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[0:00] ...desires and actions are motivated by how they perceive the world around them. A worldview can be defined in many ways, but it can be defined as a set of basic beliefs, assumptions, values that arise from a narrative or a story about the world that produces individual and group actions, and those actions form a human culture.

[0:24] An individual's worldview isn't formed in isolation, but is influenced by the media we watch and listen to, information we read, and the people we cross paths with.

[0:36] Worldviews are malleable. Each of us is exposed and certainly susceptible to influences outside the worldview defined by God's Word. Today, we'll continue our examination of a biblical worldview in the context of education.

[0:52] There is a cultural battle being waged in public schools across our country. There's no doubt. But Scripture is clear. We are engaged in a broader spiritual war on many fronts.

[1:04] In addition to ideologies that contradict what the Bible tells us about who we are and how we are to act and think, we're at war with our own sinful flesh, which is inclined to conform to the ideas of man.

[1:19] And finally, the great enemy Satan is a relentless foe. Many of the letters contained in our Bibles have warnings against false ideas seeping in to the early church.

[1:31] In 1 Peter 5.8, Peter warned the leaders of the persecuted churches in Asia Minor against those teachings and described the nature of the foe they faced.

[1:43] In 1 Peter 5.8, it says, There are at least four valuable applications for each of us as we confront our current cultural conflict today.

[2:04] Firstly, we are to be sober-minded, grounded in God's truth expressed in Scripture, not subject to our emotions or susceptible to whims.

[2:18] In Paul's second letter to the church in Corinth, chapter 10, verse 5, he's defending his ministry and the gospel against false teachers and the heresies that were spreading through the city.

[2:30] He implores his listeners to stay firm and to take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. Secondly, we are called to be alert and aware of our surroundings.

[2:46] We need to be acutely aware of our limitations, our own peculiar temptations, and any methods Satan might use to conform us to the world's mold. In the case of the early Christians in Asia Minor, there was enormous social and political pressure to embrace the pagan, Hellenistic worldview they had been saved out of.

[3:06] At the time of Peter's letter, Nero had singled out Christians for incredible persecution. Thirdly, young and old alike are not to be passive, but are called to action, to resist the devil's devices, or in our case, false ideas about the world.

[3:25] Romans 12.2, a familiar verse, Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. There are no spectators or neutral parties in this battle.

[3:39] As obedient followers of Christ, we are to immerse ourselves in the reading and meditating on the Word so that we might know how to think and act in God's world. We are to continually be at prayer, asking for wisdom, that the same Holy Spirit that ministered to Christians in the first century would counsel us that we might not dishonor the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in our day.

[4:04] And lastly, Peter describes Satan as a lion. Lions are opportunistic predators. Their objective is to kill their prey while expending as little energy as possible in the process.

[4:17] Out of a herd of gazelle, lions will instinctively find individuals that show signs of weakness or frailty. Often it's the young and experienced members of the herd that will break ranks, find themselves isolated, easily taken.

[4:34] In the same way, children, teens, and young adults are often the most vulnerable and least equipped to identify and confront Satan's lies that permeate our secular culture today.

[4:47] For this reason, Christian parents who seek to be obedient to Scripture and fulfill their mission, their God-given mission, to raise their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord must be diligent and equip their children to identify and reject worldviews not consistent with God's design in His creation.

[5:11] Public education can be thought of as a mission field. Where else can you find a thousand or so young people confined in a building for seven hours a day, 180 days a year? Nowhere else.

[5:23] I'm a world history, American history, and American politics teacher. I teach at a public school of about 1,500 students. By all indicators, it is an inner-city school.

[5:36] When my day is done there, I travel to two Orthodox Jewish schools, one for boys and one for girls, where I teach the same subjects there. And as many of you know, my wife has homeschooled our three children.

[5:50] Riley, my eldest, is about to head off to Cedarville here in a couple weeks. When people I meet find this out, inevitably they ask, why would a public school teacher homeschool their children?

[6:02] There are a variety of reasons, but the longer I'm in public education, the more confident I am that we made the correct decision. In a week, I'll begin my 22nd year in public education.

[6:15] And I can confess and attest to that public education is far less hospitable to a biblical worldview now than when I began two decades ago.

[6:27] As stated in Romans 1, 25, we have exchanged God's truth for lies. I have a recent example. Every year, public teachers in Indiana, public school teachers in Indiana, are required to watch training videos.

[6:45] These training videos are mandated by the state and reflect FLEX state and school district policies. Most of the videos pertain to issues dealing with student health and safety.

[6:58] For instance, there are videos helping teachers to identify signs of child abuse and what to do, things like that. This year, we had a new one, and it was a cultural sensitivity video.

[7:12] You can imagine what that was like. In these videos, typically there's some instruction, and then there are some scenarios. And these scenarios are intended to demonstrate what is considered to be best practice in education and what is school policy.

[7:29] Well, one particular scenario, we're introduced to a teacher. She's a young teacher. She's been teaching for a few years, but has recently moved to a different school, a new school. And over the several weeks prior to the first day, she had received a bunch of emails from administrators and counselors, which typically happens.

[7:49] And those emails contain information about particular students and their specific needs, like health concerns, things like that. And she was very diligent in keeping notes.

[8:00] And then this scenario goes on to the first day of school, and she started taking attendance in her class, calling out students by name. They would raise their hand. She would engage in some small talk and then move on to the next student.

[8:14] She came to Michael. She called out Michael's name, but Michael was clearly distraught. Michael identified himself, but really wasn't willing to engage in any kind of banter or small talk.

[8:28] The teacher thought nothing of it. Michael just must be shy. Fast forward on the scenario. The next morning, this teacher receives an angry email from Michael's parent.

[8:41] And apparently something that was said really upset Michael. Well, what could have happened? There was very little interaction. Well, come to find out, Michael was now Michelle and had been undergoing hormone treatments and had left a previous school for a new school to get away from the bullying and was afraid that that bullying was just going to continue on in this new school.

[9:06] Well, what is best practice in that scenario? Well, none of the options included introducing Michael and his mother to Christ. Instead, it was to call a meeting with Michael and his mother, apologize for misgendering Michael, and make every precaution that it doesn't happen again.

[9:27] So quite literally, school policy requires us to exchange the truth for our lies. Don't misunderstand. I think there are advantages to public and private education.

[9:40] I believe public education has and continues to play a vital role in our society if done correctly. Every day, I cross paths with dedicated teachers and administrators, many who embrace a traditional biblical worldview.

[9:58] A public school is a direct reflection of the community it resides in and the predominant culture. The student body at my school is quite diverse in every way possible.

[10:09] I'm often mindful of the common grace displayed every day by acts of kindness between students and the relative harmony that exists among students and staff alike.

[10:20] The vast majority of my students are unchurched, and those that do attend attend churches that function as little more than community centers and have long since been pressed into the world's mold.

[10:32] There are many opportunities in my particular disciplines, the humanities, to expose students to a biblical worldview, and I try to take full advantage. For instance, according to state standards, I am required to teach about the origins and impact of Christianity on Western culture and the impact of the Protestant Reformation, two incredible opportunities.

[10:55] When the topic of the Reformation comes up, I usually ask students if they attend a church and if so, what denomination to illustrate the fact that the effects of the Reformation are around us today.

[11:07] Every year, it seems that fewer and fewer students raise their hands. Many don't have the most basic knowledge of Christianity, much less how it has shaped our nation.

[11:18] According to a recent Gallup poll that was released last month, maybe you heard of about it in the news, it made quite an impact, belief in God has reached an all-time low here in the United States, to 81%.

[11:32] Now, that reflects a 6% decline since 2017. But the most alarming statistic was a 10% decline among 18 to 29-year-olds to an all-time low of 68% over a five-year period of time.

[11:48] Now, to be sure, this is a generic poll measuring belief in the idea of a God. But it does indicate that more Americans, particularly young Americans, are rejecting the traditional biblical worldview of their parents and grandparents for a secular worldview, free from accountability and moral constraints.

[12:09] So what is the purpose, the biblical purpose, of an education? And who is primarily responsible for educating our children? I doubt if anyone here had aspirations for their children to grow up to be ignorant and flounder around aimlessly through life.

[12:27] I'm sure all of us went to great lengths to give our children opportunities to gain knowledge and skills necessary to be productive members in society.

[12:38] There's nothing unbiblical. In fact, it's quite biblical. Proverbs 12, 11. He who works his land will have abundant food, but he who chases fantasies lacks judgment.

[12:50] Every parent has a responsibility to raise their children to be functional adults. So is an education simply the process of gaining knowledge and skills in order to have a fulfilling career?

[13:03] Of course not. The biblical purpose of educating our children is to impart wisdom that they would be able to discern between God's knowledge, which leads to life, and the folly of man.

[13:17] Proverbs 14, 12 says, there's a way that seems right to a man, but in the end leads to death. God delights in wisdom and discernment. God himself tells us where wisdom comes from.

[13:32] Job 38, 36. Who endowed the heart with wisdom or gave understanding to his mind? Of course it was God. God has given man the capacity to learn and to know his ways.

[13:44] Many, if not most, Americans believe access to education is a civil right, a government service, every child is entitled to. And according to the laws of man, they are correct.

[13:57] But this is not a biblical perspective of education. Far from being a right, an education is a responsibility. Parents are ultimately responsible for imparting wisdom to their children.

[14:12] Deuteronomy 11, 18 through 19 says, in reference to God's commandments, fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them to your foreheads.

[14:24] Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home, when you lie down, when you walk along the road. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates so that your days and the days of your children may be many.

[14:38] Proverbs 22, 6. Train up a child in the way he should go. Even when he is old, he will not turn from it. The task of imparting wisdom and educating our children in the knowledge of God is a 24-7 process.

[14:55] It requires effort and intention and should take a priority in our family lives. In the same way, children have a responsibility to ensure that they receive an education.

[15:12] It's something they should pursue and education isn't something that happens to you. It's not like catching a cold. Proverbs 1, 8 says, Hear, my son, your father's instruction and do not forsake your mother's teaching.

[15:25] Proverbs 4, 8-13. Listen, my son, accept what I say and the years of your life will be many. I guide you in the way of wisdom and lead you along straight paths.

[15:37] When you walk, your steps will not be hampered. When you run, you will not stumble. Hold on to instruction. Do not let it go. Guard it well for it is your life. Parents are ultimately responsible for educating their children.

[15:52] Others can't assist. There's nothing unbiblical about seeking knowledge and wisdom outside the home. I think each of us came to this building this morning to receive instruction in God's word from Pastor John.

[16:07] In 1 Timothy 3, 2, Timothy lays out qualifications for elders. Therefore, an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, and able to teach.

[16:20] As an obedient child, Jesus surely sat quietly and listened to the religious leaders and most likely attended Torah classes with the other children at the synagogue. It is easy to understand how the role of a biblical worldview is relevant in a moral education.

[16:39] But what is the biblical purpose of teaching secular subjects like math, science, and my discipline, history? Well, God made man in his own image, yet man is not God.

[16:52] God describes himself among other attributes as infinite and omniscient. God doesn't grow, change, or learn new information. Man, though finite and limited in knowledge, was blessed with a capacity to reason and to learn.

[17:10] Beyond that, to communicate knowledge verbally and through writing, resulting a storehouse of accumulated knowledge that has been preserved for future generations. Man was created to learn.

[17:24] In Genesis, we get a glimpse into the first classroom, a perfectly ordered environment with the wisest teacher, God himself. Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden of Eden as stewards to care for it.

[17:38] They had an intimate relationship with God. God taught Adam and Eve everything they needed to know to exist in the sinless world he had created for them. They had an unblemished worldview.

[17:51] Nothing was withheld from them with the exception of the fruit of one tree. Then the serpent introduced an alternative worldview, that God was not good, and they too could be like God.

[18:04] Adam and Eve were tempted and fell and brought the curse of sin and death to the world. Banished from the garden, Adam and Eve would have been surrounded by reminders of what they had lost.

[18:15] Imagine witnessing the predation of one animal upon another for the first time or finding weeds had choked out a plant that once produced good fruit.

[18:27] Adam and Eve and their descendants had to be reoriented to a fallen world. Though tainted by sin, creation still reflects the goodness and majesty of God.

[18:42] Though cursed, it still bears the marks of its creator who delights in order, not chaos. So God created man with the capacity to learn and a highly ordered world that can be understood.

[18:56] Beyond that, he gave us his inspired word by which we might know him, ourselves, and our place in his creation. In a very real sense, every student who ever sat in any school environment or any class is being oriented to the world God has placed them in.

[19:16] And should be taught to see God's providential hand in every subject they learn to the glory of God. Therefore, without a correct biblical worldview, the ultimate goal of bringing glory and the ultimate goal of bringing glory to God, any attempt to understand the world is ultimately futile, counterproductive, and destructive.

[19:37] There is no such thing as a neutral education as some advocate. R.C. Sproul once said, every education, every curriculum has a viewpoint.

[19:48] That viewpoint either considers God or it does not. To teach children about life and the world in which they live without reference to God is to make a statement about God. It screams a statement.

[20:00] The message is either there is no God or that God is irrelevant. Either way, the message is the same. Over the past at least 60 years, great effort has been made to remove God and his worldview from public education by individuals, political, social movements, and organizations like the Freedom from Religion Foundation that are committed to a secular worldview.

[20:26] Academia, and by default, K-12 public education has been infiltrated by elements of secular modernism and postmodernism, and depending on who is standing in front of the class will determine the dosage.

[20:39] So how did we get here and where did we come from in terms of public education? Today's system of free and compulsory public education that exists in all 50 states is less than 150 years old.

[20:54] It's relatively new. For most of human history, homeschooling was the only viable option. A child's education directly reflected the education and skill sets of their parents.

[21:05] If a parent was literate, so were the children. If a father was a blacksmith, so was the son. A child's education was mainly practical with little need for academic pursuit.

[21:17] If literate, reading materials were scarce and limited for most. In many cases, a Bible would be the only available book. Relatively few had access to an education outside the home.

[21:31] In colonial America, access to education varied widely depending on where you lived. To find the roots of public education in America, you need to travel to Puritan New England.

[21:45] By examining the origins of public education, we will also see how far it has deviated from its original mission. The first three English colonies, this is kind of where I go into history teacher mode, but the first three English colonies established in North America in the 17th century were Jamestown in Virginia, 1607, Plymouth Plantation in Massachusetts or New England, 1620, and Massachusetts Bay also in New England, 1630, respectively.

[22:16] Jamestown was a secular colony. It was a corporate colony. It was established by private investors for the sole purpose of turning a profit. But as you all know, Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay were settled by separatists and Puritans fleeing religious persecution and motivated by a fervent devotion to a thoroughly biblical worldview.

[22:40] History textbooks are generally unkind to Puritan New England and present them as unhappy religious zealots who stole the land from the natives. But it is undeniable, and even history books reflect this, that when compared to their cousins in Virginia, settlers in Massachusetts enjoyed a far better standard of living, lived substantially longer lives by as many as 20 years on average, and enjoyed far better general health, and were almost universally literate, which is rare anywhere in the world at the time.

[23:14] Literacy and learning were an essential part of Puritan culture. Massachusetts Bay Colony, and what is today Boston, was less than a decade old when Harvard College was established to ensure Puritan ministers were thoroughly equipped to lead their flocks.

[23:32] Puritans held firmly to Reformation principles, such as sola fide, sola scriptura, who believed salvation and sanctification by faith and reading the word.

[23:44] The ability to read was crucial for salvation and sanctification in that culture. The first education laws in American history date to Massachusetts, 1642.

[23:55] requiring every parent to educate their children in, quote, the principles of the Puritan faith and the laws of the commonwealth. It was literally illegal to have illiterate children unable to read the Bible.

[24:11] Puritans firmly believed, as we should, what is taught in 2 Timothy 3, 16. All scripture is God-breathed and is useful in teaching, rebuking, correction, and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every work.

[24:29] Apparently, not everyone was adhering to the law. So, in 1647, five years later, another law, which was commonly referred to as Old Deluder Satan Act, which is a wonderfully descriptive law, was passed to enforce compliance.

[24:45] It appointed select men, which were like deacons from the church, to investigate derelict parents who didn't educate their children and left them, didn't educate their children and left them without defense against the wiles of Satan.

[25:04] In 1675, we have the case of William Scant of Braintree, Massachusetts. He had his children seized and placed with another family for, quote, not ordering and disposing of his children as may be for their good education and refusing to consent to the selectmen of Braintree.

[25:23] In addition, towns of 50 or more were required to hire a schoolmaster to teach their children how to read and write. And towns in excess of 100 established grammar schools with Bible as the primary text.

[25:36] By God's providential hand, the Bible-centric education that first was established in New England became the norm throughout the colonies, aided by events such as the Great Awakening.

[25:50] A proper education was nearly universally thought of as a three-legged stool consisting of religion, morality, and knowledge. They believed religion was the basis for morality.

[26:04] And if religion were removed, morality would soon collapse. And knowledge without morality was dangerous. Noah Webster, sometimes referred to as America's schoolmaster, said, Any system of education which limits instruction to the arts and sciences and rejects the aids of religion informing the characters of citizens is essentially defective.

[26:32] Following the American Revolution, our nation was floundering. Our national government under the Articles of Confederation, maybe you remember that, was ineffective. State governments were behaving erratically and were squabbling with each other.

[26:47] And we were flat broke, owing money to everyone. What we did have was land, all the land west of the Appalachian Mountains to the Mississippi River.

[26:58] The Congress eventually began to organize the land to be sold to settlers and the money would be used to pay off our collective war debt. Congress passed the Land Ordinance of 1785, which provided for the surveying of western lands north of the Ohio River all the way to the Mississippi River.

[27:18] what would become eventually known as the Northwest Territory. And if your mental maps aren't working, that's where we are right now. It was divided into six mile by six mile sections called townships.

[27:32] That should sound familiar. Within each township, there were 36, 640 acre sections that could be subdivided into sections as small as 40 acres.

[27:43] And those were to be sold. That's why when you fly over, really any land that was settled after 1800, it looks like a checkerboard. The law, in addition, required that the 16th section, which was right in the middle of a township, was set aside for the, quote, maintenance of public education.

[28:06] So our framers, our founders, very early on, were committed to the idea of a public education based on a biblical worldview. Think about what the founders and the framers of our Constitution were trying to create, a republic based on civic virtue, the willingness to set aside our own interests for the interests of the whole.

[28:30] If individual citizens, average people, were to be empowered politically, in other words, be able to vote and select their leaders, they, the framers and founders, understood that an educated moral citizen was key to the success of the great experiment.

[28:49] Additionally, our founders were committed to creating a society free of caste systems like the aristocracies that dominated Europe. Access to education would be a way for Americans to move up through society.

[29:02] Gradually, public education expanded in the United States and what will become the United States. throughout the 19th century, American school children learned the three R's, reading, writing, arithmetic, and received a steady diet of civic and moral lessons based on biblical principles.

[29:20] As the 19th century came to a close and the tumultuous 20th century opened, Western culture began to experience dramatic changes and new ideologies and worldviews began to emerge.

[29:35] The biblical worldview and challenged the biblical worldview. In particular, modernism and post-modernism. So, relatively briefly, I want to talk about what these two ideologies, worldviews, are.

[29:51] Because it's really what we face in the world today. So, what is modernism and post-modernism? They're both 20th century philosophical movements that have shaped Western culture and thought, certainly in the 20th and early 21st century.

[30:09] They're both worldviews that directly and openly challenge the biblical worldview. However, they differ in some important ways. Modernism emerged in Europe, particularly France, around the time of the American Civil War, so the mid-late 1800s, and was widely accepted by Western intellectuals by the 1920s and 1930s.

[30:32] the historical context is important here for the modernist movement. It is the rapid industrial expansion and innovation and all the changes that came along with it in between the American Civil War and the 20th century.

[30:47] It was quite dramatic. For instance, in 1790, the first U.S. census indicated that only 10% of Americans lived in cities.

[30:58] We were largely an agrarian society living relatively isolated lives. By 1920, the U.S. census indicated for the first time that as many Americans lived in cities as in the countryside.

[31:13] We were becoming an urbanized society. The nation was becoming two different places. Rural Americans tended to embrace the traditional biblical worldview, but many urban dwellers with access to cutting-edge technology and new ideas were far more likely to embrace alternate worldviews such as modernism.

[31:37] Modernists embrace nihilism or the rejection of all religious and moral truth claims. Modernism is an atheistic worldview rejecting the existence of God, but not necessarily the existence of truth.

[31:53] Instead of God's word being the foundation of truth, modernists assert that true knowledge could only be attained through human experience, what was commonly referred to as empiricism.

[32:07] Think back to science class when you learned about the scientific method. A theory can only become a scientific principle after it has been demonstrated to be true by repeated experimentation.

[32:19] Ultimately, modernists put their faith in human achievement and believe firmly in the inevitability of human progress, primarily based on science.

[32:31] In the study of American history, we refer to the period between roughly 1900 and 1914 or the beginning of World War I as the progressive era. The word progress is right there in the title.

[32:43] You can think of it in some ways as a high point of modernist theory being put into practice. As a society, we set to work trying to fix all of our problems in order to perfect society.

[32:59] Take the problem of urban poverty. During this period of time, right around the turn of the 20th century, millions of primarily poor immigrants from southern and eastern Europe were flooding American cities.

[33:12] It was a real humanitarian issue. Some progressive reformers embraced what was called the social gospel, the practical application of Christian principles consistent with the biblical worldview and established things like settlement houses.

[33:29] And these settlement houses were literally houses in immigrant neighborhoods that provided free, basic assistance, food, temporary shelter, clothing, education, and even biblical teaching.

[33:44] Other progressive, modernist reformers embraced eugenics, or the science of social engineering as a solution. For instance, Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, promoted easy access to birth control and abortion to control less desirable populations as a means of eliminating poverty.

[34:07] In 1907, Indiana became the first state to pass a eugenics law which gave the state the authority to forcibly sterilize people with mental disabilities without their permission, all in the name of progress.

[34:22] Romans 11.36 says, For from him and through him and to him are all things. Modernists exchange the truth of God's providential design and natural order for impersonal forces of time and chance.

[34:37] This exchange is most obvious in the sciences, of course evolution, but also is present in the humanities, my disciplines. Reference to God's sovereignty over the hearts of kings and the affairs of man is absent.

[34:52] Rather, man is master of his own destiny. Modernism faced challenges towards the middle of the 20th century, particularly in the form of two catastrophic world wars, World War I and World War II.

[35:05] More than 100 million people died in those wars and the Western world was shaken to its core. Clearly science had not delivered on the progress it had promised.

[35:20] Out of the chaos emerged post-modernism. Like modernism, post-modernism is nihilistic and atheistic, but unlike modernism, post-modernism rejects modernist notions of rationality and objectivity for relativism, the worldview that there is no absolute truth.

[35:42] Where the biblical worldview finds truth in God's word and the modernist tries to establish truth based on logic, reason, and human experience, modernists reject the existence of truth and seek to deconstruct cultural norms.

[35:58] After all, cultural norms such as gender, sexuality, and marriage are all merely social constructs to the post-modernist. Furthermore, post-modernists assert social constructs such as gender, sexuality, and marriage are simply tools of oppression, a means for the powerful to oppress the weak.

[36:21] Within nearly every subject taught at universities today, you will find a feminist theory or the perspective of the oppressed being taught. Therefore, to truly maximize human existence, one must deconstruct the social norms that constrain.

[36:39] Chief among these constraints and social constructs is the biblical worldview. The cultural revolution of the 1960s and the current movements are a direct result of post-modernist deconstructionism.

[36:56] Most likely, your K-12 student sitting in a classroom isn't going to be exposed to raw post-modernist theory. Their teachers aren't going to quote influential post-modernist philosophers.

[37:09] They probably don't even know any. However, the effects of these worldviews reign unchallenged in most secular universities. And inevitably, find their way into courses K-12 teachers take in preparation for careers in public schools.

[37:26] And by default, find their way into the curriculum. So, what are we to do? I'm going to conclude with some practical suggestions.

[37:39] Firstly, we need to take refuge in our God who is sovereign over the affairs of man. Often, I'll get caught up and get quite anxious when I see a new policy or hear something in the news.

[37:52] And I have to remind myself that though I am shocked and appalled, God is not surprised in his control. It's important to recognize how blessed we have been to continue and continue to be as a nation through God's providential care.

[38:10] We live in a free society whose laws are constrained by a written constitution which limits the power of our government. Unlike most western nations, we have a federal system in which individual states have real authority.

[38:26] The constitution clearly lays the responsibility and authority over public education at the state level. State governments tend to be more responsive to the will of the voters.

[38:38] We also have a long tradition of local control in public education. School boards are incredibly influential and can be shaped for better or worse easily through the political process.

[38:54] So, when a local election comes up, go vote. If there's a problem in your school system, run for a seat in the school board. It only takes, in some cases, a couple hundred votes to turn a school around.

[39:10] Parents need to take their responsibility to educate their children and impart wisdom seriously. Just because you may not be homeschooling your child doesn't mean you should not be intimately involved.

[39:24] Preview their textbooks. Textbooks are an excellent indication about where public education is and is heading. There are really only a couple textbook publishers in the country and their objective is to sell books.

[39:40] What is in those books is determined essentially by California and Texas. They're not going to have anything in those books that they believe would prevent school systems from buying those books.

[39:53] So, for instance, in history books, there are, there's the basic narrative of American history and then they have these little sidebars where they draw special attention. recently, in the last, certainly, 25, 30 years, a lot of attention has been placed on the, the contributions of minorities throughout American history, the people that have been forgotten.

[40:17] I have yet to see a history textbook draw special attention to historical figures because of their sexual orientation. education. So, that is something to look for that I, I constantly look for because I know at the university level that is, that's where it's heading.

[40:36] Two years ago, well, I guess I should say I teach general courses but I also teach some dual credit courses through a large public university in our state and I have to go to that university periodically for training and usually the training consists of a bunch of us in a room with professors from political science and history departments just having discussions about trends.

[41:03] In particular, there is a push in universities, secular universities to elevate sexual orientation to the level of race and gender.

[41:15] So, in this particular seminar there was a, a young, well, I guess a young lady who was sharing her, her PhD dissertation which she was just finishing and essentially was encouraging us to find creative ways to inject the LGBTQ agenda into our classrooms and at universities there, there, it's a safe place for post, post modernism and they're quite open about these things.

[41:45] In particular, I remember she said that, mentioned that there are a lot of backward rural communities in Indiana and we need to find ways to, to subvert, literally, that was the language used, to subvert the culture there.

[42:00] So, keep a, keep a look out at textbooks and see what's in those textbooks and typically every six, seven years there's a textbook adoption and textbook companies know it.

[42:13] Take a look at class notes and homework assignments that come home. most curriculums are online. So, literally, it's a matter of getting your students username and, and password and you can access their entire class online that, where I teach, we have a, a system called Canvas and literally the entire class is laid out right there and you have unprecedented access to what your student is learning.

[42:43] if there is a concern in class about a particular assignment or what is being taught, communicate directly with the teacher. Don't go to the administrator first and I think that's biblical.

[42:56] Go directly to the teacher. Most school systems have a 24-hour policy for returning parent communications so you should hear back from them and when addressing the issue, recognize that most likely that teacher has no malintent, and it would be willing to accommodate you and your student.

[43:17] Avoid emails, particularly emails with accusatory language. Recognize that most likely they care about your student and have the best intentions. If a teacher's intentions aren't pure and they refuse to take your concerns seriously, then take the matter to the building principal or to the superintendent.

[43:38] Take your responsibility again to educate your child seriously. And finally, keep Christ followers, students and teachers alike, entrenched in public schools in your prayers.

[43:49]  Pray that there would be a revival and that our nation would once again seek God's face. take you to take affid morning