Filed under: Declaration of Independence

The Sovereignty of the American Citizen

Those among us who choose to exchange declining relationships and health for the temporary excitements of moral revisionism is one thing.  Exercising that diversity in private is their right.  Those demanding the right, however, to take over behavioral curriculum in taxpayer-funded public schools is another.  The war they have imposed, by pressuring liberals in government, must be confronted and won.  America is a Republic!  The "living Constitution" idea of changeable decrees imposed by liberal judges (1947 Everson v. Board of Education decision) always becomes despotism because power in the hands of man, over time, becomes corrupt.

 

"Our fathers have earned and bought it for us, at the expense of their ease, their estates, their pleasure, and their blood.  And liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right, from the frame of their nature, to knowledge, as their great Creator, who does nothing in vain, has given them understandings, and a desire to know; but besides this, they have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge, I mean, of the characters and conduct of their rulers.  Rulers are no more than attorneys, agents, and trustees for the people; and if the cause, the interest and trust, is insidiously betrayed, or wantonly trifled away, the people have a right to revoke the authority. And the preservation of the means of knowledge among the lowest ranks, is of more importance to the public than all the property of all the rich men in the country" (John Adams, Vice-President under George Washington, and second president of the United States, A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law, 1766 from The Works of John Adams, …by his grandson, Charles F. Adams, Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 10 volumes).

 

The sovereignty of man under the impartial and higher authority of creation's God over government is traceable from the Bible to the Magna Carta, 1215, signed at the point of a sword by a frightened king.  It is likewise traceable to the English Bill of Rights, 1689, signed by a would-be brutal king.  We then have the God-honoring American Declaration of Independence, 1776, the War of Independence, and then the Constitution highlighted by the First Amendment and the Bill of [human] Rights which details what servants in government must never be allowed to violate.

 

The Common Law jury system, resting final authority in the people, came alive in America on March 4, 1789, the date Congress set for the start of the new ConstitutionThis is the most important feature of the American Constitution.  George Washington became our first president under the Constitution on April 30, 1789.

 

Revelations of the American Judeo-Christian heritage are singularly qualified to foster personal responsibility, citizen self-government and prosperity.  People do not steal the fruits of other men's labor.  The community helps those few who are not able to work or are indigent for other reasons.  Reputations for honesty do not rest in the words of evil gossips.  Taxpayer-funded educators support the character of the traditional family.

 

God does not control men; He protects those who will listen.  By applying God-honoring interpretations of Scripture and being sensitive to His Spirit, man becomes self-controlled (Hebrews 13:18-20).  "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths" (Proverbs 3:5-6). 

 

First_amendment_in_yellow

Image from http://www.freethefirst.com/

 

For more information or to purchase Restoring Education Central to American Greatness:

http://bookstore.iuniverse.com/Products/SKU-000185969/Restoring-Education-Cen...

http://www.amazon.com/Restoring-Education-Greatness-Principles-Liberated/dp/1...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/restoring-education-david-a-norris/1103308053...

 

For previous blog entries on similar topics, simply go to this site and scroll down:

http://davidanorris.posterous.com/

 

Like on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/restoringeducationcentraltoamericangreatness

The First Amendment is the Most Important Amendment

The most important of all the amendments to our Constitution is the First Amendment:  "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

 

In the 1947 Everson v. Board of Education decision, the Supreme Court majority discarded the principle for control of government by law (government limited by laws instituted by citizen sovereigns).  They displaced it with control of government by man (top down authoritarianism).  Quoting Alexander Hamilton:  "Government is frequently and aptly classed under two descriptions, a government of FORCE [changeable decrees by authoritarian man], and a government of LAWS [governments that derive 'their just powers' from the consent of the governed], the first is the definition of despotism--the last Liberty" (Tully Papers, 1794).  These two approaches to governing society have been at war against one another throughout human history.

 

The Everson v. Board of Education decision clearly compromised "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…" The judges altered the Constitution at the core of its meaning.  Power-hungry judges and politicians, along with fellow travelers in education, the media and monopoly union bosses, are now working overtime.  They are leveraging the judge-created right that empowers liberals to impose government establishment monopoly in public education, preventing the competition of ideas by moral religions.  The power to impose false renditions of truth upon  captive government classrooms and poison youthful minds is being used to confuse, marginalize and rule new generations.

 

"For many years psychologists and educators have recognized the processes by which thought and behavioral patterns acquired in youth become the basis for adult motivation.  In modern times thoughtful observers have become progressively aware that moral, social, and political concepts implanted during the time of mental immaturity not only participate in the conduct of later life, but, once acquired, such concepts become dominant and often unalterable in the adult" (Story County Grand Jury, in and for the 11th Judicial District of Iowa, 1969).

 

Firstamendment

 

Image from http://www.randomhouse.com/teens/firstamendment/resources.html

 

For more information or to purchase Restoring Education Central to American Greatness:

http://bookstore.iuniverse.com/Products/SKU-000185969/Restoring-Education-Cen...

http://www.amazon.com/Restoring-Education-Greatness-Principles-Liberated/dp/1...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/restoring-education-david-a-norris/1103308053...

 

For previous blog entries on similar topics, simply go to this site and scroll down:

http://davidanorris.posterous.com/

 

Like on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/restoringeducationcentraltoamericangreatness

The Supreme Judge

The Declaration of Independence, unanimously adopted by Congress, made four specific references to political reliance upon Higher Authority.  This was not done hesitatingly.*

 

~  Higher authority is the resource that feeds the branches of liberty, "the laws of Nature and Nature's God"

~ "That all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights…"

~ "Appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions…"

~  "With a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence…"

 

A liberal judge says we make mistakes, but this discussion is not about mere mistakes.  Liberty-loving Americans need to be blunt about this.  What we are talking about is the colossal error of rejecting the universal and impartial Laws of Nature and creation's God that reversed thousands of years of authoritarian exploitation and human deprivation.  We have a National Day of Prayer.  We have paid chaplains in our Congress and military to emphasize the importance of faith.  When the Supreme Court comes out, the crier yells, "God save America."  This was made even more explicit when in 1954, "One nation under God" was added for the invocation of the Pledge of Allegiance.  It is time to expose the fascistic exclusivity of the pagan religion demanded by liberal-minded judges, educators and politicians.

 

John Adams, a preeminent lawyer and Founding Father had something to say about the Author of liberty.  Benjamin Rush wrote in a letter, "I sat next to John Adams in Congress, and upon my whispering to him and asking him if he thought we should succeed in our struggle with Great Britain, he answered me, 'Yes, if we fear God and repent of our sins.'"**

Goddesslibertywatchingdeclaration-of-independence-signing-300x201

 

*For a review of the harmful laws imposed by unelected judges, see Chapter 6 in Restoring Education Central To American Greatness and "High Courts and Misdemeanors" by R.P. George, at http://touchstonemag.com/archives/print.php?id=17-08-026-f.

**Benjamin Rush, "Letters of Benjamin Rush", L.H. Butterfield, editor (NJ: American Philosophical Society, 1951), Vol. I, 532-536, to John Adams on February 24, 1790 (http://www.partyof1776.net/p1776/issues/Sins/contents.html).>

 

Image from http://blog.beliefnet.com/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars/2011/07/so-w...

 

For more information or to purchase Restoring Education Central to American Greatness:

http://bookstore.iuniverse.com/Products/SKU-000185969/Restoring-Education-Cen...

http://www.amazon.com/Restoring-Education-Greatness-Principles-Liberated/dp/1...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/restoring-education-david-a-norris/1103308053...

 

For previous blog entries on similar topics, simply go to this site and scroll down:

http://davidanorris.posterous.com/

 

Like on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Restoring-Education-Central-to-American-Greatne...

 

Every Citizen Has Power to Advance Liberty in November

Support legislative candidates who recognize the benefit of routing taxpayer revenues for education directly to parents or other guardians.  They may then choose homeschool, private school or a charter school that reflects their values.  Texas legislators are now even backing "charter colleges."  They could be "core curriculum charters" that would offer "great books seminars," including courses on Bible, Renaissance, Reformation and, of course, American values resident in the Declaration of Independence.  Charter colleges would receive per-student funding as charter K-12 do now.*

 

Elect people to serve on school boards who will insist that the unique and specific American principles for government be taught.  In 1877, the United States government printing office published The Organic Laws of the United States of America.  Ben Poole, who was then clerk of printing records, compiled the documentation under an order by the U.S. Senate.  The Organic Laws of the United States of America lists the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, Northwest Ordinance and the Constitution on the United States.  Share this study with your school board.

 

Support candidates at federal and state levels who agree to work for the appointment of judges who respect the original meaning of the Constitution.  "Judge Robert H. Bork describes the enormous damage that activist judges have inflicted on America in his book, Coercing Virtue: The Worldwide Rule of Judges.  The courts are often dominated by faux intellectuals of the Left who, unable to persuade the people or the legislators, 'avoid the verdict of the ballot box' by engaging in 'politics masquerading as law.'  We are 'increasingly governed not by law or elected representatives, but by unelected, unrepresentative, unaccountable committees of lawyers applying no law other than their own will.'"**

 

Work for and elect senators and representatives to the U.S. Congress who will reassert their duty to represent the people and restore the Constitutional provisions for restricting the role of federal judges.  The Constitution is a rule of law document, not a rule by unelected judges.  In terms of how authority manifests itself over time, the two contrasts represent the distinction between representative government of, by and for the people and the tyranny of authoritarianism.  In terms of philosophy, the two represent the distinction between the Creator-based Declaration of Independence and the evils of old European secular philosophy.  When the traditional American sovereignty of man under God over government was adopted on July 4, 1776, it reversed the historical inevitability of authoritarian carnage.

 

"Now more than ever before, the people are responsible for the character of their Congress.  If that body be ignorant, reckless and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness and corruption.  If it be intelligent, brave and pure, it is because the people demand these high qualities to represent them in the national legislature… If the next centennial does not find us a great nation… it will be because those who represent the enterprise, the culture, and the morality of the nation do not aid in controlling the political forces."***

 

 

Timthumb

*Quotes from Marvin Olasky, "Academic Perestroika," World, December 5, 2009, www.worldmag.com/marvinolasky?ndxpage=3.

**Phyllis Schlafly, The Supremacists:  The Tyranny of Judges and How to Stop It (Dallas: Spence Publishing Company, 2004), 14.

***James Garfield, the twentieth president of the United States, 1877 (http://www.propertyrightsresearch.org/presidential_quotes.htm).>

 

Image from http://madmikesamerica.com/2010/12/bill-of-rights-the-new-uncluttered-version...

 

For more information or to purchase Restoring Education Central to American Greatness:

http://bookstore.iuniverse.com/Products/SKU-000185969/Restoring-Education-Cen...

http://www.amazon.com/Restoring-Education-Greatness-Principles-Liberated/dp/1...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/restoring-education-david-a-norris/1103308053...

 

For previous blog entries on similar topics, simply go to this site and scroll down:

http://davidanorris.posterous.com/

 

Like on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Restoring-Education-Central-to-American-Greatne...

 

The Healing of Citizen Paralysis

Restoring educational traditions central to American greatness provides the sure basis for strong families, prosperity and limited government for, by and of the people.  Many people are in the dark about the God-rejecting worldview now being imposed upon captive student classrooms and as a result, they do not join in opposition.  

 

We must broadcast anew and persist in upholding the First Principle, that it is creation's God Who is man's Benefactor.  This is the basic principle upon which all other worthy principles follow.  When the First Principle is not publicly upheld by educators (for students to learn), the standards of righteousness that are central to liberty and American greatness soon become fodder for distortion by atheistic secular militants.

 

When we as a people championed the spirit of the First Principle, creation's God Who is man's Benefactor, the meaning of the Declaration of Independence was clear and the war of King George III and his army against Americans failed.

 

Our duty now is to be very public about the fact that reliable standards for law come with knowledge of the nonsectarian Creator-based meaning of the Declaration of Independence and the First Amendment.  In 1835, the significance of this connection was observed by the French lawyer, Alexis de Tocqueville, "… in America, religion is the road to knowledge and the observance of the divine laws leads man to civil freedom…"

 

The rudeness and even hatred exhibited by secular pathfinders when confronted with American principles gives politics a bad name.  They cannot tell the truth and sell their leftist agenda.  This gives us a comparative advantage.  Political involvement and persistence in broadcasting American values is a noble and necessary calling for every freedom-loving American.

 

In the American system of representative government, education central to American greatness will be restored if the people know how it has been altered.  That is the purpose of Restoring Education Central to American Greatness.  I accept no personal remuneration for writing or serving as President of the Heartland Foundation, Inc.  If you have received important insights from this blog, purchase the book, Restoring Education Central to American Greatness, and share it with people you know.  The documentation has been put in book form so that readers such as you can put it into the hands of as many people as possible.

 

"The only thing necessary for the triumph [of evil] is for good men to do nothing" (The Works of Edmund Burke in Nine Volumes, Vol. IX… 172).

 

Prayer, humility and recommitment must be undertaken.  The selfless dedication that made the American Revolution possible is seen in the Great Awakening of 1740 through 1780.  God has provided this specific promise:  "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land" (2 Chronicles 7:14).

 

"As the safety and prosperity of nations ultimately and essentially depend on the protection and the blessing of Almighty God, and the national acknowledgement of this truth is not only an indispensable duty which the people owe to Him, but a duty whose natural influence is favorable to the promotion of that morality and piety without which social happiness cannot exist nor the blessings of a free government be enjoyed."*

 

Book_image

*John Adams in his Proclamation 8 ~ Recommending a National Day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer, March 23, 1798 (http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=65661).

 

For more information or to purchase Restoring Education Central to American Greatness:

http://bookstore.iuniverse.com/Products/SKU-000185969/Restoring-Education-Cen...

http://www.amazon.com/Restoring-Education-Greatness-Principles-Liberated/dp/1...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/restoring-education-david-a-norris/1103308053...

 

For previous blog entries on similar topics, simply go to this site and scroll down:

http://davidanorris.posterous.com/

 

Like on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Restoring-Education-Central-to-American-Greatne...

 

The Prognosis of Citizen Paralysis

Our duty as Americans is clear.  Defending what is right is a cost of freedom that must be paid.  It is the all-important principles advanced in the God-honoring Declaration that provide the moral predicate essential to restrain the use of oppressive government.  Had leaders and educators failed to convey with boldness the God-honoring principles from the beginning, America would be just another of the hapless nations that has flitted in and then out of history.

 

Under the providence of God, we have pushed back the frontiers of tyranny and evil time and again.  America has freed more human beings from the clutches of evil than any nation on earth and we are a relatively young country.  Even though continental Europe, in its posture of pseudo-sophistication, might consider us the country cousin in the family of nations, when those same Europeans needed to be rescued--often from themselves.  We were there to rescue them.  We have done it many times and in many ways around the world.  At enormous cost to ourselves, we have gone into and out of dozens of nations in order to make the world a better place--even those nations that were our deadliest enemies, like Germany and Japan after World War II.  What MacArthur did in Japan, and what the Marshall Plan accomplished in Europe, are without historical equal and they indicate what we believe is our high calling on the planet (Dr. Jack Wheeler, The Ugly Liberal American, page 4, quoted by The Schwarz Report, May 2008, Volume 48, number 5).

 

Ernest Renan, the agnostic, warned his friends that were promoting a socialist utopia:  "Let us enjoy the liberty of the sons of God, but let us take care lest we become accomplices in the diminution of virtue which would menace society if Christianity were to grow weak.  What should we do without it?  If Rationalism wishes to govern the world without regard to the religious needs of the soul, the experience of the French Revolution is there to teach us the consequences of such a blunder."*

 

Rabbi Daniel Lapin is quoted as saying, "Without a vibrant and vital Christianity, America is doomed, and without America, the west is doomed.  Which is why I, an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, devoted to Jewish survival, the Torah, and Israel am so terrified of American Christianity caving in."**

 

Appeasement will not work.  There is no valid reason for the complaint of leftists that conservatives are one-sided and unreasonable in support of their basic principles.  Secular militants do not compromise their atheistic dogma.  The hope that they will change is foolish.  To be at peace with their belief in atheistic exclusivity, they must have control over and displace those who project higher standards.  The struggle between the forces of liberty and those who want an atheistic-secular world is a war of wills.  If we win, they will still be free to fund and promote their own schools.  If they win, we will be slaves to Godless authoritarian rule.

 

Image_cartoon_-_government_control

*Ernest Renan's appeal to his agnostic friends, 1866 (http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst?docId=5002045047).

** Rabbi Daniel Lapin, noted rabbinic scholar and radio and television host (http://jpfo.org/articles-assd02/christian-nation.htm).>

 

Image from http://kindalikehomeschool.blogspot.com/2010_04_01_archive.html

 

For more information or to purchase Restoring Education Central to American Greatness:

http://bookstore.iuniverse.com/Products/SKU-000185969/Restoring-Education-Cen...

http://www.amazon.com/Restoring-Education-Greatness-Principles-Liberated/dp/1...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/restoring-education-david-a-norris/1103308053...

 

For previous blog entries on similar topics, simply go to this site and scroll down:

http://davidanorris.posterous.com/

 

Like on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Restoring-Education-Central-to-American-Greatne...

 

A Suggested Letter to the Editor of Your Local Newspaper

Applicable today, the confusion of many now trying to decide which candidates for government service best represent the civic and economic interests of our families and businesses is understandable.  The decline in the quality of what is taught about American history, morality, government and free enterprise comes at no surprise with the secularization of government education and, in my opinion, this is NOT the fault of the great majority of teachers.

 

Articles in the local Ames Tribune* opinion page by an atheistic professor in the religion department of Iowa State University suggest that he MAY not understand two things.  One is the Judeo-Christian Bible and the other is American history.

 

The tone of one's deeply felt religious belief, be it God-honoring or otherwise, and values sought for government, law and education, ARE INSEPARABLE.  Much older than any other text, the Bible has remained intact down throughout history.  The reasons are many, but one is that it resonates with human life experience.  The moral law, John 3:16 and Psalm 23 have no equal.  The Bible tells the truth and it DOES NOT GLOSS OVER the evil done in the name of religion.

 

The power of government comes from the people who fund the gigantic bank called the Public Treasury.  We pay for courthouses, schools, highways, salaries of public servants, etc.  Good government is a tool for protecting life and liberty for the pursuit of happiness.  The God-honoring American Declaration of Independence is universal and immortal in scope.  That Declaration and Bill of Rights, added later to the Constitution, are the design, and the Constitution is the tool for implementing that design.

 

Patriotic Americans applaud diversity.  They recognize, however, that worldly concoctions for diversity that tear down family values, morality and appreciation for the American idea, IN GOD WE TRUST, are evil and totally unacceptable.

 

"Patriotism is as much a virtue as justice, and is as necessary for support of societies as the natural affection is for the support of families.  The Amor Patriae is both moral and a religious duty.  It comprehends not only the love of our neighbors but millions of our fellow creatures, not only the present but of future generations.  This virtue we find constitutes a part of the first character of history."

 

The above essay on patriotism by Dr. Benjamin Rush was published in 1773.  He was a delegate to the Continental Congress and signed the Declaration of Independence.  A devout Christian, Rush established Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and served as professor of medical theory and clinical practice at the University of Pennsylvania from 1791 to 1813.

 

This particular blog entry is not under copyright, and we encourage you to use it as a template to write a letter to the editor of your own local newspaper.  Use of the blog is increasing by over 1,000 repeat users per month.  You can help restore the American dynamic by informing your friends about this refreshing review of American values provided by Heartland Foundation, Inc.

In-god-we-trust-1

*http://amestrib.com/

 

Image from http://www.donotbesurprised.com/2011/11/in-which-god-does-america-trust-anywa...

 

For more information or to purchase Restoring Education Central to American Greatness:

http://bookstore.iuniverse.com/Products/SKU-000185969/Restoring-Education-Cen...

http://www.amazon.com/Restoring-Education-Greatness-Principles-Liberated/dp/1...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/restoring-education-david-a-norris/1103308053...

 

For previous blog entries on similar topics, simply go to this site and scroll down:

http://davidanorris.posterous.com/

 

Like on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Restoring-Education-Central-to-American-Greatne...

 

Curriculum That Is Profoundly American

The proposal for education advanced by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison and adopted by the University of Virginia provides an excellent formula for teaching American history and government.  It provides indisputable evidence of the American principles that are imperative for education in the taxpayer-funded classroom.

 

The resolution stated that "all students shall be inculcated with the basic American principles of government…  None should be inculcated [taught] which are incompatible with those on which the Constitution of this State, and of the United States were genuinely based, in the common opinion."  The resolution also stated that the faculty had a standard of responsibility and were required to teach affirmatively these unique American principles.  Only after they had done so were they to teach the conflicting principles as such, judging them by the soundness of the American principles that served as a basis.  The resolution then specified six writings that, in the board's opinion, reflected the unanimously supported principles unique to America that youth should be taught.  "These documents were John Locke's Essay Concerning the True Original Extent and End of Civil Government (1690), Algernon Sidney's Discourses Concerning Government (1698), the Declaration of Independence, Washington's Farewell Address, the Virginia Resolutions of 1799 (adopted by the Virginia legislature), and the Federalist Papers."*

 

The character-building curriculum now taught by homeschool parents and many Christian private schools is comparable to the curriculum taught in common schools and one-room neighborhood schools in early America.  At that time, such schools often had, say, thirty students, some at nearly every grade level, with one teacher.

 

Noah Webster's textbooks, including the Webster's Blue-Back Speller, were standard for American schools until early 1930.  Conversant in many languages, he spent several years writing the Webster's Dictionary that preceded the dictionary used in America today.  His definitions were often supported by Scripture.

 

Webster taught school in West Hartford, Connecticut, and later served as a soldier during the American Revolution.  He spent nine terms in the Connecticut legislature and three terms in the Massachusetts legislature.  A strong proponent for convening the Constitutional Convention, he wrote what became Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution.

 

Webster was concerned that the youth of our nation would learn to check their emotions and avoid the fears and pitfalls of foolish imaginations.  Karl Marx stirred up the emotions of heady intellectuals.  With promises of a utopia, he captured millions who, to the great loss of their families and even nations, embraced secular popularism.  The Webster dictionary defined emotions as the "strong impression, or vivid sensation that immediately produces a reaction.  The nature of the reaction is to either 'appropriate and enjoy, or avoid and repel' the cause for the impression."**

 

Abraham Lincoln's strong foundation in language was a result of his stepmother's curriculum--the Bible and Shakespeare (The Encyclopaedia Britannica: a Dictionary of Arts, Sciences…, Vol. 16, by Hugh Chisholm, p 703).

Albert Einstein and Bill Gates were university dropouts but not learning dropouts.  They were challenged to learn about the unvarying reliability and order of creation's design.

 

American_schools

 

*Nathaniel F. Cabell, Early History of the University of Virginia, as contained in the "Letters of Thomas Jefferson and Joseph B. Cabell," (n.p.: Richmond, Virginia, 1856), 339.  Repeated in Hamilton Albert Long, The American Ideal of 1776, Your American Heritage Books, 141-44, 147.

**Noah Webster, American Dictionary of the English Language, G. and C. Merriam Company, 1828; cited by David A. Norris, Lasting Success (Ames, IA Alpha Heartland Press, 2003), 7.

 

Image from http://www.buzzle.com/articles/benefits-old-new-one-room-schoolhouse.html

 

For more information or to purchase Restoring Education Central to American Greatness:

http://bookstore.iuniverse.com/Products/SKU-000185969/Restoring-Education-Cen...

http://www.amazon.com/Restoring-Education-Greatness-Principles-Liberated/dp/1...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/restoring-education-david-a-norris/1103308053...

 

For previous blog entries on similar topics, simply go to this site and scroll down:

http://davidanorris.posterous.com/

 

Like on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Restoring-Education-Central-to-American-Greatne...

 

 

American Education Philosophy Corrupted

Those who champion the atheistic-secular concept of open-mindedness use it to justify exclusivity for imposing their God-rejecting life view upon captive classroom students.  "Not only must school teachers and principles be 'exemplars of open-mindedness and free inquiry, but severally and collectively, they must be prepared to proclaim their faith in that open-mindedness and free inquiry.'"  Here we must hearken to Dewey:  "The administrator will… realize that public education is essentially education of the public: directly, through teachers and students… in the transformation of society [into a God-rejecting, socialistic society]."*

 

Atheistic-secular demands that "school teachers and principals be exemplars of open-mindedness [in] the transformation of society" undermine the moral foundations of civil society.  The justification for a tax on the people for education, in a representative republic, requires that the curriculum promote foundational moral boundaries.  The constitutions of the Soviet Union, China and Cuba proclaimed liberty.  But in the absence of a moral predicate providing certainties for Constitutional law--such as provided in the American Declaration of Independence and Northwest Ordinance, they rule by what Solon of Athens called "incalculable and changeable decrees."**

 

Prior to the leftist takeover, the National Education Association published God-honoring, character-building booklets for students and parents as recently as 1950.  For example, A Golden Treasury from the Bible, contained twenty-four Bible verses, including Psalm 1; Proverbs 20:1; Exodus 20 (the Ten Commandments); Romans 12; John 3:16, 6:23, 14:1-4 and 15:1-4; 1 Corinthians 13; and Ecclesiastes 12:1, "remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth."

 

In contrast to the old European secular philosophy, the American philosophy of education requires that all prominent views, including the atheistic-secular view, be introduced, but that they are taught in the context of the history of their outcomes.  This is seen in the resolution proposed by both Thomas Jefferson and James Madison and adopted by the newly founded University of Virginia (see Chapter 10 of Restoring Education Central to American Greatness).  Their resolution identifies the great need of our day, stressing citizen responsibility and the need for a thorough knowledge of historic American foundations.

 

The education guidelines set forth for the University of Virginia emphasize that "all students shall be 'inculcated' with the basic American principles for government," and, "None should be inculcated which are incompatible with those on which the Constitution of this States, and of the United States were genuinely based, in the common opinion."  The resolution also stated that the faculty had a standard of responsibility and were required to teach affirmatively these unique American principles.  Only after they had done so were they to teach the conflicting principles as such, judging them by the soundness of the American principles that served as a basis.***  These principles are detailed in Chapter 10 of Restoring Education Central to American Greatness.

 

Faithful school boards and administrators take seriously the fact that youthful trust, inexperience and vulnerability to exploitation by the enemies of the family and self-government require that the learning environment be protected.  God has given mankind a wonderful mind to use and explore the universe, with but one exception:  we are not to use our minds to absorb the details and wiles (deceptive snares) of evil (Genesis 3:13; Isaiah 5:15-16, 20; Romans 16:19; and James 1:12-17).

 

Image_nea_booklet

 

*James Allen Johnson, "A Note on Academic Freedom: Schoolmen Must Declare Their Faith," Phi Delta Kappan, 44:185-88 (January, 1963), in Robert Hoffman, Foundations of American Education (Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 1970), 192.

**Will and Ariel Durant, The Story of Civilization, vol. 2, The Life of Greece (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1939), 118.

***Nathaniel F. Cabell, Early History of the University of Virginia as contained in the "Letters of Thomas Jefferson and Joseph B. Cabell" (n.p.: Richmond, Virginia, 1856), 339.  Repeated in Hamilton Albert Long, The American Ideal of 1776, Your American Heritage Books, 141-44, 147.

 

For more information or to purchase Restoring Education Central to American Greatness:

http://bookstore.iuniverse.com/Products/SKU-000185969/Restoring-Education-Cen...

http://www.amazon.com/Restoring-Education-Greatness-Principles-Liberated/dp/1...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/restoring-education-david-a-norris/1103308053...

 

For previous blog entries on similar topics, simply go to this site and scroll down:

http://davidanorris.posterous.com/

 

Like on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Restoring-Education-Central-to-American-Greatne...

 

A Celebration of Liberty

"Be it remembered, however, that liberty must at all hazards be supported … cannot be preserved without a vernal knowledge among the people…  And the preservation of the means of knowledge among the lowest ranks, is of more importance to the public than all the property of all the rich men in the country.  The people … have a right, from the frame of their nature, to knowledge, as their great Creator, who does nothing in vain, has given them understandings, and a desire to know."*  This is from the 1765 Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law, by John Adams.  He was a devout Christian, a Harvard-educated lawyer and a delegate to the First and Second Continental Congresses that adopted the Declaration of Independence.  He was the second president of the United States.  Adams' wife, Abigail, has been recognized as a Founding Mother because of her influence on behalf of women's rights.  Their son, John Quincy Adams, was the sixth president of the United States.

 

Are we as citizen taxpayers willing to forfeit our liberty, the teaching of essential knowledge, as a courtesy to union bosses and tenured secular militants who have rejected American history, the traditional family, public morality and representative government?  AS EDUCATION GOES, SO GOES A NATION.

 

On July 3, 1776, John Adams wrote the following to his wife, Abigail:  “The second day of July 1776 will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America.  I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival.  It ought to be commemorated as the Day of Deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty.  It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other from this time forward forever more” (cited by David McCullough, John Adams, New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2001, 130).

 

On July 4, 1787, consistent with the nationwide custom, Philadelphia celebrated the Declaration of Independence with bell ringing, marching with fife and drums, the salute of guns and speeches.  It was Wednesday, and the constitutional delegates had taken the day off.  That "The Grand Convention may form a constitution for an eternal Republic!" was the toast of the day.  The Pennsylvania Herald declared, "With zeal and confidence we expect from the Federal Convention a system of government adequate to the security and preservation of those rights which were promulgated by the ever memorable Declaration of Independence."  

 

No more rule by pretender gods -- Samuel Adams is quoted as saying, "We have this day [Fourth of July] restored the Sovereign [the God of creation] to whom all men ought to be obedient.  He reigns in Heaven, and from the rising to the setting of the sun, let His Kingdom come."*


Fireworks2

*http://www.usachristianministries.com/us-history-quotes-about-god-and-the-bible/

Image from http://wallwatcher.wordpress.com/2008/07/04/

 

http://davidanorris.posterous.com/

http://www.facebook.com/restoringeducationcentraltoamericangreatness

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002512790358

 

For more information or to purchase Restoring Education Central to American Greatness:

http://bookstore.iuniverse.com/Products/SKU-000185969/Restoring-Education-Cen...

http://www.amazon.com/Restoring-Education-Greatness-Principles-Liberated/dp/1...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/restoring-education-david-a-norris/1103308053...

 

For previous blog entries on similar topics, simply go to this site and scroll down:

http://davidanorris.posterous.com/

 

Like on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Restoring-Education-Central-to-American-Greatne...

 

Posterous theme by Cory Watilo