Posted on 11/23/2004 8:24:00 PM PST by truthandlife
A researcher has revealed some disturbing trends regarding the sets of beliefs Christian students in public schools have about the most important issues in life.
Dan Smithwick is the founder and president of the Nehemiah Institute, a group that provides a biblical worldview testing and training service to Christian educators. He is the developer of what is called the "PEERS test," a tool to assess the worldviews of young people, and says the majority of public school students from evangelical Christian homes consistently score in the "socialist" category on the test.
According to Smithwick, this outcome should come as no surprise, considering the fact that secular humanists are currently shaping America. He notes that socialism, a political and economic philosophy that commonly emphasizes government control and redistribution of wealth over personal responsibility and private ownership, often goes hand in hand with secularist attitudes and a generally non-biblical worldview.
Smithwick's worldview test consists of a series of statements carefully designed to identify a person's worldview in five categories: Politics, Economics, Education, Religion, and Social Issues (PEERS). Each statement is framed to either agree or disagree with a biblical principle.
When it comes to major moral and social issues, the Nehemiah Institute spokesman contends there is a dramatic difference in thinking between students in public schools and those in Christian schools. This is because, while Christian school students are generally taught curricula predicated on a biblical worldview, students educated in public schools, even when they grow up in Christian homes, tend to a very high degree to adopt the non-biblical and socialistic worldviews of the secular humanists in control of their education.
"In the last hundred years," Smithwick asserts, "and especially in the last 30 years, this is the audience that is shaping the public square in America, hands down. And they didn't really have to fight for it -- we [in the Church] gave it to them. Somewhere along the way we decided that the public square really wasn't our business. It wasn't our playground; they could have it, and they've had their way with it."
As a result, the Christian education advocate says, even Christian students are growing up to become a part of a society with an increasingly secular-humanistic and socialistic worldview. "Now we've got a mess on our hands," he says, "and it's really our fault. So we've got to change that. We've got to repent before God. We've got to go back and understand that worldview means God is interested in everything he created."
Undoing the Damage Done by Dewey Unfortunately, Smithwick says, many Christian young people today are not being taught to think biblically in all areas of life. That is why he urges parents, pastors and Christian teachers to take advantage of the Nehemiah Institute's worldview testing, training, and resources. And this is why he has been promoting the Institute's programs this week at the Alliance for the Separation of School and State Conference in Washington, DC.
Undoing Dewey -- that's the goal of the program, according to Smithwick. He refers to the secular humanist principles of John Dewey (1859-1952), the philosopher and education reformer whose principles have shaped public education in America. Dewey promoted a philosophy of education with the premise that learning by doing (experimentalism) should form the basis of education, and any idea or concept is validated by its practicality (pragmatism). Some Christian educators consider these ideas to be precursors to "values clarification" and other questionable teaching models that advocate moral relativism, but which are commonly taught in teacher education and used in U.S. public schools.
Smithwick says his program of PEERS testing indicates that Christian students are by no means immune to the secular humanism being taught in public schools, but have in fact been dramatically influenced by it. "The way we got this was by testing youth groups in evangelical churches," he says. "The majority of the kids are in public schools. In many cases, 100 percent of them are in public schools."
The Nehemiah Institute president says many pastors like to call these young people their "best kids" since this group, at least, are involved in a church youth group. Still, he asserts that these kids have not escaped with an intact biblical worldview. "They're in public school," he says, "and they're buying into the philosophy of life that's being put before them five days a week, six or seven hours a day."
Smithwick recommends PEERS testing as an aid for Christians who want to make sure their young people develop a distinctly biblical worldview. He advises Church parents to disconnect from government schooling and, along with pastors and other Christian educators, to engage in worldview assessment and training.
I agree with the article with the exception that we created the problem.
Ping.
This whole article in a nutshell; "The Commie teachers are brainwashing our children to their anti Christian Socialist agenda while they are captive in the classroom."
Wake up parents!
Separation of School and State BUMP!
Matches what I observed working for a very conservative church for a decade. Doesn't show up until the kids are teenagers, then the usual teenage rebellion schtick kicks in with strong leftwing overtones.
It's not that organizations like the NEA don't try, and the AFT to a much lesser extent, but they're just not successful in their efforts. Indoctrination in schools in a free society doesn't work. If it did the Catholic Church wouldn't be facing empty pews on Sunday. Where are all those graduates of Catholic schools in the 50s and 60s and 70s? More than half are not there or are just sprinkling Catholics. And no it wasn't Vatican II since most of these folks never saw a Latin Mass.
School districts and teacher unions may be trying to spread their ideology, but I have little fear of them being successful.
Yet one more reason my children will never go to a public school.
According to many Democrat posters at http://www.christianforums.com , a Christian nation would be more socialist and more tolerant.
INTREP
you say indoctrination doesn't WORK? Are you aware of just how close the Bush/Kerry vote was? Kerry's 50+ million votes should SCARE YOU TO DEATH and get you active on your local school board campaigns. It's at the school/local level you can make a huge impact. Texas just had a huge victory in insisting its textbooks referred to a man and a woman being the partners in marriage. ACLU had a fit...tough!
One of the mainstream tv channels reported on the new Texas schoolbooks. They showed an example of how a book text was changed from "when two people fall in love and marry" to "when a man and woman fall in love and marry". They also interviewed a representative from the gay community that said the new textbooks would alienate gay students. Based on the amount of textbooks that a state like Texas would use, this could have a big impact on textbooks printed available to other states.
I wish California could make a turn to the right like Texas did. The schools in California have to abide by the state school board, which among other things, allows students to decide what gender they are when filling in forms.
People concerned about their children and grandchildren should stay informed about what's happening in California schools. lots of info available at http://www.savecalifornia.com
A tremendous number of those 50 Mil voted in what they saw as thei economic self interest. The 90% Black Kerry vote ws a product of 60 years of Democratic legislation that Blacks rightly ot wrongly see as beneficial. Reps are seen as anti union so that vote is overwhelmingly Dem. There is an automatic 40 45 million Dem votes in this nation that Karl Rove's hypnotic thought control could not change. There are many factors in this, but school indoctrination is not one of them IMHO.
This was true in my case, particularly my high school years. On some level I knew that what I was being taught contradicted my faith, but I was unable to explicitly identify and resolve the contradictions floating around in my mind.
But I was fortunate enough to experience and identify my state of mental anguish, even if I couldn't find a way to free myself of it. In other words, at least I was angry, even if I didn't understand why. Unfortunately, most children learn to live with this cognitive dissonance by adopting a generally indifferentist and agnostic position regarding life itself. I'm convinced that this explains teenage ennui.
The purpose of life for all people is to know, love and serve God in this life and to be happy forever with Him in the next. Any purported education that claims to prepare children for life, yet neglects the central purpose of life, is child abuse of the highest order.
What people should know is that the U.S. Constitution does not mandate a liberal, secular humanist, statist tyranny over education. The only reason we have this situation in America is because of bigotry. The moronic secular humanism of the NEA which casts a shadow over most of the education in this country should be ended. And that can be ended with school choice for EVERYONE.
I disagree. The majority of freepers are very intelligent and very politically savvy.
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