Christianity and the Origins of Public Education
The history of education in the West is of supreme importance as it has been so instrumental in catapulting the West to supremacy. It’s hard to say what the West would be like had our forefathers not endeavored to pursue this most enviable call. It’s been vital in shaping every aspect of our society from commerce to culture to our spectacular level of discovery; very little goes unaffected by the level and quality of education. It stands alone as a great Western achievement, evidenced by the fact that our universities are filled with foreign students. The finest talent from around the world endeavors to attend universities in America and Europe. Today we take universal education for granted, especially here in America where it’s so readily available, but it was not always this way. Our public education system has evolved through the course of two thousand years. For centuries it was very crude, simple and unsophisticated, but always developing through a process of trial and error, and usually under the influence of Christian men and women.
Every society must have had some system of imparting knowledge and information to succeeding generations. Civilizations have developed at different paces in different parts of the world. So when we refer to ancient civilization, we are not speaking of a particular time, more than a primitive stage of development where the primary existence consisted of agriculture, hunting and war. At these early stages, parents valued education little, as the child that could sew, hunt, farm, and fight was best prepared for adult life. Religious ceremonies were the most sophisticated aspect of life, as they incorporated music, reading and sacrifices. It follows that the responsibility of educating the people fell upon the priests. From China to Egypt to the Asiatic nations to South and Central America, we find the priestly class carried on the sacred traditions to the citizenry, evident in the fact that so much of what we know in the way of archaeology is found in the religious writings of each civilization.
The history of the Jewish people is unique in many ways, notwithstanding they are the only civilization in history to survive so long without a homeland. Every other culture in time survived only as long as they had a common geographical habitat. Dispersion inevitably led to the decline of their traditions. Think about that; prior to their population, Abraham and his descendants were nomadic drifters. After they settled Israel, there were two exiles and a Roman occupation eager to assimilate the Jews into their own unique culture. After 70 A.D. the Jewish people spent two thousand years spread out all over the planet, and yet intermarriage was limited, while their religious customs remained intact until the re-occupation of their homeland in the 20th century. Although I believe this is a providential fulfillment of prophesy, it could not have happened without a strong commitment to educating the next generation in their beliefs and history. The relationship between the Jews and God is one expressed in the form of a covenant. Education, although primarily religious, was the means of passing down the understanding of that covenant, as well as an act of obedience.
Of the Greeks, there are several philosophers who made lasting contributions to the development of education. The first is Socrates, whose system of questions and answers known as the Socratic Method is with us to this day and played a major role in developing the thought process of logic. Rather than impart facts, to him, the goal of the teacher was to awaken the student to a life of self examination and inward reflection. Through questions, Socrates would direct their thoughts to new areas of thinking. Of all of his students, Plato is his greatest disciple. Every bit of his philosophy on education, which can be found in three of his works, Protagoras, Republic and Laws, integrate the education of the individual with the advancement of the state. Education directs the soul of the student to the four virtues: wisdom, temperance, courage, and justice, which will always produce better citizens. It should focus on equipping any of the three classes of citizens—philosophers, warriors, and laborers. Plato developed a system of five levels of instruction, starting from birth and continuing through age fifty. To Plato, all wisdom was an attribute of God, while truth is synonymous with beauty, both of which would manifest in a more virtuous man. Plato established the Academy, and although his pupils were few, his influence can only be measured by the lives he affected, the most important being Aristotle. When Alexander the Great conquered the known world he ushered in Hellenistic culture, which was the influence of his tutor Aristotle. Although privately funded, the first state-controlled elementary schools emerged around this time. While many will argue that it was the Greeks who invented the university and public education, we must understand that these schools had no research, curriculum, degrees, libraries or permanent buildings, and therefore were a far cry from what emerged later in Europe under the Christian influence.
When the center of power was making the transition from Greece to Rome, many of the Hellenistic (Greek) ideas of education came with it. Prior to this period, the Roman education system was very crude and left primarily to the parents. But in 270 B.C., the Romans conquered the first Greek city of Tarentum. With the conquest they brought back many slaves to Rome; later these slaves were freed and began translating Greek literature to Latin. Soon private elementary and secondary education began to emerge which resembled the Greek model. The system was focused on two important aspects of Roman life, oration or public speaking and physical development. To them, the power to speak was synonymous with the power to command, while physical training prepared the young citizen for the battlefield. Wherever they came in contact with primitive civilizations, the effects of their education system were felt. Although science and mathematics was well known to the Romans, it had little value as they too set their educational objective for the benefit of the state, and at this they were incredibly successful. Although the Roman orator had a great grasp of the language and was highly skilled in debate, Rome never succeeded as Greece did in education and never got its first university.
Christianity spread in the shadows of Roman culture. Its influence over that culture took centuries, as its pagan roots were deep and its laws strict. Christianity was outlawed for well over one hundred years in Rome and therefore spread through a network of underground home groups and secret meeting places. The Roman Emperors, prior to Constantine, met the faith with brutal persecution and therefore limited its influence in the public forum. Alexandria in Egypt was a center for learning based on the Roman system of gymnasiums and early education. It included a large Jewish community along with a growing Christian nucleus. By the second century, the Church there had a substantial influence along with its catechumenal school, which taught religious and secular education to both men and women. It was here that Christianity was first reconciled with secular knowledge, which was essential to the Gospel’s survival. Under Clement of Alexandria and later Origen, the curriculum expanded to include philosophy, astronomy, physics, and mathematics as it gained widespread notoriety. It was here in Egypt at this time that Anthony, the son of a wealthy land owner, gave away his inheritance to live in a shack by the Nile River as a hermit. Asceticism, which is a state of self-denial and separation for the purpose of seeking God without worldly distractions, was not a new phenomenon, but it was new to the ranks of Christianity, and Anthony is known as the founder of the Christian Monastic Movement. It was not long before he attracted a following and the movement spread throughout Mesopotamia and later Europe.
By the fourth century it was evident that Christianity was an unstoppable force as efforts to suppress it only inspired the faithful. The death of each martyr served as fertilizer for its explosive growth. The Edict of Nicomedia, 311 A.D., in the Western Empire and later Constantine’s Edict of Milan in the East legalized Christianity, ending two centuries of persecution. The teaching ministry of the Church was now able to function on equal footing with secular institutions and therefore its influence began to broaden. As the Christian virtues of love and peace spread, it had to find its place within this culture dominated by heroism and aggression. This period gave rise to creeds and institutions and finally the establishment of the Canon as we know it. Until now, education bore a resemblance to Jewish tradition and was limited to Church gatherings, but it would quickly evolve into a formal institution, with monasteries playing the central role.
Though today secularists have claimed most of our public universities, it was not always this way. What started in these monasteries ultimately laid the foundation for public education as we know it. Below are just a few examples of the great achievements that grew out of the monastic movement and flourished into an education system unlike any in the world.
Great Acheivements in Education
Monasteries
Monasteries appeared all over Asia Minor, Italy, and the Mediterranean by the fourth century. Monasteries with their churches, workshops, libraries, and schools would become the new cultural learning centers of Western civilization, embracing the great commission to “teach the nations.” They preserved the writings of antiquity and were the primary source of educating Western societies for almost 700 years. The scope of the scholarly works produced by the Christian monks was broad, including historical works, encyclopedias, biblical commentaries, and documentary works on the lives of the saints. Theoretical treatises addressing complex issues were common as well. Children of every social class, as well as unwanted children and adults, received their education in monasteries. Most included math, reading, religion, and writing in the curriculum. Medicine was cultivated in the monastic hospitals, elevating it to scholarly discipline in the future.
Charles the Great (Charlemagne)
In 797, Charlemagne established public schools when he declared “that the priest establish schools in every town and village, and if any of the faithful wish to entrust their children to them to learn letters, that they refuse not to accept them but with all charity teach them…and let them exact no price from the children for their teaching nor receive any from them save what parents may offer voluntarily and from affection.”
Universities
The movement started with cathedral schools, which became cultural centers in Europe under the auspices of the bishops who presided over them. In the twelfth century they began to grow in number and take on an international flavor as students from all over Europe flocked to the schools in Paris, London, Oxford, and Bologna. In Paris, three such cathedral schools, St. Victor’s, St. Genevieve-du-Mont, and Notre-Dame, would soon unite to form the University of Paris, which was the first of its kind. Economic support, along with civil protection for teachers and students, came primarily from the church, whose steadfast determination was evident in the many edicts handed down by the pope, making the University of Paris a reality. Although the primary purpose was unquestionably the teaching of theology, the liberal arts along with medicine were also part of the curriculum.
Oxford University: As early as 1119, students were gathering in the town church to learn theology, while in 1133 Robert Pullen, a prominent theologian, held formal lectures in the town of Oxford. By the beginning of the thirteenth century, the pope and cardinals were giving legal and financial support to Oxford students. Cambridge University’s growth, like so many others in Europe and Russia, would follow a pattern of financial and legislative support, initially coming exclusively from the church.
College
In 1255, Robert Sorbon acquired three houses on the same street in Paris, where he took it upon himself to teach theology to poorer, less qualified students. Within a century, La Sorbonne consisted of seventy such houses with well over 300 faculty. The movement spread to Oxford, where Chancellor Walter de Merton founded Merton College in 1274 which, like La Sorbonne, provided everything for the student free of charge. By the sixteenth century, Cambridge had thirteen such colleges, Oxford had eleven, and Paris six. These institutions were founded by bishops, canons, and theologians, primarily for the study of theology, but soon growing to include the liberal arts and medicine.
Sunday School
During the Industrial Revolution, England’s young and poor labored six days a week in the most hideous conditions. Robert Raikes (1736-1811), a frequent advocate for the hungry and imprisoned, began establishing schools on Sunday for the poor. These schools, which were primarily for literacy training with the Bible as central textbook, would start the Sunday School Movement, which is with us to this day.
Church Charity Schools
Without a doubt the pilgrims put a high priority on education. In the Northeast where populations were dense, town schools began to form along with Church Charity Schools which were free of charge. These schools were originally established to help poor children. Their rapid expansion required oversight boards and curriculum. Soon, children from every background came to learn at these schools. Charity schools in later years evolved to form the first public schools in America. During this time the church shaped the curriculum, as most colonists distrusted government intervention in education.
Public education in the United States
The Old Deluder Act (1647) of Massachusetts was the first law in America establishing public education. Its Christian origins can hardly be denied:
It being one chief project of that old deluder Satan, to keep men from the knowledge of the scriptures … and to the end that learning may not be buried in the grave of our forefathers, in church and commonwealth, the Lord assisting our endeavors. The law went on to order every town that the “Lord increases to over fifty households” to appoint one among them to teach the children to read and write. Those towns of over one hundred were mandated to establish a grammar school for the same.
Harvard University
Only eighteen years after the Puritans landed in America, they established the first of many of America’s finest universities, Harvard. On September 8, 1636, by a vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, New College—later named Harvard College—was established for the purpose of biblical instruction. To this day the entry to Harvard Yard reads: After God had carried us safely to New England, and we had built our houses, provided necessaries for our livelihood, reared convenient places for God’s worship, and settled the civil government; one of the next things we longed for, and looked after was to advanced learning, and perpetuate it to posterity; dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches, when our present ministers shall lay in the dust.
Yale University
Yale University was founded by the General Court of Connecticut in 1701 with the express purpose that: Youth may be instructed in the Arts and Sciences who through the blessing of God may be fitted for Public employment both in Church and Civil State. It was mandatory for students to: Live religious, godly and blameless lives according to the rules of God’s word, diligently reading the Holy Scriptures, the fountain of light and truth; and constantly attend to all the duties of religion both in public and secret. Every student shall consider the main end of his study to wit to know God in Jesus Christ and answerably to lead a godly, sober life. Princeton University was founded in 1746 with the official motto Under God’s Power She Flourishes.
By the middle of the 19th century, there were 246 universities in America of which seventeen were state institutions, with the remaining 229 rooted in the Christian church. In 1782, Congress voted this resolution: “The Congress of the United States recommends and approves the Holy Bible for use in all schools.” It followed that every child in America up until 1963 received as their basic education biblical training, and yes, it was government sponsored. Central to all the early schools and colleges in America was Christian training first and foremost. For over a hundred years the New England Primer was the primary textbook for educators—second only to the Bible—with over five million copies in existence. It included the Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, the Apostles’ Creed, the Westminster Catechism, and more. True religion affords government its surest support.
The future of this nation depends on Christian training of our youth. It is impossible to govern without the Bible. --George Washington Conclusion: Believers can say with confidence that public education is the product of the Christian worldview.
Articles
Educating Ignorance Janice Shaw Crouse
Politics versus Education Thomas Sowell
Every society must have had some system of imparting knowledge and information to succeeding generations. Civilizations have developed at different paces in different parts of the world. So when we refer to ancient civilization, we are not speaking of a particular time, more than a primitive stage of development where the primary existence consisted of agriculture, hunting and war. At these early stages, parents valued education little, as the child that could sew, hunt, farm, and fight was best prepared for adult life. Religious ceremonies were the most sophisticated aspect of life, as they incorporated music, reading and sacrifices. It follows that the responsibility of educating the people fell upon the priests. From China to Egypt to the Asiatic nations to South and Central America, we find the priestly class carried on the sacred traditions to the citizenry, evident in the fact that so much of what we know in the way of archaeology is found in the religious writings of each civilization.
The history of the Jewish people is unique in many ways, notwithstanding they are the only civilization in history to survive so long without a homeland. Every other culture in time survived only as long as they had a common geographical habitat. Dispersion inevitably led to the decline of their traditions. Think about that; prior to their population, Abraham and his descendants were nomadic drifters. After they settled Israel, there were two exiles and a Roman occupation eager to assimilate the Jews into their own unique culture. After 70 A.D. the Jewish people spent two thousand years spread out all over the planet, and yet intermarriage was limited, while their religious customs remained intact until the re-occupation of their homeland in the 20th century. Although I believe this is a providential fulfillment of prophesy, it could not have happened without a strong commitment to educating the next generation in their beliefs and history. The relationship between the Jews and God is one expressed in the form of a covenant. Education, although primarily religious, was the means of passing down the understanding of that covenant, as well as an act of obedience.
Of the Greeks, there are several philosophers who made lasting contributions to the development of education. The first is Socrates, whose system of questions and answers known as the Socratic Method is with us to this day and played a major role in developing the thought process of logic. Rather than impart facts, to him, the goal of the teacher was to awaken the student to a life of self examination and inward reflection. Through questions, Socrates would direct their thoughts to new areas of thinking. Of all of his students, Plato is his greatest disciple. Every bit of his philosophy on education, which can be found in three of his works, Protagoras, Republic and Laws, integrate the education of the individual with the advancement of the state. Education directs the soul of the student to the four virtues: wisdom, temperance, courage, and justice, which will always produce better citizens. It should focus on equipping any of the three classes of citizens—philosophers, warriors, and laborers. Plato developed a system of five levels of instruction, starting from birth and continuing through age fifty. To Plato, all wisdom was an attribute of God, while truth is synonymous with beauty, both of which would manifest in a more virtuous man. Plato established the Academy, and although his pupils were few, his influence can only be measured by the lives he affected, the most important being Aristotle. When Alexander the Great conquered the known world he ushered in Hellenistic culture, which was the influence of his tutor Aristotle. Although privately funded, the first state-controlled elementary schools emerged around this time. While many will argue that it was the Greeks who invented the university and public education, we must understand that these schools had no research, curriculum, degrees, libraries or permanent buildings, and therefore were a far cry from what emerged later in Europe under the Christian influence.
When the center of power was making the transition from Greece to Rome, many of the Hellenistic (Greek) ideas of education came with it. Prior to this period, the Roman education system was very crude and left primarily to the parents. But in 270 B.C., the Romans conquered the first Greek city of Tarentum. With the conquest they brought back many slaves to Rome; later these slaves were freed and began translating Greek literature to Latin. Soon private elementary and secondary education began to emerge which resembled the Greek model. The system was focused on two important aspects of Roman life, oration or public speaking and physical development. To them, the power to speak was synonymous with the power to command, while physical training prepared the young citizen for the battlefield. Wherever they came in contact with primitive civilizations, the effects of their education system were felt. Although science and mathematics was well known to the Romans, it had little value as they too set their educational objective for the benefit of the state, and at this they were incredibly successful. Although the Roman orator had a great grasp of the language and was highly skilled in debate, Rome never succeeded as Greece did in education and never got its first university.
Christianity spread in the shadows of Roman culture. Its influence over that culture took centuries, as its pagan roots were deep and its laws strict. Christianity was outlawed for well over one hundred years in Rome and therefore spread through a network of underground home groups and secret meeting places. The Roman Emperors, prior to Constantine, met the faith with brutal persecution and therefore limited its influence in the public forum. Alexandria in Egypt was a center for learning based on the Roman system of gymnasiums and early education. It included a large Jewish community along with a growing Christian nucleus. By the second century, the Church there had a substantial influence along with its catechumenal school, which taught religious and secular education to both men and women. It was here that Christianity was first reconciled with secular knowledge, which was essential to the Gospel’s survival. Under Clement of Alexandria and later Origen, the curriculum expanded to include philosophy, astronomy, physics, and mathematics as it gained widespread notoriety. It was here in Egypt at this time that Anthony, the son of a wealthy land owner, gave away his inheritance to live in a shack by the Nile River as a hermit. Asceticism, which is a state of self-denial and separation for the purpose of seeking God without worldly distractions, was not a new phenomenon, but it was new to the ranks of Christianity, and Anthony is known as the founder of the Christian Monastic Movement. It was not long before he attracted a following and the movement spread throughout Mesopotamia and later Europe.
By the fourth century it was evident that Christianity was an unstoppable force as efforts to suppress it only inspired the faithful. The death of each martyr served as fertilizer for its explosive growth. The Edict of Nicomedia, 311 A.D., in the Western Empire and later Constantine’s Edict of Milan in the East legalized Christianity, ending two centuries of persecution. The teaching ministry of the Church was now able to function on equal footing with secular institutions and therefore its influence began to broaden. As the Christian virtues of love and peace spread, it had to find its place within this culture dominated by heroism and aggression. This period gave rise to creeds and institutions and finally the establishment of the Canon as we know it. Until now, education bore a resemblance to Jewish tradition and was limited to Church gatherings, but it would quickly evolve into a formal institution, with monasteries playing the central role.
Though today secularists have claimed most of our public universities, it was not always this way. What started in these monasteries ultimately laid the foundation for public education as we know it. Below are just a few examples of the great achievements that grew out of the monastic movement and flourished into an education system unlike any in the world.
Great Acheivements in Education
Monasteries
Monasteries appeared all over Asia Minor, Italy, and the Mediterranean by the fourth century. Monasteries with their churches, workshops, libraries, and schools would become the new cultural learning centers of Western civilization, embracing the great commission to “teach the nations.” They preserved the writings of antiquity and were the primary source of educating Western societies for almost 700 years. The scope of the scholarly works produced by the Christian monks was broad, including historical works, encyclopedias, biblical commentaries, and documentary works on the lives of the saints. Theoretical treatises addressing complex issues were common as well. Children of every social class, as well as unwanted children and adults, received their education in monasteries. Most included math, reading, religion, and writing in the curriculum. Medicine was cultivated in the monastic hospitals, elevating it to scholarly discipline in the future.
Charles the Great (Charlemagne)
In 797, Charlemagne established public schools when he declared “that the priest establish schools in every town and village, and if any of the faithful wish to entrust their children to them to learn letters, that they refuse not to accept them but with all charity teach them…and let them exact no price from the children for their teaching nor receive any from them save what parents may offer voluntarily and from affection.”
Universities
The movement started with cathedral schools, which became cultural centers in Europe under the auspices of the bishops who presided over them. In the twelfth century they began to grow in number and take on an international flavor as students from all over Europe flocked to the schools in Paris, London, Oxford, and Bologna. In Paris, three such cathedral schools, St. Victor’s, St. Genevieve-du-Mont, and Notre-Dame, would soon unite to form the University of Paris, which was the first of its kind. Economic support, along with civil protection for teachers and students, came primarily from the church, whose steadfast determination was evident in the many edicts handed down by the pope, making the University of Paris a reality. Although the primary purpose was unquestionably the teaching of theology, the liberal arts along with medicine were also part of the curriculum.
Oxford University: As early as 1119, students were gathering in the town church to learn theology, while in 1133 Robert Pullen, a prominent theologian, held formal lectures in the town of Oxford. By the beginning of the thirteenth century, the pope and cardinals were giving legal and financial support to Oxford students. Cambridge University’s growth, like so many others in Europe and Russia, would follow a pattern of financial and legislative support, initially coming exclusively from the church.
College
In 1255, Robert Sorbon acquired three houses on the same street in Paris, where he took it upon himself to teach theology to poorer, less qualified students. Within a century, La Sorbonne consisted of seventy such houses with well over 300 faculty. The movement spread to Oxford, where Chancellor Walter de Merton founded Merton College in 1274 which, like La Sorbonne, provided everything for the student free of charge. By the sixteenth century, Cambridge had thirteen such colleges, Oxford had eleven, and Paris six. These institutions were founded by bishops, canons, and theologians, primarily for the study of theology, but soon growing to include the liberal arts and medicine.
Sunday School
During the Industrial Revolution, England’s young and poor labored six days a week in the most hideous conditions. Robert Raikes (1736-1811), a frequent advocate for the hungry and imprisoned, began establishing schools on Sunday for the poor. These schools, which were primarily for literacy training with the Bible as central textbook, would start the Sunday School Movement, which is with us to this day.
Church Charity Schools
Without a doubt the pilgrims put a high priority on education. In the Northeast where populations were dense, town schools began to form along with Church Charity Schools which were free of charge. These schools were originally established to help poor children. Their rapid expansion required oversight boards and curriculum. Soon, children from every background came to learn at these schools. Charity schools in later years evolved to form the first public schools in America. During this time the church shaped the curriculum, as most colonists distrusted government intervention in education.
Public education in the United States
The Old Deluder Act (1647) of Massachusetts was the first law in America establishing public education. Its Christian origins can hardly be denied:
It being one chief project of that old deluder Satan, to keep men from the knowledge of the scriptures … and to the end that learning may not be buried in the grave of our forefathers, in church and commonwealth, the Lord assisting our endeavors. The law went on to order every town that the “Lord increases to over fifty households” to appoint one among them to teach the children to read and write. Those towns of over one hundred were mandated to establish a grammar school for the same.
Harvard University
Only eighteen years after the Puritans landed in America, they established the first of many of America’s finest universities, Harvard. On September 8, 1636, by a vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, New College—later named Harvard College—was established for the purpose of biblical instruction. To this day the entry to Harvard Yard reads: After God had carried us safely to New England, and we had built our houses, provided necessaries for our livelihood, reared convenient places for God’s worship, and settled the civil government; one of the next things we longed for, and looked after was to advanced learning, and perpetuate it to posterity; dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches, when our present ministers shall lay in the dust.
Yale University
Yale University was founded by the General Court of Connecticut in 1701 with the express purpose that: Youth may be instructed in the Arts and Sciences who through the blessing of God may be fitted for Public employment both in Church and Civil State. It was mandatory for students to: Live religious, godly and blameless lives according to the rules of God’s word, diligently reading the Holy Scriptures, the fountain of light and truth; and constantly attend to all the duties of religion both in public and secret. Every student shall consider the main end of his study to wit to know God in Jesus Christ and answerably to lead a godly, sober life. Princeton University was founded in 1746 with the official motto Under God’s Power She Flourishes.
By the middle of the 19th century, there were 246 universities in America of which seventeen were state institutions, with the remaining 229 rooted in the Christian church. In 1782, Congress voted this resolution: “The Congress of the United States recommends and approves the Holy Bible for use in all schools.” It followed that every child in America up until 1963 received as their basic education biblical training, and yes, it was government sponsored. Central to all the early schools and colleges in America was Christian training first and foremost. For over a hundred years the New England Primer was the primary textbook for educators—second only to the Bible—with over five million copies in existence. It included the Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, the Apostles’ Creed, the Westminster Catechism, and more. True religion affords government its surest support.
The future of this nation depends on Christian training of our youth. It is impossible to govern without the Bible. --George Washington Conclusion: Believers can say with confidence that public education is the product of the Christian worldview.
Articles
Educating Ignorance Janice Shaw Crouse
Politics versus Education Thomas Sowell