BY PHIL WILLIAMS
OPINION —
This past week was school choice week nationwide which brought a renewed focus on asserting that in America we value our children and as such we want what is best for them in every way, including the best in education.
We want to know that our children are being taught the highest possible levels of reading, writing, arithmetic, sciences, technology, history and civics. In essence, we want an actual outcome based education that rewards success and remediates failure while staying focused on what is best for the child. Sounds reasonable, right?
Let me state it clearly: Conservatives want our children to be educated. Liberal progressives just want our children.
Think back to your own school days. Do you remember those times when we were taught in school to literally conspire with our teachers to say or do things that our parents wouldn’t like and to enjoy the salacious nature of having a trusted adult to help us rebel against our own family? You don’t remember doing that? Neither do I. None of us do. Because it’s wrong and any teacher who tried that back in the day would find themselves out on their ear.
But I’m sure that you recall those halcyon days of learning when you sat in class and learned about the fundamentals of biology, anatomy and physiology. But even though the course content said one thing you were also told by your teachers that despite the science that it was all bunk and in reality the textbooks were wrong because any male could be a female and vice versa. You don’t remember that? Neither do I. None of us do. And any teacher who tried that would be run out of town on a rail.
Okay, but remember when we were taught in English class to use the proper pronouns based upon the standards of use for the English language, and then went down the hall to our next class and had another teacher tell us that we can misappropriate pronouns for our own satisfaction and that she can be used for a he, and that they/them can be used on a singular person. Yeah, that didn’t happen in my school and I guarantee it didn’t happen in yours either. But it happens far too often now. Any teacher back in the day that attempted that tripe would be sent packing forthwith.
Okay, maybe those things didn’t happen but I feel sure that you recall those days when you were taught that these United States that won two world wars, abolished slavery, put a man on the moon, invented the modern industrial age, and more, really didn’t come to being in 1776. Our country started in 1619 with slavery and this great nation is systemically racist and not worth saving. Was that in your history books? It was not in mine either, and any teacher who tried to foist that kind of dogma on our kids would have been looking for work the next day.
Every single day we are catching more glimpses into the activist factories that some schools have become. Too often a new social media post or TikTok video shows us schools where every value, belief, patriotic verve and faith based position is laid bare and vacated by activists who pose as teachers.
I will pause here and say that I know and believe that the vast majority of educators are not at all on board with the kind of educational indoctrination that I just described. Most classrooms are filled with wonderful people who have a calling to truly love and educate our kids. But too many of them are also aware of off-putting activism that happens in the neighboring classroom but they are reticent to get involved.
Whether for fear or complacency too many real teachers choose silence in the face of the foolishness being perpetrated by their coworkers in a vain attempt to avoid the shouts and aspersions that liberals often employ. In my view good teachers need to take back their profession from the crazies who are trying to coopt it and making a mockery of the profession of education. I guarantee that parents will rally for a teacher that brings common sense back to these uncommon times.
If a teacher or superintendent calls out a neighboring classroom being set up as so-called safe space for kids to change their names, pronouns and allegedly their genders, or the classroom down the hall where they are taught to despise the flag of the United States, or the denial of scientific reason by attempting to tell students that in men can get pregnant, that parents will appreciate it. Good teachers will have parents and concerned citizens getting their back.
But that means we’ve got to keep up our end of the bargain. Gone are the days where we can just turn a blind eye. Gone are the days where we can just shrug our shoulders and say, “that’s not my kid so it’s not my fight.” Progressive liberals want our kids, and if it’s not your kid today then it will be your grandchild tomorrow, or that sweet neighbor’s kid who plays in the yard, or the little minions that run in the hallways of your church, play on the playground on the corner and get too loud in the grocery store. Our communities must rally for our kids.
This nation is filled with good teachers. Educators who value children and truly value real education, and who will take a stand for our kids. And when they do it is our mission to get their back.
It’s for our kids.
Phil Williams is a former state senator, retired Army colonel and combat veteran and a practicing attorney. He previously served with the leadership of the Alabama Policy Institute in Birmingham. Phil currently hosts the conservative news/talkshow Rightside Radio Monday through Friday 2 to 5 p.m. on multiple channels throughout north Alabama. (WVNN 92.5FM/770AM-Huntsville/Athens; WXJC 101.FM and WYDE 850AM – Birmingham/Cullman.) His column appears weekly throughout Alabama. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of this news source. To contact Phil or request him for a speaking engagement go to www.rightsideradio.org.