When I look back at school, I do not just see a place of learning. I see a system that knew how to pull the brightest kids away from childlike trust in God and push them toward pride.
It started early.
The smart kids were the ones who got praised the most. They were the ones who got the top marks, the teacher approval, the awards, the applause, and the identity that came with being seen as “special.” That sounds harmless on the surface, but it can become a trap very quickly. A child starts off with a gift from God, like intelligence, memory, focus, or understanding, and then that gift gets turned into a ladder for self-glory.
That is how the hijack begins.
They were taught to chase first place in tests. First place in class. First place in rankings. Then it became university. Then career. Then money. Then status. Then prestige. Then a life built on being impressive in the eyes of the world.
And through all of that, where was trust in God?
Where was the call to humility?
Where was the warning that knowledge without wisdom can destroy a person?
Where was the reminder that a man can gain the whole world and still lose his soul?
That is what I mean when I say Satan brainwashed and hijacked the smart kids at school.
Not that every smart kid became evil.
Not that learning itself is evil.
But the system knew how to take gifted children and feed the flesh in a respectable way. It trained them to measure their worth by performance. It taught them that being ahead of others mattered. It taught them that success meant climbing above the rest. It trained them to lean on their own understanding and trust their own minds, instead of trusting God.
That is why so many bright people end up spiritually blind.
They are not blind because they lack information. They are blind because they were trained to worship intellect, achievement, and self-reliance. They learned to respect credentials more than wisdom. They learned to value career more than calling. They learned to see university as salvation, ambition as virtue, and worldly success as proof of worth.
And after enough years of that, they do not even realise what happened.
They just think it is normal.
That is why I sometimes say graduate sounds like gradually indoctrinate. I am not talking about the literal dictionary origin. I am talking about the process. Step by step. Stage by stage. Year by year. Kids are shaped into the mindset the system wants. Reward by reward, they are trained to chase status, marks, university, and career, while faith in God gets pushed to the side. So even if that is not the official meaning of the word, it still feels like a brutally accurate picture of what happens.
That is how subtle it is.
The enemy does not always pull people away from God through obvious darkness. Sometimes he does it through polished success. Through applause. Through scholarships. Through awards nights. Through elite pathways. Through the constant message that says, “You are your results. You are your achievements. You are your future title. You are what you accomplish.”
But that is not what God says.
God does not measure a person by test scores.
God does not define a soul by university admission.
God does not see career prestige as the highest goal.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, not academic success.
Yet many of the smart kids were quietly taught the opposite. They were taught that the smartest people in the room were the safest people in the room. That the higher they climbed in the world’s system, the more secure they were. That faith was fine in small doses, but real life was about strategy, ambition, and getting ahead.
So pride grew.
Trust in God shrank.
And the more they succeeded in the world’s eyes, the easier it became to believe they no longer needed God at all.
That is the real danger.
A child who fails badly may know they need help. But a child who keeps winning can start to believe they are their own saviour. That is why the smart kids can be such a target. If the enemy can get them to love being admired, to build identity on performance, and to fear losing status, then he has put chains on them that look like medals.
That is not freedom.
That is bondage with certificates.
That is captivity with a graduation cap.
That is deception dressed up as success.
And many people will defend it because it looks clean, respectable, and impressive.
But if the end result is a person who trusts their intellect more than God, their career more than calling, and their ambition more than obedience, then something has gone badly wrong.
That is why biblical wisdom matters so much.
Biblical wisdom teaches humility.
Biblical wisdom teaches dependence on God.
Biblical wisdom teaches that gifts are meant to glorify Him, not self.
Biblical wisdom teaches that being first in the world means nothing if you are far from truth.
So when I say Satan brainwashed and hijacked the smart kids at school, that is what I mean.
He got many of them to chase pride.
He got many of them to chase first place.
He got many of them to chase university and career as if that was the whole point of life.
And in the middle of it all, trust in God was treated like something optional.
That is the warning.
Not all smartness is wisdom.
Not all success is blessing.
And not everyone who graduated actually escaped the indoctrination.
