My husband is a direct descendant of Peregrine White, the first child born on the Mayflower after it landed in Plymouth Bay in 1620. Of the original one hundred and two people on board the Mayflower, fifty did not survive the first three months in America, and about three quarters of the women died. However, Peregrine White lived his entire eighty-three years as a pilgrim in America. As Rebecca Fraser, so succinctly wrote it in her book, Mayflower, “Peregrine’s death marked the end of a heroic generation.”

Although when these pilgrims came to America, they were unprepared for all the unknowns in the new world, they were prepared for the responsibility of educating their children. Their faith in God was the foundation of their existence. They wanted to be a part of country, which would enable them to live and raise their children according to the Bible, as God fearing Christians, walking in faith, virtue, and freedom. They were well educated and knew they would be responsible for the education of their children and their children’s children. They believed that the foundation of knowledge is the word of God. They believed that education begins at home, and includes more than just knowledge, but also wisdom, virtue, and responsibility.

In 1636, the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony voted to found Harvard. The Reverend John Harvard was the first donor, and he left his personal library and half his estate to the school. The faculty was very small, yet it was distinguished. John Winthrop, who held the Hollis Professorship, taught mathematics and natural philosophy from 1738 to 1779, and was one of America’s greatest men of science in the colonial era. The original mission statement of Harvard in 1636 was “Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well the end of his life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life, and therefore to lay Christ in the bottom, as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning.”

American education thrived on the foundational principles of knowledge, wisdom, virtue, and responsibility. American values were based on Godly values, and her citizens walked courageously amidst pain and adversity, and they knew that life was not just about their own needs. Americans were far from perfect, but they created a nation and a constitution founded on what Os Guinness called the Golden Triangle: faith, virtue, and freedom. Without the three, there is no freedom.

Their values even under adversity produced men and women such as George Washington, Nathan Hale, Abraham Lincoln, Harriet Tubman, and Martin Luther King, Jr. among numerous others. Although knowledge is crucial to education, these Americans knew that without virtue, knowledge was in vain, and simply made oneself proud and arrogant.

The literacy rate in the 1800s was higher than it is today. Education in America changed from being God centered to self-centered. The following is the mission statement of Harvard today: “The mission of Harvard College is to educate the citizens and citizen-leaders for our society. We do this through our commitment to the transformative power of a liberal arts and sciences education. Beginning in the classroom with exposure to new ideas, new ways of understanding, and new ways of knowing, students embark on a journey of intellectual transformation. Through a diverse living environment, where students live with people who are studying different topics, who come from different walks of life and have evolving identities, intellectual transformation is deepened and conditions for social transformation are created. From this we hope that students will begin to fashion their lives by gaining a sense of what they want to do with their gifts and talents, assessing their values and interests, and learning how they can best serve the world.”

Paul Copperman wrote about the changes in American education in his powerful book, “The Literacy Hoax. The Decline of Reading, Writing, and Learning in the Public Schools and What We Can Do About it.” In his book written in 1978, he gives statistics and research results showing that academic achievement in America declined sharply every year since 1964. He blames the decline in education to liberal educators and writers, such as Charles Silberman, Herbert Kohl and A.S. Neill and their progressive and destructive influence.

Our schools are filled with students, who are the result of the antiquing of education in America. They have been brainwashed with hatred and anger for God. They despise the brave and virtuous men and women of the previous generations.

So many millennials want free education, free health care, free games, and freedom, but have no desire to be responsible. They embrace socialism and communism, having no idea of their destructive results. They do not recognize or appreciate the sacrifices of the previous generations, generations who gave their lives to protect this generation from the horrible consequences of these “isms”.

The antiquing of education in America has resulted in a generation of proud and arrogant youth, who are quick to destroy the sacrifices and monuments of the brave men and women, of the past generations. It seems but short steps from progressive education, to riots in the streets, to the deadly destructive ways of socialism and communism.

However, all is not lost, as a remnant of today’s youth are not deceived by the antiquing of progressive education. They stand tall in reverence and thanksgiving to Almighty God. They seek to honor Him and show respect to the past generations, who were not deceived by the antiquing process, but fought valiantly for America. They are joined with American citizens, many of whom immigrated from all over the world fleeing the very “isms” the progressive educators have been teaching we should seek. This mighty remnant of courageous youth today, stand tall and strong against the progressive giant lurking in the halls of American education.