this is kennedy classics with dr. d james kennedy ♪ welcome to kennedy classics thank you for joining us. i'm jerry newcombe. and i'm jennifer cassidy. with summer vacationdrawing to a close, millions of kids acrossamerica
-including perhaps your own children and grandchildren- are returning to school. but what are they learningwhen they get there? the answer to thatquestion may frighten you. on today's program, we'lltake an in-depth look at how our publicschools are doing, and examine one of themost influential threats to the faith and well beingof our children. plus, we'll tell you abouta new resource available
only through this ministrythat investigates the newest threat to theeducation of our children and grandchildren-the "commoncore" standards. and i'm john sorensen. and i'll share the most important thing god wants you to learn later in the program. and we begin today witha bold and provocative message from thelate dr. d. james kennedy on the state of educationin our nation,
called "thedumbing down of america." our scripture lesson thismorning is taken from the sixth chapter of thebook of deuteronomy. deuteronomy chapter 6. we will begin readingwith the fourth verse. may we hear the inspiredword of the living god. and may god speak to usthrough these words and may his nameever be praised. amen.
my subject is "thedumbing down of america." a number of decades agoa book was published entitled, theugly american, as perceived frommany in the orient. i am sure that one ofthese days somebody is liable to write a bookentitled the dumb american. we are becoming a nationof dummies- the ignorant american. one survey of the schoolsin germany, france,
and japan showed thatamerican high school students received half asmany hours in all of the core curriculum studies asthese other students do. but we do learn our abcs. one cartoon showed afather looking down at a little boy and he islooking at a paper, and the father says,"new math i've heard of, but what arethe new abcs?" very quickly the littleboy recites them:
"abortion, birthcontrol, and condoms." don't you knowanything, dad? no, i'm afraid what'shappening to our educational system is acatastrophic decline. you may recall a blueribbon panel appointed by the president in themid-eighties to examine our educational failures. they concluded that it wasso bad that if a foreign power had done to ourpublic schools what the
public schools havedone to themselves, it would be consideredan act of war. we would sendin the marines. and alien andhostile force! and my friends, that isexactly who has done it to our schools: thebureaucrats, the leaders of theunion, the nea, are for the mostpart have, indeed, virtually destroyedthe once great public
education systemin america. one of the leadinghumanist educators of the 20th century, in oneof his books said, "it may be true thatjohnny can't read (so what? they don't care), but at least 12 years of public schooling has divestedhis mind of all of that religious superstitionwith which he entered school."
that religioussuperstition, in case you don't know, iswhat we call christianity, and what they aregetting rid of. we have forgotten thewords of our founder, george washington,who said, "whatever may be concededto the influence of refined education reason (andby the way, he had nothing vaguely inmind about the kind of
refined education they aregetting today.) but reason and experience both forbidus to expect that national morality can prevail inexclusion of religious principle." we cannot get rid ofreligious principle. the founders of thiscountry never intended that religion should notbe taught in our schools. the first congress of theunited states passed the
northwest ordinancein which they said, "religion, morality andeducation being essential to good government,schools shall be established in thenorthwest territory." schools? yes! for what? religion, number one. morality, number two. education, number three. we got rid of religion,then we got rid of
morality, and now we havegotten rid of education. oh, we are prettywise, aren't we. we are so sophisticatedand so modern and so stupid. we are the dumb americans. he was absolutelyright on that, however. and, of course, what dowe hear form the school unions? that they need more money.
next time you hear that,just remember we spend more money perstudent than any other nation in the world, andare producing an abysmal result. it's not the moneythat is the problem; it is the philosophythat has gone wrong. we have brought about amoral educational collapse which is equivalent toan attack by a hostile foreign power.
you remember themcguffey readers. i don't know this, but iwould guess that may well be next to the bible thegreatest seller of all time. william mcguffey printedthat in 1836 and it sold over 122 million copies,and it was thoroughly christian. it was later expurgated ofits christian content by secularists, but it wasoriginally all christian.
this is what williammcguffey said. by the way, you may notknow that mcguffey was a presbyterian clergyman. he was also an educator. all education was in thehands of the church and the clergy until 1830. that was the purposeof public education. horace mann, the founderof public education stated that what he wanted to dowas get education out of
the hands of thechurch-take away the christian element. well, we've takenit thoroughly away, and look what we have. mcguffey said this:"if (and just think if whether or not thesethings have happened)." he said this in 1854: "ifyou can induce a community to doubt the genuinenessand authenticity of the scriptures; to questionthe reality and
obligations of religion;to hesitate, undeceiving, whether there is any suchthing as virtue or vice; whether there be aneternal state of retributionbeyond the grave; or whether there existsany such being as god, you have broken down thebarriers of moral virtue and hoisted the floodgatesof immorality and crime." can you imagine a betterdescription of what we have produced inthis country today?
1854-william mcguffey saidthat and he was right on target. but a more moderncommentator, probably knownto more people, is barbara walters-neveraccused of being any kind of extremist,i don't think. "today's high schoolseniors live in a world of misplacedvalues. they have no senseof discipline.
no goals. they care onlyfor themselves. in short, they are'becoming a generation of undisciplinedcultural barbarians. "many people don't knowwhat has happened in schools since they gotout 25, 35, 40 years ago. it's a different worldout there today- 130, 000 guns amongthe textbooks. thank god forchristian education.
let me say that i thankgod for all the christians who are continuingto teach in an ever-progressively moredifficult situation in the public school system. we need christians inpublic school teaching, supervising,as principals. but don't send your sevenor eight-year-olds to take on a 40 year old atheistichumanist or your feeding them as cannon fodder tothose who are alien to
everything you believe. and if you do, don't comeback to me and say, "oh, pastor, wheredid we go wrong? look what's happenedto our child. he hates everythingwe believe." you put him in an ungodlysituation with teachers who are excellent expertsat playing mind games with your children withenormous effectiveness. not only are they notgoing to get a good
education, they are alsoare going to have their beliefs, inmany, many cases, devastated by theskepticism that is endemic in the entire publicschool system in this country today. the great dr.charles hodge, professor of systemictheology at princeton seminary said,again in the 1850s, when public schools hadnot yet spread to every
state in the nation, hesaid this (with eagle-eyedprojection and prediction) he said, "should statistseducation [that is, education by thestate]...should statist [or public] educationbecome universal in america, it will becomethe greatest enginery of atheism that theworld has ever seen. thus spoke dr.charles hodge, the greatest theologianamerica has ever seen,
and history hasproved him right. don't play russianroulette with your child's eternal soul. may we pray. father, nothing is moreprecious to us in this life than our children. we pray that they mayget a good education. we pray even more thatthey will come to understand and believe thegreat truths of scripture,
and that the bible willnot be decimated and denigrated day by day inevery class and school and they will be denudedof all their religious beliefs, as so many have. we pray that you willbless this nation, o god. bring it back to thyself. renew oureducational system. we pray this inthe name of christ. before we can honor godin our schools and in our
society, we must firsthonor god in our own lives. but we can't do thatunless we have surrendered our lives to him. do you have a relationshipwith the living god? do you know the abundantlife that he has come to give you? if not, i urge you -don't wait another day. scripture says, "today isthe day of salvation." today, you can stop tryingto be good enough to get
to heaven by your ownworks and transfer your trust to the only one andonly person who is truly good - jesus christ. he made a way for our sinto be removed from us when he died on the cross. he paid the debt we couldnever pay and now he offers us the freegift of eternal life. if you would like toreceive this gift, we can go to god togetherin prayer right now
saying, "lordjesus christ, i know that i am a sinner. please forgive me forliving life my way. thank you for dying for meto pay the penalty for my sins and for offering melife to the full now and forever. i ask you to come into mylife as my savior and my lord. in your namei pray, amen."
i hope you prayed thatprayer and if you did, we'd like to sendyou a book written by dr. kennedy specificallyfor new believers. it's calledbeginning again. this book will teachyou about prayer, help you get startedreading the bible and much more. you'll also learn how toshare your new found faith with others.
to receive yours, justwrite to our address or call our toll free numberand ask for beginning again. god bless you as you do. our children are the mostprecious resource we have. and the bible's clear that "the fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom." but as dr. kennedyrevealed in his message, god has largely beenremoved from public education.
and while there arewonderful christian teachers who are theequivalent of missionaries in our public school system -and we're thankful for every one of them- we're losing ground fast. as you're about to see,educational leaders are pushing an agenda that'sturning our children from faith in god and hispurpose for their lives. what is that agenda?
and what'sthe solution? let's take a closer look. god's purpose for the family definitely includeseducation of the children. it is the parent'sprimary responsibility to raise them up in theadmonition of the lord. when they go down to theirlocal school board, when they attend theschool board meetings, when they decideto opt their child out,
when they send them toa christian school, when they home school theirkids, what they're doing is what they're biblicallydirected to do, and that is to look well tothe ways of their household. public education is thefamily surrendering the charge of their childrenand what they are taught to the state. you're turning over yourchild thousands of hours a year to governmentteachers.
progressive thinkersare atheist thinkers and their desire is tocontrol the children of the parents since thechildren belong to the state. it's the oldhitlerian idea that if you can separatethe child from the parent and you can get themwhile they're young; you can get them tofollow your philosophy. there is no question thatthere is a movement today to eradicate christianityfrom the public schools.
the bible was firstremoved from the home before it was removedfrom the schools. and, as a consequence itdidn't matter to homes whether the biblewas taught or not. things got worse when the people who are making the decisions in public education began to drift away from the principles of the scriptures orof christianity. it's very obvious when youlook at the scriptures
where it says: if you remove thefear of the lord, christian foundational principles from education, instead of gettingsmarter, you get dumber, instead of having a better society, you ultimately have a society that is ripefor chaos and disorder. if you look at all the factsand figures everything bad that's happening inour country today - i'm talking about juvenile delinquency, drugs,
pornography, unwed teenage pregnancies - you look at all of these things, they have all risen to astronomical proportions. that's not just a coincidence, there's got to be adirect correlation when we kick godout of the schools. i'm afraid we're gettingwhat we asked for, which is a godless society that has been educatedin our schools.
if you look atpublic education, there is a phenomenoncalled negative learning. negative learning essentiallyhas been recognized by seculareducational individuals who are researchingthis area, that the longer peoplestay in public education, the less they learn. american education is notunlike archimedes' bathtub, there's only so muchthat tub can hold.
and the minute you decideto put in peace education and values education andwriting your own obituary, and gay sensitivityclasses, and environmentalstudies, you spill out over the side of thebathtub, math and reading and spelling andliterature and geography. you can read anamerican history book today that's used as atextbook in the school and either youdon't really know
that our founding fathershad a deep faith in god, or the books willactually make fun of our founding fathersand their belief in god. they've all beenmodified because someone along the way hassaid it's hurtful, it's divisive, it's intolerant, and as a result they've rewritten history. naturally whoever controlsthe public system will determine theidea for education,
the purpose for education. the gay and lesbian andtransgender movement has had a big impacton our schools. many public schools, i think appropriatelyat some level want to teach kidsright and wrong, but what if their definitionof right and wrong says opposing homosexualbehavior is wrong and embracinghomosexuality is right.
well of course you'regoing to see that in the public schools. i've noticed in textbooksthat the words husband, wife, family, worship,pray have been taken out and there are many wordsthat are deemed to be hurtful and divisive andpolitically incorrect today. i know there is a controversyin california right now about teaching quote gayhistory in the public schools. many christians and othersare concerned about
that sort of agenda being foisted upon the children who are required toattend public schools. i know in my hometowna student was flunked because she refused to write a paper about homosexuals having a right toadopt children; so they actually flunkedher from the school! and when that happens christians need to speak up and say, wait a minute, what about my constitutional rights; i'm being denied my right of free exercise of religion?
and if my faith teaches thati shouldn't participate in a classroom on a projectthat i disagree with then i should have the rightto refrain from doing that. the home is thefoundation of all nations and if you're going to dealwith the problems of a nation you deal with where theybegin; in the family. it seems to me thatparents, grandparents, just do not speak up;they're afraid to go before the schoolboard; they're afraid
to talk about the changein the schoolbooks i think we have toremain strong and guard our history, ourtraditions and our culture. and if we don't, if thisgeneration doesn't do it, the next generation- it will be harder and harder and harder tomaintain our history. so, mom and dad, if youhave a school district, where, in fact, they'reintroducing pernicious ideas that are antitheticalto the word of god,
then you're gonna haveto ask yourself who you're going toserve, mammon or god. as patrick henry told us back in the time ofthe revolution: he said - the vigilant, the active and the brave! today 32 million americanadults are functionally illiterate. and a full 20% of highschool seniors can be classified as functionallyilliterate at the time
they graduate -- a sadindictment of our secular education system. but, education playsa major role in the formation of a child. and the ultimateresponsibility for that education, as the lordtells us in deuteronomy 6, lies with thechild's parents. and now there's a newthreat on the horizon to deal with--and it'sbacked by some very
powerful entities. perhaps you have heardabout the controversy over "common core"--but you don'tknow what it is. it is absolutelyessential that you do know. the future of americadepends on it. on the face of it, "commoncore" may sound good, but the realityis insidious. under the guise ofpreparing your children and grandchildrenfor college,
these standards mayactually be preparing them to essentially be worker drones for the new globalist economy. because this issueis so important, and because facts canbe hard to come by, we commissioned our owneducational specialist, dr. karen gushta, to writea short, easy-to-read, fact-filled expose on thecommon core standards. it's called, the truthabout common core,
and for a limited timewe're sharing this crucial new book with you as ourway of saying thank you for your generous donationof any amount to the ongoing work ofour ministry. write to us or call toll free: or call toll free or go online at: among the many problemswith common core are that it eliminates the truthabout america's christian history and thefoundations of western
civilization, it is partof a globalist agenda, moving forward the"new world order". and it enriches a smallhandful of multi-billion dollar educationcorporations. you might think, "mychildren or grandchildren are in private school,or are homeschooled. so this won't affect them." but that's not true. these standards willaffect every student
unless this is stopped. if your children orgrandchildren are in school, or you knowpeople whose kids are, you need to get thisbook and be informed. secrecy has enabled thisagenda to flourish-but the secrets end here. we'll send you thisexclusive booklet, the truth about commoncore for your generous donation of any amountfor a limited time.
write to us at: perhaps you cangive $20, or $30, or even $100 or more! it's your donations andyour prayers that keep this ministry going. and we are very grateful! so please be sure to senda generous gift today. thank you for joining us,and may god bless you as you stand with us.
and may god bless americawith repentance and a new national awakening. a video of today's programis available on dvd for your gift to this ministryof any amount so please call, write, or log ontoour web site today. next week onkennedy classics what was it that they were trying to do? wasn't it just to provide a more progressive and more excellent education for our students?
well listen to the words of one of their own leaders. "the great object was to get rid of christianity." the students who go through the common core curriculum will have no clue as to the impact of the bible or the impact jesus has had on civilization and culture because they won't hear about that. that's next week this has been a production of truth in action ministries
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