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Quote of the Day: Waging War on our Schools
“If the state-operated schools are now waging war on the nation’s moral, historical, philosophical, and religious foundations, then they would seem to have forfeited their legitimacy as the proper vehicle to carry out the mission with which the American People have charged them.” — Former U.S. Attorney General William Barr
At first glance, we might not be willing to blame the state school administrators and unions for hijacking our schools so drastically and at so many levels. But, in fact, they have armed themselves with Leftist rhetoric, distortions of history, substituted an American philosophy with a racist ideology and regularly denigrated and undermined religion in multiple ways.
We tend to focus on the latest hot topic of school abuse: at the moment, Critical Race Theory is at the forefront. For many years this topic was taught without the parents or general public even knowing what children were being taught. Then some parents learned what was happening, most recently in Loudoun County in Virginia, and began protesting the brainwashing of their children with this propaganda. At first, the Left tried to explain what they were “actually” teaching; their explanations only inflamed parents. Then they denied they were teaching what parents insisted they were teaching. Now, they are trying to make believe that there’s nothing untoward going on; they are silent as protests continue. But their silence only validates their anti-American intentions.
Meanwhile, attacks abound on the other fronts mentioned: traditional morality is openly ridiculed in the face of moral relativism; the 1619 project continues to be part of the curriculum indoctrination, even though respected historians have pointed out its many omissions and errors; philosophy is buried in the doctrine of the Leftist ideology of equity, inclusion, and diversity; and religion is discredited as primitive myth. Essentially, school children are being flooded at every level of their education, which not only undermines the education process but creates tensions between the students and their parents, as both groups try to make sense of what is going on.
One thing is certain: public schools’ powers need to be denied or circumvented if we are to survive this assault on our beliefs and practices. It will be difficult, but we have no choice. We can no longer sit back and hope for the best. To the most ardent Leftist, this is the best way to transform America
By controlling our children.
Published in Education
I agree 100%. Our last stand in the culture wars is K-12 schools. Our backs are against the wall. But they are coming for our children, so I have faith that we will fight with intensity and purpose. But we must not get caught up in the language wars when they try to split hairs over the meaning of CRT. I want to hear more people saying: I don’t care what you call it. It is anti-American, illiberal Marxist garbage. And it does not belong in our schools.
Absolutely correct, @gossamercat. They can play the word game all they want, but we know the truth. I think we will need to get our legislators (who haven’t already been corrupted) to take action in some way that limits what the teachers and superintendents can do. We’ve had enough of this travesty.
I’m drafting a bill to introduce in the Illinois House that will require schools to post their curriculum on their websites. Hopefully it’ll give parents more of an idea of what’s being taught to their kids. It’s an idea I got from reading this (click here) article proposing an Academic Transparency Act. Being that it’s Illinois with its preponderance of teachers’ union influence, it probably won’t go anywhere unless parents pick up the torch and take it to local school boards. I recently got an email from a parent in another district who’s part of a group starting to push back against CRT, so even here in this bluest of states, things may be starting to move.
That’s wonderful news, @illiniguy! We have no idea when we start out what will actually take seed and bloom. I’m very glad to hear about your bill, and happy that even in Illinois, people are waking up!
It’s a start. However, they can post whatever they want, but teach something else entirely different . . .
Not if your resident Illinois legislator does a tight enough job of drafting his bill.
Where has Bill Barr been for the last 50 years? In the 1970s I had an ardent propaganda-spewing socialist social studies teacher and later in college an ardent propaganda-spewing socialist philosophy professor. The gradual Marxist takeover of the academy and the schools has been well documented by former Marxists like David Horowitz and others. How did Bill Ayers become a professor given his criminal background as a domestic terrorist?
Here’s a video with David Horowitz from 12 years ago.
And this guy has a pretty good take on it (of course, he has a pretty good take on a lot of issues):
I agree this propaganda was happening in the universities, @brianwatt, as David Horowitz has been saying for a long time. But I think it was later that it started to happen in the K-12 grades. Besides, at least Barr was speaking out about it. Who else has been calling out the problem? Anyone who does speak up, at any time, is to be celebrated in my book.
Edit: the same goes for Jordan Peterson.
I found this to be the case in my 9th grader’s English class in 2019 when they were doing a unit on identity. Parents received a letter that explained the sensitive topics that would be discussed including gender and sexual identity. However, reading the letter with the traditional understanding that gender was binary, I was completely unprepared for the actual lesson on gender identity. My daughter told me about if, but says it was presented on slides of which she didn’t have a copy. If I brought it up to the teacher, she feared repercussions. It’s not just CRT or gender identity; it’s the assault on objective standards overall. CRT, DEI, and gender identity theory are all parts of the mission to undermine the meritocratic system that follows from ideas about individual liberty.
“Choice” is a weapon of the Left, never something that is granted by the Left.
I agree with your post overall, but I do wish that we could point to specifics more often in trying to pin down what’s actually happening. My sense is that the biggest problems are in “blue” states or cities, where the parents may support this kind of teaching. I’m watching out for it in our children’s new public schools, but it really doesn’t seem to be happening in Texas where we are. Of course, I think the activists have their sights on expanding as far into Ted states as they can.
Yes, bully for Barr that he feels woke enough now and compelled to jump into the spotlight and get attention on this issue. I do question why he is seeking the spotlight, though. Does he feel he must solidify his conservative bona fides in the wake of the most corrupt election in the nation’s history and his declaration that any evidence of election fraud was in his words “bullish*t”?
FWIW, here’s a Federalist article from 3 years ago on the topic:
https://thefederalist.com/2018/10/26/public-schools-indoctrinate-kids-without-almost-anyone-noticing/
Here’s an article in The American Conservative from 4 years ago on the topic:
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/liberal-bias-starts-long-before-college/
Here’s and excerpt from an article from The Manhattan Institute from 11 years ago (I think we know someone from Ricochet there):
I sure hope that Mike Pence and Jim Mattis also opine on this issue soon.
I wish we knew more, too, @lillyb. You’ve alluded to the problem: there are multiple curricula, companies selling all kinds of versions, and the states offering it are going to work even harder at being in the shadows. I also suspect that there are also many parents in the blue states who would protest this curriculum if they knew what was going in; in Loudoun County, VA, I have the feeling that folks on the Left and Right were not happy. Has Texas banned CRT? I thought Abbott might have done that. I know that DeSantis has here in FL.
Didn’t this start with John Dewey back in the 19th century?
But under what common circumstance is it now reasonable to allow the state to take over the parent’s duty an responsibility for their children’s education?
I regularly hear parents say how it’s not like that at my kid’s school: Really? Are you sure? How do you know?
That’s what I thought: this is about Barr and Trump, isn’t it? I’d rather not go in that direction, Brian. You can dislike the man, but that doesn’t mean what he said is wrong. Besides, I’ll check on it but I think the quote came from a speech he gave a while back.
I believe the quotation comes from a talk he gave at Notre Dame on October 19, 2019.
Who brought up Trump? Trump has nothing to do with it. Try not to be too quick to apply a label to me.
It makes me wonder, too. Many parents have no idea what their kids are learning; I suspect those who respond in this way are acting defensively. Thanks, @chuckles.
I should have said Barr’s response to the election (which is what you said). Sorry. Doesn’t change my response otherwise.
I’ve read that there are many teachers who don’t care if teaching CRT is illegal; they’re going to do it anyway. Will there be any consequences? Probably not.
I think actions will unfortunately depend on the reaction of parents. If they scream loud enough, something may be done. I vote for suspension first, and if there’s non-compliance, fire ’em. But that’s me.
I read that one school district recommended that teachers have two curricula, one to teach and one to show parents.
First, we don’t know if that’s true. I suspect all kinds of people are going to try to do whatever they can to get around directives. Second, you only need to ask the kids what they’re learning. It will become clear quickly for parents who track what their kids are learning (even just a bit) if they’re being lied to. And then there are the people who are running for school boards; they can make the consequences serious for people who lie to the public.
Yes . . . I would say that the “woke” has slipped in so gradually and without complaint for so long that the frog in the kettle has boiled completely away, and nobody realized it was even missing. Environmentalism has long been one of the chief religions found in public schools, but other leftist disciplines are rapidly gaining dominance.
One of the difficulties is that educrats have created a very opaque sort of jargon that hides the wokeness behind seemingly benign concepts. You need an educrat-to-English glossary to figure out what they’re even talking about.
All I know is that when you see something like “equitable outcomes” . . . run! Run away very fast!
This just posted on Townhall:
you need VIP access to read it, but apparently the DOE received 35000 comments objecting to grants to support teaching the 1619 project and they backed off. For now. The Heritage Foundation organized the campaign.
Conservatives See a Win in Critical Race Theory Fight at the Federal Level
Is it possible that this was one of the least corrupt election in our nation’s history and that Barr was accurate to say that Trump’s Big Lie as in his own words, “bullsh*t”?
Please ignore the latest attempt to hijack another thread.
I think this is one of the reasons the left is fighting so hard this time. They know that it’s best to reach ’em while they’re young. If they lose control of public education, they have a much harder battle.
Which is why this one is SO important. It’s been heartening to see parents fighting their school districts all across the country. These people are fighting harder to save education than the GOP ever did.