Parents are Reclaiming Western Civilization in Our Classrooms

Education — along with robust religious educational organizations — is indispensable to the proper functioning of our nation because our republic is dependent on a moral and educated people.

As Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1782, “Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves, therefore, are its only safe depositories. And to render even them safe their minds must be improved to a certain degree.”

Our governments are comprised of men and women — fallible men and women — and the education of the American people serves to make their input and demands on government more sensible and their ultimate check on government more effective.

Knowing the continued importance of education to our country today makes it all the more alarming to see what has become of our public education system. In recent years especially, pernicious propaganda and destructive ideology have made their way into American classrooms across the country. This includes Critical Race Theory (CRT), intersectionality, “wokeness,” and more, all of which instruct children, even demand of them, that they should view themselves and the world through the arbitrary prisms of race, gender, and other Neo-Marxist categorizations.

Instead of teaching our children to rightfully see others as equally deserving of their respect due to their inherent human dignity, these ideologies teach children to split others and themselves into categories of oppressor and oppressed, white and black, unfairly advantaged and disadvantaged. It teaches children to fight supposed racism with real racism. It sews hate, discord, and resentment among them. It divides them and our culture. And this indoctrination cuts against the education of students in the basic knowledge they need to succeed as part of our culture.

This stands against everything that America — indeed Western civilization — is about. That Americans have allowed this to happen in our schools is something we should be alarmed about and even ashamed about. It is something we must address urgently.

Fortunately, we can see this beginning to happen already. Conservatives are championing the need to address these issues in our classrooms won in the recent state and local elections across America. It has not been the politicians, though, who are leading this fight — it has been parents. Mothers and fathers have taken a stand against the indoctrination of their children in the classroom by attending local school board meetings and organizing grassroots political efforts. While politicians and pundits scream at each other in Washington, it is parents who have decided to reclaim Western civilization and have become empowered to take back control of their children’s educational choices.

That parents have led the charge should come as no surprise, because responsibility for the education of children ultimately must fall to parents, not the state. The sacred institution of the family is foundational to our republic, and policies that keep parents out of the classroom, with little to no say in what their children are being taught, erodes that foundation irreparably. Thus, keeping parents involved in their children’s education is not just common sense, it is essential.

That is why no government or politician should ever tell parents that they are not welcome in the classroom or at a school board meeting or to have input into the curriculum of their children’s school.

While real progress is starting to be made, this fight for our children and for the soul of our nation is far from over. Progressives in our government made it clear that they believe the reason their candidates lost in the 2021 elections was because they did not push hard enough in favor of teaching these issues in the classroom, while the Department of Justice has threatened to label parents who speak out against their children’s woke curriculum as “domestic terrorists.”

It’s clear that parents have had enough and are motivated to win this fight. We should join them by championing their voices and, consequently, championing American values.