We can dicker about the time it takes to form a person’s character, but there’s no doubt that those early experiences shape us for life. Which is one reason why we think primary education is so important.
Sure, it’s partly then that the kiddies learn to read, write, and calculate.
But just as important are the moral lessons they learn: the emotional weather they cultivate; the sorts of feelings they nurture and those they recoil from.
This process continues throughout our educational career.
Most people instinctively recognize this, which is why education is always such a hot topic with voters.
What sorts of people are our schools and colleges helping to form? What values are students being taught?
Such questions help explain the passion that has erupted at school board meetings when angry parents confront school board members about the sorts of things that were being taught in schools: the gussied-up versions of Marxist ideology that goes under the name of critical race theory (CRT) as well as the quasi- and sometimes not-so-quasi pornographic exotica disseminated under the rubric of “gender” studies.
The COVID lockdowns first exposed the grim reality to parents.
Their children were forced to stay home from school and attend class remotely.
What parents saw in their children’s Zoom sessions was shocking.
That handed Youngkin a campaign plank and, as it turned out, victory.
With his characteristic bluntness, Trump noted that “our public schools have been taken over by the radical left maniacs.”
“Maniacs” isn’t an emollient word, but it isn’t, I submit, far from the truth.
What does Trump say we should do about it?
In general, defund the crackpots, and fund and favor a traditional approach to education.
Trump offered a four-part strategy:
“Abolish teacher tenure for grades K through 12.”
“Drastically cut the bloated number of school administrators, including the costly, divisive, and unnecessary diversity, equity, and inclusion bureaucracy.”
“Adopt a Parental Bill of Rights that includes complete curriculum transparency, and a form of universal school choice.”
And here’s the really bold proposal:
“Implement the direct election of school principals by the parents.”
Randi Weingarten, head of the teachers’ union, couldn’t be reached for comment. Someone was looking for the smelling salts to bring her around.
I suspect she’s going to need to buck up. The winds of change are blowing fast and furious against the “diversity, equity, inclusion” industry, of which CRT is an offshoot.
And as I say, the pushback isn’t just against the subversion and corruption of primary education.
It’s also happening, if sporadically, in higher education.
One of the most noticed recent efforts is in Florida.
As part of a larger project to restore the intellectual and moral integrity of education, Gov. Ron DeSantis has undertaken a number of initiatives to purge the toxin of CRT and kindred pathologies from the schools.
He has also, to much notice, taken aim at higher education.
“In the queer space of New College,” wrote one enthusiast, “changing your pronouns, name or presentation is a nonevent.”
Noted.
The NY Times piece, especially, was inadvertently comic in its blatant political animus.
Reporting on DeSantis’s new board appointments, the NY Times noted that among them are “Chris Rufo, who orchestrated the right’s attack on critical race theory, and Matthew Spalding, a professor and dean at Hillsdale College, a conservative Christian school in Michigan with close ties to Donald Trump.”
Harken to the diction: “the right’s attack on critical race theory,” as if that attack didn’t enjoy widespread support among the middle class, and a school that isn’t only “conservative”—can you imagine?—and “Christian”—heaven forfend!—but also has “close ties to Voldemort”—I mean Donald Trump.
The effort at delegitimation is absurd and would be merely risible if it weren’t also in earnest.
The NY Times quotes Rufo as saying that “we want to provide an alternative for conservative families in the state of Florida to say there is a public university that reflects your values.”
Question: What’s wrong with that?
It’s early days yet, but so far Rufo and his colleagues seem to be making great strides.
In a much-publicized episode, Rufo and other trustees called for an open meeting with students, faculty, and administrators.
The college tried to prevent the meeting, on the grounds of safety: Someone had sent a minatory email threatening some of the participants.
This has become a favored technique at left-wing campuses to exclude conservative views. Make up or capitalize on a vague threat and then overreact in the name of safety.
Rufo was having none of it.
This is how you fight back against the progressive totalitarians.
