Sorry to tell you, I didn’t need a program to make me ignorant. I was born that way, but through hard work and the blessing of the Most High, I became smarter than a third grader! While this is a joke, in today's public education system, a third-grade education may get most students through graduation from twelfth grade.
Look at it this way. In a time of abundant information, one might expect education to foster critical thinking and moral clarity. Instead, many children face "programmed ignorance", a deliberate strategy to produce compliant citizens who value conformity over liberty. This echoes Biblical warnings: "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" (Hosea 4:6). By sidelining the Bible's role in true wisdom, modern systems engineers ignore the need to guide future generations, in contrast to Scripture's call for knowledge rooted in reverence for God.
America has a historical bedrock built by our Founding Fathers and Biblical education, and that is the problem some people have.
America's founders knew liberty depends on an educated populace grounded in moral and spiritual truth. Thomas Jefferson called the Bible the "cornerstone of liberty" and said it "makes the best people in the world." He insisted, "Educate and inform the whole mass of the people. They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty." James Madison added, "The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty."
Noah Webster declared, "Education is useless without the Bible… God's Word… has furnished all necessary rules to direct our conduct." Early American schools centered on Scripture for reading, morality, and civics. Benjamin Rush advocated Bible-based instruction to cultivate virtue, and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 required the encouragement of "religion, morality, and knowledge" in education.
These leaders embraced Proverbs 1:7: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge." Without this foundation, education manipulates rather than liberates, as seen in regimes like China and North Korea, where state curricula enforce atheism and totalitarianism under false banners of "democracy."
Scripture values knowledge as a divine gift for righteous living—Proverbs 8:10 urges choosing instruction over gold. Biblical education is holistic, with parents commanded in Deuteronomy 6:6-7 to teach God's words diligently. Isaiah 5:13 warns that a lack of knowledge leads to captivity.
True Biblical learning builds character—virtue, integrity, love—which are vital for a free society. It demands the pursuit of truth (Proverbs 2:3-5) and views faith as the lens through which to interpret all reality. This opposes programmed ignorance, which breeds dependency on human authority.
Bible values are under an assault from pre-school to post-graduate, and education has been weaponized! Today, public education often erodes traditional values while excluding religious perspectives. The 1962 Engel v. Vitale decision banning school prayer created a secular vacuum filled by ideologies critics call indoctrination. Curricula suppress dissent, downplay America's Christian heritage, and present evolution or gender identity without balanced moral debate.
This selective teaching prioritizes conformity, mirroring historical efforts to enforce obedience. As virtuous citizens need less government, those seeking power benefit from moral relativism. Recent critiques highlight "radical indoctrination" in schools, blocking parental input and fostering division. Excluding faith, some argue, marginalizes believers and allows biases to spread unchecked.
The result: a generation mistaking license for liberty, technologically advanced yet ethically adrift. Ignorance enables abuses of power, as Jefferson noted regarding corrupt clergy or politicians. Globally, authoritarian education produces compliant masses; America risks following suit.
Final Word: Proverbs 22:6 says, "Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it." It's up to the parents to ensure the child's training is from the Bible.
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