Although secular humanistic thought began to penetrate American culture in the 1800’s, 1960 seems to be a watershed year in our nation’s history.  In the early 1960’s, prayer and the Ten Commandments were taken from our public classrooms.  It is interesting that downward trends in academic and moral indicators can be traced to the early 60’s.

A 50 year cultural meltdown has created a moral vacuum in our nation’s public classrooms.  Secular humanism, hedonism, and New Age thought have rushed in, taking the place of our historic Judeo-Christian ethic.  Public education has become politicized.  Political correctness has the education process itself in a death grip.

“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”  ~ Thomas Jefferson

Our problem in public education is not a lack of money.  Public education is one of the largest industries in the nation, acquiring one of the largest budgets in the U.S. government.  It has one of the largest unions in the world.  Our problem is not facilities.

The problem is the worldview and belief system of the educational elite.

Consider the following 5 tenets of secular humanism upon which our public education system is founded.  Excerpts are extracted from the Humanist Manifestos I & II.

1. ATHEISM:  “We find insufficient evidence for belief in the existence of the supernatural … as nontheists we begin with man not God … no deity will save us; we must save ourselves.”
2. EVOLUTION:  “Religious Humanists regard the universe as self-existing and not created … the human species is an emergence from natural evolutionary forces.”
3. AMORALITY:  “Ethics is autonomous and situational … and stem from self interest – favor right to birth control, abortion, divorce and choice of sex direction.”
4. AUTONOMOUS MAN:  “We believe in maximum individual autonomy – reject all religious, moral codes that suppress freedom, … demand civil liberties, including right to oppose governmental policies – right to die with dignity, euthanasia and suicide.”
5. GLOBALISM:  “We have reached a turning point in human history where the best often is to transcend the limits of national sovereignty and move toward the building of a world community … the peaceful adjudication of differences by international courts.”

These tenets build upon one another.  Notice the downward slide.

It begins with no God.  If there is no Creator, then were did we come from?  Well, of course we evolved from lower life forms.  If we came from the animals, why not live like animals?  Amorality is the absence of morals.

Since there is no God, then man is autonomous or independent.  He can do what he desires.  Finally, man will create his own utopia, a new world order.

Homeschooling, virtual online schools, charter schools, and private education have proliferated because of the damage done to public education.  There are some good people within the public education systems.  And there are parents who are very aware and involved.  But, the problem is systemic.  If public education is going to be what the nation needs it to be, it will have to free itself from political agendas, special interests, political correctness, and a worldview which will never bring the level of success that our children and youth deserve.