One thing that most everyone, regardless of political affiliation, race or gender, can agree on is that education reform in our nations is critical. Yet, while everyone agrees that reform is necessary, they do not agree on what that reform should be. Moreover, not only do people disagree on a solution, but also there is little consensus on what the problem actually is.

Just what is the problem with today’s educational system?

The budgets for public schools are abysmally low—but that isn’t the real crisis. Even if all of the world’s treasuries were granted to the educational system, the crisis would rage on. The masses would still be woefully undereducated.

In many cases, the child-to-teacher ratio is greatly unbalanced. Often there are too many children per classroom. Yet this is not the true crisis in education either. Five teachers to a single child still wouldn’t solve the problem, because the teachers themselves are subject to the same crisis that the students are.

There is a tremendous debate raging about whether schools would be better off being state-run, under a voucher system, or altogether privatized. This too is ultimately irrelevant.

The world’s education systems, even in the United States and other First World nations, often fail to teach even the most basic skills of reading, writing and arithmetic. About 115 million primary-age children in the world are not even enrolled in school; 862 million adults are illiterate. And yet, even this tragedy is not at the core of the problem.

John Adams, the second U.S. president, said, “There are two educations. One should teach us how to make a living and the other how to live.” The loss of this second type of education is at the heart of today’s educational crisis!

Much of the time, our educational institutions adequately prepare modern youths to earn a decent income after high school or college. Yet, when it comes to instilling true standards, codes of conduct and right morals into the minds of pupils, our school instructors are, by and large, inept—simply because they have never received a true education in how to live by these living laws which govern success.

The crux of the educational crisis is this: Mankind has forgotten where true education comes from. Why? Because man has cut himself off from the source of true education: revelation from our Creator God about how to live.

Schools don’t—and can’t—offer their students true education in right living, because the Creator God has been forcibly shut out of the public school system. The precept of separation of church and state, once intended to protect freedom of religion, has been used to gradually eliminate religion as part of America’s national identity.

And the phenomenon is not new. The choice to reject godly education is as old as man himself.

Bible history reveals that when the first man, Adam, chose to eat of the forbidden fruit, he rejected God as the true Revealer of knowledge. He observed his situation, used his own human reasoning to determine that he could eat of that fruit, and then conducted the first-ever human “scientific” experiment to see what would happen. Adam’s offspring have been doing the same thing ever since: relying on observation, experimentation and human reason to acquire material knowledge.

A frank look at today’s educational systems shows that humans continue to experiment with no foundation for knowledge. People continue to teach erroneous conclusions based on their false premises.

No wonder there is an education crisis! When you start with a wrong premise, you will get a wrong result every time.

God’s Word, the Bible, provides basic instruction on every topic that could possibly be taught at any school: science, architecture, farming, finances, etc. It provides the necessary foundation God intended us to build upon. Yet, mankind as a whole has rejected the revealed truths contained in the Bible as a basis for how to live. And so, man doesn’t know how to properly conduct himself. If we don’t know how to live, how can we possibly know how to educate?

However, humanity’s rejection of the Almighty God doesn’t have to stop you and your family from receiving godly education. God wants you to have the best education possible!

But be aware: There is no four-year diploma granting you a godly education. A doctorate won’t provide it either. Becoming a professor in this world’s leading institutions does not guarantee that you yourself are truly educated.

The only thing that will make you truly educated is revelation from God. He is the only source and foundation of all true knowledge.