Kevin Fobbs
January 5, 2006
The culture war begins during your child's school day
By Kevin Fobbs

The new year brings a new round of assaults upon our nation's families who are sitting in their homes — possibly quite unaware that the very framework that our Constitutional framers crafted together is being splintered apart by a movement that has undertaken an almost unholy war against every possible touchstone that reflects our values in the public place, in the courthouse, in the legislature, but more importantly, in the classrooms that dot the landscape of our nation's neighborhoods.

The Culture War is not a phenomenon that is hidden away in the backrooms of lawmakers but rather it is a device, a vehicle, that lone wolf assailants are actively and methodically utilizing as the tools and the weapons that will undo America and the Christian culture — values that our nation was founded upon. These activists of attack are precise in their assault. They are strategic in their choice of beachheads. They have cleverly chosen your children's classrooms as the battlefield upon which to wage this war of attrition.

These maligners of historic truth would seek to engage the children as early as kindergarten because in twelve years their minds, indoctrinated with pronouncements of liberal moralistic malaise being offered over the school's loudspeaker, or lectured to classrooms by teachers who have the outlawed book of the Bible or a sheet with the Pledge of Allegiance or the Ten Commandments with one hand and the "legal document" from the court banning them in the other.

The words and the phrase that shall become as essential to a child's vocabulary as their ABCs will be "That is Forbidden!" or, "It's Against The Law!." Children's innocence will be replaced by a new core of underlying values that will contribute to a new more ominous system of beliefs. America's societal integrity will dissipate. This is what former U.S. Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork warned our nation about almost ten years ago in his piece "Hard Truths About the Culture War."

He said, as if speaking to a concerned parent in a PTA meeting, "... the fact of rot and decadence there can be no dispute, except from those who deny that such terms have meaning, and who are, for that reason, major contributors to rot and decadence. We are accustomed to lamentations about American crime rates, the devastation wrought by drugs, rising illegitimacy, the decline of civility, and the increasing vulgarity of popular entertainment. But the manifestations of American cultural decline are even more widespread, ranging across virtually the entire society... Wherever one looks, the traditional virtues of this culture are being lost, its vices multiplied, its values degraded — in short, the culture itself is unraveling."

Our culture is still unraveling ten years later.

As a parent you probably feel stymied by a school district telling your Lakewood, Ohio public school child, "Christmas will no longer be celebrated" because after all diversity is important and they wouldn't want to offend those three other parents who might be agnostic or atheists. But it is OK to offend, by omission, Christians when other ethnic holidays or events are celebrated." It doesn't make sense. Of course not. It's not supposed to.

What about the members of the Parker family in Massachusetts? Last year in January a young elementary school student in the Parker family brought home his book bag, which had in it an item called, "Who's In A Family?" which depicted same-sex parents happily co-existing with their other parents.

Well Papa Parker was more than a bit irritated because after all in Massachusetts a school must notify parents, that is, Papa Parker before discussing sexuality with his children. He immediately contacted the school's principal, much like you probably would. He explained to the principal that he did not want his son to be taught that same-sex families are "a morally equal alternative to other family constructs." It appears that when it comes to values and morals, a parent's voice in the minority can only be heard when it's heard arguing against Christmas or maybe against saying "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance.

It sure seems that way in Massachusetts because the school was not listening and on April 27, Papa Parker was arrested for criminal trespass when he refused to leave school property. Why the handcuffs? Well the school would not assure him of parental notification of lessons with sexual content in the future.

So in America a parent is barred from his child's school property, which of course prevents him from attending events open to other parents or even taking an active interest in the school's activities.

What needs to be done?

There are two solutions for parents in winning the Cultural War in America's classrooms.

As Rebecca Hagelin the author of Home Invasion: Protecting Your Family in a Culture That's Gone Stark Raving Mad has said, "As parents, commit to the daily battle. Understand that you have to succeed everyday in standing up for your children." She says she begins everyday with a prayer: "Lord, please help me today to uphold the values and standards my husband and I have set for our family." She also stresses that parents should take a hands-on approach with their child's education.

Think about it, as Hagelin suggests, "When was the last time you picked up your child's English book, or science book and actually read it? Do you know what she is being taught in history? Exercise your right to opt your child out of misguided sex-ed classes. Challenge the reading lists if the assigned books are pop garbage."

All of this is essential advice because remember you are the parent, and while the political correctness patrol can pick and choose when they want to intervene in your child's "best politically correct interest" you as the parent have to get it right 100 percent of the time for 100 percent of your child's future.

© Kevin Fobbs

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Kevin Fobbs

Kevin Fobbs is founder and president of a policy organization called National Urban Policy Action Council (NuPac), www.nupac.info that supports conservative colorblind solutions to universal issues and domestic policies that impact urban America... (more)

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