Regnery, 2018.
The classroom has now become a battle ground. The school system that most of us went to decades ago is no longer recognisable, because the radical takeover of Western education is now nearly complete. The biggest winners in all this are the radical secular leftists. The biggest losers are our children and grandchildren.
Numerous books over the years have warned about the downward spiral public education is in. Many of these volumes -such as those penned by Thomas Sowell, Ben Shapiro, David Horowitz, and Dinesh D’Sousa – looked at how bad the situation is in our universities.
That is why this brand-new book is so important. The main message of the volume is found in its subtitle: “Why You Should Pull Your Child from Public School Before It’s Too Late”. In short, say the authors, “public schools are failing our children morally, culturally and academically”.
And in 300 pages this is all documented very thoroughly indeed. In fact, a third of the book is devoted to footnotes, and they are just as important to read and study as the rest of the book. All up the case is forcefully made: modern public education in America is likely beyond repair, and other options must be explored by concerned parents.
The situation in America really is quite dire. The problem is not with the rank and file personnel, but with progressive activists: just about everything concerning the schools, from curriculum to discipline to school policies, “are determined by progressive ideologues, both inside and outside the school systems.”
As an introductory paragraph points out:
It’s time for an honest conversation about why we are losing our kids. Why are the children of patriotic Americans ready to believe the worst about their country? Why are the sons and daughters of committed believers becoming moral relativists and “nones”? Why are the children of well-grounded adults growing up unsure of “who they are” in the most basic sense—whether they are male or female—even as they embrace the mandates of identity politics?
The authors say that the militant homosexual and transgender gospel being peddled everywhere in our schools is the last straw, and demonstrates conclusively just how rotten to the core public education now is. Thus the opening chapters of the book look in some detail at the madness of the gender bender revolution which is being rammed down the throats of our children.
Most schools have now fully embraced the radical gender policies and philosophy. The result of this ideological crusade is that “the state will no longer take account of biological sex, an existential reality in the life of every person.” Indeed, “every cell in the body is male or female, a physiological reality that will not change, ever.”
This is as ludicrous as it is harmful: “If a four-foot tall child who can’t swim wanted to jump into five feet of water because he had a deeply held sense that he was six feet tall, would you let him jump?” All this despite the fact that medical researchers keep demonstrating just how different the two sexes really are.
The authors demonstrate how the devious gender ideology is now found everywhere in the school system, beginning with the earliest ages. And there are plenty of consequences, from students being sent to the principals’ office for using the wrong pronoun, to teachers being fired for refusing to go along with this moonbattery.
And it is the poor children themselves who suffer the most: “Lies don’t heal, and wounded people deserve more than a protocol that puts them on a treacherous journey that may require lifelong medication and major surgical interventions, burdened by extraordinarily high rates of suicide, mental illness, physical illness, and more.”
Those staff and teachers who seek to resist all this face mounting pressure from “their own professional organisations, from school boards, and from progressive advocacy groups.” Indeed, radical leftist groups and individuals are pouring heaps of money to ensure these radical agendas are in the schools and being fully implemented.
Tragically, it is now impossible to put the transgender genie back in the bottle, at least in the public schools. The education establishment has fully embraced gender ideology. Families who stay in the public school system must understand that the gender ideologues intend to indoctrinate their children. There is no “safe space” from gender ideology in the public schools.
Other chapters in this book assess some of the other major problems found in the public school system, including the war on religion, the attempt to denigrate patriotism and stir up hostility to America, and the dumbing down of academic standards.
And the schools have become quite adept at turning kids into activists to fight perceived sexism, racism, xenophobia, transphobia, homophobia and all the other isms and phobias. Globalist political agendas, and denigration of the West and its achievements, are now routinely preached in many public schools.
A student may enter a school as a religious, moral, patriotic individual, but will likely leave as a secular, androgynous, immoral progressive. And in all of this the parents are increasingly powerless. Indeed, they are usually excluded from decisions impacting their children, and are often kept in the dark as to the radical agendas being foisted on their kids.
Parents become ever more marginalised as the State takes over. Values, beliefs and cultural habits that once were the domain of parents are now being inculcated by the secular state. No wonder the schools are turning students against parents.
Another chapter looks at how the public school system is raising a generation of kids who are perpetually offended, and constantly triggered with microaggressions. These fragile dandelions are taught to take offense at everything and live as perennial adolescents, emoting their way through life.
As the authors put it, “Thanks to progressive identity politics fused with a victim mentality, our public schools are producing a generation of ‘snowflakes’ ill-prepared for the challenges of adult life and unwilling to engage differing viewpoints.”
The authors finish their book with these words:
Public education in America is a sinking ship. Whatever you think about the idea of state-run schools, the system is, for the time being, corrupted beyond repair. It is a monopoly run by a ring of teachers’ unions and ideologues intent on denying parents not only the freedom to choose the school where their children spend thirty-five hours a week, but also the right to be informed about the values and beliefs in which those schools are indoctrinating their children. Since this monopoly is mandated, funded, and protected by government, only government is powerful enough to break it up. Parents certainly aren’t. Our best option is to shake up the system by pulling our children out. Forcing it to change or become irrelevant….
American parents must face the reality that public schools are not going to improve in the next few decades. The political and ideological headwinds are too strong. As parents, you must first take care of your own children. It would be unthinkable to sacrifice your child’s future for the survival of the public school system. Look for alternatives: private school, parochial school, home school, cyber education, co-ops. Only you will be able to discern which school is right for your child. But we can assure you that if you are concerned about your child’s faith, intellectual formation, and patriotism, public schools are working against you. It’s time to get out, now.
The authors conclude with a helpful Q&A appendix. For example, ‘Can’t parents just opt out of objectionable materials in schools?’ No: in many schools now “you can’t ‘opt out’ of gender ideology. It’s not taught as a discrete class but pervades the entire curriculum and school’s culture.”
Or, ‘I can’t afford private education’. Yes there certainly are financial challenges – no question. But a parent’s most important role “as the primary educator of your child is exercising meaningful oversight when your child is in school. Public schools crowd parents out of the picture with government ideology, goals, content and curriculum. While private schooling and homeschooling are not panaceas, they provide a better opportunity to watch over the well-being of their children.”
And another common objection: ‘Shouldn’t my kids let their light shine in pagan schools?’ A few mature and spiritually solid children might be able to do this, but most will likely be won over to the dark side. There is nothing amiss in protecting children from the ungodly and immoral agendas being pushed in schools. They quote Matt Walsh:
“The question is not whether our kids will be exposed to this or that depravity, but when and how and in what context? Are you prepared to trust the school’s judgment on when Junior is ready to learn about concepts like ‘transgenderism’? Do you trust their judgment on how he learns about it, and what he’s told about it?”
Again, ‘Can parents be trusted with school vouchers?’ Say the authors:
If you believe, with the progressives, that the state is the primary educator of our children, then the state should call the shots. We are convinced, however, that parents are uniquely qualified to oversee their children’s education – not because they are experts about education but because they are experts about their own children, if we’re right about that, then parents should have a say in how their education tax dollars are spent.
Our schools may well be in terminal decline. Some parents may choose to stay and fight. That is their choice. But it is really their children who are being forced to stay and fight. However, if even half of what we read here is accurate, they may be in a losing battle.
At the very least, this book deserves a wide reading. We owe it to our children to get the word out.
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