By Raymond Harris
As we compare the attitudes and activities of the student body of high schools and colleges with the attitudes and activities of the larger communities of our nation, it gets a little scary.
If you have the notion that unruliness, rebellion, and acts of violence have mushroomed, you are right.
Recently a study was made comparing the most often reported offenses in public schools in 1940 with those of 1982. Here we have the results.
In 1940 the top offences in public schools were as follows: (1) Talking without permission; (2) chewing gum; (3) making unnecessary and disturbing noise; (4) running in the halls; (5) getting out of turn in lines; and (6) not putting waste paper in the wastebaskets.
In 1982 things were quite different. The top offenses of 1982 were: (1) Robbery; (2) assault; (3) rape; (4) burglary; (5) bombings; (6) arson; (7) vandalism; (8) extortions; (9) absenteeism; (10) drug abuse; (11) alcohol abuse; (12) pregnancies; (13) abortions; (14) venereal disease; (15) suicide; (16) murder and (17) gang warfare.
Obviously, unless there is a radical change in the home, in the schools, and ultimately in the thinking and lives of our young, our future will be to become a barbaric society and finally extinction.
Through the years, I too have been concerned that “Johnny can’t read” and “Jane doesn’t know the multiplication tables.” However, it is rather obvious that this nation has a problem far worse than a 4007o functional illiteracy rate!
I would suggest that the problem has two tap roots: (1) A breakdown of the home which no longer practices and teaches high moral values and standards. (2) The complete “take over” of our nation’s educational system by humanists. Hence, we have a situation wherein absolute standards of right and wrong that are taught in the home are soon eroded by teachers who promote evolution, sex education and situation ethics (wherein nothing is to be considered absolutely right or wrong). Some teachers even unknowingly fall into the trap of becoming the instruments of the humanist as they lead sessions in “Behavioral Modification” and “Values Clarification” and dilute any good things that have been taught at home.
If evolution is true, these conclusions follow: (1) there is no God; (2) man is a superior animal; (3) animals are not bound by laws; (4) life becomes a matter of the survival of the fittest; and (5) the civilized world reverts to a jungle!
Guardian of Truth XXVIII: 21, p. 650
November 1, 1984