Last week, it was reported on Twitter that a math teacher had been fired by her school after she filmed herself boasting that she was keeping a child’s transgenderism secret from their parents. “This strengthens the trust bond between me and the kid,” she said.
She wasn’t the only one. Yesterday, footage was revealed of Loudoun County School Board member Brenda Sheridan saying: “If a student speaks to a counselor or teacher or mentor in the building, and that teacher picks the phone up and calls a parent - that is not what we're looking to happen."
And it’s not just transgenderism. In September, Project Veritas released four videos of educators in New York bragging that they were using their positions to carry out activism. Two of the videos showed principles confirming that they will not hire conservative teachers so that they can ensure the children in their schools only hear from progressive voices – a practice that is illegal.
Another showed a Director of Student Activities joking about hiring a serial killer to do away with white republican men. “I don’t know. I think they need to go. I think they’re really awful people,” she said “That’s kind of what I’m afraid of with my white students that are rich. I’m like - do you ever have to deal with this? They’re so protected by capitalism. It makes me sad.”
The fourth showed an English teacher bragging that she had encouraged the children in her class to disrespect the Pledge of Allegiance by making up their own words and taking the knee, and even taught them the best places to throw bricks in violent protest.
Faced with this level of subversion in our schools, many parents have been left wondering: is there anything parents do to protect their children and undo those harmful lessons? Thankfully, the answer is ‘yes’. We take a look at a number of ways you can fight back.
Talk to your children
Ask them regularly what they have been learning in class, don’t just take their teacher’s word for it. Make sure to ask open questions (questions that can’t be answered with ‘yes’ or ‘no’) to will draw out the detail of their school lessons. Go further than simply asking what they have been learning. Questions might include:
- Tell me more about [the topic they are learning about]
- Did your lessons make you think about this topic in a different way? If so, how?
- Did you learn anything that made you feel uncomfortable? If so, why?
- Did any of the other students have different thoughts or opinions to the teacher? Were they allowed to share them?
If you find they are being taught things that you don’t agree with, or that their lessons contain biases you are not comfortable with, take the time to have a conversation with them about the alternative point of view. Encourage your children to think critically about everything they are taught at school (or anywhere else!) rather than simply taking their teacher’s word for it.
Use opportunities to educate outside of school
As we’ve mentioned before within these blog pages, children are far more influenced by their home environment than they are by school. This gives you an advantage over their school when it comes to teaching essential values.
Every experience is a learning moment in a child’s life. Use opportunities as they arise to teach your children the values and lessons you want them to learn. This doesn’t have to be boring!
Children will learn their most essential values by copying your example, so simply being honest, generous, respectful and showing gratitude at home will go a long way toward undoing any bad influences from school and elsewhere.
Carefully chosen books are a great way to counter harmful teaching in school, especially for children who love to read and for whom it is part of their bedtime or daily routine. Help them to choose books that give a more appropriate picture of American history and personal values — the Heroes of Liberty series is a great place to start! You might also want to take a look at our list of less well known classics set in historical America.
On the weekends and in the holidays, take trips to historical sites such as battlegrounds and forts, museums, national monuments, or even to places in your local neighborhood that have significance to your community. Visiting the places where historical events occurred can really spark children’s imaginations and bring history to life.
Or, use free time to teach age old skills such as gardening, sewing, fishing, woodwork, or even something like blacksmithing or lace making. If you don’t know how to do these things, find a local group and learn along with your children!
Build trust
Above all, your children are more likely to be immune to the negative influences of subversive teachers and other cultural influences if they know they can trust you. As we’ve seen above, activist teachers exploit children’s natural desire to rebel, especially in the teenage years, by telling children that parents can’t be trusted, and that they should confide in the teacher instead. The only fail safe way to guard against this is for your children to know that you can be trusted.
“Whether we are three years old or sixty years old we all have a desire for relationships in which we feel trusted and we can trust the other person,” Dr Dr. Magdalena Battles told LifeHack.org. “A trusting relationship that involves good communication skills and makes both parties feel included, accepted, understood and wanted will help each individual thrive.”
Dr Battles recommends three keys to building trust:
