Since I started Face of Freedom some seven months ago, I have been asked numerous times about education issues facing parents and grandparents of school age children. Generally these questions have revolved around the issue of mask-mandating and Covid restrictions and what could be done about the issue, if anything. The major problem with this is that these questions seek to resolve the symptoms of the disease, but do not identify and attack the actual underlying causes.

There is no doubt that the education system in this country is desperately ill and needs to be rejuvenated. The first step in treating any sickness is to diagnose the problem and identify what is causing it, after which an appropriate treatment regimen is applied. With that said, here are some of my conclusions. You may or may not agree with these statements.

1. The schools you send your kids to are not your schools. They are State schools and they answer directly to the State education bureaucracy.
2. The schools you send your kids to do not teach what you want. They teach (indoctrinate) the State-mandated curriculum which is often at odds with what you want your kids to learn.
3. The boards who run the schools you send your kids to are not working in your (or your kids) best interests. They are State employees and they will do whatever it takes to keep the gravy train rolling, which means they will do whatever they are told. In addition, many of the people who sit on these boards have leftist agendas to promote and they do so with vigor.
4. The schools you send your kids to increasingly teach a “herd mentality” in which everyone thinks alike, especially on social issues. Critical race theory is being openly advocated as a means of “righting historical wrongs”. Kids are being taught that the color of their skin is more important than their character and that “diversity and tolerance” are more important than traditional moral viewpoints.
5. The schools you send your kids to do not teach them to ask “Why?” Students are not encouraged to think independently. Instead, they are conditioned from a very early age to do as they are told, to conform to the rules, to submit in every way to authority, and to never, ever kick over the traces and step outside the box. Those who do so (trouble-makers) are reprimanded and/or punished severely, not just to retrain and rehabilitate them, but with the ultimate intention that everyone else sees this and falls into line.

I could go on, but there is no need. You get my point. What then, is to be done?

The usual response follows along these lines.

1. Go to school board meetings and voice your opinion.
2. Meet the teachers and express your concerns.
3. Work within the system to resolve problems and issues.
4. Circulate petitions.
5. Run for school board or support others who think like you do.
6. Organize with like-minded parents around you to create solutions.
7. Jerk your kids out of State-sponsored indoctrination centers and shoulder the responsibility of educating them yourself.

Whoops! That last didn’t seem to fit, but now that I’ve got your attention, let me say just one more thing which will be hard to swallow for many people, but it is the absolute truth about this issue.

You can sacrifice yourself and your lifestyle for the sake of your children and their education OR you can sacrifice your children for the sake of your lifestyle, comfort, and convenience! Let me be quite explicit here–sacrifices will be made. Costs will be incurred. There is no such thing as a free lunch. Either you will do what is best for your children regardless of the cost or you will not. There is no other choice.

If you do not like what is happening in the schools and what is being taught to your children, then you should know that the most effective way to change that system is to withdraw from it. Schools receive money from the State based on the number of students they have enrolled and they lose money when students are taken out. School administrations are keenly aware of this, and, if it occurred in sufficient numbers, would immediately create effectual changes in policy.

The very best way to make positive change happen at your local State school is to pull your kid(s) out and find another way to teach them. Anything else is just putting lipstick on a pig.