When the Puritans arrived in the wilderness of New England, they set a high standard of
education for the colonists, and the rest of the English colonies followed suit so that
literacy was virtually universal. The need for biblical literacy was the driving force
behind education since it was religious freedom they sought in coming to the New World.
Their vision was of creating a truly Christian civilization in the wilderness.
With thoughts always of the future, the aim of the Puritan leadership was to establish and
sustain the religious foundations of the Commonwealth, which included the highly
democratic, Calvinistic form of church governance, Congregationalism. Thus, in
Massachusetts education was based more on a religious foundation than a secular one.
Because of the emphasis on education, Massachusetts gained a reputation for having the
best schools in the colonies.
The Puritans founded Harvard College as a Calvinist
institution in 1636. But the other colonies were not far behind. All of the Protestant sects,
most of which were Calvinist in theology, placed high value on learning the languages of
theology: Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, as well as the secular subjects that were taught at
Oxford and Cambridge and at the Law schools.
Colleges were also founded in Virginia (1693), Connecticut (1701), New Jersey (1746
and 1766), New York (1754), Pennsylvania (1755), Rhode Island (1764), and New
Hampshire (1770). All were private colleges, and there were usually private academies in
the towns to prepare students for higher education.
We can get a good picture of the various forms of education available during the colonial
period by surveying the education that formed the mindset of the 89 men who signed the
Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. According to
author Lawrence Cremin:
“Of the 56 signers of the Declaration, 22 were products of the provincial colleges, two
had attended the academy conducted by Francis Alison at New London, Pennsylvania,
and the others represented every conceivable combination of parental, church,
apprenticeship, school, tutorial, and self education, including some who studied abroad.
Of the 33 signers of the Constitution, who had not also signed the Declaration, 14 were
products of the provincial colleges, one was a product of the Newark Academy, and the
remainder spanned the same wide range of alternatives.”
The fact is that the men who founded the United States were educated under the freest
conditions possible, with colonial governments offering little more than moral
encouragement. George Washington was educated at home by his father and half-brother.
Benjamin Franklin was taught to read by his father and attended a private school for
writing and arithmetic. Thomas Jefferson studied Latin and Greek under a tutor. Of the
117 men who signed the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and
the Constitution, one out of three had had only a few months of formal schooling, and
only one in four had gone to college.
And that is probably why the Constitution made no mention of education. It was
considered a parental, religious, and private matter beyond the jurisdiction of
government. There were some statesmen, like Thomas Jefferson and John Adams who
advocated free, state-supported education on a modest scale to insure universal literacy.
But they were clearly in the minority. Thus, at the beginning of the American nation,
except for some town-supported common schools in New England, education was on a
completely laissez-faire, free-market basis.
Contrast the highly effective educational freedom and high literacy that existed then to
what we have in America today: completely centralized and regulated education by the
government-supported education establishment, plus compulsory school attendance laws,
plus highly unionized teachers with enormous political clout that keeps taxes as high as
possible.
And what are the American people getting for their money? The drugging of over four
million children by their educators to cure Attention Deficit Disorder, a steep decline in
literacy, and an anti-Christian philosophy of education. Indeed, what we have are
government schools that do not truly educate. If it were not for the growth of the
home-school movement and the restoration of educational freedom by this dedicated
remnant, this country would in time become a totalitarian society, controlled by
behavioral psychologists and corrupt politicians. In fact, with the election of socialist
Barack Obama, the nation has reached that brink where ending our Constitutional
Republic of limited powers and replacing it with atheistic Social Democracy with
unlimited powers is about to take place unless stopped by an alarmed and activated
American people.
That is why it is so important for Americans to know the history of education in this
country so that they can see our current trends in their proper foreboding context. Our
nation was founded by Christian men and women who believed in educational freedom
because it produced the young men and women capable of maintaining a free society.
Our freedom depends on our nation’s willingness to adhere to biblical morality and high
literacy. Because without them, we shall continue to founder in a sea of ignorance,
barbarism, and moral depravity.

The Blumenfeld Archives https://campconstitution.net/sam-blumenfeld-archive/
Good news from our friends at Liberty Counsel:
Camp IdRaHaJe, which derives its name from the song “I’d Rather Have Jesus,” challenged a policy from Colorado’s Department of Early Childhood that requires licensed camps to allow campers to use the bathrooms, bathing areas, and sleeping quarters of the opposite sex. The camp had requested a religious exemption, but state regulators denied it leaving the camp facing a potential shut it down as it stated it would not comply with the policy.
Rather than have the policy scrutinized in court, state officials agreed, as part of the settlement, not to enforce the policy against Camp IdRaHaJe. The state also clarified that “churches, synagogues, mosques, or any other place that is principally used for religious purposes” are also exempt from the requirements.

As a result of the settlement, approximately 2,400 to 3,000 kids will be able to attend the camp this summer in a safe, Christian environment.
Camp IdRaHaJe has hosted children since 1948 and has had a resident camp license since 1995. The camp’s doctrinal statement declares that “God has immutably created each person as either male or female in His image” and “the differentiation of the sexes, male and female, is part of the divine image in the human race.”
Camp IdRaHaJe hosts and serves children from ages six to 17 and offers off-site backpacking, camping trips and many other on-site activities. The camp hosts thousands of students each summer with the mission to “win souls to Jesus Christ through the spreading of the Gospel.” The camp is open to children of all backgrounds and beliefs.
Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver stated, “Colorado’s gender policy is a violation of the camp’s Christian mission as well as a threat to child safety. Camp IdRaHaJe’s settlement is a victory for religious liberty in the state where religious organizations no longer have to choose between their sincerely held religious beliefs on human sexuality and their state licenses. The government also has no place forcing the false, corrosive gender ideology upon its citizens. Colorado needs to remove this policy altogether and protect children.”
Liberty Counsel provides broadcast quality TV interviews via Hi-Def Skype and LTN at no cost.
As we celebrate the 249th anniversary of our nation’s birthday, we also need to honor the memory of the 56 brave men that made that birthday possible. They pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor. The link below is for an 1870 PDF version of Lives of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence by Benson Lossing of a book originally published in 1848 contains short biographies of these brave men.
https://campconstitution.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/livesofsignersof0000bens.pdf

My late friend and mentor Sam Blumenfeld once remarked that the government school system is a “sick obsolete dinosaur being propped up by powerful lobbyists like the National Education Association, and government officials.” The truth of that statement was on full display recently at the Wolfeboro Library. On June 10th New Hampshire Education Options held an exposition inside while outside on the sidewalk in front of the library were a group of people demonstrating against New Hampshire Education Options’ presence. There were well over 100 attendees at the exposition, mainly young couples with small children who are seeking alternatives to government schools. Some of the attendees were already homeschooling their children or sending them to private or charter schools.

The folks demonstrating against free people making their own decisions about their children’s education outside of the library-about twenty- were trying to preserve the sick obsolete dinosaur that cost the taxpayers up to $30,000 a year per student while not only giving them a substandard level of education but are aggressively promoting a worldview that is hostile to a moral and free people. I suspect some, if not all of them, were government school employees or family members of government school employees that have a financial interest in preserving that sick obsolete dinosaur. The organizer of the protest was Bobbi Boudman who ran unsuccessfully for state rep. This sick obsolete dinosaur supporter called the Education Options organizers and the attendees “hate mongers.” Such a reckless and irresponsible statement from a mouthpiece of the Education Mafia will not deter the folks at Education Options. It will only inspire them. As the saying goes, “If you are catching flak, you must be over the target.”
From Education Option’s website:
Our mission is to provide information, support, and connections to families who want to explore education options. To do this, we hold expos in different regions around the state, connect people to the resources that will help them, and support families in their efforts to educate their children.
EdOpt is a 501(c)(3) non-profit education organization. We accept tax-deductible donations to help us with our mission.
2024 Year Founded 12 Expos Hosted 1000+ Providers Indexed 2+Upcoming Expos.
A few testimonials:
My daughter used to cry every morning and feel sick to her stomach before going to school – she never wanted to go.
We chose a drop-off learning center. Mom of a 10 Year Old
My kids were never excited to learn until they started at Micah Studios in Newport. Mom of 3 (ages 7, 9 and 12)
My third grader was struggling to read at 1st grade level. We chose to homeschool. Homeschool Mom

Its founder is Jody Underwood:
President/Chair Jody Underwood has spent almost all of her life involved in education. Retired in 2023, she’s a learning scientist-she designed and produced software to help students learn or be assessed. For many years she worked for the Research Division of Education Testing Service (ETS), the people who bring you the SAT, NAEP, and other standardized tests.
She served on the Croydon, NH School Board from 2010-2023, serving as chair much of the time. She’s a founding board member of the non-profit School District Governance Association (SDGA) whose mission is to help school board members discover their lawful powers. She has been involved in bill review, focusing on the vast number of education bills proposed each year for the New Hampshire Liberty Alliance and the SDGA.
Along with a small team, she began the process of starting a charter school in the Upper Valley Area. They found that the law wouldn’t allow them to do the type of school they wanted but learned a lot about the process along the way. Jody worked with the founders to set up Micah Studios, a learning center in Newport, NH, which started in September 2024.
She has a PH. D. in Science and Technology Education, and a B.S. and M.S. in computer science with a focus in artificial intelligence. Her dream has always been to revolutionize learning environments to engage individuals to move ahead at their own pace.
Camp Constitution has attended nine of the twelve expos held around the state so far. These expos, usually held in public libraries or churches, are free to both vendors and the public. Attendees find a wide variety of options to the inferior government schools from private prep schools to Christian schools to charter schools, to learning centers and, of course, home schools cooperatives. They also offer extracurricular activities like aviation schools, acting classes, music lessons, , organic farming, gardening, nature hikes forensics for children, organizations offering scholarships, and much more. We offer families our week-long family retreats and our Sam Blumenfeld Archives which is a free on-line resource for educators and homeschoolers.
It has been an excellent experience for us. We have met with dozens of people from young parents who are planning to homeschool their children to parents who are exploring options to government schools to parents looking for after school programs.
Members of the Education Mafia, and their allies are not pleased that their near monopoly on the minds of our nation’s children are under attack. Let’s continue to break that near monopoly. Readers are encouraged to attend and/or host a New Hampshire Education Options exposition in their area. For more information, please visit their website https://edopt.org/about/
It’s easy. Destroy its literacy, and you’ve dumbed it down. And once dumbed down, it
becomes the potential victim of any power that wants to dominate it.
If you look at the most illiterate nations on the planet, you find that they are ruled by
despots, their people live in abject poverty and have no hope for a better future. That
doesn’t mean that literate nations, like Germany, can’t produce monsters. But when they
do, we know that satanic influences are behind it.
America, from its beginning, was the most literate nation on earth, and the result was
positive in every respect. Why was it so literate? Because the people and their leaders
were governed by the precepts of the Bible, and biblical literacy was paramount in the
education of the country’s children.
But once we got a government schooling system, which was taken over by atheist
progressive educators, the God of the Bible was removed from the schools. It then
became possible to introduce a new socialist curriculum with teaching methods
calculated to reduce American literacy. The Bible was now relegated to an hour of study
in church on Sundays. And because it was no longer part of the curriculum, children no
longer considered it important to life.
A blatant, anti-biblical morality was introduced in the schools through such programs as
values clarification, sensitivity training, transcendental meditation, sex education, death
education, drug education, multiculturalism, psychotherapy, evolution, secular
humanism, and other such programs. Moral degeneration has been the inevitable result.
The result is that America has been greatly dumbed-down.

The Blumenfeld Archives: http://blumenfeld.campconstitution.net/main.htm
Today marks the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill.

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Twice the Americans repelled them, but the third time they ran out of gunpowder.
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In writing for The Federalist, June 12, 2020, Katy Faust and Stacy Manning reported:
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Camp Constitution’s 17th Annual Family Camp is one month away. Thanks to our generous supporters over the years, we are able to make our week-long camp affordable to families. We have never turned away for lack of funds. We hope this year will be no exception.
We are asking our friends to consider making a donation to help a family attend our camp this year. The full cost for those thirteen and older is $300., and those twelve and under $200. Any donation would be greatly appreciated. Donations can be made via our PayPal account accessed from our website’s homepage https://www.campconstitution.net or via check payable to Camp Constitution and mailed to me at 146 Powder Mill Rd. Alton, NH 03809
Our recent news release announcing our upcoming camp:
Camp Constitution Announces Its 17th Annual Family Camp
Camp Constitution will hold its 17th Annual Family Camp at the Singing Hills Christian Camp https://www.singinghills.net/ Plainfield, NH. from Sunday July 13 to Friday July 18, 2025
For more information contact Hal Shurtleff (857) 498-1309 campconstitution1@gmail.com 
(This is from Liberty Counsel http://www.lc.org
Under Gov. Janet Mills, Maine has become one of the most anti-Christian states in the nation. In fact, Liberty Counsel has sued this particular governor more than any other governor in the Union! And the only state we have sued more often in our 36-year history is California.
But even CA Gov. Gavin Newsom learned the hard way, during the COVID shutdowns, that Liberty Counsel will not allow anti-God governments to discriminate against Christians. But the State of Maine has somehow missed the message.
The anti-God political machine running the Pine Tree State seems bent on eradicating Christianity from the state.
ONE church appears to be “ground zero” for Maine’s anti-Christian attacks — Calvary Chapel.
Liberty Counsel is fighting back.
Maine has a rich religious history. Catholic missionaries arrived in the state in 1604. The first Christian mass in all of New England was held on Maine’s Swan Island in 1611.
During the colonial years, the Puritans, followed by the Congregationalists, dominated Maine. The colony even required towns to fund a Congregational church and minister. Methodists, Baptists, and Freewill Baptists arrived in the 18th century, and Jews soon followed at the end of the 19th century.
But fast-forward to the 21st century and Maine is tied with Vermont for being “the least religious state” in the nation.
Since being targeted by Gov. Mills’ unconstitutional COVID lockdowns on churches, Calvary Chapel of Bangor has birthed six churches spanning the sparsely populated state. Pastor Ken Graves and Calvary Chapel are working to change Maine’s spiritual landscape by sharing the gospel and transforming broken people. But an anti-God governor and a league of similarly minded bureaucrats is doing their darndest to try to stop the revival happening in Maine.
During the COVID shutdowns, ME Gov. Janet Mills threatened to throw the participants in Calvary Chapel Bangor’s drug rehabilitation program in prison if they read the Bible and prayed together during Mills’ unlawful church shutdowns. Mills ordered that the group could meet, so long as they DID NOT read the Bible or pray.
Liberty Counsel took Mills and Maine to court, and Mills and her crew had to end her outrageous restrictions on churches and places of worship.
In 2022, Maine lost again, this time at the U.S. Supreme Court when the state allowed vouchers for any schools — except Christian schools. The High Court ruled Maine’s law unconstitutional.
Then, a Maine state family court judge banned a member of Calvary Chapel from taking her own daughter to church. The judge cited the opinion of a Marxist California professor in declaring that churches are “cults.”
Liberty Counsel has taken up this case on appeal, and continues to fight for this born-again Christian mother and her daughter’s right to attend the church of their choice.
Now, the University of Maine System is refusing to sell an excess university property to the highest bidder solely because the winning bidder is a Christian church. That church is Calvary Chapel Belfast.
Liberty Counsel is taking Maine back to court again…and we intend to win.
Don’t let anti-God governors and bureaucrats silence the gospel! Support our legal fund today!
I don’t know what Gov. Mills and the anti-God political machine running Maine have against Calvary Chapel’s network of churches, which extend from the cold shores of Portland through the Highlands and right to the St. Crois Valley, which borders Canada. Maybe it’s because Calvary Chapel is saving so many souls, bringing lost people back into Christ’s flock.
What I do know is that discrimination against Christians and churches is against the law.
Liberty Counsel will not stop fighting until the State of Maine stops attacking Christians and their churches.
For over 35 years, Liberty Counsel has been defending life, religious freedom, and the natural family. We’ve won 37 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and thousands of others before state courts and the U.S. Courts of Appeal.
We NEVER charge for our work because most people — and churches — could not afford to defend themselves against anti-Christian governors and governments. Our clients rely on YOU, the faithful Liberty Counsel supporter, to ensure liberty remains free.
A generous supporter has established a special Challenge Grant to support our work. But that grant only kicks in when you do. Every donation made to our legal fund today will be DOUBLED in impact. Even recurring monthly donations will be doubled for the duration of the grant! Please, help us defend the faith with your generous gift today.
Mat Staver
Founder and Chairman
Liberty Counsel
TAKE ACTION
Even a small recurring monthly donation would be incredibly helpful in defending life, religious liberty, and the natural family, AND that recurring donation will be DOUBLED in impact for the duration of the Challenge Grant!
Sources:
“Catholic Sites in Maine.” Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland. Accessed March 3, 2025. Portlanddiocese.org/catholic-sites-maine.
Hatlen, Burton, Joshua M. Smith, Peter Lodge, and Michael Hermann. “A Sampler from the New Historical Atlas of Maine: Religion in Maine.” Maine Policy Review 11.1 (2002): 48 -57, Digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mpr/vol11/iss1/11.
“Least Religious States 2023.” Wisevoter. Accessed March 3, 2025. Wisevoter.com/state-rankings/least-religious-states.
Judd, Richard. “Religion on Maine’s Frontier.” Maine History Online. Accessed March 3, 2025. Mainememory.net/sitebuilder/site/825/page/1235/display.
“The History of Our Presbyterate.” Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland. Accessed March 3, 2025. Portlanddiocese.org/vocations/history-our-presbyterate.