Saturday, July 29, 2006

Indoctrination

I was having lunch with someone this week and we were discussing plans for a cooperative between a local school and a new facility. I really enjoy setting up intergenerational partnerships. We discussed working with the clubs in a high school. We then began talking about working with younger students. I spoke of a partnership I arranged with a 4th grade class and seniors and I talked about how much I loved watching the fear in the students’ eyes disappear over the winter. I loved watching the relationships develop between my seniors and the students. I said that I could make it work if I just got one teacher to buy into the vision. I continued to say, “I can get a 4th grade student to buy into anything.” My luncheon partner, a teacher for many years agreed that you can get a child that age to buy into anything.

It didn’t occur to me until days later exactly the truth of what I had said. Our schools can get children to believe anything that is taught as truth. When there is passion and emphasis placed on anything, a child will believe when it is said often enough. So, homosexual marriage, global warming, evolution are all fact to them through the same type of indoctrination I use to get buy in to the idea of helping seniors. It really struck me. I had always known that if we had children that I could not bear to send them to a public school. But this realization put the heart knowledge into words. My values and beliefs are not supported by the public school system. I believe that if I wanted my children to grow into strong, independent Christians I need to instill those same beliefs in them. I could not expect them to have those convictions if they were trained by people whose belief system was diametrically opposed to mine.

5 comments:

MAX Redline said...

“I can get a 4th grade student to buy into anything.”

As soon as I saw that, I thought "uh-huh --anyone can."

That's why parental involvement in education is so critically important. If you just pack the kiddies off to school, you're tacitly permitting indoctrination of values which may not be in accordance with your own.

Parents must be prepared to overwrite the cerebral hard drive if they have any hope of instilling their values. This means regular intervention is required.

Homosexual relationships, for example, are routinely portrayed as normal in schools. This requires the parents to sit down with the child and go through some literature. In so doing, what is discovered is that while some animals do engage in homosexual behavior, it is abnormal and negatively affects the species.

You can find numerous cases: same-sex seagulls, for example, attempting to hatch rocks. There has never been a single documented case demonstrating success in this endeavor.

Homosexuality is clearly abnormal and spectacularly unsuccessful.

This has led to discussions of the misappropriation of the term, "gay".

Clearly, homosexuals aren't particularly happy. They are deeply insecure, and so they find some degree of "security" in numbers. Thus we have so-called "gay pride" events, in which the signature call is "We're here. We're Queer. And we're in your face".

They identify so completely with their sexual proclivities that they cannot visualize themselves as people without some recognition of their sexual orientation.

That's not "gay". It's just sad.

Normal people just don't do that. They live their lives; they may or may not get married, but their entire identity doesn't revolve around sex.

In the case of homosexuals, everything revolves around sex.

They aren't "gay". They're really incredibly troubled and unhappy.

Gayle said...

Max is definitely on target in his comment, and so are you. I would no longer put my children in public schools either, although we haven't had any problem where I live.... yet!

Yep... it's so incredibly easy to brainwash a child in the primary grades. And the left is doing a tremendous job of it, darn their hides!

DeeDee said...

You have all three said a mouthfull here, and I say three cheers for anyone that will stand up and say these things. I'm so sick of it being "wrong" for us to feel the way we want to feel, but for those who are on the moral decline, to be able to push whatever they want onto our children. I'm right there with ya. If and when I have children, there is no way that they will attend a public school.
DeeHarker

Anonymous said...

I agree with all of y'all, but I would quibble with Dee on terminology. I don't "feel" that homosexuality is wrong and unnatural ... I *believe* it to the cores of my very heart and soul and with everything I've experienced and observed....and this is as one having a good friend who is a practicing lesbian.

And Max is entirely exactly right about parents abdicating their authority when they don't sit with their kids and go over, logically and Biblically (if you're a Christian), why things are right and why things are wrong. It is imperative that parents counter teaching that's contrary to their beliefs.

I couldn't afford private Christian school and I would never have been able to keep up with my kids enough to homeschool them (let alone afford to lose the second income). However, my kids knew what we believed and knew that if I found out they were being subjected to indoctrination of any kind, "Mama Bear" would come out to have a "visit" with said teacher or administrator, and that a very big stink would be arising in their midst.

I'm blessed in that I have two children who are able to hold their own when faced with contrary teaching ... and that they had no fear of telling me so.

I only wish more parents of my generation would get off their collective self-serving butts and get more involved in what their kids are learning ... and would get more involved in teaching them a decent world view (my preference being a Christian one, of course).

Cheryl said...

I agree that elementary school children will believe what is taught them IF they are not taught anything different. However, as a 4th grade teacher in liberal California, and as the parent of a child in public school, I have to say that the news, etc. is slanted in such a way as to give people a really skewed idea of what happens in public schools.

"Heather has Two Mommies" and the like is NOT typical public school curriculum. I've never heard the seagull story. Homosexual relationships, or sexual relationships of ANY kind are not routinely portrayed AT ALL in elementary school, any more than they were when I was in school 30 years ago. Kids still have to have a permission slip for the "menstruation talk" in the sixth grade. Schools do have to teach evolution, yes, but it is covered in a short unit in the upper grades, and teachers are taught to do so with respect to the values of families.

My son is entering the second grade. We routinely discuss things such as evolution in our house, and we talk about why we don't believe that and that it will be taught in the schools.

I would encourage parents to go to their local public schools and take a look at the curriculum and talk to administrators and teachers before making decisions.

Almost every teacher I have encountered in the public schools in my area has been a Christian. Not only do they support Christian values and beliefs, they are some of the few holdouts in my area who still support, and live those values.

After all the public school bashing I've heard over the past several years, I was surprised to see, once I got into the schools, how so many teachers teach and model character and wholesomeness in all they do. Those who don't are the exception. They just happen to be the ones who make the news--much like so many disgraced priests.

By the time high school rolls around, kids should be well-enough grounded in Christianity to be able to hold onto their beliefs in a sex-ed or science class. If not, God help them (literally) when they enter the adult world. Or whenever they turn on the television.

Sorry this is so long, and no disrespect intended to you and your other commenters, but I'm pretty passionate about this subject.