colleges no longer requiring SAT and ACT scores for admission. This is due to the detrimental impact the continually abysmal scores have had on students’ mental health.
Dr. Anthony Esolen, prolific author and distinguished professor of the liberal arts at Thales College, reveals how such apathy infected America’s children in the first place in his book Out of the Ashes: Rebuilding American Culture. “School is the asylum where we send children whom we do not know what to do with otherwise… boys are especially bored to tears by it all, and the remedy comes in the form of drugs because they cannot pay attention to what is not worth attending to in the first place.” Fueled by an education system in crisis, this apathy has led to a generation disengaged and struggling to find meaning in their academic pursuits. The schools have failed to equip students to think critically and have, as predicted by A. A. Hodges, propagated “antisocial nihilistic ethics.” Thus, it should come as no surprise that Business Insider found 88% of Gen Z in support of BLM, NBC News found that 57% believe in gender fluidity, and Gallup Polls found that 21% identify as LGBTQIA+. Furthermore, a 2022 YouthTruth survey of nearly 223,000 students from 845 schools across 20 states found that 50% of middle school students and 56% of high school students identified depression and anxiety as the biggest hurdle to education. Pastor Voddie Bauchum Jr. said best: “We cannot continue to send our children to Caesar for their education and be surprised when they come home as Romans.”
While most parents understand the government’s significant influence, few understand the two others that make the schools so evil. Since 1990, the two largest teachers unions, The National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), have given 95% of their political contributions to Democrats. Thus, in this organized and somehow legal circular theft ring, the teachers’ unions collect dues from 70% of public school teachers and federal aid, then channel those funds back into Democrat campaigns. Once those Democrats get elected, they pass bills appropriating more money to the unions. The unions help their beneficiaries by churning out students with worldviews antithetical to that of their parents, which will keep them in power. In 2016 alone, the NEA and AFT donated $52 million to Democratic campaigns. In his book The Case for Christian Nationalism, political philosopher Stephen Wolfe gravely draws parallels between the masses of indoctrinated and gender-confused students, manipulated by the trifecta of government, unions, and the Democrat Party, to “child soldiers with AK-47s, [who] as they fight battles and lose their souls… also pledge lifelong loyalty.”
Parents who awoke to the assault on their children’s minds, in large part, have responded too little too late. Currently, 39 states have no statutes that define or protect parental rights, 47 states do not grant parents review of learning materials and activities before teaching, and 12 states and counting do not allow parents to be involved in their schools’ sex ed curriculum. The state’s intrusion into the family’s realm is glaringly apparent in Canada, notably exemplified by the head of the Ontario Education Department’s assertion that teachers function as co-parents. Such encroachment is not exclusive to Canada. In the United States, the encroachment continues as state actors, such as former VA Governor Terry McAuliffe’s audacious assertion that parents have no right to dictate their children’s education. This stance is further illuminated by McAuliffe’s veto of a 2016 bill aimed at informing parents about sexually explicit content assigned to students. This perspective isn’t entirely unfounded. When considering a child’s daily routine, which typically involves 8 hours of sleep, an 8-hour school day, 2-3 hours of homework, essential activities like hygiene and meals consuming 2 hours, an hour dedicated to sports, and approximately 2 hours spent on video games (the national average), it becomes clear that state teachers bear responsibility for children for as long, if not longer, than parents do. This is wholly unsustainable for a self-governing people and an independent republic if it wishes to continue.
If Christians genuinely desire the revival of a robust American culture steeped in biblical values, then they must resist institutionalizing their children at a young age and placing them in a “good school system.” Christian and conservative parents alike must get comfortable being uncomfortable. They must prioritize their children’s well-being over societal pressures. It will not be easy, but it will be good. In a 1930 speech, Calvin Coolidge described America as an institution established by the little band of Pilgrims, exiled to a foreign wilderness, cut in half by disease and crying to God for deliverance– that institution which three times defeated evil fascists and communist empires, now investigates Americans as domestic terrorists for protesting sexually graphic school assigned reading.
Christian Parents, the Allied soldiers who stormed the beaches of Normandy, had a higher chance of survival than the faith of your children who go through the government school system. The statistics are clear. The results are in. The experiment must be ended. Your school is not the exception. Get them out. There are not enough hours in the day to reverse the trifecta of state, union, and Democrat party all targeting your child.
As public schools pollute my generation with corrosive ideologies while declining in every metric, the answer lies in criticism and construction. The American children are, without a doubt, headed down the path that leads to destruction. Thus, it is time to erect lighthouses of truth to guide the youth away from the deadly rocks of nihilism and secularism and towards the good confession of our framers that God alone establishes our steps. The body of Christ must rise as builders, creating a steadfast counter-culture that burns like chemotherapy through every cancerous cell of secular humanism in our nation.
Christians, this is a call to apply all your talents to infuse Christian perspectives into every facet of society, from social media to libraries, liberal bookstores, community sports, movies, music, and finance. This is a call to nation-discipleship. This is a recognition that the future of a thriving society lies in the hearts and minds of its children. Let Christians equip the next generation to be pillars of virtue and wisdom. The time to build is now, and the legacy left will shape the destiny of our nation.
Originally published on November 20. Current version reflects updates, edits, or a new edition.
