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I was up before sunrise getting ready for my day. Of course, at the age of seven that mostly involved watching cartoons and making myself breakfast.
That early in the morning, I tried my best to be quiet since no one else was awake yet and for some reason my older sister didn't like to be woken up before she had to be.
We knew that by a certain time we had to be out the door, heading up the gravel road to the corner where the bus picked us up. If we were late my mother would most likely have to drive us to school, so we were sure to stick to our schedule. My parents sent my siblings and me off to school every day, trusting our teachers to give us a basic education.
When children walk through the doors of a school, parents have certain expectations. They trust that the teachers, who have gone to school specifically to learn to educate young minds, will instruct students in the fundamentals they'll need to successfully complete their education and one day find a career.
Although that concept of educating the youth in the fundamentals of knowledge is still touted as the primary goal of public education, it's increasingly evident that a major secondary goal is coming to the forefront of the curriculum in many countries.
On top of attempting to educate the next generation in history, literature, science and mathematics, the U.S. public education system has begun incorporating the morals, values, theories and philosophies of public opinion and popular culture into the everyday education of children. Nowhere is this push -- which has been subtly building through the years -- more evident than in the incorporation and teaching of ideas such as "Gender Theory" or "Critical Gender Theory."
Proponents of this ideology argue that the biological sex of an individual is irrelevant (even though it's literally embedded in every single cell of his or her body) and that everyone should choose their own gender, sex and sexuality based on their own perceptions and feelings. The proponents further maintain that "gender stereotypes" of male and female have led to oppression and discrimination and that therefore traditional ideas about gender, sex and sexual orientation must be abolished.
For several decades such ideological discussions have largely been confined to academic circles. But in recent years these theories have been slowly incorporated into the public school curricula of younger and younger students -- even being injected into areas of study that are completely unrelated.
The pushing of these philosophies is intended to influence the moral and ethical values of young children regardless of what their parents value and believe. Essentially, the role of instilling guiding beliefs and values in children is being removed from the parents and given to school districts, administrators and educators.
SIECUS, the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, is a major national provider of sex education materials. Its website, with the tagline "Sex Ed for Social Change," boasts: "Sex education has the power to spark large-scale social change . . . Sex ed . . . connects and addresses a variety of social issues. Sex ed sits at the nexus of many social justice movements -- from LGBTQ rights and reproductive justice to the #MeToo movement . . ."
As the purveyors of this material used in public schools across multiple subjects admit, the intention behind it is "to spark large-scale social change" rather than just to educate children.
According to a survey done by U.S. News & World Report, in 2021 the United States ranked number one in education based on a global survey that weighed "having a well-developed public education system, whether people would consider attending university there and if that country provides a top-quality education."
And yet it is easy to find news stories about school districts with high percentages of high school students testing at elementary school levels in subjects such as math and reading. Reports regularly emerge of students graduating from high school who not only cannot read at grade level, but cannot even read their diplomas. Recently the Program for International Student Assessment ranked the United States 25th in the world (out of 77 countries) in average scores for math, science and reading -- in spite of spending $14,455 per pupil per year.
It seems, at least in part, that academics are pushed aside for the sake of social agendas. The methods being used to promote such ideas (i.e., social media, entertainment, school curricula, etc.) are having an effect on the youth of the country. According to a 2021 Barna study, a shocking 30 percent of Millennials (born between 1984 and 2002) in the United States identify as LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning). The number is 39 percent among Gen Z (those between ages 18 and 24). The numbers among Millennials who consider themselves to be Christian are lower, but not significantly so.
The role of parents and family in the education and moral instruction of America's youth is being degraded. Children are being taught from a very early age that they can choose their own sex, gender, and sexual orientation without their parents having any knowledge of or input into the decision. The God-given family structure, which includes the vital role of parents in the education of their own children, is being dismantled and replaced with educators attempting to instill values contrary to the Word of God.
Notice Jesus Christ's words in Luke 12:53: "Father will be divided against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law." These kinds of family dynamics can happen when there is strong disagreement about fundamental beliefs and values.
Jesus said that members of the same household would be divided over their commitment to following Him in their lives. It's beyond the proper mandate of the educational system to teach children a set of values contrary to that of their parents. To go as far as hiding the dynamics of a child's mental, emotional and spiritual struggles from his or her parents further promotes disunity and distrust between parent and child.
Even more dangerous than that is the pushing aside of the role of God and His Word as the guide for how mankind should live. What does the Bible say about who is responsible for the education of the next generation?
"Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 'Honor your father and mother,' which is the first commandment with promise: 'that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.' And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord" (Ephesians 6:1-4).
Having a public education system isn't in itself inherently dangerous, and not all teachers, administrators and districts have hidden agendas they are trying to force on unsuspecting children and their parents. However, parents should pay attention to what their children are being taught and do their best to be proactive in the education of their own family.
While their children are under their care as they grow, parents have the direct responsibility to teach them according to the Word of God. This is universal for all Christian families regardless of which country they live in or what culture they come from. The laws of God are for everyone and essential to facing the deceptions of the "god of this age" who has deceived the whole world (see 2 Corinthians 4:4; Revelation 12:9).
Eventually I made my way through elementary school and middle school and graduated from high school. I went on to attend and graduate from two public universities. In the midst of my education I made the decision to formally make a commitment to following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. I repented of my sins and was baptized, my pastor then laying his hands on my head and praying that God would give me His Holy Spirit.
I survived the public education system without becoming indoctrinated into a false way of life. I wasn't swayed by popular opinion. I've always considered myself to have been sheltered by God while being allowed the freedom to choose the way I wanted to live. I was also blessed to have been brought up by parents who were themselves committed to God.
In the time since I finished school, and even since the time I worked in a public school, the pressures to broadly accept and embrace the plummeting values of society have greatly increased. With rising ideological indoctrination, the children and young adults who want to follow God's way of life will likely not have it so easy.
They may be faced with criticism, ridicule and disdain over what they believe. Other people may try to convince them that the truth of God and what their parents have taught them are out of date or are "judgmental" or "hateful" of the practices and beliefs of others. We cannot perpetually shelter our children from the world, which means they will be exposed to these lies. So they will need to learn to navigate through some very challenging moral arguments and difficult situations.
Jesus Himself, when He prayed to His Father just before His crucifixion about His followers, said: "I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth" (John 17:15-19).
As we've seen, parents have the obligation to bring up their children "in the training and admonition of the Lord." We must do our best to prepare our children by teaching them from the Word of God, by having our own conversations with them about what they might come across as part of their education in school, by being an example of what is right, and by helping our children in their struggles when those come.
We also must pray that, when the time comes for them to decide, they also choose to embrace the truth of God rather than the deception pushed by the world.
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