Children and the Bible in America
1647
The Old Deluder Satan Act was passed right after the first Massachusetts School Law of 1642, which was passed only twelve years after the Puritans arrived in the Massachusetts Bay colony. The Old Deluder Act was passed because the first Massachusetts School Law of 1642 was not being enforced, and the Puritans felt it necessary for the citizens of their colonies to be able to read the English language. In the law, it states “one chief project of that old deluder, Satan” was to “keep men from the knowledge of the scriptures,” (Old Deluder Satan Act). How Satan could do that was by tempting people to be illiterate so they would be unable to read the Bible and therefore interpret it for themselves. To prevent this, the law required every town that consisted of 50 or more families to set up a reading school and every town with one hundred or more families to set up a grammar school along with a reading school. In these schools, children learned from the primer and a hornbook when they were young, and then graduated to more difficult biblical texts as their literacy improved. The Puritans believed that all individuals should be able to read and interpret the Bible themselves, and this included children which is why they decided it was vital that children be able to read. This act set a foundation for public education in America; a foundation that continues to impact modern public education. The religious motivation behind this law may be partially responsible for some of the issues that have arisen regarding the teaching of religion in public schools.
1700s
The Hornbook served as a material object to teach children to read, learn math, or assist with religious study. Used for children’s education in the medieval times, dating all the way back to the 1400s, the material text object was a single-sided alphabet tablet that included vowel combinations, numerals, and a short verse of the Bible that children were often expected to memorize. As demonstrated in an article from the Library of Congress, “Hornbooks are somewhat like the more modern idea of a primer,” which is like a first textbook to enhance literacy for young children. The Library of Congress describes hornbooks as functional, but also durable as most were made of wood, bone, ivory, leather, stone, or in modern times, cardboard. The 1700s hornbook featured in the picture from the Smithsonian National Museum of American History is made from wood with a clear sheet covering the educational material with a leather handle, which made the tablets easier to not lose for children and kept them in better condition. The Library of Congress also offered insight about how hornbooks were made after describing their physical appearance, “This was achieved by leaving the horn in cold water for several weeks, causing it to separate into distinct parts. The needed part was then heated and pressed to make it smooth and transparent.” Some hornbooks were plain, while others included elaborate engraving and decorations.
1715
Originally named Divine Songs, this text was a standard one used throughout England and the United States for teaching children about the Bible. The author, Isaac Watts was urged to write this book by a friend who desired a number of religious songs to perform at mass or Sunday school to help the children understand what had been preached earlier. Many Puritans disagreed with Watts' approach to teaching the scriptures because they distrusted all things joyful, but Watts believed that it was an effective way to get children to take a greater interest in the bible. He claimed that “verse helped children learn…It attracted them to the text, and it made the precepts of the text easier to remember,” (Isaac Watts). Watts argued that it may have not been preferable to teach children the scripture through song, but it was an effective way to do it, and that was what was most important. Many people agreed with him, as this book was reprinted across both England and America making it a standard textbook in a large percentage of schools. When explaining why he chose this method to educate children on the Bible, Watts often cited Ephesians 5:19 which directs God’s followers to “teach and admonish one another by hymns and songs”. This prevalent use of this book offers insight into the ways in which young children were exposed to Biblical texts and themes before they were able to read the Bible. It is also clear the importance of instilling biblical lessons upon children from a young age so they grow up knowing and having faith in these texts. Songs are a way for children to find some enjoyment in the learning of the Bible which would likely give them more motivation to continue to read and interpret it as they grew older. Its wide presence in schools across America displays the presence of religious teachings within public schools in early America, and the exposure to religion that this resulted in for children.
1715
A Puritan minister and poet, Michael Wigglesworth, wrote the poem "The Day of Doom" which was given to Puritan readers. Because it was short, it was easy to read and was used to teach children their Puritan faith. Princeton University describes “The Day of Doom” as a strong-minded religious piece of literature, “Composed of 224 ballad stanzas, the poem launches the 'backsliding' of Puritans into sin and complacency and depicts the final day of Judgement (or “doom”) as a series of dramatic confrontations between sinners – meaning everyone – and their God.” There were 1,800 copies published, and it is likely that many New Englanders had the text committed to their memory. “The Day of Doom” is connected to the end of the world, or judgment day. In the memoir of Wigglesworth in The Day of Doom: Or, A Poetical Description of the Great and Last Judgement, descriptions of his writing are made, “Expressing in earnest words the theology which they believed, and picturing in lively colors the terrors of the judgement day and the awful wrath of an offended god, it commended itself to those zealous Puritans, who had little taste for lofty rhyme or literary excellence,” adding the influence that the poem may have had on youth readers, “The imaginative youth devoured its horrors with avidity, and shuddered at its fierce denunciation of sin” (3).
1779
Written just three years after the Declaration of Independence, the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom is known as one of Thomas Jefferson’s major contributions to the establishment of the colonies and their governments. Jefferson’s authorship of the statute is one of three accomplishments listed on his gravestone, along with the Declaration of Independence and his founding of the University of Virginia. The statute’s original title was Bill No. 82, claiming to be a bill for the purpose of establishing religious freedom. The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom is still in place for the state of Virginia and resembles many other early documents from the 1700s that have guided discourse on religious freedom into the present. It reads, “Almighty God hath created the mind free, and manifested his supreme will that free it shall remain by making it altogether insusceptible of restraint; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments, or burthens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness…” Jefferson utilizes Enlightenment thought and encourages individuals to use their own logic and perceptions of the world around them to develop their beliefs, rather than merely accepting what is taught to them by others. In claiming that “Almighty God had created the mind free,” Jefferson proposes that children are born with the natural ability to think for themselves. He argues that it is unjust and simply irrational to coerce others to think a certain way. Many people could use Jefferson’s claim regarding freedom of thought to argue against religious teachings in schools because it obstructs children from keeping their minds free from outside influences. The Abington School District versus Schempp case in 1963 serves as a prime contemporary example of how individuals see children as easily influenced by social pressures, making them vulnerable to “hypocrisy and meanness” as Jefferson would say.
1792
According to Christopher Dobbs, Noah Webster was an “education reformer, political activist, author of textbooks, pioneer in epidemiology, newspaper editor, and an early antislavery advocate.” He impacted colonial America by publishing the first edition of “A Grammatical Institute of the English Language.” This was used as an easily accessible textbook for children to learn basics of grammar and spelling. Throughout his time, he produced many spellers, dictionaries, and readers that were commonly seen in American English schools for children. In these books, Webster “relied heavily on direct quotes from the Bible and Christian references” according to the Museum of the Bible. With the popularity of these books, it suggests that children were learning about God and the Bible quite frequently. In his article, Dobbs writes that “Between 1783 and the early 1900s it is estimated that Webster’s spelling book sold near 100 million copies.” Webster’s books were becoming the foundation of American education. With his Puritan ancestral traditions, his books reflected common biblical themes. Yet again, children were being educated about the Bible through school practices. Webster’s work supports the claim that children could not escape the Bible and the effort made to them to learn about God, or at least be familiar with the idea. Learning how to spell, how to punctuate, and how to write a sentence is foundational to one’s education. When doing all these practices with biblical context, it suggests that one’s faith and religion is just as important. In America, it was hard for children who sought out a strong education to resent the Bible as Webster and his publications provide an example of early textbooks used in schools.
1800-1820
Pictured to the right, a family is congregated around a table with all eyes on the father as he holds the Bible. Everyone from the family is gathered together, even the dog. Perhaps, this was a reoccurring image in the 1800s as families started to learn about the Bible. The important message of this painting is that not just the literate family members were present. The children were there as their parents wanted them to sit and listen to the Bible. At a young age, one was beginning to hear of the Bible at their family table, thus inferring that the Bible was dominant in a child’s life. In Colleen McDannell’s writings, she writes of this same image and the importance of having a family Bible. In her book Material Christianity, McDannell cites Anne Ellis who says that “the family Bible was a distinctive domestic object in her pioneer home” (67). Family Bibles were used more than just reading the scripture in that they kept records of family's births, deaths, marriages, etc. Later in this chapter, she states that “[t]he Bible became one way that the spiritual exchange between the pious mother and the receptive child could be represented” (82). In reference to our thematic exhibit, this piece is important for illustrating the usage of the Bible in homes for children. Children were familiar with what the Bible was and evidently, it was a center of their childhood home life. As a result, the Bible could not be avoided and children were being exposed to its contents at a young age, further creating a sense of important in their life from then on.
1828
This toy was considered a “Sunday toy” meaning it was owned specifically for children to play with on Sunday–it was considered a more special toy than others because Sunday was the day when church services were held. Toys such as this Ark and models of Jacob’s ladder that represented a specific biblical story were used to impart biblical messages upon children and make them familiar with biblical texts before they were able to actually read and comprehend these texts. In early America, toys were often used to teach moral and social lessons to allow children to begin to learn proper etiquette and moral consciousness at a young age. These Sunday toys were used primarily to reinforce the messages taught in the Sunday services. While this toy was factory-made, many Sunday toys could be and were produced in the home, so families of all socioeconomic status had access to them–making them a fundamental part of childhood for many Puritan families. This toy displays the extent to which young children were exposed to biblical texts and themes. Before they were even capable of reading or understanding the meaning of the toys they were playing with, children were exposed to well-known bible passages so when they were of the age to understand these passages and read them, they would have a previous base of knowledge. There is modern-day evidence that “Children can start benefiting from educational toys as early as one month old,” (Educational Playcare). This would mean that the children who were exposed to these biblical toys were possibly able to begin learning from them before they were even a year old. Even if they were not comprehending the biblical message this early in their lives, growing up with this religious base would strengthen their faith and reinforce the importance that their communities placed on religion.
1835
The primer served as a household item and popular tool to teach American children how to read throughout the 19th century. When a child in the 1800s was learning how to read, they would begin with the hornbook. Once they mastered the hornbook, they moved on to the primer. Peter Parley’s Primer, like most others published in the same time period, begins with the alphabet, common letter pairings, and various short vocabulary words. The following pages include short stories, accompanied by colorful illustrations. On pages 34 through 39 of Peter Parley’s Primer, the author describes the ideal daily routine of a child who may be reading this book. Goodrich begins with morning and writes, “I hope you have said your prayers, and thanked your Father in Heaven for all his goodness. I hope you have thanked him for your good health, and the blessings of a home, kind parents, of tender friends, of pleasant books, and all your other enjoyments. Never forget, before you leave your room, to thank God for his kindness. He is indeed kinder to us than any earthly parent” (Goodrich 34). Goodrich’s description of a proper evening routine focuses on asking for forgiveness from one’s sins from God and one’s parents. The primer serves as evidence that early American children were taught from a young age to think of God when they first wake up and before they go to sleep. God is presented as a loving parent who watches over all his children on earth in everything they do, meaning they should act in accordance with the morals of the Bible to avoid trouble. The prevalence of primers with religious themes and descriptions of religious practices such as prayer and asking for forgiveness from God demonstrates how fundamental faith was for American families in the 19th century. The concept of God and faith was as elementary and essential as the alphabet or barnyard animals.
1846
William Holmes McGuffey was a college professor and president, who is known for writing the McGuffey Readers, which, as told by Wikipedia, “were the first widely used series of elementary school-level textbooks." The Museum of the Bible explains the textbooks as having many biblical lessons as well as literary selections, serving the purpose of enhancing literacy in young children. The books consisted of stories, poems, essays, and speeches in addition to helpful tips on reading and writing. McGuffey is remembered as a conservative theological teacher, “He interpreted the goals of public schooling in terms of moral and spiritual education and attempted to give school a curriculum that would instill Presbyterian Calvinist beliefs and manners in their students.” About 122 million spelling books were sold and used in American schools between 1836 and the 1960s, their instruction helping shape the character of generations of Americans, The Museum of the Bible stated. Wikipedia also found that since 1961, copies of the readers have still been selling at a rate of about 30,000 copies a year. Although the readers were frequently used as textbooks in the 19th century and early 20th century, some are still used in both schools and homeschooling today.
1890
In early colonial life, it was common for children to work six days a week and attend Sunday School on their day off. This picture depicts child workers in a cotton mill located in Pawtucket, Rhode Island in 1890. It is important to note that their day off wasn’t to rest or spend time with their families, but rather to attend Sunday School. The Sunday School movement spread throughout Europe in the late 18th century and quickly spread to America beginning in Philadelphia. In Pawtucket, Samuel Slater was an owner of a textile factory who consecutively opened a Sunday School for the children working at his factory. According to the Museum of the Bible, “[b]y the late 1800s, there were tens of thousands of these schools for boys and girls across the United States.” The more recognizable fact to the early foundations of Sunday Schools was that they were also for the poor, thus a greater number of children had access to learning about the Bible. According to Keith Drury’s “Local Church Education” course, the earliest establishment of Sunday Schools in Europe were created “for these poor children” to help educate the lower class. This same idea was true in America in that the “First Day school grew an entire common school system for children of the poor.” Sunday Schools spread to the east, and leaders of the movement “intended to change the coming generation by raising up moral adults who could escape poverty through education, and would become solid honorable Christian citizens by learning the Bible and moral principles.” Soon, most of American children were able to attend Sunday Schools and learn about the Bible. It is interesting because Sunday Schools are still around today to help educate children in this same manner. Overall, Sunday Schools were yet another outlook for children to learn about the Bible regardless of their own desires, thus enhancing the argument that the Bible was familiar to many children early on in their lives.
1941
The Bible ABC book was used to not only teach children their ABCs, but also to inform children of popular biblical stories. In these books, each page was a different letter with a well-known biblical story to be the main focus of that letter. For example, in the picture to the right, A is for Ark, which teaches children about the first letter of the alphabet, but more importantly, about the story of Noah’s ark. In addition to Grace Allen Hogarth’s historical book at the museum, two authors, Kevin DeYoung and Don Clark, teamed up to create a version of the Bible ABCs. Their goal was “to create a new board book to help kids ages 1 to 3 to make connections from Genesis to Revelation and from A to Z.” I was surprised to read that it was aimed for kids at such a young age; however, this fact further supports my argument that the Bible was unavoidable for children. Children were exposed to the Bible early on and thus, their exposure created the idea that the Bible was important. By connecting the Bible to something as necessary as learning the alphabet, it is interesting to analyze the connection between the two. Would authors of these books think that the Bible is just as important as learning your ABCs? DeYoung and Clark’s book was also said to be “a fun way for parents to introduce their young children to the big story of the Bible.” Is it not a fun way to introduce your child to the ABCs? Perhaps some argue that the Bible is more important. Either way, this book ties into the bigger theme of children and education because it shows that children were being taught biblical stories. As a result, they would associate each letter of the alphabet with a new story or person and eventually, know much about the Bible.
1963
Prior to 1963, there existed a law in Pennsylvania that stated “at least ten verses from the Holy Bible shall be read, without comment at the opening of each public school on each day,” (LexisNexis). When posed with the question of whether this law violated the religious freedom of the students awarded to them in the first and fourteenth amendments, the supreme court ruled that this law violated the first amendment. With this decision, the court ended devotional activities in public schools across America, limiting the extent to which the Bible and Christianity could be taught within public schools. The decision was 8-1, with Justice Stewart being the only dissenter. He argued that these religious exercises in public schools were a voluntary opportunity, as the law specifically stated that “Any child shall be excused from such Bible reading or attending such Bible reading, upon the written request of his parent or guardian,” (LexisNexis) So it did not violate the first amendment. This case created a permanent ban on religious prayer in public school classrooms and emphasized the importance of religious neutrality of the government and education. While this ruling is not publicly enforced currently which lessens its effectiveness, it sent the message that the US government places a large importance on the separation of religion and public institutions. This case is a landmark in the moving away from religious education within America. When public schools were first established, a majority of them included religious teachings in their curriculum. As America has modernized, public schools have moved away from teaching and reinforcing biblical messages, but this case legally limited the extent to which children in America can be exposed to the Bible.
2017
The Museum of the Bible in Washington D.C. dedicates 2,176 square feet to the Courageous Pages Children’s Area, a space with interactive games and activities catered towards children as young as four years old. The Courageous Pages Children’s Area is situated in close proximity to the lobby and gift shop, making it a prime area for foot traffic. As soon as one enters the door, they are greeted by two enormous partitions made to look like pages from the Bible. The partition to the left displays Joshua 1:6-9 which reads, “Be strong and courageous…Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:6-9 NLT). The partition to the right presents Psalm 23:1-6 (JPS), which also contains themes of courage and comfort with the help of God. Next, visitors meet Pages the lion who will serve as a recurring character throughout the exhibit in order to relay the biblical significance of each activity. Each game in the exhibit is accompanied by a placard indicating such significance and a relevant quote from the Bible. For example, the game entitled Fish in the Boat with Peter, which entails hitting a paddle to launch rubber balls into a miniature boat, is paired with Luke 5:4-7 of the NRSV. The exhibit also includes a guessing game in which children are given clues in order to guess the names of various children from the Bible. Pages the lion asks next to the guessing game, “Did you know the Bible is full of young people like you?” While some children may not be able to grasp the meaning of the various scripture quotations throughout the exhibit, its mere existence demonstrates how Americans today still introduce their children to biblical stories from a young age. Whether or not it is quite understood, the Bible is present and immovable in American society. The Courageous Pages Children’s Area stands as an artifact of its own to show how contemporary educators attempt to share the Bible with children.