The Liberated Learner – Column by Suzanne Kearney
“The best defense is a good offense.”
I hear it again and again. Bring up the woke agenda in the education system, and the well-meaning parent will reply, “Oh, that’s not happening in my child’s school.” Maybe not. I fully acknowledge that there are many wonderful teachers in the public schools. I know some of them myself. But be warned: every time you put your child on that yellow bus, he enters a cultural landmine. What’s more, you forfeit his upbringing for six hours a day and hand it over to the government, putting yourself on defense.
What do I mean by that? I’ll explain in a moment, but first, let’s look at a test case. Idaho, a deep red political stronghold, has, as of late, become a popular “refugee” destination for families fleeing the progressive policies of blue states like California and Washington. It has voted Republican in every presidential election since 1968 and held GOP control over the state legislature for decades. It has outlawed abortion, banned Critical Race Theory (CRT), and voted to criminalize so-called “gender affirming care” for minors. With all these “conservative” values, Idaho, of all states, must be a safe place to send a child to public school. Right?
Let’s do a health check of Idaho’s schools based on some recent findings:
- Last spring, a student at Kellogg High School was reprimanded after saying that there are only two genders.
- Idaho’s 2023 Teacher of the Year, Karen Lauritzen, has been accused of promoting transgenderism and leftist politics in the classroom and has since fled the state.
- In early 2023, Coeur d’Alene High School received complaints of so-called “transgender females” (biological males) using the girls’ bathroom.
- Undercover interviews of Idaho school administrators show them admitting to pushing “racial-oriented and other curriculum components” by having them “taught under different names,” to work around current Idaho CRT laws.
- In a recent podcast, north Idaho public school student Ella Woodall describes an educational peer environment that includes sexting, drugs, bullying, suicide, and other social pressures. In other words, even if the school itself isn’t pushing an agenda, the peer community may still be influencing your child.
- Public school libraries such as the one in Coeur d’Alene make available sexually explicit and graphic books to minor students.
- The national teacher’s union (NEA), and its Idaho chapter, of which your child’s teacher may be a member, promotes LGBTQ advocacy, climate change, “equity,” and is one of the largest leftist political lobbies in the U.S.
- The Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls school districts have approved the social-emotional learning (SEL) curriculum “Sources of Strength;” SEL is a woke educational philosophy that promotes identity politics, moral relativism, and religious pluralism.
Is it any wonder that test scores in the Coeur d’Alene school district show math and reading proficiency plummeting in recent years?
So, herein lies the ultimate question: With all these influences, can a child graduate from the current K-12 system with his values, faith, and moral integrity intact? Yes – it is possible – just as it is possible to survive a landmine. Ella Woodall is an example of such a success story. But at what cost? It can be surmised that Ella has emerged relatively unscathed because of the deep, consistent, and intentional involvement of her parents. Such involvement, it can be guessed, would include: becoming familiar with every teacher; thoroughly researching all curriculum; faithfully attending school board meetings; getting to know your child’s social circle; and building a relationship of influence and trust with your child, such that he is able to recognize indoctrination in the classroom, communicate this with you, and understand and apply your wisdom as you daily debrief him. All these processes take time, effort, and significant energy. And they are all defensive strategies.
I propose a simpler solution: go on the offense. Pull your kids out of public school. Take the energy that would be spent on mitigation and turn it into intention. You teach, or choose your child’s teachers; you choose curriculum tailored to your family’s values and goals; you constitute your own school board; you select your own social circle; you spend those six hours a day investing in your child proactively, with the love and commitment that cannot be matched by even the most qualified teacher in the system.
Sure, it may not be happening in your child’s school … but what if it is? Like a landmine, by the time you find out, it may be too late.
Like they say, the best defense is a good offense.
