So many folks – Christians included – have gone through a modern education system that makes little or no demands on them. It does not teach them how to think nor how to critically analyse and assess things. As standards keep on being lowered, our schools keep on turning out uneducated and increasingly dumber students. Many cannot even read and write!

So many indications of Western decline:

For decades now experts and non-experts alike have bemoaned the fact that in the West educational standards and outcomes are plummeting, and there are also corresponding declines in basic behaviours, such as hard work, personal responsibility, accountability and striving for excellence.

We are getting more and more dumbed down, irresponsible, and just plain lazy. As to falling educational standards, and disillusionment with it, let me mention two recent articles. A 2004 piece says this:

In recent years, many of America’s public institutions have suffered a loss of credibility. However, according to recent surveys, perhaps no institution has suffered a steeper decline in confidence than our public education system.

In 2023, Gallup found that nearly two-thirds of Americans (63%) were dissatisfied with our public schools. In fact, parents have been withdrawing from public schools with mounting concerns over academics, safety, and woke indoctrination. In 2012, almost 91% of all K-12 students were enrolled in public schools. One decade later, that number had fallen to 87% — a loss of nearly two million students. In its forecast for 2031, the National Center for Education Statistics expects the loss of another 2.9 million students in public schools.

Meanwhile, enrollment in private schools and charter schools is swelling. View full article here.

And an Australian piece penned late in 2023 said the following:

Late last night, the OECD released its 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) scores. PISA measures 15-year-olds’ ability to use reading, mathematics, and science knowledge and skills to meet real life challenges. The latest PISA data on Australian students shows:

-Scores in mathematics declined from 524 points in 2000 to 487 points in 2022, equivalent to students being approximately 16 months in learning behind where they were in 2000.

-Scores in reading declined from 528 points in 2000 to 498 points in 2022, equivalent to students being over a year behind in learning where they were in 2000.

-Scores in science declined from 527 points in 2006 to 507 points in 2022, equivalent to students being ten months behind where they were since Australia first participated in that test in 2006. View full article here.

So much more evidence can be presented here. But as others have said – some many years ago now – we are in big trouble. Three quotes will suffice:

“Public education has not produced an educated public.” G. K. Chesterton

“In 100 years, we have gone from teaching Latin and Greek in high school to teaching remedial English in college.” Joseph Sobran

“The problem isn’t that Johnny can’t read. The problem isn’t even that Johnny can’t think. The problem is that Johnny doesn’t know what thinking is; he confuses it with feeling.” Thomas Sowell

And that is something Christians need to be concerned about as well. Let me share a few stories here. When I was a lecturer years ago the bane of my existence was to mark undergraduate papers and assignments. If things were not so great back then, I cringe to think how much worse they are today.

This general dumbing down impacts everything. We keep lowering standards for things like admission to universities or getting a job. Instead of trying to reverse these bad trends, too many are just going with the flow. This cannot end well.

A social media friend, academic and author – Douglas Groothuis – recently posted this online: “Another publisher wants me to really simplify a book manuscript–add stories, shorten paragraphs, simplify sentences. This never used to happen to me and it’s not easy to accommodate.”

I posted this comment in response:

Sadly, most Christians in the West are being dumbed down like everyone else. People often ask me what this or that means, or what a word means, etc. I usually will explain it, but I would rather say: ‘Educate yourself, buy a dictionary, look it up, and so on.’ Too many believers are unable or unwilling to educate themselves. They want to be spoon-fed. Reminds me of what we read in Hebrews 5:12: “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food.”

Excellence in every area should be the aim of all Christians. The greatest commandment we have says that we should love God with our minds, along with the rest of our being. How many believers break that commandment of Jesus every single day?

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