It just talks about perception of what the Protestants were doing.
I still haven’t seen any evidence of some sort of conspiracy to *de-Catholicize Catholics*.
I found this statement in there.....”Following the program laid out by Horace Mann in the 1840’s, public education would inculcate a nondenominational Protestant morality through Bible reading, hymn singing and the use of the McGuffey readers.”
So what’s the problem with Bible reading and hymns? The Catholic church claims to have WRITTEN the Bible. Why should having Bible reading in schools be a problem?
That was over a century ago and there’s simply no point in dredging up unsubstantiated accusations. It does nothing but stir the pot and that we DON’T need.
My point still stands. There’s just not enough documentation or evidence to support the contention that there was a deliberate push to *de-Catholicize Catholics* and if I keep seeing that unsubstantiated accusation being made on FR, I’m hitting the abuse button.
I’m not going to see these homeschool threads turn into Catholic/Protestant flame wars.
No problem with the Bible, per se, but there are differences between Protestant versions of the Bible and Catholic ones.
There are also differences between what parts to emphasize. This is also true of hymns which may reinforce Protestant dogma over Catholic dogma.
If we can all agree that the public school system is, and will always remain, bankrupt then there is no need for a flame war.
If any of us, however, believes that the public school system can somehow be saved, then it is important to know how it came to be where it is today in order to know what needs to be done to fix it.
The lesson we should all learn from the history of public education in America is that no one religion/philosophy/ideology can be trusted to dictate what is taught in public schools.
Either public schools need to be completely abolished, or they need to be returned completely back to their separate localities so that, as George Bush I once said, a thousand points of light can shine for our under-educated children.
The Blaine amendments were aimed squarely at Catholics and Catholic schools. Pierce vs. Society Sisters was aimed at eliminating Catholic schools. Thankfully for homeschoolers the state lost that fight.
http://www.blaineamendments.org/Intro/whatis.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierce_v._Society_of_Sisters
But...Government schools hurt ***Protestants*** as well as Catholics.
I am now a Protestant. I see “non-denominational” and read this as “watered-down” Protestantism....watered down so as to offend the fewest number of Protestants.
Right there with this “non-denominational” Protestantism, the Utopian progressives set the course for continually more and more secularism.
By the 1963, when I attended government high school for 11th and 12th grade, the curriculum in our school was entirely secular ( godless) in its worldview with 2 minutes of scripture study and the Lord's Prayer in the morning and a few Christmas carols at Christmans. Those few minutes of religiosity was like putting a band-aid on a pumping secular hemorrhage.
Today, Western Civilization is to survive Islam then our children **MUST** be thoroughly educated in their Christian or Jewish denomination. They must be strong in the faith of their fathers. That can only be fully accomplished in homeschool or in a church school of their denomination.
By the way, there is a very very very big difference between my education in government school and my Catholic education. Let me give you a few examples:
**Every hour we prayed for God's blessing on the next hour and the next section of studies.
**When we heard a fire engine or ambulance, all work was immediately stopped and we said a Hail Mary and Lord's Prayer ( Catholic version) for the people who needed help and for the safety of the police and firemen.
**We had a half hour of religious studies ( catechism) every morning.
**We studied the lives of the saints.
**Saying the rosary was regularly scheduled.
**In all of our courses,( even math and science) it was emphasized that all knowledge was a reflection of God's glory.
**The sayings and teaching of Catholic philosophers and religious leaders were woven throughout every subject.
** We learned enough Latin in elementary schools to understand the Mass, and learned to use the missal.
**We had important feast days off from school.
During lent we went to the “Station's of the Cross” on Friday afternoons.
**We were encouraged to go to daily mass before school.
**We practiced for May processions.
** The girls would blue uniforms with a light blue ribbon tie to honor Mary.
**The nun's patron saint day was a very important day, and so was the patron saint of the school.
**In high school an entire week was set aside for a religious “retreat” with prayer, Mass, and religious talks from leading religious leaders in the community.
** The girls had to have sleeves in their prom dresses, and our uniforms were mid-knee or lower.
Can you see the difference? I would expect that a truly Protestant education in a Christian school would have many of the same characteristics, except that the principles of their Protestant denomination would **thoroughly** integrated throughout the curriculum and entire day.
Not only would Catholic children suffer from attending government schools (that why John Neumann started the Catholic school system) but Protestant children did too. To accommodate the various sects of Protestantism a lot that was unique to a child's religious denomination had to be scrubbed if it was to be accepted by the various Protestant denominations.
With each passing decade the Utopian progressives pushed the government school to more and more secularism until now we have purely godless ( and Marxist) worldview taught in government schools.
May God save our nation and its children.
Are there any of us who would or would not homeschool if these allegations turn out to be true? It wouldn't make a difference in our household.
Government schooling is bankrupt - morally, socially and educationally. It brings about the exact opposite of its intended goal.
I like John Taylor Gatto's The Makers of Modern Schooling
But, I don't know that his history is absolutely true. It makes sense given the outcome - government indoctrinated media slaves who cannot think for themselves. But, the exact reason for government schooling can still be lost to history and the results of government bureaucratic instruction would still be the same.
Metmom has a valid point. This list is to support homeschooling and expose the lie of government schooling as effective. It does just that. Hijacking it serves what purpose?