The Old Deluder, Educational Salvation, and the Limits of Distributive Justice

Abstract

The first piece of educational legislation in the American colonies divides neatly into two parts: a local school funding policy that is familiar as the basis of current public school funding in the United States; and a preamble that identifies Satan as the enemy of the community and the justification for common schools. In this article, the author explores the relationship between a public enemy and public schools in the United States, demonstrating the continued influence of the Old Deluder Satan Act even as the relationship it proposes between access to schools and educational salvation has unraveled. While the Puritans based their distributive model of schooling on the formative power of the divine, the formative task of contemporary schooling remains dimly defined. In order to address the formative function of schooling, the author turns to Robbie McClintock's concept of 'formative justice' as a possible supplement to discussions of distribution.It being one chiefe proiect of y e ould deluder, Satan, to keep men from the knowledge of y e Scriptures, as in form r times keeping y m in an unknowne tongue, so in these latt r times by perswading from y e use of tongues, y t so at least y e true sense and meaning of y e originall might be clouded by false glosses of saint seeming deceivers; y t learning may not be buried in y e grave of o r fath rs in y e church and commonwealth, the Lord assisting o r endeavo r s a.

Two Ideals of Educational Justice

“…NOTES 1. For a more developed discussion of this problem, see Stillwaggon, 2012. 2. Mann makes his point even more explicit in his direct appeal to wealthy landowners, whose tax support was necessary for the stable establishment of public schools statewide: Finally, in regards to those who possess the largest shares in the stock of worldly goods, could there, in your opinion, be any police so vigilant and effective, for the protection of all the rights of person, property and character, as such a sound and comprehensive education and training, as our system of Common Schools could be made to impart; and would not the payment of a sufficient tax to make such education and training universal, be the cheapest means of self protection and insurance?…”