Please Read!

I was flipping through some old notebooks I had, and ran across this article I printed out a few years ago.  It is called "Against School, How public education cripples our kids and why" by John Taylor Gatto.

www.spinninglobe.net/againstschool.htm

You need to read it.  This article is coming from a man who was a former New York State and New York City Teacher of the Year.  I think it makes some very valid points from someone who was in the system, and what he saw in his career after thirty years.   

Yes it is long, but please take some time to ponder and consider what the author is saying.  Is they school system really helping our children, or keeping them children?  Are we challenging our kids enough or are we catering to them so much that they don't really stretch and strengthen and grow?

Good Quotes

"Diffuse the knowledge of the Bible, and the hungry will be fed, and the naked clothed.  Diffuse the knowledge of the Bible, and the stranger will be sheltered, the prisoner visited, and the sick ministered unto.  Diffuse the knowledge of the Bible, and Temperance will rest upon a surer basis than any mere private pledge or public statute.  Diffuse the knowledge of the Bible, and the peace of the world will be secured by more substantial safeguards than either the mutual fear, or the reciprocal interests of prices or of people. Diffuse the knowledge of the Bible, and the day will be hastened, as it can be hastened in no other way, when every yoke shall be loosened, and every bond broken, and when there shall be no more leading until captivity..."  

"All societies of men must be governed in some way or other.  The less they may have of stringent State Government, the more they must have of individual self-government.  The less they rely on public law or physical force, the more they must rely on private moral restraint.   Men, in a word, must be necessarily be controlled, either by a power within them, or by a power without them; wither by the word of God, or by the strong arm of man; ether by the Bible, or by the bayonet." 

 Robert C. Winthrop, Boston, 1852

Those are some interesting thoughts about the power of the Word of God.  A very good thing to keep in mind as we memorize scriptures and seek out with God says in our lives.  I don't know about you, but I would rather be led by what God says.  In this day and age the world is saying a lot of different things, some good, mostly bad, but that doesn't change who God is and what He wants to do in our lives.  

What do you remember

I remember that in my public High School, when studying the history of the world, we were looking at the time at the early 100's AD.  They had a few paragraphs about the persecution of the Christian church at the time, but in that whole textbook that was it.  And then they went on.  I thought it was funny at the time, that the religion and faith that I had, and our brothers and sisters who went before us, were summarized in a moment in a huge textbook.  

I am sure, as a Christian, if I had the desire to dig deeper into what was happening in the early church I would have realized more about the history of the faith I believe and would have come to some different conclusions at an earlier age.  Like only though extreme persecution did the church really thrive and grow, and that during the times of acceptance and peace it weakened the faithful the most.  There was a time that I wanted to shy away for persecution as much as possible.  Another thing I would have remembered is that Christianity was never really accepted in the true form by organized government, and those who tried apologetics to fight their cause with the authority at the time were usually left in vain.  It was the power of God that drew people, that healed them, that fought for them, and not by their own strength.  How many times have I tried to do things in my own strength.  

I applaud the groups and organizations trying to fight for Christian principles and Christian morals through the avenue of politics and government, but somewhere along the way our government, no matter how much they stress tolerance and acceptance, will never truly accept Christianity at it's truest form.  Because they serve the god of this world and it is a spiritual battle.  That Kingdom of God principles are so different than what the world will accept and perceive, and we are going to be miss-understood and hated, because they hated Jesus first.  

Did you remember that?  In many ways what we experience today is not much different then what they experienced thousands of years ago, only are we learning from our Christian history, or did it get passed over and forgotten.  Do we think we won't be faced with the same choices as we try to follow God in our lives, and be in the world but not of it.  What do you remember about history?