A letter to my children’s school: Teach history and diversity without political ideology
Many of my frequent readers may not know this, but I have three children. I have a 4-year-old in 4K, a 7-year-old in 2nd grade, and a toddler who is almost 2-years-old. I didn’t grow up in a civic-minded household. The first time I ever spoke to my parents about voting was when I was 18 and voting for the first time. That’s not the life my children are living in now. We talk about age-appropriate issues regularly. Every time we see a man or woman in uniform, be it military or law enforcement, we thank them for their service. I regularly give to a handful of charities in our community and walk my oldest through what we’re giving, what the need is, and why. She doesn’t understand all of it, of course, but she recognizes that we each have a responsibility to be good neighbors in our cities. My children have all gone with me to vote during every election except this last primary (due to COVID-19). They’ve been to multiple rallies across the nation for topics ranging from school choice to fighting tax increases. As the school year started several weeks ago, I saw parents sharing assignments their children were bringing home in other states, and I grew both curious and concerned. With the national dialogue being what it is and reports that many of those arrested at protests are young teachers, I decided to write the Head of School (aka principal) of my children’s school to verify that the teachers will not be teaching their ideologies on the topic of race relations. I requested that they stick to age-appropriate factual and historical lessons and discussions. The letter I sent on August 17, 2020, is below with a few non-related notes taken out for clarity. I left all substantive points there. What I learned in response is that the teachers are given guidance on non-partisan activities during election years, but no, they have not explicitly covered specific areas for teachers to cover the issue of race relations. This is an important distinction. Since the date of this letter, I’ve had shared with me resources that teachers across the nation are using that are incredibly harmful and partisan. Glenn Beck even did a special titled, “Brainwashed” on the lesson plans being used in NYC. I also share the grave concerns of parents over The 1619 Project and its curriculum. If you’re not familiar with The 1619 project by the New York Times, you’re missing out. In its introduction, they paint our nation as one full of hatred, intolerance, and racism. They suggest that rather than 1776 the year 1619, the year slaves were brought to America is when our country truly was founded. One woman telling her story had this to say, “So when I was young, that flag outside our home never made sense to me. How could this black man, having seen firsthand the way his country abused black Americans, how it refused to treat us as full citizens, proudly fly its banner? I didn’t understand his patriotism. It deeply embarrassed me.” Imagine a world in which the flag and patriotism embarrass you? Well, we don’t have to do that, do we? Athletes and celebrities are falling all over themselves to disrespect our flag and the men and women who gave their lives for our right to fly it and the freedoms that it represents. In this lesson plan, this is said, “Anti-black racism runs in the very DNA of this country.” Further essays go on to decry capitalism (the title of that piece, “In order to understand the brutality of American capitalism, you have to start on the plantation.”), the police, racism as the reason why we don’t have universal healthcare, and public transit (2 different essays), whites in general at the bottom line. One essay contains this gem, “The past 10 years of Republican extremism is emblematic. The Tea Party billed itself as a reaction to debt and spending, but a close look shows it was actually a reaction to an ascendant majority of black people, Latinos, Asian-Americans, and liberal white people.” This is the junk they’re teaching our kids! 100 pages of this. I’ve been to hundreds of tea party events, and I can assure you that it was a reaction to big government and had nothing to do with race. Yet they teach this as though it’s factual and undeniable. Parents, grandparents, friends, we must stop this. We must not let history be rewritten. We must not let today’s story be told by hate-filled liars. Take the letter below and adapt it to your teacher and your principal, and let’s fight this thing together. I’ll be posting a follow up to this, but here’s a starting place. Find out if your children’s schools have guidance. To the Head of School, I hope you’re well and preparing for another great, albeit challenging, new academic year. A parent called me to ask if I had seen the school’s Facebook posts in response to the national discussions on race relations. Ironically, I had already spoken to one parent about them a little over a month ago but got too busy to email you. Understanding diversity and addressing racial inequality is an essential step for our nation and something I believe we all can work on together. I wanted to take a moment to email you directly about it. I want to write to make sure that if/when teachers and staff are addressing this incredibly important and timely subject, they are doing so in a way that’s mindful of the ideological diversity of the school. I’m not sure there’s been an official poll but based on the friendships I’ve forged over the last two years, the school skews progressive, but us conservatives to date haven’t been excluded or alienated in any way. That said, there are different ways of approaching this important topic based on individual families and the diverse backgrounds that make our school great.
Donald Trump welcomes a senator, bashes Glenn Beck’s support of Ted Cruz
Donald Trump is so confident about the loyalty of his supporters that he predicted Saturday they would stick with him even if he shot someone. The Republican presidential front-runner bashed conservative commentator Glenn Beck‘s support of rival Ted Cruz and welcomed a figure from the GOP establishment, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, in rallies nine days before the Iowa caucuses open voting in the 2016 campaign. “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK?” Trump told an enthusiastic audience at a Christian school, Dordt College. “It’s like incredible.” Beck campaigned for Ted Cruz and held little back in going after Trump. “The time for silliness and reality show tactics has passed,” Beck charged at a Cruz rally. He warned that a Trump victory in the Feb. 1 caucuses could have lasting consequences: “If Donald Trump wins, it’s going to be a snowball to hell.” Trump demonstrated the extent to which some in the Republican establishment have begun to accept a potential Trump nomination when Grassley introduced him at a later event in Pella. Grassley did not offer an endorsement, but his presence underscored Trump’s enduring positions at the top of the polls as voting approaches. Alex Conant, speaking for Marco Rubio‘s campaign, was quick to note, however, that Grassley will introduce Rubio at an Iowa rally in a week. Days after Trump was endorsed by tea party favorite Sarah Palin, Cruz flashed his own conservative muscle during a rally in Ankeny, Iowa. Rep. Steve King, an Iowa Republican and conservative firebrand, and Iowa social conservative leader Bob Vander Plaats encouraged local Republicans to unite behind Cruz. Beck praised the Texas senator’s commitment to principles of the right and repeatedly jabbed Trump from afar. The same headliners were to appear at an evening rally in eastern Iowa. At his Sioux Center event, Trump called Beck a “loser” and “sad sack.” Beck was one of nearly two dozen conservative thinkers who penned anti-Trump essays for National Review magazine — a hit Trump referred to repeatedly at the rally. Cruz, running close with Trump in Iowa polls, was almost entirely focused on the billionaire in his Ankeny event, as he professed core conservative values and drew a sharp contrast with Trump on issue after issue, without using his name. With obvious exaggeration, he charged that one Republican candidate, “for over 60 years of his life,” supported so-called partial-birth abortion and a “Bernie Sanders-style socialized medicine for all.” Trump is 69 and unlikely to have had positions on abortion and health care as a child. He blasted Trump’s past reluctance to strip federal money from Planned Parenthood and cast the billionaire’s plan to deport more than 11 million people who are in country illegally as “amnesty” because he would then let many of them return. But Cruz shrugged off Trump’s shooting comment when asked. “I will let Donald speak for himself. I can say I have no intention of shooting anybody in this campaign,” he told reporters, adding that he would keep his criticism focused on issues. “I don’t intend to go into the gutter,” Cruz said. Elsewhere in Iowa, Rubio stressed that he represents the next generation of conservative leadership as he started the dash to the caucuses at Iowa State University in Ames. “Complaining and being frustrated alone will not be enough,” Rubio said. “It has to be someone who tells you exactly what they are going to do as president.” Rubio recently stepped up his Iowa campaign appearances in hopes of breaking Cruz and Trump’s hold on the state in an effort to put himself in a stronger position leading into New Hampshire’s Feb. 9 primary. The Des Moines Register endorsed him Saturday as its choice in the Republican race, backing Hillary Clinton in the Democratic contest. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
