Evolution: Not Just Grandpa Monkey

Just one of the many problems with public education is not only that they TEACH evolution, but the very structure has its roots in evolutionary theory. (Sadly, we have adopted the same structure in our Christian schools, and even in church.)

The following, condensed article explains in further detail how age-segregation of classrooms is based on an evolutionary model:

Educating cavemen?

“While a public fight was going on over what would be taught in the public school science curriculum, evolution was being applied to the schools in a more subtle manner. In the late 1800s, Granville Stanley Hall was a prominent educator at Johns Hopkins University.47 He believed in evolution and was a leader in the developing field of psychology. In 1904, he published a book on adolescence, advocating a new theory of child development based on evolutionary recapitulation.48 This theory was soon to be applied to classrooms across America.
Hall’s recapitulation belief was that child development reflected evolutionary ancestry; certain ages, he argued, represented stages of evolutionary development. Infancy and early childhood corresponded to early “pre-civilized” mankind just grown out of its animal stage.49 Ages 6–7 were “crisis” years, where children could enter school and leave the “pre-civilized” state behind.50 Ages 8–12 corresponded to “the world of early pigmies.”51 Ages 13–18 were what he declared to be the stage of adolescence.52 This period, Hall claimed, was critical, as the child entered a “stormy” ancient civilization stage,53 and finally grew into full civilization.
Hall’s book was a major influence on the public schools as age segregation became more emphasized.54 Before Hall, the “stormy” period of adolescence was virtually unknown. John Quincy Adams, later to become US president, received a diplomatic appointment overseas for the federal government when he was only fourteen years old.55 For those who acquired a college education in the 1700s, thirteen-year-old freshmen were not uncommon.56 But Hall made little allowance for the fact that children mature differently. Now all six-year-olds, seven-year-olds and eight-year-olds get their own classes, learn to stick with their age group peers, and it is regarded as odd—if not suspicious—if a ten-year-old associates with a fifteen-year-old. Today it is often a terrible thing for a child to be ahead of his peers—public school children must fit into Hall’s evolutionary mold. (Perhaps this is why we don’t see children like John Quincy Adams anymore.)

Thus, the days of the one-room schoolhouse were numbered, and age segregation became more and more emphasized. Age segregation, it should be noted, is certainly foreign to “real life,” where one must interact with people of all ages. (Incidentally, even Benjamin Rush, one of the “fathers” of American public schools, stated that public schools should imitate conditions of a “private family.”59) So when creationists began fighting in the 1920s to keep evolution teaching itself out of the schools, the subtle application of evolution in the schools was already being made.

Conclusions

America’s public schools today are far from where they were originally. Evolutionary teaching and practice are everywhere—in the science curriculum, of course, but also in the philosophy of law taught in law schools today, and in the age segregation and emphasis on peer groupings that abound in schools.

The downhill trend in the schools is already far progressed. In fact, practically every moral measurement for schools is on a downhill trend. Interestingly, these statistics break significantly for the worse in the mid 1960s,60 correlating with two significant events. First, the BSCS61 textbooks were released, reemphasizing evolution as a unifying concept in science. Second, the Supreme Court removed prayer and Bible reading from the schools. Why should students be expected to behave well when they are taught that they are just animals, and the absolutes of the Scriptures are banished from the classroom?

We must understand that the implication of evolution is that man is the highest product of evolution, and therefore man takes the place of God in deciding what’s right and wrong. The implication of creation, on the other hand, is that God created everything, and He decides what’s right and wrong. It is obvious why we have a problem with morality from the products of public schools today—they are being taught that they can decide what’s right and wrong for themselves.

The fact is, America’s public school system today is a failing effort. Religion62 and morality—what George Washington considered to be the “essential pillars of society”63—are generally not to be found in the public schools. What is being taught is rather leading to irreligion and immorality.

It is my belief that, without a national miracle, America’s public schools are without hope. The courts, the curriculum, age segregation—all seem dead-set to keep evolution as the reigning philosophy of the classroom. Are we without hope? No. In this struggle for the future of America, parents must take the prominent role in their children’s education, and restore the foundations. Parents can teach origins to their children once again—and indeed, parent education has a much longer history than public education.”

http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs2005/0131education.asp

So you answer the question…”What is so bad about age-segregation?”

Related posts:

1. Segregation of the Family–Another Feminist Lie
2. Homeschooling Myth Busters–Academics Part 5
3. Homeschooling Myth Busters–Only One Way to Learn–Part 6
4. Homeschooling Myth Busters–Part 6
5. Christians and Public School