On April 23rd of this year, parents across America staged a “walkout” (taking their kids out of schools) to protest the sexually explicit and perverse instructions by Planned Parenthood that are being taught in their schools. PJ Media has previously reported exactly how the Planned Parenthood curriculum uses pornography to teach sexual deviancy.
Is this the kind of education you want for your kids in elementary school, middle school, or high school? If not, then maybe you should consider having a protest at your school. It might help. Or it might not. My hunch is that the educrats in charge of your public schools by and large will not care. The educrats in charge might remove a thing or two today, but they will bide their time and eventually sneak in more destruction later — when parents are not looking.
(This article is not a cut against the many dedicated and courageous teachers who slug it out day after day in the public schools. They are missionaries, trying to be lights in a very tough environment. I am simply asking if parents should continue to keep their kids in environments that are increasingly harmful to their moral, physical, and academic wellbeing.)
Instead of just walking out of your traditional neighborhood public school for a day, why not pull out your kids permanently? Parents should consider the following list of disturbing trends and reconsider their child’s education in the public schools. (I also have a few alternatives to the traditional public school at the end of the article.)
1. LGBTQ propaganda.
As I stated in a previous PJ Media article, California mandates that all public school students from kindergarten to the twelfth grade learn a special kind of history. It’s not enough to learn about the Egyptians or the Greeks or World War II (if such things are still taught), but kids as young as kindergarten are to be taught the joys of the LGBTQ community and their contributions to society. Illinois is now considering such a bill.
Is there some hue and cry among American parents that their kids are NOT being taught enough about homosexuality? LGBTQ activists are quite upfront about their need to indoctrinate your children as early as possible in order to recruit them and get them to accept their lifestyle as normal. Is this the kind of education you want for your six-year-old?
Is discussing the merits of famous drag queens or transgenders the kind of instruction you want for your fifth grader? In California, and in the Illinois bill, there is NO “opting out” for parents who object to this agenda being forced on their children. Don’t think for a second that this can’t happen in your state.
2. “White privilege” propaganda.
Recently, an elementary school in Raleigh, North Carolina, started teaching the dogma of “white privilege” to six-year-olds.
“White privilege” is simply another racist, Marxist piece of drivel designed to divide people based on the idea that there are certain systemic factors in our society that favor whites over everyone of color. Here is Ben Shapiro’s take on the theory of “white privilege” (pardon some of his profanity):
Here is Jay Fayza debunking the theory of white privilege with facts:
Here is Ami Horowitz at a “White Privilege Conference” asking pointed questions of the true believers:
However, do you think your second grader is mentally and academically equipped to sort through the propaganda of the white privilege purveyors? Do you know if this sort of bilge is being taught to your children? If it is, what are you doing about it?
3. Climate change propaganda.
Really “hot” topic here (pun intended). The theory of climate change is being taught as fact in public schools across America. Of course the developed world (especially America) is to be blamed for virtually destroying the weather patterns of planet Earth, and we’re all going to die in 50 or 100 or 1,000 years if we don’t erase dependency on fossil fuels (even though meteorologists cannot accurately predict the weather ten days out). That public schools are teaching this as established fact is beyond doubt.
There is still considerable debate among legitimate scientists regarding man’s role in any sort of climate change, and the usual claim that “97 percent of scientists believe in man-made climate change” is bogus:
Do you want your children to be in an environment where questions are welcomed and all scientific positions are examined fairly, or do you want them simply indoctrinated in one scientific theory only? Here is one interesting story about a high school student who debated her science teacher on the theory of global warming/climate change.
4. Lack of history/civics/economics/geography.
Recently CBS News and the Associated Press reported that 4 in 10 millennials do not know about, or aren’t sure that they’ve heard about, the Holocaust. Two-thirds of millennials did not know what Auschwitz was. If this story is true, how did these young people become so ignorant of history? Where are they being educated? Check out these stories documenting the decline of history education in America’s public schools.
When it comes to economics, a growing number of millennials believe in socialism (which basically means that they have a right to whatever you have earned). Along the way, someone has failed to teach them the basic economics of a free society, and to ask them some fundamental questions about private property and human nature. My previous article, “Seven Questions for Young Socialists,” is a good primer for an economics class.
Do you want your children growing up to believe that they have a right to take what others have earned? Do you want them to believe that they have a right to live at the expense of others? If parents want their kids to know that free enterprise (capitalism) has lifted more people out of poverty than any other economic system in the history of mankind, then maybe concerned parents need to take a hard look at what their kids are actually learning (or not learning) and seriously get them the good information that they need about capitalism.
Are kids learning civics, citizenship, the philosophical framework of a constitutional republic, and patriotism? In some schools, probably. Certainly not enough. In public schools across the land, students are being taught to be “global citizens.” In this Harvard International Review article, the authors bemoan that too many Americans see themselves as U.S. citizens and not enough see themselves as global citizens.
The National Education Association (our nation’s largest teachers’ union) advocates turning our kids into “global citizens.” Here are 60 lessons from the NEA on how to turn your kids into “global citizens.” Under the guise of teaching kids to compete in a global market, they want your children to become “global citizens.” What exactly is a global citizen? What government represents you and is answerable to you as a global citizen? Why the UN of course! What ever happened to teaching kids to be good citizens of the United States?
Over the past ten years Common Core has received much notoriety. Is this federal-government-mandated curriculum helping the education of American students? Studies have given a clear answer: no. The Federalist’s Joy Pullmann outlined clearly the top ten problems with this federal control of your child’s education.
Here is a delightful video of 100-year-old math teacher Madeline Sotto giving us her opinion about Common Core math:
5. School violence.
I think we’ve all seen enough school massacres to give us nightmares for the rest of our lives. So now, schools are armed with police and metal detectors. Kids must go to school with clear backpacks.
We’re just supposed to take this prison environment, I suppose. This is just the way it’s going to be from now on, right?
Beyond the headlines of school massacres are the true stories of bullying, assault and rape, and drug sales. The AP reported 17,000 cases of sexual assault from 2011 to 2015. The Washington Post reports that sexual assault is not just a problem on college campuses.
It’s not just students abusing their fellow students. It’s also teachers raping their students. According to this report from Investor’s Business Daily, one in ten students will be sexually abused by a teacher at least once during their time in school.
During the Obama era, public schools (because they are essentially an arm of the federal government now) were forced to keep thugs in the schools. If they kicked out violent offenders, they would not get as much money in federal aid. Although the Trump administration says it is cutting back on these regulations, who knows if it will actually happen or if a future administration will just reinstate them.
So what is a concerned parent to do? Well, you can protest all you want. You can go to the school board and demand change. You might get arrested by the “tolerant” educrats who don’t care what you think, as in this story.
Or you can remove your children from a decaying public institution that is more interested in pushing political agendas than in educating and protecting kids. There are several objections to this: “Our school is different.” “I can’t afford to put my kid anywhere else.” “What about my kids’ sports or music programs?” “All my kids’ friends are in that school.” I get it. It is very difficult to uproot and move kids to another environment.
But you only get one shot at your child’s academic and moral education. Maybe you are just fine with what’s going on in your child’s public school. Fine. However, what I have documented here are real clear dangers to students and our nation. What are some options?
If parents are still sold on public schools, they can try a non-traditional approach to public education: charter schools. They are public schools, but have quite a bit more latitude in what is taught.
Students can also have a public education at home. In Ohio students can attend a school online. The same curriculum in the traditional public school is used at the online school, so that may not be agreeable to some parents. However, if parents feel that their child is in physical danger at the school, this would certainly be a safer option.
Of course, there are private schools. Many parents immediately write off private schools (whether they are religiously based or not) because they cannot afford the tuition. Many private schools do have scholarships, and in some cities there are school vouchers available to poorer families so they can put their kids in a quality school.
Finally, there is home education. Millions of Americans have chosen this option, which is legal in every state in the union. Some states may be more restrictive than others, but it’s still legal. In some states, such as Ohio, a homeschooling family can take in students from other families. In Ohio, a homeschooling family can take up to three students who are not part of the family.
My wife and I home educated our four children for 23 years. When people asked me, “Why are you doing this?” I would answer, “Our school is guaranteed thug-free, drug-free, illiteracy-free, and massacre-free. Can your school guarantee all of that? Mine does.” As for the usual objections to homeschooling (“what about ‘socialization’?” “will colleges accept them?”), our four kids are all grown now and following their career paths. One is an athletic trainer at a major university, another is a former Marine and currently a federal law enforcement officer, another works full time with Alzheimer’s patients and is going to school, and the last one is on track to becoming a professional ballerina.
They all learned to read and write (even in cursive!), math, science, history, geography, civics, all kinds of sports (three of them are black belts), art, and music (all four kids took piano for years). And we did it on one middle-class income. We had to sacrifice quite a bit, but it was definitely worth it.
There are options. You don’t have to settle for whatever the government-run schools hand you.
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