Rick Green: 0:07
Welcome to the intersection of faith and culture. It's the WallBuilders show, where we're taking on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical and constitutional perspective. Yesterday we had a presentation from Tim Barton at the Pro Family Legislators Conference. Today we're going to get the conclusion of that presentation, so, without any further ado, let's jump right back in. Here's Tim Barton speaking at the Pro Family Legislators Conference.

Tim Barton: 0:29
When you deal with something. How can I think through this? How can I problem solve around this? It's not something we do a lot anymore. But it's also worth noting that if we think about education, the Bible gives us some guidance in Proverbs 22.6. It says that we should train up a child in the way they should go when they're old. They won't depart from it. But if you think about the word train, there's more than one way to train. So what kind of training method are we talking about? What is the pedagogy of training we are using? And I think it's interesting if you go back and look up this word and there's different set of Bibles that I really appreciate for the value they add in giving thoughts and commentary. But in 22.6, you see there's 13 over there on the side and if you look at what it is on the side, it says or catechize and I know it's very small, but if you're close you can see it Catechize a child the way they should go. So if you read this, instead of saying train up a child the way they should go, if we said, well, maybe that word in Hebrew is closer to the word catechize catechize a child the way they should go when they're old and won't depart from it. Catechize is a specific teaching method. In fact, it was the specific teaching method that we embraced in America. Everything you see in early American education, a catechism of ancient history, a catechism of agricultural chemistry, a catechism of American law, a catechism of entomology, a catechism of astronomy, a elementary catechism. On the Constitution of the United States. Everything we did was a catechism. What's a catechism? A catechism is teaching someone how to question and think through the issue, and what you do is you teach students to ask questions such as who and what, and when and where and why and how. Now, I know that seems really simple, but let me unfold this a little bit more. If we talked about the Sermon on the Mount and we were to ask okay, sermon on the Mount. First of all, who said the Sermon on the Mount? Well, Jesus, the Living. Sermon on the Mount. Okay, what did he say? Well, there's a lot between Matthew 5, 6 and 7. Right, well, when did he say it? Well, was this point in his ministry where he said he was on a hill outside of Galilee? Why did he say it? How did he say it? If you can fully answer the questions in the catechism, you have a much deeper grasp and comprehension of the information and content. What we used to do was not based on a regurgitating fact, but teaching people how to think through what the topic and the issue in the subject was Right, very different than what we do today. But catechism was the method we use and notice. Catechism was a method, regardless of what you were doing. It was the method of education we use, and this is where it's very clear early education, we taught thinking skills. But here's the third thing I would point out is that we absolutely believed in instilling high expectations and if you talk to any teacher today, any teacher today is going to say Well, we still have high expectations. We believe the best for our students. Well, that's true, they do. But high expectations compared to who or what? Right? And I mean this very sincerely Because they're like no, no, no, our students, we're the best and the smartest. Again, compared to who and what, because I'm pretty sure I can show you some sixth grade homework from back in 1780 that none of your high school seniors can do Right. So, compared to what are we saying this? And let me just walk you through this One of our good friends, rabbi Daniel Lappen. He made an interesting point one time. He said you know, when God first spoke to man, god could have spoken in any language he wanted to, but God spoke to man in Hebrew. And if you look at Hebrew, every single thing in Hebrew there is value, there is meaning. There's not a single insignificant thing in Hebrew. He said what's also interesting is in Hebrew it's not just what Hebrew means, but also in Hebrew there are certain things that can't be said in Hebrew. Like there are certain words that don't exist in the Hebrew language. Well, what words don't exist in the Hebrew language? He said well, for example, the word coincidence does not exist in the Hebrew language. Well, that's super interesting. Right, think about it biblically. God didn't look at Adam in the garden and see, even be like what a coincidence. You two met each other. This is amazing. I'm so happy for y'all. No, there's not coincidence in God's kingdom. There's divine providence in God's kingdom. Right, there's a reason you can't say coincidence in Hebrew. You can't say the word retirement in Hebrew. Hang on a second, I already getting some prickle people out there. What we fundamentally should believe as Christians from scripture God made everything on purpose and for a reason, and as long as you are here on this earth, god has a purpose for you. The modern concept of retirement. People say you know what? I'm going to kick up my heels and do nothing ever again. Unproductivity is not part of God's kingdom. As long as God has you, your God wants to use you to make a difference. Now you might talk about. Maybe you've gotten to a place that you can change your occupation in your ministry field, right? Maybe you want to be a missionary on the golf course last 20 years of your life? Good for you. Go, get up, right. It's not about changing your occupation or what your financial status is. It's about understanding. God has called us to be productive individuals as long as we're here on this earth, right. This is the notion of retirement. Well, let's go further. The idea of fair Not in the Bible. Now, a lot of us remember our parents telling us we don't care about fair, right. But let me just point out Is it fair? What happened to Joe, right? Is it fair? What happened to Uriah the Hittite, who only loved his wife and the king has an affair with his wife and then murders it Like, hmm, right. But let me point out, let me go back to Job, easy example. One of the lessons you can learn from Job is God is much more interested in how you respond to the situation than just what happens in the situation. Cause God tells Satan consider my servant, job. Right, you do all this, it don't matter. Look at him how he responds. God's economy, god now. Now. God is a God of justice. Right, justice will prevail, but sometimes justice prevails in judgments. We don't always see justice the way we think it should be done in our lifetime, cause God's time is on our time. God's thoughts on our thoughts is ways on our ways. It's different. In Hebrew there's no word fair. Well, there's also no word adolescents in Hebrew, because in the Bible, easy example is first Corinthians 13. The apostle Paul says when I was a child, I thought I read that, spoke as a child, but when I became a man I put away childish things In the Hebrew culture. To this day, the bar mitzvah, the bar mitzvah, right. 13 years old, 14 years old, it all changes. You become recognized as an adult in God's economy, right, this notion of I just kids, being kids, understand the modern perception of adolescents. We have so dumbed down and lessened our expectations for what kids are capable of? Right, If you study scripture, when David killed Goliath, scholars think he was 14 to 17 years old. He was the leader of a nation's military challenging the biggest warrior the other side had. And when King Saul's like I'm not sure you're big enough to handle this, what does David tell him? He says this is no problem. He said I watched my father's sheep by himself. He says and there's lines, and buried some of them. So come and pick up one of the limbs, I will chase them down and kill them. I'm just going to tell you some 11 and 12 year old comes back telling their mom a story about how they chased down a lion and bear and killed it. Mom's like you're never going to the field again. Right, like that's what's going to happen. This is where, if you study scripture, how often did God use kids? Our thought of kids, not what God thought of them. How old was Mary, the mother of Jesus? Scholars think 13 to 16 years old. That would be an adolescent in our day. Right, again, like this is an important thought. We have so lessened and sheepen and dumbed down what kids are capable of, and it's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible does not teach this age of adolescence which, if we even think, in our lifetime we've seen it change multiple times. Because it used to be you were an adult when you're 18. Then you were adult when you're 21. Right, well, now you can stay on your parents insurance, right, so you're in your mid and late twenties. But according to the federal government, they say the age of adolescence now goes into the thirties, because it takes young people until they're in their 30s to move out of the house, to get a job and have a steady relationship. The problem is we have taken behavior and allowed behavior to define the standard when it used to be. We're like kid, you're 11, grow up. Right Now, today, we're like that's so insensitive Okay, and I understand what you're saying Culturally insensitive, but maybe not biblically incorrect. Right, because again, if you study Hebrew, this word is not there. And again, the reason I want to point this out is, as we look at education, we are changing over and over and over. When you are looking at what's happening and like Oregon and Washington, and they're like we will no longer grade math, we will no longer grade English because it's racist, genuinely Like this is really happening. We are changing everything, like how dumb do we think kids are. When we have a faulty biblical perspective, we reach a lot of bad conclusions. This is what we are seeing in society. Now here's where I want to give you a little historical illustration. I'm going to wrap and show some modern culture thought. If you go back to elementary spelling, this is Webster's blueback speller, this is where spelling became standardized in America. Okay, this is where it all happened. And then I'm talking about millions upon millions, upon millions of these were sold when Webster's blueback speller and let me also point out that this was an elementary speller in this elementary speller elementary Right Eight, nine, right 10 years old, I don't know Elementary speller there are words in this speller that I definitely probably would misspell. I'm not sure I can pronounce them and if you asked me to define them I would struggle defining some of these. I can't tell you. Actually, out of principle, I went and got Webster's 1828 dictionary and I looked up every one of those words. So at one point I had found the definition for every one of those words. This was the standard speller that was used in every public school in America for 150 years Elementary speller, okay, elementary College. Kids today couldn't spell, couldn't define, couldn't use those words in the sentence. For the most part, if you look at geography, this is a geography quiz from Chicago. This is 1862. And again, I've just brought out a couple of examples, but in this notice some of the questions we asked fourth graders how many degrees of laundry do you gather? How many degrees wider the temperate zones? Name the principle animals of fridged zones. What portion of the people in the globe are pagans and what portion are Christians? Now, beyond what that percentage was, it's also interesting that we were addressing the fact that there are Christians and non-Christians in the world. And why does that matter? Because Christians, we've been called to reach the lost. You need to know. There was those people out there. But this is fourth grade. If you look, this is some of my favorite examples because I really enjoy math on some levels. But early arithmetic, which we also have the arithmetic books up here on this table, but in early arithmetic. These are examples. Now, again, this is 10, 11 year olds that are doing this. I insured two thirds of a shop were $3,600 and four fifths of a house were $6,000, paying $126. What was the rate of insurance? I was a business major in college and we did this kind of stuff in business math. I did not do that when I was in sixth grade. In early America we did. Let me give you another example and this one how many $50 shares, that A% discount, must be given for 23 bonds. $100 each at 2% premium. That was standard sixth grade, seventh grade, right, I mean, these are young kids. Let me go further, because on those you actually could use a pencil and paper, you could use your little chalk table, you could write those down. They had what was called mental math. Mental math today has largely been banned because people are like no, we want you to show your work. Well, it used to be. We cared more about how you could use your brain to show your work, right. But mental math 1877, these were problems you were given you had to solve in your head. Notice some of these questions. They explained a boat worth $864, which one eighth belonged to A, one fourth to B, and the rest of C was lost. What loss did each sustain? And having been assured for $500? Now, there's a couple in this room that might can do it, but I'm going to point out this was for sixth and seventh graders. This is mental math, right? This is not for the smart kids, this was for all kids. Let's go give you one more example. If six men can do a piece of work in five days, what type can they do it If they receive the assistance of three additional men when the work is half completed? Again, this is standard education. Why does this matter? Because when we talk about instilling high expectations, you need to understand what we were accomplishing with eight, nine, 10, 11 year olds, because school back then only at eight levels. You generally finished between 11 and 13 years old and then at that time, when you finished, you either went and found an apprenticeship, you found a job or you went to university.

Rick Green: 13:29
Hi, folks, got an interruption for one quick break today. Stay with us. You're listening to the WallBuilders Show.

Tim Barton: 13:40
Hey, this is Tim Barton, with WallBuilders, and, as you've had the opportunity to listen to WallBuilders Live, you've probably heard the wealth of information about our nation, about our spiritual heritage, about the religious liberties, about all the things that makes America exceptional, and you might be thinking, as incredible as this information is, I wish there was a way that I could get one of the WallBuilders guys to come to my area and share with my group whether it be a church, whether it be a Christian school or public school or some political event or activity. If you're interested in having a WallBuilders speaker come to your area. You can get on our website at www.WallBuilders.com and there's a tab for scheduling and if you'll click on that tab, you'll notice there's a list of information from speakers bios to events that are already going on, and there's a section where you can request an event to bring this information about who we are, where we came from, our religious liberties and freedoms. Go to the WallBuilders's website and bring a speaker to your area music playing in the background.

Rick Green: 14:43
Welcome back to the WallBuilders show. We are right now in the middle of a presentation from Tim Barton, speaking at the ProFamily Legislators' Conference. We'll jump right back in with Tim.

Tim Barton: 14:52
Most kids that went to university was between 13 and 16 years old is when they started university. This was early expectations. This was early expectations. This was early expectations. This was early expectations. This was early expectations. Right, like that's crazy. And then they went further and said the fear of hell. And also, when it talks about Jesus, they said Jesus and hell are things that kids should not be subject to, they say because there might be some kids in school that don't believe in Jesus. So then when they were, and again like the whole gospels are about Jesus, they didn't say the gospels, they said revelation. They said if they read about Jesus in Revelation or about hell, they might be terrified of hell. This is what the Supreme Court said is the reason we can't have the Bible in schools anymore, so that we saw religion, morality and knowledge of being removal. What about thinking skills? We saw this in the early 1900s when progressives took over, as progressives took over in early education and I have some documents up here that actually can highlight this pretty interesting stuff. But as they took over in education, of course we know some names like Ihrsal Parker, ward, kilpatrick, most famous probably being John Dewey, but as they took over a couple of significant things they did. They said we're going to change our pedagogy. There's a reason for this. When Rockefeller, early 1900s, he starts a Rockefeller Foundation, they started an educational foundation and Rockefeller. This was part of the second industrial revolution, and this is when you have assembly lines like the Model T, all the stuff's going on, but the Rockefeller Foundation came out and explained this is from Rockefeller, that we want to produce better workers for our factories, not better thinkers. Right, because if you're an assembly liar and somebody's like, hey, I think we, no, no, don't tell me what you think, just screw that on the end of this. Right, because that's all you cared about. They wanted to produce people that would take orders in factories, and so what they did is they changed the pedagogy of education, and this is very well documented, by the way. They changed the pedagogy from thinking to learning. That we want you to be able to take what we're telling you and repeat what we tell you, do what you're told. This was the idea behind it. And so, where the student used to be the most important, well, now it's not really the student, it's a teacher. And how do we mean this? Because the teacher's the one that says hey, everybody pay attention, write this down, it's going to be on your test. Well, what are we writing down? For the very first time in American history, we introduced things like fill in the blank and true thoughts and multiple choice. Why? Because this has nothing to do with your thinking abilities. It has to do with how well can you regurgitate what you were told. Right? The teacher said this. True or false? The teacher told you, is which one of these options? Pick the one? The teacher told you. This is what happened in education and because of it, what is it produced? Well, certainly we don't have students that are thinkers anymore, right? What is produced is we have the most gullible generation that society's ever seen, and right in this, like the indoctrination we've seen. I know I cannot have been the only one that was boggled by the fact that when COVID happens and we're told, hey, y'all don't need masks, only medical professionals do, because masks they won't help you, and then two weeks later, everybody put on a mask, right, and probably one's not good, like I mean, really, do you remember, like, how dumb this was. Anybody could think, and as someone who, like I, think a little bit, but I thought enough that I knew when I put on. And I live in the country when I put on this mask and I can still smell the cows in the fields. I don't know what you think this mask going to do, but it's probably not as effective as you think it is If I'm still smelling, right, the cow poo all over that. This is crazy. We were told hey, if you get the vaccine, we're just totally safe, even though there's been no long-term studies and effects. Totally safe. If you get the vaccine, you can't get COVID right. Two weeks later. I mean, okay, you can't get COVID, but you won't die right A month later, okay, well, you might die, but you're less likely to. And now with the steady show, right, the highest death rates from COVID, not just those who had right the precomorbidities, but actually those who got the shots right, like it was crazy. And yet we still live in a society where Biden was like, hey, get ready, right. Fauci was like, get ready, this winter there's going to be a second round. And of course the American people are now like we're never doing that again. That's stupid, right? We're not going that direction. And yet there are still people we see them. They're by themselves in their car wearing a mask. What are you doing right now on some level. Here's the deal. We should have some compassion like how sad is their life right they're walking at. How much fear like this is risk-relief sad? It's because they're from an indoctrination camp that they were told you do whatever you're told and right there, like even the notion of cancel the other side this is where that comes from. Let me give you a last thought with this, this notion of high expectations. Certainly the standards of expectation today have changed, but let me show you what's happened in schools. We used to be number one in the world in literacy. We dropped a couple of decades ago all the way down to number 65 of the nations in illiteracy. We currently reside in the 20s and 30s, depending on where the given year is. If you back up World War II era, we were number one in the world when the progressives got full hold of education. We pulmoned it downhill. We've become dumber and dumber and dumber in succeeding generations and different decades. Let me give you another example of how bad this is. The Department of Education identified that currently we graduate about 19% of graduating seniors who are functionally illiterate cannot read or write 19% of kids. This is the Department of Education identified. This First came out. The staff came out first under President Obama, confirmed under Trump and confirmed again under Biden. We have a failing system. So when people say high expectations compared to what? Because we now have kids that are 18, that can't read and write, this is not going well. This is a failure of a system when it looks at international testing. It used to be and this is still the way it is, but it used to be. We were number one in the world in every category. Well, still, in elementary we still are above average compared to the rest of the world. But in junior high, our students perform average and in high school, our students perform below average. This is called the American School Board Journal. They did a study over this and when they released their report. Part of what they said in their report was the longer US students stay in school, the less they seem to know. They called it a phenomenon known as negative learning. Okay, now again, this is a problem for lots and lots and lots of reasons. But this is where, if you look at the foundation, where do we start? With Religion, morality, knowledge. You give kids the right moral foundation, teach them right and wrong. You challenge them to use the brain God gave them. And every student is different. They have different gifts, talents and abilities, because God made us all different. God made us on purpose, for a reason. God made us to solve problems that needed to be solved. And we're not all here to solve the same problems. Some people are engineers, some people are doctors, some people are counselors. God made us different. So instead of saying let's make everybody the same, how about we say let's use our brains, let's learn to use the brain God gave you. And how does God want to use you? And then let's have high expectations for what God might do with you and through you and how God might use you to change the world. But notice the foundation that starts with the reason. This matters as we look at education. I'm going to point out two verses as we finish. John 14.6,. Jesus said I'm the way to treat in life. No man comes with father except through me. He said he's truth. We have never seen truth more in our attack in culture or education than right now. Why does it matter? Because if kids don't know truth right, they will have no foundation to stand on. Jesus talked about there's two foundations the rock or the sand, right, but notice, I would say even more significantly why does truth matter? Jesus told the disciples you shall know the truth and the truth will set you free. We have a rising generation that is the most depressed, the most suicidal. I mean we're at the stats from George Barna, like all these issues. Right, because when you don't tell kids the truth, when you remove the truth and hide the truth from them, they're not able to have the freedom that God wants them to have. They don't have the vision right, they don't have the hope and the really kind of opportunistic ideas of what's in front of them. I want to challenge and encourage you as you look at education. This is one of the reasons that we actually support a robust choice program because we recognize the brokenness of a system and if there's an opportunity for kids to find truth somewhere, where kids to find truth somewhere, there's a reason that homeschooling is the fastest growing movement in America right Now. I'm not trying to knock any state. I'm not trying to knock anybody who's doing good things. I know I have family member that are involved in the public education system. There are really really good people there. But don't misunderstand as we are saying, there are really really good people in that system understand. That's a little bit like arguing the ban on the Titanic was really good, that ship still ain't going the right direction, right? That ship is still not working. I am not saying this because I'm trying to cancel any kind of educational thing in your state. I want you to be aware what the problems are and, as you try to solve the problems in education in your state, know what we're dealing with, right. Know that the pedagogy has changed. Know what it used to be. Know where we are now, so that we have a clearer vision of what we can do to fix it.

Rick Green: 25:53
Alright folks, out of time for today. Thanks so much for listening. That was Tim Barton speaking at the ProFamily Legislators Conference. Normally it's Tim, David and myself. I'm Rick Green, America's Constitution Coach, and we're usually live with you talking about whatever the hot topics of the day are. But we've got these great presentations from the ProFamily Legislators Conference that we just want to make sure that you are educated and equipped and inspired by them as well. So we're going to bring several more of them to you here at the end of the year and then maybe a little bit after the first of the year and give you the chance to have that what I believe is really the answers to turning the culture around. I mean, if we get back to biblical and civic truth, then we can restore this nation, and that's all we talk about at the ProFamily Legislators Conference. What are those biblical applications? In every area, every issue, and we're going to bring them to you here on the WallBuilders Show. Thanks so much for listening. You've been listening to the WallBuilders Show.