Renovate the Age!

A few weeks ago on July 13, one of America’s most least talked about and under appreciated founding documents celebrated a birthday.  The Northwest Ordinance was perhaps the crowning achievement of the Continental Congress under the Articles of Confederation when it was made law in 1787.  It was reestablished under the new Constitutional Republic and signed into law by George Washington in 1789. 


It’s one of our most important founding documents because it laid the groundwork for government in the territory northwest of the Ohio river that was signed over to the Unites States in the peace treaty with England.  

In addition to organizing territorial government, the Northwest Ordinance created a path for states born from this territory to be welcomed into the union and made equal with the original 13.  The states carved out of the Northwest Territory include Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin.

The Northwest Ordinance determined the laws to be passed in these states should not be “repugnant to the principles and articles in this ordinance” (Section 11).  

For example, Article 6 of the Northwest Ordinance declares that any state formed from this territory must be a free state which will never allow slavery.  

Therefore, Article 1, Section 9 of the Michigan State Constitution declares: “Neither slavery, nor involuntary servitude unless for the punishment of crime, shall ever be tolerated in this state.”  This is a direct quote from the Northwest Ordinance.

Did you know that Thomas Jefferson drafted the Northwest Ordinance, and by writing this provision into the document he, and the Continental Congress, set the wheels in motion for slavery to be eradicated even before the Constitution was passed? Students today are taught the exact opposite.

The Northwest Ordinance also states: “Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged” (Article 3).

This statement is also directly placed in the Michigan State Constitution in Article VIII, Section 1. under the heading of "Education."

Did you know that our founding documents declared that religion and morality were necessary to good government? Today we are told that religion and morality have no place in politics or government.  Our founders thought differently. 

They also believed religion, morality, and knowledge “shall forever be encouraged” in our schools and means of education. 

Over time, religion and morality have been ushered out of our schools. They have been deemed as being too offensive even though the Northwest Ordinance declares they shall forever be encouraged.

The Northwest Ordinance is indeed one of our most important founding documents. But it mostly goes ignored because it does not fit the current narrative the progressive culture is feeding American students through their misguided education.

This is why a classical Christian education is vitally important!  

At Waterbrook, we hear the following question often: “What is classical education?” Our shortest answer is this: Classical education is simply what education was intended to be.  

Waterbrook provides a classical Christian education that strives to bring back what once was.  We believe in teaching religion, morality, and knowledge.  

We agree with Samuel Adams who on Oct. 4, 1790 wrote in a letter to his cousin, John Adams:

“Let patriots unite their endeavors to renovate the age by . . . educating their sons and daughters in the Fear of the Lord . . love of their country and the art of self-government.”

Those three elements are no longer part of the American education.  The Fear of the Lord has long since been removed from schools, and since Proverbs 1:7 tells us the Fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, we can determine that is also absent.

Love of country is no longer prevalent. Students are lied to about the American founding and are taught to hate our country.  They are told our founders were not Christians, but instead were deists who greedily built this country on the backs of slaves.

The art of self-government is a phrase no longer understood. If it is discussed at all, it is mostly in the context of civics.  The idea of individuals governing their own actions and taking responsibility for themselves is a foreign thought in today's classrooms.

In an address given at the annual meeting of the Massachusetts Bible Society on May 28, 1849, Robert Winthrop, a Speaker of the US House of Representatives, had this to say about individual self-government:
    
“All societies of men must be governed in some way or another.  The less  they may have of stringent state government, the more they must have of individual self-government.  The less they rely on public law or physical force, the more they must rely on private moral restraint.  Men, in a word, must necessarily be controlled either by a power within them or a power without them, either by the Word of God or by the strong arm of man, either by the Bible or the bayonet.”

Most teachers and politicians do not talk like this anymore. There is no longer a correlation between self-government and moral restraint. There is no longer a reliance on the Word of God to provide a power within us; a power to guide us through self-control.

Education in America has lost much by ceding control to a progressive ideology bent on driving us away from Judeo-Christian values.  

However, we intend to renovate the age through a classical Christian education that teaches the Fear of the Lord, love of country, and the art of self-government.  We are happy you are part of this endeavor!

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Author

Dean Bowen is Head of School at Waterbrook Christian Academy