Worldview Conflicts in Education: Origins of Unbelief in America?
By Robert Acuff|Published Date: July 05, 2010
“It is within the memory of some of us when professors and tutors were taken, almost as a matter of course, from among the clergymen and students in divinity; now, as a general rule, a professor is as much a layman as a lawyer or a physician is.” – Rev. James Walker, president of Harvard College, 1855
With short memories of institutional founding, most Americans don’t realize that the establishment of education and higher education in particular in this country had its genesis in the church. As case in point, only a mere 15 years after landing in the new world, the Pilgrims established Harvard College in 1636 as part of the civil government, but one could easily support the fact that there was little difference in the sacred and secular lives of the Puritans. Other notable institutions began to obtain charters and open their doors to students; William and Mary, 1693; Yale, 1702; Princeton, 1746; Brown, 1764 (to name but a few). All were either founded by clergymen or religious institutions, for training clergy. Suffice it to say, the American university system was built on a foundation of Evangelical Protestant Colleges with most of the major universities evolving from these beginnings with clergymen as president even into the late 1870’s.
As noted above, the Reverend James Walker was laminating the beginning decline of the practice of choosing leadership of colleges and classrooms by clergy as early as 1855 – Walker was the last clergyman to be president of Harvard College. By the 1920’s even evangelical Protestantism had been effectively excluded from leading university classrooms. The ideals for which the Protestant establishment stood included freedom, democracy, benevolence, justice, reform, brotherhood, inclusiveness and service; certainly all parents it would seem, should aspire these qualities and characteristics be embraced and reinforced in the education of their children. What can we declare about the current state of education in America? Does it truly embrace the ideals that were so prominent in early Protestantism? Or has it declined to the point that its mission is compromised? If so, does this jeopardize the very faith and principles of the Founders? Could it be that the ideal espoused by Henry Tappen, president of pre-Civil War University of Michigan has been embraced– “Great universities are made up of scholars and books”?
The Forum welcomes Dr. Marvin Olasky, Editor in Chief, World Magazine and Provost of The King’s College (www.tkc.edu) in New York City to explore the status of education in the United States with particular focus on higher education. Over subsequent weeks, we will be learning from members of The King College’s Faculty, their observation of conflicts in worldviews in specific disciplines.
Join the discussion on Monday, July 5, at 8 pm EDT.
