FOOD FOR THOUGHT:

Chaos in Children's Education?

Earlier this spring, Praxis Circle published the first blog in a foundational series titled "Worldview Pillars" which lays out the basics of the concept of worldview. It introduces the three overarching worldviews and the eight pillars upon which each stands.

Number Six of the pillars is the "Human Being." The first two sentences describing this pillar say:

In general, “human being” entails a theory of anthropology where our worldview begins to take on an active narrative. Our human history creates this narrative, giving us purpose or not. In the West, much of this pillar emanates from the Bible in tandem with science and has been brought together under the broad rubric of natural law. 

The majority of worldviews recognize at least two immutable characteristics of human beings: sex and race. These are written into human DNA to greater and lesser extents.

When people seek to understand their worldview, they usually look back to their family and their education. It is largely through the education process that worldviews are formed. Many people today, if not most, are painfully aware of what is happening to education on college and university campuses; it is now indoctrination, not education. Our academics in these institutions of higher learning are shaping the worldviews of young adults all too often in the service of one ideology and worldview, without presenting others and teaching students to look at all worldviews analytically. In a frightening development, this practice has now been extended down to the youngest students, pre-kindergarteners to elementary schoolers.

A number of elementary schools across the U.S. are now indoctrinating their very young students into a worldview that sees all white people as privileged - including the small children they are teaching. The Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism (FAIR)
has taken on the battle against these schools as evidenced by this letter to Janney Elementary School in Washington, D.C., where young students are lectured on "white privilege."

In another elementary school in Skokie, Illinois, teachers of pre-K through 3rd graders are adding to a curriculum that already explains the "danger" of "whiteness,"
Ashley McGuire, Senior Fellow with The Catholic Association and author of
Sex Scandal: The Drive to Abolish
Male and Female
the concepts of binary sexual identification, preferred pronouns, and gender transition. Again, FAIR has brought this to public attention through this letter detailing the program.

Yes, children as young as pre-K are having a worldview foisted upon them in school that breaks with almost every other established worldview in its view of human beings.

As Praxis Circle Contributor Ashley McGuire explains here - from personal experience - fourth graders in D.C. public schools are being exposed to this ideology without the knowledge of their parents. To put it bluntly, in an effort to promote a particular worldview, parents are being cut out of their own children's educational experience.

Victoria Cobb, another Praxis Circle Contributor, explains further that gender ideology (and also what is now euphemistically called "anti-racism") have seeped into every subject that children are taught. It's almost impossible for parents to prevent their children from being indoctrinated into this worldview.

Especially for parents, but also for all those who are interested in the topic of worldviews, this is deeply disturbing indeed.


"Education is the most powerful weapon which
you can use to change the world. "

Nelson Mandela


What We're Reading:

The National Association of Scholars (NAS) published a digital magazine - "Minding the Campus" - described as follows:

We provide a simple central resource, featuring fresh original content from professors and academics and we draw upon the best from established magazines and publications, as well as from less-visited corners, from professional journals to blogs and student publications. In connecting resources from disparate worlds, we hope to connect their readers, fostering potential for real discussion and change. A conversation about America’s Universities is needed; look for it here.

A recent column titled "Can We 'Long March' Back through the Institutions" is one of their best pieces of content this spring. First, author Wenyuan Wu briefly explains where Marcuse, Gramsci, and Mao Zedong's "Long March through the Institutions" has gotten us in 21st century America.

Fortunately, he clearly lays out three pathways that Americans of many stripes can unite upon to push back on the dangerous situation today: the ballot box (especially local elections), raising the stakes of going "woke," and building and joining various Tocquevillian groups that support the best of American culture and seek to revitalize it.

This is a good, quick read over coffee or a glass of wine!

What We're Listening To:

From Dr. Jordan B. Peterson's popular podcast (over 5 million followers) comes a wonderful discussion with Douglas Murray, expanding upon Murray's recently-published book The War on the West.

Peterson and Murray dissect all of the topics of the book, including slavery, colonialism, power, racism and the strange attack on Western Civilization by beneficiaries of that same civilization. Over the course of the almost two-hour conversation, both men identify some of the factors causing this "war," and offer up some potential ways to win the war.

Two of the most important roads to victory are understanding and practicing gratitude (particularly for where we are in time and place, brought to us by our ancestors) and if not belief in a actual greater, good God, at least, as they say, living as if there were one.

Murray's book can be ordered
here. Peterson's podcast is both a great introduction to the book or follow-up.
What's Coming Up:
June 10: The Trinity Forum presents "Reading in Community: An Online Conversation with Matthew Lee Anderson and Anika Prather" at 1:30 PM. They will explore the importance of reading together in our technology-dominated world. Register here.

June 23: The Heritage Foundation holds a live/virtual panel discussion titled "Title IX in the Crosshairs: The 50th Anniversary of Women's Equality in Education." A panel of experts discuss how the gains of the women's movement and women's equality and opportunity are teetering on the brink of erasure. Register here.