Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Dennis Prager Admits He Indoctrinates Children
For years, the censors have been trying to characterize Dennis Prager as a right-wing ideologue (and probably a white supremacist, too) and now they have proof:
Gov. Ron DeSantis repeatedly says he opposes indoctrination in schools. Yet his administration in early July approved materials from a conservative group that says it’s all about indoctrination and ‘changing minds.’
The Florida Department of Education determined that educational materials geared toward young children and high school students created by PragerU, a nonprofit co-founded by conservative radio host Dennis Prager, was in alignment with the state’s standards on how to teach civics and government to K-12 students.
But Prager even confessed his motives:
‘We are in the mind-changing business and few groups can say that,’ Prager says in a promotional video for PragerU as a whole. He reiterated that sentiment this summer at a conference for the conservative group Moms for Liberty in Philadelphia, saying it is ‘fair’ to say PragerU indoctrinates children.
‘It’s true we bring doctrines to children,’ Prager told the group. ‘But what is the bad of our indoctrination?’
Of course, “indoctrination” has a number of definitions. Here’s one:
The act of indoctrinating, or the state of being indoctrinated; instruction in doctrines or principles.
The act of indoctrinating, or the condition of being indoctrinated; instruction in the rudiments and principles of any science or system of belief; information.
Sounds pretty harmless, doesn’t it? But here’s another definition:
Indoctrination means teaching someone to accept a set of beliefs without questioning them. Your sister’s orientation at her new job might seem more like indoctrination if she comes home robotically reciting her corporate employee handbook.
The critics on the Left refuse to admit that indoctrination (by the latter definition) is precisely what they are subjecting our children to in schools. And they resent Prager’s work for a number of reasons. It presents a more balanced view of America and its values; it rejects the propaganda that the Left is teaching, whether it’s the 1619 Project or the distorted view of slavery in this country, along with other criticisms of our Founders and our history, climate change, and religion.
I found this assessment of Prager U amusing:
Adrienne McCarthy, a Kansas State University researcher who co-authored a case study on PragerU after viewing hundreds of its videos, said in an interview that the content ‘as a ‘very strong agenda.’
‘The videos have this very strong us-versus-them dichotomy, and it’s usually the evil, immoral leftists versus the moral Judeo-Christian right,’ McCarthy said. ‘They are attacking culture and trying to change rhetoric.’
Sounds about right to me.
Dennis Prager has been trying to educate the public for years about the issues of the day, trying to counter the misrepresentations, lies, and deceit that the Left is providing not only to our children, but to every concerned citizen.
At this time, PragerU has received approval to be used as supplemental material in Florida schools, and there are no plans for them to develop curriculum for Florida.
Melissa Streit, the chief executive officer of PragerU, was asked for more information on content creators:
Streit said there ‘are a lot of people involved’ with different expertise, but that the group does not intend to disclose their names or credentials on their website because ‘we live in a world where people attack people who they disagree with.’
Finally, another insidious fact was revealed:
Before the initiative was launched in Florida, Streit said she also crossed paths with Florida’s first lady, Casey DeSantis. Streit did not specify when or where, but she said that is how she learned that the DeSantis family showed PragerU videos to their young kids.
‘So I imagine that if he thinks it’s good enough for his own children, why wouldn’t it be good enough for other Floridians?’ Streit said.
Ya think?
Published in Education
Double post.
I view what PragerU does as education, not indoctrination, whose purpose is to correct the misinformation and indoctrination that is standard fare from K-12 through college.
Precisely! I think when he said it was indoctrination, though, he knew he was going to poke the Left!
There is no doubt Prager U has a right wing bias, and more than a bias: right wing proselytizing. It’s mostly not what I would call real academia. But so is 90% of real universities who present the same proselytizing only from the left perspective. They are just as off from real academia as Prager but they get the cover of some sort of institutionary university.
I’m curious, Manny. Prager would admit to a right-wing bias, I think. But what makes his material “proselytizing” as opposed to simply presenting the conservative view? Prager makes a point that when he talks politics, his goal is reaching understanding, not convincing the other person. You make a good point, but I wonder if that’s his intention.
Here is what the prageru.com website says:
What Is PragerU?
We promote American values through the creative use of educational videos that reach millions of people online. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Prager University Foundation (“PragerU”) offers a free alternative to the dominant left-wing ideology in culture, media, and education. Whether you’re searching for a deeper understanding, a new perspective, or a way to get involved, PragerU helps people of all ages think and live better.
I’ve been contemplating some ideas related to what’s being discussed here.
What I’ve been contemplating is the concept of discretion and discretionary behavior in individuals, families, community groups and businesses(cooperative and otherwise), and government. Other concepts and words that are part of this include Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, choice, freedom, culture, religion, and it goes on and on. It gets complicated.
Until about three centuries ago, individual or group discretionary behavior was limited but living standard improvements have brought major changes, which gets reflected in the choices then made by people and groups including governments.
It appears that in the modern period of our experience each generation views possible discretionary decisions and behaviors quite differently. We have had a broad range of discussions that reflect issues related to this here at Ricochet. We know that at the founding of America and the adoption of the Constitution there were pronouncements that survival of the nation would be dependent on moral beliefs and behaviors. But I’m not sure what we are seeing is what would have been predicted.
The way I see it is that the discretionary behavior of individuals and societal groups is pretty much unrestricted, ignoring Woke canceling effects, and the discretionary behavior of government is almost unlimited. That combination just seems strange and it makes for major division of views.
The traditional cardinal virtues of Christian civilization seems to have been lost.
As I was reading your comment, Bob, the loss of religion and everything it provides is a key factor. Religion can provide great benefits for those who have faith, including answers to transcendent questions, a belief in something greater than ourselves, a resource of comfort as well as moral tenets. When those have not been passed on, or worse, degraded and ridiculed, the ground on which we stand crumbles. Religion in some respects makes demands of us, and too many people today want to be free of restrictions-unless they can burden others with their own set of rules.
Yes, I think the religious belief and faith part is a big deal. Just one area that relates to this can change the outcome. A driver of the climate change de-growth movement that will take us backwards is the doctrine that humanity is not distinct among the animals of the world. This movement cannot prevail without major diminishment of traditional religious beliefs so that is where they are trying to take us.
Yes, they are. Biden’s talking about declaring a climate emergency.
As Scott Adams has said, “All education is brainwashing.” Formal education supplements parents’ socialization of their children and preparing them to navigate the adult world — values, relationships, work ethic, and skills. The question isn’t whether to indoctrinate or not, it is in what do you indoctrinate ?
You can’t just teach data. You have to teach interpretations. I will use humor to make a serious point.
More seriously, I was taught that slavery and Jim Crow were wrong. I was indoctrinated into that belief. I don’t think there is a neutral way to teach slavery.
DeSantis’ Dept. of Education was trying to say that people learned some helpful skills when they were slaves–that translated in being able to work after slavery was over. Some people found that terribly offensive; they thought that he wasn’t be fair.
“All I want is a story. If you have a message send it to Western Union.”
— Hollywood Director Samuel Goldwyn
I appreciate Mr. Goldwyn’s sentiment and I rather wish that more Hollywood people would take up his quote but I think Mr. Goldwyn overstates his case. Every story (and remember story and history have the same root words) has some moral perspective. Even silly kid’s shows promote the values of sharing, compassion and a respect for learning and reading.
That’s what we expect, Henry, and I agree. Unfortunately those shows are now used too often by the progressives to promote their woke agenda. It’s really a shame.
I don’t mind kid shows having polite mentions against racism and being for charity and politeness and all that. But the left doesn’t understand that when they indoctrinate kids into critical race theory they are positing an opinion that decent and intelligent people can disagree with.
If I wrote a kid’s show I wouldn’t try to convince kids that low taxes are a good thing because more libertarian and free market societies do better at lifting people out of poverty. But I should talk about the importance of hard work and self-improvement.
Some moral indoctrination is non-objectionable while some other stuff may not be appropriate for children. To the Woke, talking to children about how wrong wealth inequality is as important for children as the importance of hard work (if not more so).
That is one of the most profound differences between the left and the classical liberals/conservatives. One side thinks that everything they believe in is such goodness and science and the other side realizes that is an interpretation even though they think they have the right interpretation. Like how we should interpret slavery as though even though it is still an interpretation.
Oh, I didn’t mean proselytizing in the religious sense. I meant hawking conservative ideas. Poor choice in word given Prager’s religious outlook. Sorry about that. I was writing fast.
Unlike those trapped in most U.S. classrooms (especially in “higher learning”), Prager’s students have the option to leave.
And they don’t have to wear masks.
Susan, you’re in Florida, so you probably know better than I. Is it true that DeSantis repeatedly says that he opposes indoctrination in schools?
I know that this was not your claim, but rather the opening assertion in the article that you quoted.
My suspicion is that DeSantis opposes certain types of indoctrination, particularly on issues of sexual perversion.
The fact that a charge of supporting “indoctrination” is an effective criticism is, in my view, another manifestation of the foolishness of the Liberal world view. I agree with Rodin above that the only choice we have is the content of the indoctrination.
You are correct–that he has said it, and he’s referring not only to the sexual indoctrination, but the Leftist ideologies. It is the content that matters.
That the left is against the 10 commandments is telling. Yes, obligations turn them off. The restrictions in behavior is the key, and specifically they are against any sort of restriction or condemnation of their own sexual perversions and they also oppose things like abortion restrictions that reduce their ability to avoid facing the consequences of their sexual behavior
I’m repeating myself here because I want to emphasize a point. In the above paragraph I indicated that something was strange. Here’s some elaboration on that point:
The discretionary behavior of individuals, driven by their individual choices, is unrestricted by today’s developing cultural “norms”. This is a change accommodated by driving the Christian religious influence out of the culture.
The discretionary behavior of government, focused on what government does which is making laws that restrict human behavior, is now mostly unrestricted which means the people must do whatever the government says.
This is where America almost is and will be shortly if the people don’t act.
I think you’d get widespread agreement on this principle. Then come the details.
“Values education” was a major controversy in a public school system where I briefly worked in the early 1970s. As a
beneficiarysurvivorveteran of 1950s/60s Catholic schools, I was amused. “Values” talk generates endless abstract debate. Full-onindoctrinationfaith-based certainty, as bestowed upon the likes of me, was such an easier teach. Simple nuns and brothers could do it! Still, separation of church and state in public education remains a sustaining principle of our republic, one that separates us from places like Pakistan and Iran.Our indoctrination-friendly schools of thought, the Marxist-Wokesist and ye Old Time Religion, have plenty to say about values, relationships, work ethic, and skills, as well as other subjects like history, religion, science, class struggle, free markets, and race to name a few. Ideologies and doctrines can wind around anything in life, and how it’s taught.
There is a third path which diverges from both camps. Acknowledge the existence and influence of systems of thought, but avoid proselytism. In economics, show what’s worked, what hasn’t, and why some version of economic freedom is fundamental. The historic contribution of religious values may be taught, but dispassionate objectivity rather than evangelization is the ideal scholarly context.
Millions of Americans are ready to welcome a neutral, third path in education, similar to the better schools from the pre-woke era.
We won’t kill “Woke” with indoctrination from the other side. When 21st century schools, media, non-profits, etc. learn to fight the wokesters without faith-based tie-in institutions, a broad center-right secular coalition will send the Left’s Long March into retreat.
Good post, only one quibble:
”Still, separation of church and state in public education remains a sustaining principle of our republic, one that separates us from places like Pakistan and Iran.”
This is a relatively new concept as applied today. Churches were the schools and creators of our colleges. The Bible was a textbook. In fact, one of the purposes of schooling was religious. Despite that, we didn’t become Pakistan and Iran, but the most free and prosperous country in the world.
Engel v. Vitale was decided in 1962. Relatively recent is a relative term, I suppose.
Our states were founded by refugees from religious persecution, hence we have freedom of religion and freedom from state established religion. It’s a good combination that has served us well.
The ongoing threat to freedom and prosperity comes from the new “religion” (or opiate, if they prefer) of the Marxist-Wokesist Left. It is an anti-capitalist, racist, and anarchical (in terms of practical things like policing) attempt to destroy what we have.
American religiosity doesn’t threaten them, it’s an old folks’ game and gives the Left an enemy of social freedom to point to. Secular political resistance, inclusive of Democrats and Independents, is what they fear. The religious remnant alone is no longer capable of being a “great silent majority” but there is a sufficient anti-woke secular wedge to put the Left down.
To add to that, part of the reason I used the word “proselytizing” is that I didn’t think the word “indoctrination” fit. Indoctrination is something the school systems do with a forced captured audience of children from K to 12. Prager does not indoctrinate because he doesn’t have a captured audience, doesn’t have 12 years of repeated input, and the audience is free to move on. Proselytizing conservative ideas is closer to what he does, but I admit the word “proselytizing” brings unintended connotations.
No problem, Manny. I see what you intended.
Also, indoctrination is something that soldiers willingly go through to learn the army’s ways and culture.