Dear Homeschooling Friends,
As strange as this sounds coming from a homeschooling parent, I invite, ask, and implore you to become educated about and involved your local public school. For many homeschoolers, shaping our children’s minds is just one reason we’ve chosen to educate our children at home. But, as you know, the vast majority of young minds are shaped in public school environments. The current momentum of untruthful, corrupt, and even evil ideas in our schools is very strong and only with community members – public school, private school, and homeschool families – standing together for Truth and Goodness can we stop this corruption of our children and our future.
Often, Christians have been largely “hands off” in the public square, but this goes directly against Jesus’s directive to go and make disciples (of JESUS, not the secular/socialist gods of the world) and to be “salt and light” to the world. And, quite frankly, the hands off approach of the last 50+ years has been one of the many factors leading to the decline of our society. We must do more than claim to pray and then hope it goes well. A quick look at the news tells us “it” isn’t going well. We must work against the twisted “truth” and “social justice” being promoted and work for God’s Truth and Justice in our society.
How? Homeschooling families are often already busy, involved in many activities, and living on one income. So, what can we do? 1) Get educated. 2) Educate others, especially public school parents who are your friends. 3) Influence your local decision makers. 4) Pray; our children’s future is at stake.
Learn about the gender/sex education programs being pushed by the LGBT+ coalition that leads to gender confusion and hate for our biological sexes/genders. Learn about the history being taught in your public school district – is it developed out of historically inaccurate ideas like the 1619 Project, which portrays the United States as irredeemably racist? Learn about how ideas about children’s identities are communicated. If they are influenced by Critical Race Theory, children are taught that their race makes them either oppressors (if Caucasian) or oppressed (if minority). All these ideas ultimately lead to more division and hate in our society.
Many of us whose education was in public school settings were taught (intentionally or not) that the school knew what was best. But the truth is that we parents are responsible for the upbringing and education of our children – even when we delegate that responsibility to someone else. Not all parents can or will see the dangers currently taught in public schools. And, although many of us homeschooling parents want to protect our children from these ideas, other children are not so protected. We must work against these corrupting ideas for the good of our society as a whole.
Consider becoming a part of your local school district’s “Parents Unite” group on Facebook. Talk with your friends who are public or private school parents and ask if they know what’s going on in their school. Attend your local school board meetings to learn about what’s going on in your area. Write letters to your local school board members and administration about your concerns. You don’t have to mention that you’re a homeschooling family; we have a say in this arena because we are tax-paying community members whose children will be living in a world with mostly public-schooled kids. Run for school board (yes, really!) or support – with your time, talents, and treasure – quality school board candidates who will fight against these ideas.
Form a prayer group with other parents, grandparents, teachers, community members, etc. and weekly (or daily!) pray for your public (and private) schools. Pray for the administrators and teachers who are molding young minds with wrong ideas, for teachers who are being forced to teach things that go against their personal beliefs, for parents to be wise and informed about what’s going on in their schools, for students that are being bullied by other students or by teachers for having beliefs that stand for Truth and Goodness. We no longer have the luxury of hoping and assuming someone with our worldview will lead this fight; we must be involved – some in small ways, some in larger. We must pray like our children’s future depends on this.
Abraham Lincoln said, “The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next” and we can see the reality of untruthful, corrupt, even evil ideas that have been taught to the last generations being played out in the public sphere. Please join me in doing what you can to help stop the momentum of these evil ideas in our local communities.
The monthly school board meeting information is posted on each district’s website and (as I understand it) includes a public comments time.
A bit more information (and a search engine can find you much more):
The battle against Critical Race Theory:
https://www.theepochtimes.com/parents-are-pushing-back-against-critical-race-theory_3850578.html
Gender dysphoria:
https://www.theepochtimes.com/how-irreversible-damage-is-impacting-a-generation-of-girls_3445663.html
1619 Project and CRT:
https://www.theepochtimes.com/trump-era-1776-commission-opposes-funding-for-teaching-of-racial-discrimination-in-schools_3829884.html