When James Naismith invented basketball in 1891, he placed the net 3 metres above floor level. That is still the official height of a basketball hoop. But let’s imagine that the net has been lowered one centimetre every year, without telling anyone. The change would not be noticeable from year to year, but by 2023 the hoop would be 1.68 metres above the floor. The average height of a player in the NBA is 1.98 metres. Can we even imagine what the game would be like today with a lowered hoop?

That is ridiculous, of course. It would never happen. But something much like that has been happening in the public education system and very few have noticed. A student in Grade 8 today learns what a Grade 5 student learned a century ago; a student in Grade 12 is learning at what was then a Grade 8 level; and a student completing a Bachelor of Arts degree is learning no more than what a Grade 12 student learned a century ago.

How can that happen when teachers today have so much more training, schools are so much better equipped, and huge amounts of money are expended on developing appropriate curriculum resources? Could it be that none of those things are what a child really needs in order to learn?

A century ago, most teachers were graduates of a one-room school and maybe had a few weeks of Normal School in summer to prepare for teaching. She (most of them were young ladies) was placed in a one room school and expected to teach all 8 grades, maybe more. In cold weather she had to get the fire going in the wood stove to warm the school before the children began arriving. There were none of the amenities we take for granted today, hardly enough text books to go around and they often were not in very good condition. But the children learned more then than they do today.

Those teachers loved children. They often came from large families and had a lot of experience in caring for children. They looked forward to marrying and having children of their own. Parents supported the teacher, made sure their children got to school on time and behaved well in school. They read their children’s report cards and could understand what the teacher wrote on those cards. Those were the ideal conditions and qualifications for successful education.

The declining results from the public schools in the years since should not be blamed on the teachers. Most of them are well-meaning people who are earnestly trying to do what is best for children. The problem lies in the philosophy and the psychology that form the basis of modern public education. The philosophical underpinnings of education today have led to parents being shunted to the sidelines of their children’s education.

Surveys of home-schooled children in both the USA and Canada show that on average they are a year or two ahead of children the same age in the public school system. It doesn’t seem that the educational level of the home schooling parents make a significant difference. One can gather from this that children learn best from their parents.

Private parent-controlled schools are also much more effective than schools where parents are not involved. Christian parents have nothing to be ashamed of if they choose to retake control of their children’s education. All the evidence shows that they are the best qualified people to make those decisions for their children.