This past week was National School Choice Week, bringing a renewed focus on the assertion that Americans value our children and want what is best for them in every way, including the best in education.
We want to know that our children are taught the highest possible levels of reading, writing, arithmetic, science, technology, history and civics. In essence, we want actual outcome-based education that rewards success and remediates failure, while focusing on what is best for the child. Sounds reasonable, right?
Let me state it clearly: Conservatives want our children to be educated. Liberal progressives just want our children.
Think back to your own school days. Do you remember when we were taught in school to literally conspire with our teachers to say or do things that our parents wouldn’t like, and to enjoy the salacious nature of having a trusted adult help us rebel against our own families?
You don’t remember doing that? Neither do I. None of us do. It’s wrong, and any teacher who tried that back in the day would find himself out on his ear.
But I’m sure that you recall those halcyon days of learning when you learned about the fundamentals of biology, anatomy and physiology. Even though the course content said one thing, your teachers told you that the science was all bunk and the textbooks were wrong, because any male could be a female and vice versa.
You don’t remember that? Neither do I. None of us do. Any teacher who tried that would be run out of town on a rail.
Okay, but remember when we were taught in English class to use proper pronouns based upon the standards of use for the English language, and then went down the hall to our next class and had another teacher tell us that we could misappropriate pronouns for our own satisfaction? That she could be used for a he, and that they/them could be used on a singular person?
Yeah, that didn’t happen in my school, and I guarantee it didn’t happen in yours either. But it happens far too often now. Any teacher back in the day that attempted such tripe would be sent packing forthwith.
Okay, maybe those things didn’t happen, but I’m sure you recall when you were taught that these United States that won two world wars, abolished slavery, put a man on the moon, invented the modern industrial age, and more, really didn’t come to be in 1776. Our country started in 1619 with slavery, and this great nation is systemically racist and not worth saving.
Was that in your history books? It was not in mine either, and any teacher who tried to foist that kind of dogma on kids would be looking for work the next day.
Every single day we are catching more glimpses into the activist factories that some schools have become. Too often a new social media post or TikTok video shows us schools where every value, belief, patriotic verve, and faith-based position is laid bare and vacated by activists who pose as teachers.
I know and believe that many educators are not on board at all with the kind of educational indoctrination that I just described. Most classrooms are filled with wonderful people who have a calling to truly love and educate our kids. But too many of them are also aware of off-putting activism that happens in the neighboring classroom, and they are reticent to get involved.
Whether for fear or complacency, too many real teachers choose silence in the face of the foolishness perpetrated by their coworkers. It’s a vain attempt to avoid the shouts and aspersions that liberals often employ.
In my view, good teachers need to take back their profession from the crazies who are trying to co-opt it, making a mockery of the education profession in the process. I guarantee that parents will rally for a teacher that brings common sense back to these uncommon times.
If a teacher or superintendent calls out a neighboring classroom set up as so-called safe space for kids to change their names, pronouns, and allegedly their genders, or the classroom down the hall where students are taught to despise the flag of the United States or deny scientific reason by proclaiming that men can get pregnant, parents will appreciate it. Good teachers will find that parents and concerned citizens get their backs.
But that means we’ve got to keep up our end of the bargain. Gone are the days when we can just turn a blind eye. Gone are the days where we can just shrug our shoulders and say, “that’s not my kid so it’s not my fight.” Progressive liberals want our kids, and if it’s not your kid today, then it will be your grandchild tomorrow, or that sweet neighbor’s kid who plays in the yard, or the little minions that run in the hallways of your church, play on the playground on the corner, and get too loud in the grocery store. Our communities must rally for our kids.
This nation is filled with good teachers — educators who value children and real education, and who will take a stand for our kids. And when they do, it is our mission to get their back.
It’s for our kids.
To contact Phil or request him for a speaking engagement, go to www.rightsideradio.org. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News. To comment, please send an email with your name and contact information to Commentary@1819News.com.
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