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Way back in the sixteenth century, the great reformer, Martin Luther said: “I am much afraid that schools will prove to be the great gates of hell unless they diligently labor in explaining the Holy Scriptures, engraving them in the hearts of youth. I advise no one to place his child where the Scriptures do not reign paramount. Every institution in which men are not unceasingly occupied with the Word of God must become corrupt.”
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Apparently, America’s founding father, George Washington would have agreed, for he said,
“The future of this nation depends upon the Christian training of the youth. It is impossible to govern without the Bible.”
In fact, for about the first one hundred years of America's existence, first graders learned to read from the New England Primer. The 1762 edition taught the ABCs this way:
A - In Adam’s fall, we sinned all
B - Heaven to find, the Bible mind
C - Christ crucify’d for sinners dy’d
The McGuffey Reader Series, which replaced the New England Primer had a similar Biblical emphasis. Henry Steele Commager, historian, wrote,
“What was the morality that permeated the McGuffey Readers? It was deeply religious, and....religion meant a Protestant Christianity....The world of the McGuffeys was a world where no one questioned the truths of the Bible or their relevance to everyday conduct....The Readers, therefore, are filled with stories from the Bible, and tributes to its truth and beauty.”
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