In Sunday School this week we were discussing the “indoctrination” factor. Our kids are being indoctrinated by the people and sources they spend the most time with (school materials, peers, the media). It’s interesting to see how the public school system has shifted 180 degrees from the early focus on raising young men and women of integrity and morals with proper etiquette and respect for their maker and fellow man to…. well, I won’t even go there. I’m stuck in a time warp, still wholeheartedly approving of an old fashioned education. I felt like cheering as the Poppet read this selection from McGuffey’s to me today. Oh yeah, I’m all for this kind of indoctrination =)
“John Jones was a good boy, but he could not read nor write. His mother was poor. She could not pay for him to go to school. She sent him out to help a man at the side of the road to break stones. John could not earn much, it is true, yet it was good for him to be at work.
It is well for us all to have work to do. It is bad for us not to work. John was a good boy and he did not love to play so much that he could not work. He knew it to be right to work, and when his work was done he would play.
The man for whom John worked was very kind to John, and gave him a great deal of good advice.
One day he said to him, “John, you must always bear in mind, that it was God who made you, and who gave you all that you have, and all that you hope for. He gave you life, and food, and a home. All who take care of you and help you were sent you by God. He sent His Son to show you His will, and to die for your sake.
He gave you His word to let you know what He hat done for you, and what He wants you to do. Be sure that He sees you in the dark, as well as in the daylight. He can tell all that you do, and all that you say, and all that is in your mind.
Oh, ever seek this God! Pray to Him when you rise, and when you lie down. Keep His day, hear His word, and do His will, and He will love you, and will be your God forever.”
McGuffey’s First Reader
1 comment:
What great advice for a child! Oh if only the schools were still geared this way. It is so sad what "education" has become.
I love the McGuffey Readers.
Isn't it amazing how much indoctrination there is and sometimes we fail to notice, oh but this kind yes I am all for it too! We need more ppl willing to give this advice to children not advice based on how far to go in life or you need this you need that if you are going to get anywhere in the world. Its a shame what this world now deems as important!
What kids need is God and more of him, not just in the home.
I want my kids to have a desire for God and his ways and seek to live his ways. Thanks for this post! What great advice we can all take from it!
Thanks so much P chick!
Now time to pull out this reader!
Joy
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