Watchman on the Wall

Narrator: Welcome to Watchman on the Wall, a daily outreach of Southwest Radio Ministries and swrc.com. God is still on the throne and prayer changes things. On today's program, Vaughn Shatzer joins us to explore the fascinating history of American education.

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How did America go from schools that taught biblical principles and classical learning to the education system we know today? On today's program, Vaughn Shatzer joins us to explore the fascinating history of American education, tracing its roots, its transformation, and the ideas that have shaped generations of students. It's an eye-opening look at where we've been and what it means for the future. Here's our host, Dr. Larry Spargimino.

Dr. Larry Spargimino: When I think of the effects of our educational system on voting, on what's happening on the streets, the crime, the craziness—wow. You need to hear this program, and Vaughn has written an excellent book that is very helpful. Its full title is *History of American Education from Harvard Scholars to Worker Bees of a New World Order*.

This is a very helpful book. It covers 400 years of American educational history. It's something that you will really want to have. When you wonder why your kids are acting strangely, this will tell you, and it will also tell you what you can do to improve the situation. Vaughn, it's a great, great privilege to have you back on the program.

Vaughn Shatzer: Well, thank you, brother Larry. It's always an honor to be with you and your listeners and to share about America's godly heritage and our godly government with the original government, the Republic. I think we will have a great time together today on this wonderful interview.

Dr. Larry Spargimino: Yes, one of the pivotal factors in America's tragic decline is the destruction of our educational system by leftist, socialist, communist, and everything else that is destructive to our great nation. We're seeing it right now. But Vaughn, as we start, what was America's first system of education?

Vaughn Shatzer: That's an excellent question, brother Larry. We need to go back to the godly pilgrims and puritans who used the biblical education system of Psalm 78 and Deuteronomy chapter 6. They called this biblical education system homeschooling.

If we read Psalm 78:4, we see the fathers were commanded to declare unto their children three things. First, they were to declare to their children how to praise the Lord and be thankful. Number two, how strong and powerful the Lord is. They need to look at his attributes. Then third, the fathers were commanded to tell all the wondrous miraculous stories, starting with the six days of creation, Adam and Eve, Abraham, clear down to the New Testament with Joseph, Mary, and the birth of the Messiah Jesus Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection, the gift of eternal life, clear down through to the second coming of Jesus. So that was America's first system of education—homeschooling.

Dr. Larry Spargimino: Well, Vaughn, that's amazing. We became a great country because of things like that. Of course, now we are in a serious situation of decline. It's really tragic. So what was the name of America's first school?

Vaughn Shatzer: The name of America's first school was Harvard. It was founded in 1636. The Reverend John Harvard, a godly puritan, donated the property and his library for Harvard. It's amazing—the official motto for Harvard was "for Christ and the church."

Dr. Larry Spargimino: Vaughn, you're telling us things that it's really hard to believe, but I know it's a fact. When you get young people and you teach them the Word of God, you teach them godliness and the fact that they are sinners whom Jesus Christ died for, it changes everything. One of the great tragedies of America is our educational system. So just like colleges and universities today, Harvard had certain requirements. What were those requirements?

Vaughn Shatzer: I'm going to read you from one of the documents from Harvard. Listen to this: "Let every scholar be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well the main end of his life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life (John 17:3). Therefore, to lay Christ in the bottom as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning, everyone shall so exercise himself in reading the scriptures twice a day that he shall be ready to give such an account of his proficiency therein." Brother Larry, it's evident Harvard's main purpose and requirement was for each student to know God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Scriptures.

Dr. Larry Spargimino: That is so beautiful, so wonderful. Well, what was the first compulsory school law in America?

Vaughn Shatzer: Interesting question. I hope your listeners have a spiritual seatbelt on for this. It was called the "Old Deluder Satan Act." That's correct, the "Old Deluder Satan Act." It was drafted in 1647. I'm going to read you this law.

Here it is: "It being one chief project of that old deluder Satan to keep men from the knowledge of the scripture, as in former times." These early American settlers still remembered the times in England when they were persecuted and kept from the knowledge of the scriptures. To make sure this would never, ever happen in America, they passed the "Old Deluder Satan Act."

What's interesting is this act would be used in one form or another for over 316 years in our American schools until 1963. Sadly, this is when the Supreme Court handed down a ruling in the case of *Abington v. Schempp* that traditional Bible reading, reciting the Lord's Prayer, and using the Bible as a school textbook were removed with a swipe of a pen.

Let me share this with you yet, brother Larry and your listeners. Why did the Supreme Court make this decision? Here's one of their answers. One of the so-called expert testimonies and witnesses stated, "If portions of the New Testament were read without explanation, it could cause psychological harm to the student or it could cause brain damage." Can you believe that?

Dr. Larry Spargimino: In other words, they were woke back then. Back in 1963, they were already turning woke. That is so tragic just to hear you speak about that. During the War of Independence, there was a shortage of Bibles for the American schools. How was that problem solved?

Vaughn Shatzer: We can go into the congressional records for this to document what I'm going to tell you. This is amazing. On September 12, 1782, our first Continental Congress granted approval to print 10,000 copies of a neat edition of the Holy Scripture for use in the schools. I actually have a copy of both of those; they're in two volumes. That's correct, Congress had Bibles printed for our American schools. The printing was contracted to Robert Aitken of Philadelphia, and this edition was known as the "Bible of the Revolution." These Bibles were then used in schools and by the people of the United States. Once again, we can see God's Word was at the center of our government and our educational system.

Dr. Larry Spargimino: That's so amazing. Of course, I'm not surprised when you have the Word of God at the center of our educational system, our laws, our people. There was virtually very little crime. Today, you have to have an alarm system, you have a dog, you have cameras and security things. How many locks can we have on our doors? We need to realize what's going on.

But you know what, Vaughn? I believe that the proponents of the New World Order who want to destroy America—they're behind all of this. They love nothing better than to see our country go down and down and down, and we have to surrender to the globalists. One thing the globalist doesn't want is guns. You can't have any guns. Vaughn, when all of this was going on back in the 16th and 17th century, did they have any guns?

Vaughn Shatzer: Yes, they absolutely did. They were loaded with guns.

Dr. Larry Spargimino: Isn't it interesting? Guns don't kill people; people kill people. You can kill people with a knife, with an automobile, with a truck, with lighter fluid. What's wrong with us? This is it—we've departed from the Word of God. Blessed God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—he's given us the word. He's been so good to us. He's blessed our country.

Now everybody's saying, "Well, we don't want God; God's old-fashioned; God doesn't help." I've often said that if you learn and imbibe biblical principles, it affects every area of society: health, agriculture, business, the church. The Bible is like the burning bush—it keeps on burning, it keeps on shining light, it keeps on giving glory. Now we've cast it away. Shame on us. We are ripe for judgment. But fortunately, I see a lot of good people rising up and saying, "Now hold on," and I'm praying for the rise of the godly.

Friends, Vaughn Shatzer is our guest, and we're offering his book *The History of American Education*. We have several other things that we're offering: *The Blue-Backed Speller* and *The New England Primer* all combined into one volume. We also have *Webster's 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language* and *Blackstone's Commentary on the Law*. 1-800-652-1144.

Friends, this will equip you, will help you to speak to school boards, to help you to speak to your teachers and principals and supervisors and say, "Look what's going on here. Do you realize how great we were because we knew stuff like this?" So I want to tell everybody, this is the kind of material you need: 1-800-652-1144. Now let's get back to this interview. Let's talk about George Washington. He had two very important educational philosophies. What were they, Vaughn?

Vaughn Shatzer: Well, the first one is really amazing. You can find this in the writings of George Washington. It was written into his writings on May 12, 1779. The Delaware Indian chiefs had brought three of their youth to be educated in the American schools, and they met on the banks of the Delaware River right across from Philadelphia. George Washington gave the following speech: "Congress will open the arms of love to them (the Delaware Indians) and will look upon them as their own children and will have them educated accordingly. You do well to wish to learn our arts and ways of life, and above all, the religion of Jesus Christ."

Let me restate that. George Washington: "Above all, the religion of Jesus Christ. These will make you a greater and happier people than you are. Congress will do everything they can to assist you in this wise intention." Brother Larry, George Washington made it crystal clear that above all, the American schools would teach the Indian youth the religion of Jesus Christ.

Dr. Larry Spargimino: That's so wonderful. I think of all the false teachings that are going on now about America's godly heritage, trying to wipe it out and all the good people. We think are good people; they think are bad people. They even don't like Abraham Lincoln and some of the black leaders in our early history. One of the things, Vaughn, that I've noticed is that we've gone in the wrong direction, but our hearts have become very hard.

We want to chip everybody. There's this whole idea that people are bad and we have to control them. Can you imagine what would happen in America if what's going on in China now, where they have all of the cameras, all of the chips, everybody's watched, everybody's followed—it is absolutely shocking. But if that happens here, guess what? We're getting what we deserve. God has warned us, God has taught us, God has given us his word. We have so many good churches and we've turned our back on those things. We're going to talk about that—we're going to talk about revival in a little bit.

I know the Bible was the most important school textbook in America, but there was another very important school textbook. What was the name of that textbook?

Vaughn Shatzer: It was Noah Webster and his *Blue-Backed Speller*. It was authored in 1783 and used as a national standard until 1930. That's almost one and a half centuries, and it sold a million copies a year for 100 years. That's 100 million copies, brother Larry.

Let me give you some of the information that's in Noah Webster's *Blue-Backed Speller*. It started with one-syllable words and put them in a sentence, and then it went up to seven syllables. The first word I want to share with you is "preach." Then there's a sentence—this is how the little boys and girls learned to read and write and spell: "The preacher is to preach the gospel."

The next one is "loaf": "The man who drinks rum will soon want a loaf of bread." Here's some words with two syllables, spelling words: "create." "God created the heavens and the earth in six days." "Disgraced": "The drunkard's face will publish his vice and his disgrace." And then "consent": "If sinners entice thee, consent thou not."

Now I'm going to jump down to some really large spelling words that were used in Noah Webster's *Blue-Backed Speller*. Listen to these; hopefully, I can pronounce them all: loquacious, sagacious, mucilaginous, legerdemain, duodecimo, imperceptibility, perpendicularity, and incomprehensibility. What do you think, brother Larry? First-grade *Blue-Backed Speller* test for one and a half centuries.

Dr. Larry Spargimino: That's absolutely amazing. In fact, I know some of the early catechisms—they speak about the offices of Christ: prophet, priest, and king; the authority of the Bible; the new life, regeneration. They were not afraid of the good King James theological terms like justification and propitiation. We have those terms today, even a lot of seminaries—"Propitiation? I never heard of that. What's that?" The little kids knew about it.

Well, Vaughn, this is so amazing. I know some homeschoolers, and I find a lot of moms and dads out there who are really, really concerned about our educational system and about our own country. The fact that, for example, we have a president who pushes transgenderism and all the other weird stuff—I think if we could bring some of these old-timey Americans alive, they would wonder if the devil's gotten hold of America, and I think that's exactly right—the devil has gotten hold of America.

Vaughn Shatzer: So, you know, it's sad. Some seniors were asked in Texas that had just graduated what nation bordered Texas on the south, and none of them could even name the nation Mexico. None of them. And we could go on and on with questions like this. But the title of my book, *From Harvard Scholars to Worker Bees of a New World Order*—we are dumbing down our future generation. They have no idea of the Bible and Christian education and Bible prophecy that the Lord is soon returning with all the prophecies and signs that are being fulfilled, and we are ready to slide off the edge.

If you read Deuteronomy 28, when Israel went away from the Lord, you know how he chastened them. First, he used all kind of weather conditions to try to get them—earthquakes and what have you. But finally, they allowed the heathen, someone from a foreign nation, to come and control them. I'm concerned if God tarries, is that the next event for another foreign nation to take us over, brother Larry? I hope not, but the handwriting's on the wall if we don't repent and have revival. Amen and amen to that.

Dr. Larry Spargimino: Well, friends, we are out of time for the show. Vaughn, we're looking forward to having you back for another show on this most important topic. Friends, be sure to tune in. Vaughn's going to be sharing with us some other material that is just shocking and just as wonderful as what we've been talking about.

Narrator: Friends, if you're concerned about the direction of education in America and want to understand how we arrived at this point, I encourage you to get *The History of American Education Collection* featuring Vaughn Shatzer. This valuable collection includes the *History of American Education* book and DVD, where Vaughn traces the major people, ideas, and philosophical changes that reshaped America's schools.

You'll also receive the book *Webster's Blue-Backed Speller* and *The New England Primer*, highlighting two historic resources that helped educate generations of early Americans, along with a convenient pocket copy of the United States Constitution. Together, these four items provide a revealing look at America's educational heritage, its biblical foundations, and the principles that once shaped both the classroom and the nation.

Whether you're a parent, grandparent, teacher, homeschooler, or simply concerned about America's future, this collection is an eye-opening and important resource. Order *The History of American Education Collection* today. Call 1-800-652-1144 or visit swrc.com. That's 1-800-652-1144. As we continue to celebrate the 250th anniversary of our nation, we've asked author and teacher Micah Van Huss to share some of his thoughts on this momentous occasion.

Micah Van Huss: In Fallujah, an Iraqi woman said something that I've never forgotten: "Amreeka Zain. America is good." She was a grieving mother whose son had been a police officer in Baghdad. Al Qaeda terrorists had tortured him to death. And one day while we were in the northeast section of Fallujah, we got into a heavy firefight from her house. I looked at her and I said, "Ana asif. I'm sorry." I was sorry this was happening at her home. She looked back at me and said, "La, Ali Baba," while drawing her finger across her throat. Then she said, "Amreeka Zain." Her meaning was clear: No, the insurgents were bad. Kill them. Americans are good.

That moment humbled me, and it still does, because she wasn't making a political argument. She was a mother who had seen evil up close, and she knew the difference between those who had come to terrorize her people and those who had come to stand against them. As we celebrate 250 years of independence, I think about that woman. I think about what she saw when she looked at American Marines, and I thought about what America is supposed to be. Not perfect—no nation made up of fallen men will ever be perfect—but different. Blessed. Set apart for a purpose.

Ronald Reagan often spoke of America as a shining city on a hill. That image has endured because it speaks to something deeper than national pride. It speaks to responsibility. America didn't become great by accident; we became great because men and women believed liberty was a gift from God, not government. Not kings—God. They believed government existed to secure rights, not grant them. They believed man was fallen, so government had to be limited. They believed a free people could not remain free if they forgot the source of their freedom.

And that's the question before us at 250 years—not merely whether America will remain wealthy or powerful; the question is whether we'll remain faithful. Scripture teaches that the nations are not spiritually neutral. Behind the kingdoms of this world are principalities and powers, rulers of darkness, spiritual forces that seek to pull nations away from Almighty God. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, scripture says. America is one of the nations that has known the blessing of serving him. Our laws, principles, and belief in human dignity were shaped by that truth. We haven't always lived up to those principles, but the answer to our failures was never to abandon the standard. The answer was to repent and live more faithfully according to the truths we claimed to believe.

That's why this anniversary matters. It's a time for remembrance. It's a time to ask who we are, where we came from, and what we intend to hand to our children. I've worn the uniform of this country. I served as a United States Marine in Fallujah and Al-Asad. As the Arabic speaker on my team, I had more time than most to communicate with Iraqi families. I asked them often if they were glad that Americans were there. And with the exception of one house that had insurgents inside, they told us again and again that they loved Americans. They were hospitable to us. They cooked for us. Now that may surprise people who only remember the Iraq War through headlines, but I remember the faces of the families. And I remember a woman saying, "Amreeka Zain. America is good."

Later I served in elected office in the Tennessee House of Representatives, but I've never viewed that office as my personal accomplishment. I believe God directed my steps through the people of Washington County, Tennessee, who sent me to represent them. Citizens are not servants of the government. I still believe America can remain that shining city on a hill, not because our government is beyond corruption, but because God is merciful and because there are still millions of Americans who love him, love their families, love their country, and are willing to stand in the gap.

That Iraqi woman in Fallujah understood something many Americans have forgotten. She had seen evil up close. She knew what terrorism looked like. She knew what it meant when lawless men rule by fear. And when she looked at American Marines, she didn't see oppressors. She saw men standing against those who had murdered her son. Amreeka Zain. America is good. As we celebrate 250 years of independence, let's thank God for his mercy on this nation. Let's honor those who sacrificed to preserve it. Let's confess that our blessings came from his hand, not our own greatness. And let's determine for ourselves and our posterity that America will not quietly surrender her soul to the gods of this age. Until the King comes, the world still needs a shining city on a hill.

Narrator: Are you concerned about the direction of education in America? *The History of American Education Collection* featuring Vaughn Shatzer helps explain how we got here. This four-item collection includes the *History of American Education* book and DVD, *Webster's Blue-Backed Speller* with the *New England Primer*, and a pocket copy of the U.S. Constitution.

Discover America's educational roots, its biblical foundations, and the ideas that transformed our schools. Order yours today at swrc.com or simply call 1-800-652-1144. That's 1-800-652-1144. Tomorrow, Vaughn Shatzer will continue sharing the fascinating and instructive history of education in America. Be sure to tune in by downloading our free SWRC mobile app or by subscribing to our daily Watchman on the Wall podcast. Watchman on the Wall is a production of Southwest Radio Ministries and is supported by faithful friends like you. To learn more, visit swrc.com.