How Christianity Shaped the Minds of Early American Youth
The history of American Education is an interesting topic, especially considering the recent removal of the Department of Education. From the beginnings of colonial education, when mothers taught their children the Bible and the basics of reading, reading, and arithmetic around the hearth in their homes, to the establishment of community schoolhouses where those same principles were reiterated through a carefully chosen schoolteacher. Bernard Bailyn notes the importance of familial involvement in a young person's development in his book Education in the Forming of American Society, petitioning that the "family would not only introduce him to the basic forms of civilized living, but it shaped his attitudes, formed his patterns of behavior, endowed him with manners and morals." 1 Today, children as young as 3 are whisked away from their mothers to VPK programs to prepare them for the rigorous demands of kindergarten. Who are these people molding and sha...