I homeschooled my children for six years. Many of you who keep up with my columns probably remember me writing about it extensively. I felt then, as I do now, that homeschooling is a superior choice if it can be done, especially when children are little. Not only is it a good foundation for them, but there’s something so warm and cozy about schooling at home. My daughters have great memories of all the time we spent together and all the field trips we went on and the reading-in-bed days and snow days whenever we wanted them. There’s a lot of freedom in homeschooling, but it can be impossible for many families because of expenses and work schedules. Homeschooling is never going to be the answer for everybody.
So it bothers me when some people on the right constantly call for those of you out there using the public school system (that you pay big money for) to pull your kids out and homeschool them. It’s just not practical. And I know that many parents who have children in public school and are struggling with the moral decay and academic failings are stuck with no other choice. Hearing a conservative who can afford to have an at-home parent dedicating his or her full attention to homeschooling telling you to take the same path is frustrating. There have to be options for everyone.
In an all-too-familiar tale, an article came out about 9-year-olds being indoctrinated into critical race theory in a California public school, which caused outrage. For the uninitiated, critical race theory is the most racist drivel you’ve ever heard. It separates people into categories and sub-categories depending on how oppressed they are. It then seeks to humiliate anyone who is not separated into any of those categories and is seen to be at the top. Guess who? White males, of course. God help anyone with a white son these days.
Get your kids out of government schools. https://t.co/0rmIcAkZ8V
— Jesse Kelly (@JesseKellyDC) January 14, 2021
I like Jesse Kelly. I’m sure he has no idea that this suggestion makes a lot of conservative parents sad and anxious because they think they are failing their children if they don’t pull them out of public school. The problem is, they might not be able to pay their bills if they do. For a lot of reasons I won’t go into here, American families rely on two incomes and the cost of living is only going up. Add in the pandemic layoffs and there’s intense financial pain out there. Millions of Americans rely on public schools as the only way to get some kind of education for their children, knowing it’s not the best. That fact alone is an outrageous offense in this wealthiest of nations with school systems flooded in public money that should be cranking out Einsteins. But instead, they are mostly cranking out girls who think they are boys and who can rattle off every member of the gender spectrum but can’t do algebra.
The teacher asked students to create an “identity map,” listing their race, class, gender, religion, family structure, and other characteristics. They were told to “circle the identities that hold power and privilege." pic.twitter.com/pENBJeZ3cF
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) January 13, 2021
Instead of encouraging people to run away and isolate, I wish our big-name conservatives would put together a legal fund to aid parents to sue the pants off any school district that tries to brainwash kids with far-left dogma. It’s your school. Keep it that way. A group of parents at the woke school in Cupertino managed to stop their district without suing. But you have to fight it. You can’t turn and run. And you have to keep fighting them until you win. For a good lesson on that, you can read my book about fighting a corrupt library board. It took three years and multiple lawsuits but we did it and we forced an institution that had been overtaken by the left to follow the law. It was hard. It came with a lot of uncomfortable stuff like bad press and vicious attacks and threats of arrest, but we won. You can never give up. You must exhaust the enemy.
You must study “Rules for Radicals” by Saul Alinsky and use it against the left (more about that in my book). That’s the only battle worth fighting right now. It’s certainly not time for a hot war when the avenues to reform are sitting right there in front of you and the only people walking down them are leftists. Republicans have never learned how to fight back in the political realm. There’s no excuse for that now. Become part of the new breed of Republicans—grow a freaking spine and take the fight right to the enemy’s house. I’ve talked to too many parents in these situations who give up at the first sign of resistance from their local boards and then expect a presidential election to solve their problems.
Here. See? Cojones. Lather, rinse, repeat. https://t.co/Zihj7enceo
— Megan Fox (@MeganFoxWriter) January 14, 2021
Pulling the kids out is not only the wrong answer for parents but it’s the wrong answer for the country. Our institutions cannot be ceded to the left and left to crumble when so many people count on them. There must be a pushback from the people who control the purse. One of the most maddening parts of this presidential election to me is that people all over this country focus solely on Washington, D.C., as the source of and answer to all their problems. But in reality, the machinations in the Capitol and in the White House have very little to do with your life in Mayberry. The election you should be passionate about and get yourself motivated and organized for is your local school board election. But when it comes time for those, hardly anyone shows up to vote. If you could get 100 people to vote for you, you’d probably win. That’s how close most local elections are. All it takes is motivation and the willingness to do it.
If the 75 million or so Americans who feel they are losing their country would run and win the school boards in every county, and town councils, and library boards across this nation, our institutions would be saved. Instead, we allow them to be taken over by radical leftists who will sit through any boring monthly meeting in order to impose their will on unwilling constituents. And the only reason they are there is because you, dear conservative, didn’t run or gave up too soon.
If you care so much about America and its foundations, then quit freaking out about the White House, which is a house of smoke and mirrors, and start freaking out about your local elections. If you can’t run, then find someone who shares your values who will—and then knock on doors for them, raise money, throw events, canvass, organize and campaign for them. It’s no longer an option to sit at home and not bother yourself with how the sausage is made. And until that local uprising begins in earnest, I can’t bother myself to care about what the clown show in Washington is doing.
Look at your hometown. What changes need to be made there? Who do you think is going to make them?
