Sadly Standing the Test of Time

My most frequent reaction when I read my own Musings from long-past years, is, “Wow. This has been an issue for a long time.” Eleven years ago I suggested that parents be on high alert as to what their children were being taught in school. That alert should now be code-red.

Back then I wrote, “As uncomfortable as it may make us, we have to recognize that teacher training in this country trends very left.” These words almost make no sense anymore. If there is anyone still unfamiliar with how woke the educational establishment is, they might consider self-identifying as an ostrich.

If you missed my piece, which now sounds mild, or if you know any young parents confidently handing over responsibility for their children to their children’s school, here is my blog from 2013, entitled It’s (almost) September: Do You Know Where Your Children Are?

During the 1960’s and onwards, a New York TV station prefaced the 10 o’clock news with the phrase, “It’s 10 PM. Do you know where your children are?” As a child, in the safe boundaries of my urban middle-class neighborhood, I assumed it was a reminder to parents that their kids might still be on the street playing hopscotch or punch ball. Apparently, it was actually tied into youth violence and curfews, drug use, and later used to highlight child abduction.

The fact is that for two summer months, my friends and I would head out each morning moving in and out of each other’s homes and playing in the street. In pre-cell phone days, our mothers never knew exactly where we were and simply expected us to show up for lunch, supper, and bedtime. Times have changed and very few parents today would allow their children to roam free in a similar setting.

When my grandparents enrolled their children in city public schools, I’m sure it was with great gratitude. In those days, their children could acquire a free first-class education and families could supplement religious studies, if they chose to do so. Indeed, my mother and her siblings as first-generation Americans became educated, productive, contributing members of society while also having the freedom to remain true to their parents’ values and traditions.

When September came around, my grandparents knew where their children were. They were safely ensconced in the classroom, receiving guidance to help them become competent, learned, and moral citizens.

Filling in for my husband on his radio show a few weeks ago, I asked listeners what would need to happen for them to decide that they could no longer send their children to public school. I discussed Eric Holder’s Department of Justice weighing in on the issue of children being allowed to choose which gender bathroom they wanted to use, as only one of numerous changes continually eroding the nation’s schools. I mentioned that while many of us feel that public education has generally deteriorated, most of us will explain that the particular school our child attends is a good one.

Yet, as my radio show guest, Tim Daughtry, pointed out in a later hour, liberalism is winning the culture wars through immersion, not conversion. As uncomfortable as it may make us, we have to recognize that teacher training in this country trends very left. Even teachers who are personally conservative often don’t recognize the liberal messages they are teaching.

Years ago, I was a consultant for a private school. One of the administrators showed me a reading list for third graders filled with wonderfully written books that I agreed the children should read. However, I pointed out that every single book focused on America’s failures! There were numerous books on slavery and discrimination as well as others on events like the Cherokee Trail of Tears.

There were no inspiring books on the foundations of this country or its greatness. I advised that as important as it is for our children to know of our country’s struggles and failings, that knowledge should be preceded and outweighed by learning about our freedoms, principles, and strengths.

Schools that hold events that focus on clean air and water (who can argue with that?) but never emphasize the grandeur of a free business climate, automatically prime our children to be susceptible to far-left environmental and anti-capitalist messages. Talk of tolerance and love that suggests tolerance and love for all views and actions, but never mentions those held and practiced by religious Americans except to point them out as bigoted, sets our children up to scorn our teachings. Sadly, too many of my friends are perplexed that their children, who were brought to church or synagogue, and whom they love and cherish, have rejected their values on issue after issue.

I used to say that while I loved homeschooling, I didn’t think it was an option for everyone. I am no longer sure that there is a choice. Certainly, today, each and every parent has to assume the main responsibility for their child’s education. If the child goes to a public—or private—school, the parents need to be frequently, and unexpectedly, in the classroom, monitoring textbooks and hand-outs (including ones the children are told not to bring home), and staying completely on top of all assemblies, trips, and school events. Just as there isn’t any longer a choice for most parents to turn a child onto the street at 8 am saying, “See you back at noon,” without any idea of where they will be or with whom, there is no longer a choice to trust anyone other than ourselves with our children’s tender souls.

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