Teach Your Children Well

 

Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ~Deuteronomy 11:19

The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles but to irrigate deserts. ~C. S. Lewis

One of the most satisfying jobs I ever have was that of being a teacher.  Even on difficult days, when I felt tired or irritable, one cheerful greeting from a student was enough to turn my attitude 180 degrees.  How I loved those children, and what a privilege it was to watch their knowledge and confidence flourish right before my eyes!

By in large, the best students in my classroom were the ones whose parents had an active and vested interest in what and how their children were learning.  These were the kids who always had their homework, always prepared for a test, and had a positive attitude about learning in general.  On open house night, I made it my business to be respectful and up-front with these parents, assuring them that it was not my job to tell their children what to think, but how to think critically.

Never in my wildest dreams would it have occurred to me that I should usurp the parents' essential role in their child's education.  

N.E.V.E.R.!!!

Needless to say, it breaks my heart to see today's parents being silenced for wanting a say in their children's education.  First, by school boards, and now by the threat of the FBI interfering with school board meetings where, under the First Amendment, everyone has the right to express an opinion, openly and peacefully.  

But I'm so proud of these hundreds of thousands of parents who refuse to cave to the bullying by authorities who think they are the only ones who know what's best for the children.  Teaching a child is, first and foremost, a parent's responsibility, and when they see their tax dollars being spent on indoctrination instead of education, they have every right to demand such behaviors be curtailed completely.

I'm sure most of you know by now to what I'm referring:  CRT, or Critical Race Theory.  In a nutshell, this radical philosophy tells children that they will be judged by the color of their skin.  This sickening reversal of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s stance, one I grew up with and taught my own children, informs kids to not only distrust those with a different skin color than theirs, but to loathe their own, i.e., if you're white, you're an oppressor, if you're black/brown, you are a victim.

As Christians, this concept should be abhorrent to us all.  We are created in God's image, and His palate consists of every shade of skin under the sun.  No person should ever be judged by a biological factor he or she can never change.

And in America, according to our Declaration of Independence, all men are created equal and have the God given right to pursue life, liberty and happiness.  No government can either give those rights or, as they are desperately trying today, to take them away from us.

I hope and pray that if you are a parent or grandparent whose children/grandchildren are being exposed to such heinous ideology, that you will join the fray, standing shoulder to shoulder at those school board meetings across the country, demanding that teachers and administrators NOT to cut down the jungles of family values and traditions, but irrigate the desert minds of children, thirsting for unbiased knowledge and truth.

Don't teach them what to think.  Teach them how to think critically.

Amen!