From the Desk of Pastor David, August 2026

With great interest (and a greater amount of discouragement), I have been reading a lot lately about the state of public education in America. To listen to frontline teachers in the classroom, students have become unruly, disrespectful, and downright violent. They have zero attention spans, no critical thinking skills, and absolutely no interest in learning. Many are illiterate or are reading at a grade level far below the grade they are in and have little to no math skills. And this problem isn’t isolated to poor, inner-city schools. It crosses all socioeconomic barriers across the country. And these behaviors are showing up in first grade through college!

What effect is this antisocial behavior having on the school system?  According to the National Education Association, the gap between education job openings and hires is the largest it has ever been because teachers have been leaving the profession in droves, in addition to retirements. Qualified new teachers are getting harder to find as the reputation of the classroom experience continues to deteriorate. To compound the problem, because much of a school’s funding is driven by student metrics, no student is held back, every student receives exemplary grades, (regardless of merit), and standardized testing has been abandoned, even for college entrance.

What has been causing this behavior? COVID lockdowns didn’t help any, but we are years past that fiasco now, yet there is no letting up in unruly behavior. The two biggest drivers seem to be poor parenting and excessive screen time. Young parents are not teaching discipline to their children anymore. They either baby them, trying to remove every difficulty out of their lives, or they ignore them, letting the world raise them. Tablets, cell phones, computers, video games, and social media have all captured these young minds and turned them into mush. Research has shown through brain scans that young minds are physically and permanently being altered by excessive media activity.  Where is the national media outrage over this problem?! The ill effect on the credibility of our education system is bad enough, but more importantly, what effect will this have on our country? Not to sound alarmist, but I think this is an existential threat to our nation. In our near future, expected to be infused with a heavy reliance on robotics and AI, the only real jobs left will require critical thinking skills and strong computational abilities. At our current trajectory, we will soon have an entire generation of young adults who are illiterate, undisciplined, and unemployable. The only partial solution will be some type of guaranteed income. That might keep most out of soup kitchens, but how will they spend their time? Starting small businesses and reading poetry? I think not. More likely there will be an explosion of addictions, suicides, and more violence. They will also become slaves to the hands that feed them, the State. And the State will never voluntarily give up its newfound power, which means the end of democracy.

I so hope I am wrong about this and that the current trend can be reversed before it’s too late. In the meantime, what can we as Christians do? First, continue to pray for teachers, school administrators, and young parents, that all will do the right thing to raise a generation of responsible adults. If you have children or grandchildren, spend quality time with them, away from all electronics. Read with them. Help them with their homework. Teach them respect. Chase them outside to play.  All this is another sign that as people walk away from God, He will turn them over to their own evil desires (Romans 1:28-32). It was the Church that championed education from its start, and maybe now is the time for the Church to step up and retake the lead in this effort. I see so much opportunity for the Church to build schools with traditional curriculum, teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic, all without any technology, at the same time imbuing Christian values into its students. My fear is that this effort might be too little, too late. Pray that God continues to show us the mercy that we need, and not the condemnation that we deserve.

Blessings to you.
Pastor David

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