GIFTS: The Deliberate Dumbing-Down of America

It was pleasing to see the following, in a Latter-day Light Daily Devotion this week, from President Harold B. Lee:

"I came across a statement . . . from Thomas Jefferson, who said, 'If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, . . . it expects what never was and never will be.' And as I thought of that, I paraphrased it and applied it to [the Church].

"If the Church expects the family can be both ignorant and safe, it expects what never was and never will be. Therein I think is our great responsibility. . . .

"Those who apostatize from this church apostatized for one of two reasons---Either because they have sinned and lost the faith, or they're ignorant of the doctrines of the Church. I say, you think about what I have just said. If we, as the Church, expect the family can be ignorant and safe, we expect what never was and never will be."

President Lee died at Christmas over 38 years ago. If he were speaking today he may well add a third reason for apostasy from the Church: members who take offense so easily.

This last one has led us to enthrone tolerance and avoiding offense at all costs. We might say it has led us to the Mormon version of political correctness. As Joseph said, "They cannot stand the fire at all."

But President Lee's observation is well taken: there is an appalling ignorance across the grassroots of America. Interestingly, those who know something --- politically and spiritually and culturally and socially --- will tend to agree with this assessment. Those who cling to their ignorance out of some false modesty or "humility" --- for heaven's sake! --- will resist and resent and reject such an accusation, er I mean, assessment.

But it is clear to see. And it is traceable to the usual suspect.

Last month I read online a book titled, The Deliberate Dumbing-Down of America, by Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt. The book traces and documents the findings that over the last hundred years or so the education system in America has followed a deliberate Progressive plan to keep American students from kindergarten through college ignorant in the areas of basic history, geography, reading, writing, and arithmetic.

The book parallels my own findings day-to-day. A few examples:

In a light-hearted way a few months ago I told my Sunday school class of bright 12 to 14 year olds that the Church was organized in 1830 (not one of them knew this basic fact, or, at least had a low level of confidence in their knowledge if they did guess at 1830).

I then said --- slowly and carefully and deliberately --- Joseph Smith's First Vision, where he saw the Father and the Son in the Sacred Grove, occurred ten years earlier. In what year, then, did Joseph see the First Vision?

I paused. I repeated, slowly . . . deliberately . . . 1-8-3-0 Church was organized . . . ten years earlier was the First Vision, so in what year was the First Vision? I repeated these dates and information, in a low mutter, held up all ten fingers to help . . . .

Do you think they quickly came up with 1820 as the year of the First Vision?! They did not! The arithmetic was too tricky for them. Whose fault? Are they all dull students in school? I do not believe they are --- I know they are not.

Do their parents deliberately insist that they stay up late every school night so they are exhausted next day at school? They do not. I don't think that for a minute.

The problem is in the education system. It is in the classroom. They do not breed confidence in the basics.

Since around the early 1980s I have noticed on the report cards from school of all my children (seven of them) spelling mistakes, poor grammar, and incoherent comments written by the teachers. On both sides of the Atlantic --- Britain as well as America. If the teachers struggle with the basics, how can they teach the basics? So we are left with expertise in social engineering, political correctness, and self-esteem. In those areas the system excels.

The problem is in the schools. The phrase "appalling ignorance" is not an exaggeration.

I got my haircut just before I left for England and my Mum's funeral. To the hairdresser, in usual conversation about school, accents, England, and so on, I asked the same question about the 1830 --- 1820 dilemma.

She said, "Oh, I'm not good at math." I said, "No one is around here." She agreed. I repeated the question --- slowly, carefully, deliberately. She had no clue. I gave her the answer. She said, "Oh, it was the 18---part that threw me off." I suggested she should get her money back from the high school she graduated from. She agreed. . . !

I often chat like that with casual acquaintances. I frequently ask, "When was the Declaration of Independence?" No idea, from most people. This same hairdresser had said she is no good at math and English, but she knows history, so I rolled out the Declaration of Independence question. No clue. But she said she does have a pile of notes in a closet at home. Oh . . . .

I asked, "Take a guess: when did this nation start, begin, originate? She hummed and hawed and came up with " . . . Er, 1900s?"

"Try this one, then, you little historian: Who was the first President of the United States?"

No idea. . . . So she ventured, "Abraham Lincoln?" A common response. (Some celebrity said recently that Abraham Lincoln was her "favorite Founding Father." Dear me . . . .)

I had asked her to take about an inch off, for my haircut. I began to grow worried that . . . well, never mind.

This is a cultural problem. It is an educational issue. And it is a spiritual matter, as President Lee and the great Thomas Jefferson both know. Do you know it?

Nor is the problem confined to fresh-faced students and their teachers. The cable-news channel CNN, over the past year or two, have had regional maps on the screen showing London in Norfolk, Cannes on the north coast of Spain, Tripoli in Lebanon, Cornwall as a city at Land's End, and a map of South America with a caption for the South Africa World Cup.

Now, friends and family, I have a gnawing suspicion that not all of you will know what I am talking about here, when I cite these geography, history, arithmetic, and current-event matters!

Some of you will. . . . Most of you?

Let's hear (and hearken) to how the Lord feels about this stuff:

"Teach one another . . . that you may be instructed more perfectly in theory, in principle," and so forth, "in all things that pertain unto the kingdom of God . . . .

"Things both in heaven and in the earth, and under the earth, things which have been [history], things which are [current events], things which must shortly come to pass [there is an election in November . . .]; things which are at home [politics and domestic affairs in the U.S. and the U.K. or wherever you live or call home], things which are abroad [foreign policy and related matters]; the wars and the perplexities of the nations, and the judgments which are on the land [weather? catastrophic events? pandemic disease? . . .]; and a knowledge also of countries and of kingdoms [geography and history]---"

Why all this? The Lord answers: "That ye may be prepared . . . ."

In more than one place in the Doctrine and Covenants the Lord commands this obtaining of specifics in knowledge and understanding. I have often wondered about this phrase, common among the early leading Brethren of the Church: "They know not the day of their visitation," speaking of the Saints who are content in their ignorance and complacent in their lack of understanding and their false traditions. I think I am coming to know what those early Brethren meant.

Ezra Taft Benson wrote a book about all these things in America, and he used a phrase from Matthew 13:28 for its title, An Enemy Hath Done This. Done what?

The Deliberate Dumbing-Down of America --- and, today, of Britain, and who knows how many other nations worldwide.

Permit us to visit this theme again before the November elections.

The First Presidency sent out a letter last week urging the involvement of the Saints in local caucus meetings, as an integral part of the political process and of civic duty, that such attendance and involvement and energy has been falling off in recent years, especially on the Wasatch Front.

We wrote last July of "Independence Day: Awake to a Sense of Your Awful Situation," as Moroni warned specifically of these matters of liberty and the secret combinations active around and among us.

We wrote too in July of "Spiritual Wickedness in High Places---a Warning Voice," and we invite --- urge --- all of you to revisit these matters in our archives column to the right of this blog posting.

Also, the Dennis Prager column on the evil nonsense that is taught --- both openly and subtly --- in our universities and colleges, and many, many other classrooms in our nations; all such evil traceable, as we know, to the usual suspect, the enemy of our souls, the same enemy who "hath done this" ---even Lucifer, a real person, with real designs, and real results among us, unless we are vigilant in the extreme.

More later on this. Much more to say on it.

God bless us all to see it.

Steve

P.S. Feel free to share and spread these thoughts if you find them sober and worthwhile. Give me your feedback and comments. As always, sources and references available on request.