Rushdoony's study tells us an important part of American history: exactly what has public education been trying to accomplish? Before the 1830s and Horace Mann, no schools in the U.S. were state supported or state controlled. They were local, parent-teacher enterprises, supported without taxes, and taking care of all children. They were remarkably high in standard and were Christian. From Mann to the present, the state has used education to socialize the child. The school's basic purpose, according to its own philosophers, is not education in the traditional sense of the 3 R's. Instead, it is to promote 'democracy' and 'equality,' not in their legal or civic sense, but in terms of the engineering of a socialized citizenry. Public education became the means of creating a social order of the educator's design. Such men saw themselves and the school in messianic terms. This book was instrumental in launching the Christian school and homeschool movements.
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65 of 69 people found the following review helpful
By "doctorfred"
Format:Hardcover
This book is a very complete history of public education in America. It includes biographical sketches of every influential thinker including Europeans who have influenced U.S public education. The author is a theologian as well as a scholar in the field of education. He places education in the United States in the greater context of ancient and medieval educational theory and practice. His insightful philosophical observations in his introductory materials and his epilogical comments are worth the price of the book. Any one taking the standard undergraduate course in "history of education" would greatly profit by using this book as parallel reading. Any one seeking to know why the American public school system, once dominated by Protestant theology and ethics, has become theologically "neutral" and dominated by a humanist theology and ethic should consider Rushdoony's point of view.
9 of 21 people found the following review helpful
By pylgrym
Format:Hardcover
Four stars, but only because I am an amillennialist - not a theonomist or postmillennialist. Welcome to Post-christian America, and check the messages at the truthtapes dot com website by Brother Gene Breed - especially his recent series on the harlot church of these last days and her judgment in the Book of revelation .... But I am a sovereign Grace calvinist, and here and especially here in this irrefutable masterwork is where Brother Rousas shines brightest, in my humble opinion... and where I agree with him the heartiest. For man in his best state is altogether vanity; where unregenerate men hold sway they will vainly attempt to supplant the Triune God with all manner of inventions. Rushdoony takes the likes of Utopian Horace Mann to task, and spares not the likes of Humanist John Dewey. I first found and, riveted, read this book in its entirety in one sitting (they ran me out!) in the library of Washington University, St. Louis where and while enrolled in a philosophy of education course back in 1977....
The instructor of the course gave me an "A" but never returned the paper I wrote, refuting his anti-authoritarianism. It is a quick and an easy read, but a read that you will want to savor again and again and use for direct quotes in your fave online ed forums. Highest recommendation.
The instructor of the course gave me an "A" but never returned the paper I wrote, refuting his anti-authoritarianism. It is a quick and an easy read, but a read that you will want to savor again and again and use for direct quotes in your fave online ed forums. Highest recommendation.
8 of 63 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book, while essential reading for anyone attempting to understand the form of fascism that has gripped America over the past two decades, has little to offer either the serious scholar of American education or the devout Christian. Its argument, resting on a flawed understanding of the country's founding documents and an extremely narrow view of its history, relies on the reader's presumed preference for a freedom that is undermined by the very "solution" it implies. While articulate, this is ultimately a work of deception and untruth.
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