What is the purpose of education?

If asked that question today, many may say something about acquiring a good job, advancing a career or learning about the world.

But in the nascent days of our nation, education was tied to the teaching of morality and virtue and was viewed as an indispensable support for good government.

The Northwest Ordinance was adopted by the Confederation Congress in 1787 and established a government for the Northwest Territories. It affirmed that, “Religion, morality and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.”

A recent poll by Fox News reveals a continuing problem Americans have in understanding what the current law is concerning abortion, versus what they want it to be. While the nation is evenly split over whether abortion should be prohibited or permitted in some or all cases, nearly two-thirds say they support the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade.

If you recognize the logical inconsistency there, you’re not alone. There’s a disconnect uncovered by the poll between what Roe means and what people think it means.

First, the numbers from the poll.

Over 1,000 registered voters were surveyed from September 12-15. Of those, 65% say Roe should be allowed to stand while only 28% say it should be overturned. The political and religious splits are interesting. The 65% is made up of 53% of Republicans and 77% of Democrats, 72% of Catholics and 49% of white evangelical Christians. 

Sunday evening, HBO aired the beginning of an interesting three-part documentary entitled “Nuclear Family.” No, it is not a careful examination of the natural-married-mother/father-raising-their-own-children family form. Neither is it an attack on that ideal either. It is actually a very curious and unexpected defense of why the married mother/father family will not, and cannot, be so easily displaced. The title is a curious play on the word “nuclear.”

The three-hour documentary film – the remaining two episodes airing the evenings of Oct 3 and 10 on HBO — was created by director Ry Russo-Young. The New York Times describes Russo-Young as “born in 1981, in the first generation of children raised by openly gay and lesbian parents.” She was raised in avant garde 1980s Greenwich Village and The New York Times Magazine profiled Russo-Young as a 22-year-old filmmaker in a 2004 cover story entitled “Growing Up With Mom and Mom.”