America\u2019s public education system has drifted dangerously far from its core mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Schools exist to educate children \u2014 to teach them how to read, write, think critically, and understand the world around them. But across the country, many classrooms are increasingly focused on something else entirely. They are bent on turning students into political activists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Schoolchildren participating in anti-ICE drills and protests are the latest example of political propaganda forced on kids during the school day. In New York, footage<\/a> shows a preschool encouraging children to talk about how they feel about ICE and President Trump \u2014 obviously based on the so-called education they have received from their teacher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Boston, a teacher posted a video<\/a> online showing her elementary students marching around the classroom while holding signs and chanting, \u201cNo Donald Trump, No Donald Trump.\u201d It\u2019s full-on activist training with taxpayer dollars during the school day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead of prioritizing academic excellence, too many teachers, with the support of their principals, are pushing political agendas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Students are taught to organize demonstrations, participate in protests, and adopt ideological positions on complex public issues \u2014 things they don\u2019t have the facts or context for, and often before they have even mastered basic academic skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n School time should be spent learning reading, math, science, and history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Alternatively, it is increasingly replaced with lessons centered on activism, grievance, and political identity. This isn\u2019t preparing students for success. It\u2019s distracting them from the very education they desperately need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The education establishment seems far more comfortable encouraging students to challenge \u201csystems\u201d than ensuring they can write a coherent paragraph or solve an algebra problem. Activism has become a substitute for achievement.<\/p>Keri D. Ingraham<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n The academic consequences are significant. In some schools, students are asked to develop<\/a> \u201csocial justice action plans\u201d or participate in advocacy projects tied to political causes. Others utilize class time for students to create political posters and support them walking out of class<\/a> to take to school street corners to protest. In Colorado, multiple school districts canceled classes at all schools<\/a> based on rumors that teachers and students would be protesting President Trump and ICE, causing them to be short-staffed and unable to hold school. All of this wasted learning time is occurring on taxpayer money intended for true academic instruction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But it doesn\u2019t end there. The largest teachers union, the National Education Association, is training teachers<\/a> in \u201cAdvancing LGBTQ+ Justice and Transgender Advocacy\u201d rather than in how to teach reading, writing, and math.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The problem isn\u2019t that students are learning about civic engagement. For example, economic policy can\u2019t be debated if basic economics aren\u2019t first understood. Similarly, without understanding history and knowing the Constitution, informed conclusions about government can\u2019t be made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In other words, students aren\u2019t able to challenge ideas if they have not first been taught the knowledge necessary to analyze them accurately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rather than developing the ability to weigh evidence and reach their own conclusions, students are taught to adopt predetermined viewpoints as fact without context or questioning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That approach weakens democracy, failing to educate and equip students. Alternatively, real civic engagement requires intellectual independence, pushing students to understand competing ideas and evaluate arguments critically. Strong academics, such as reading challenging texts, studying history, mastering math, and learning to construct logical arguments, arm students with these skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Students need classrooms focused on core knowledge, strong academic learning, and gaining a solid understanding of the ideas that built this great nation \u2014 not activism.<\/p>Keri D. Ingraham<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Parents across the country, who expect schools to focus on academics, are increasingly alarmed by this activist agenda. The great parent awakening that took place during the COVID pandemic, when schools were closed to in-person instruction, and parents had a front row seat in their child\u2019s remote school session, continues today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The education establishment, teachers unions, and woke activists masquerading as teachers continue to fuel the growing demand for transparency, accountability, and greater parental authority in education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Much to their dismay, they are helping advance education freedom across America because parents and the American public don\u2019t want children captive to far-left political propaganda during the school day, while American education slips further behind on the world stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The public education exodus is continuing as parents are voting with their feet, searching for environments where knowledge, rather than activism, remains the central mission of the school day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n America\u2019s schools, funded by American taxpayers, should be producing citizens who can think for themselves \u2014 not students trained to echo political talking points. Students need classrooms focused on core knowledge, strong academic learning, and gaining a solid understanding of the ideas that built this great nation \u2014 not activism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" America\u2019s public education system has drifted dangerously far from its core mission. Schools exist to educate children \u2014 to teach them how to read, write, think critically, and understand the world around them. But across the country, many classrooms are increasingly focused on something else entirely. They are bent on turning students into political activists. Schoolchildren participating in anti-ICE drills and protests are the latest example of political propaganda forced on kids during the school day. In New York, footage shows a preschool encouraging children to talk about how they feel about ICE and President Trump \u2014 obviously based on the so-called education they have received from their teacher. In Boston, a teacher posted a video online showing her elementary Read More ›<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":441,"featured_media":9564,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[533,49,56],"tags":[2986,2974,2971,708,2972,2984,311,2976,1136,76,2042,2982,1021,411,2977,2978,2113,2983,78,205,1445,1294,2981,138,2980,2975,85,692,2979,2987,1120,2216,72,137,284,1892,2985,229,1731,1089,83,404],"coauthors":[1073],"class_list":["post-9494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indoctrination","category-teaching","category-unions","tag-activist-agenda","tag-activist-training","tag-activists","tag-anti-american","tag-anti-ice","tag-challenge-ideas","tag-closed-schools","tag-complex-issues","tag-constitution","tag-covid-19","tag-critical-thinking","tag-demoncracy","tag-education-establishment","tag-extreme-ideologies","tag-facts","tag-grievance","tag-identity-politics","tag-informed-citizens","tag-k-12","tag-k-12-education","tag-keri-d-ingraham","tag-keri-ingraham","tag-lgbtq-2","tag-math","tag-national-test-scores","tag-organize-demonstrations","tag-parents","tag-political-agenda","tag-political-identity","tag-political-talking-points","tag-politics","tag-protests","tag-public-schools","tag-reading","tag-remote-school","tag-social-justice","tag-strong-academics","tag-student-learning","tag-taxpayer-funded","tag-taxpayer-money","tag-teacher-unions","tag-transgender"],"acf":[],"author_names":["Keri D. 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National test scores continue to show horrific results, with millions of students across the country not reading or performing math at grade level.
Yet the education establishment seems far more comfortable encouraging students to challenge \u201csystems\u201d than ensuring they can write a coherent paragraph or solve an algebra problem. Activism has become a substitute for achievement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A healthy democracy requires informed citizens who understand their rights and responsibilities. However, the problem is that a single political party and an anti-American agenda are indoctrinating students without allowing them to gain the knowledge necessary to evaluate issues thoughtfully and independently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n