The Dumbing Down of America
Deut 6:1-7
Introduction
As we have seen over the last couple of weeks, America is in trouble
We see that we have become a people that call evil good and good evil
We have seen that America is being overwhelmed with the growing number of homosexuals…being taught early in life…touted as normal
Romans 1 showed us the state of America today especially in vs. 32 “Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.”
But the question has to be asked “how did we get to where we are today?”
Well that’s what we will explore today as we look at “The Dumbing Down of America”
Read Deut 6:1-7 / Pray
1. A Tug of War in the Classroom
I can honestly say that it doesn’t seem like an education today is the same as it was many years ago
I want to show you a sampling of a test that we giving to students in 1895 in Kansas (Slide)
Grammer: 1. Give the nine rules of the use of Capital Letters
2. Define Case, Illustrate each Case
3. Name the parts of Speech and define those that have no
Modifications
Arithmetic: 1. Name and define the fundamental rules of arithmetic
2. A Wagon box is 2ft deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft wide. How
many bushels of wheat will it hold?
3. Find a bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10%
U.S. History: 1. Give the epochs into which U.S. history is divided
2. Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War
3. Describe three of the most prominent battles of the
rebellion
How many of you could pass that test?
Well what about today? Here are a few samples of some answers turned in by high-school students across the country
• A triangle which has an angle of 135 degrees is called an obscene triangle
• A virtuoso is a musician with real high morals
• Zanzibar is noted for its monkeys. The British governor lives there
• Abraham Lincoln became America’s greatest precedent. Lincoln’s mother died in infancy and he was born in a log cabin which he built with his own hands
• The sun never sets on the British Empire because the British Empire is on the east and the sun sets on the west, as every educated person knows
I hope some of you are not saying…”And what’s wrong with these?”
Today in our secularist education in America we have a world-and-life view that was not prevalent in this country 50 – 100 years go
What view is that? A world-and-life WITHOUT GOD
When God is simply removed…He does not have to be denied…He just has to be ignored
And so they learn about a world in which God has been banished from life
In 1983 the prize winning essay “The Humanist” published by John Dunphy proclaimed “The battle for humankind’s future must be waged and won in the public school classroom…between the rotting corpse of Christianity…and the new faith of humanism”
The educational elite have systematically excluded God from our public schools
Jeffrey Dahmer, serial killer and cannibal, said in an interview “Evolution in the classroom undermined my faith that human life had any value, and when I accepted that view, it totally devalued my opinion of my fellow man…and since it taught me that there was no God to be accountable to, it gave me permission to do as I pleased.”
We have forgotten that children will simply live out what they have learned.
Garbage in…garbage out.
What about freedom of expressing your faith in the school?
2. Prejudice Against Christians
Christians everywhere are feeling the pinch of this prejudism…especially in the schools
Here are just a few examples of what’s happened in our school systems around the nation
• A public school bus driver in New York was fired for witnessing to a student when he answered the student’s questions about religion and gave him a bible
• A student in Utah was told to cover his bible when he brings it to school
• Christian students in Missouri have been told they may not pray over their meals or pass out gospel tracts in school
• The state of Washington forbids public university students from student teaching in private religious classrooms
And it will only get worse if Christians continue to allow this to happen without taking a stand
Jesus said in John 15:20, “…they persecuted me, they will also persecute you…”
What are the academic results of the dumbing down of America?
3. Academic Downfall
A recent study found that 4 out of 10 elementary grade students cannot write an organized paragraph using basic grammar and spelling
Even college students are fairing poorly as more than 600,000 freshmen need remedial courses in reading, writing and math
What’s the cost of that to the taxpayer to provider such courses? $1 billion annually…and this is material that is supposed to be mastered in high school
4. No More American Heroes and Antipatriotism
Again, let me quickly read our passage Deut 6:6-7
If the educational elite get there way, not only will school children not know about the Christian founders of our country, they won’t even learn about them
Here is an example in California: A state recommended list of books for students excludes American heroes and founders.
Books about Washington, Jefferson, Paine, and John Paul Jones are missing, as is the Bible, and American war heroes, and the taming of the west
Christopher Columbus is only mentioned in one book as an exploiter of native Americans
Shortly after the 9-11 attack, the New York education system presented more than 100 antipatriotic lesson plans for teachers to use in the classroom
These plans took a decidedly “blame America” approach urging educators to discuss the historical intolerance of America…in a sense, we deserved it
Remember our passage from a few weeks ago in Romans 1:21 & 25 “For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.” 25 “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie…”
Saints if we continue to teach our children these antipatriotic ways, our nation will crumble and fall
Now let me say that not all public schools are following this pattern but I believe they will soon be made to
Why? Because the current governmental administration will mandate it
Perhaps the most alarming development in dumbing down America is the complete restructuring by the federal government of the education system
Some themes that are already being permeated in our schools from the government are
• Undermining national sovereignty
Redefining national goals
• Requiring multiculturalism
• Embracing alternate lifestyles as normal
• Mandatory sex education called “health sciences” (teaching how to properly put on condemns)
There is a new curriculum of history books called “WE THE PEOPLE” being pushed for students to embrace.
Here is a sampling of how it begins “The primary purpose of this text is not to fill your head with a lot of facts about American history and geography.
Knowledge of the facts is not as important as deepening your understanding of the American Constititutional system and its development.”
That may sound good to the gullible, but this new curriculum will provide a history that emphasizes politically correct people and situations
Everything that is “traditional” is downplayed, altered, or left out
This curriculum takes a slant that America deserves many of the terrorist attack over the years because of her intolerance and righteous thinking
CONCLUSION
Well, as you can see, we are headed for more trouble…without a God shaking revival
You can see that where we are today is a total abomination to God
Unless there is a change, America will continue down the slippery slope of being dumbed down
America will continue to be hammered about being tolerant and accepting and never stand or say anything against someone…even if they are wrong
Where then do I see this leading to in the future?
Next week we will begin to look at that as we begin part three of our series “WHERE WE ARE HEADED” We will begin by looking at “The Fastest-Growing Religion in America”
