More Leftist Indoctrination of Our School Children

March 20, 2008 | Filed Under Democrats/Leftists, Elections, Government, Corruption, Media Bias, News, Publius Contributor, Society/Culture, Taxes, Unions, Warner Todd Huston |

-By Warner Todd Huston

I have been saying for quite some time that we conservatives have failed in one major area: education. We have ceded the grounds of the education of our youth to those who despise everything that makes America great. Yet, here we all are blindly sending our children to people who will instill in them a hatred of everything that is American. And then, we get upset when the voters don’t go our way.

The sad truth of the matter is, if we allow those who do not cherish American values to teach our children, what is it that we think those children held captive to anti-American views will learn from the experience

Well, with that point in mind, let us learn of yet one more example of the leftist indoctrination that is being forced upon our children. This one comes from radio talk show host Ron Smith of WBAL radio in Baltimore, Maryland.

One of Mr. Smith’s listeners sent him a little poem that was given to his first grade daughter so that she might learn about taxes. Titled “Why Do We Pay Taxes?,” this homage to big government socialism was pawned off as “teaching” social studies by the public schools in Maryland.

Why do we need to pay taxes?
The reason is clear to see.
This money to our government
Provides services for you and me.

For it’s taxes that pay our teachers,
Firemen and policemen too.
Postal workers, librarians,
Just to name a few.

Our taxes help to pave our roads,
And take care of the poor.
Provide for parks and playgrounds
And still they do much more.

So, when it comes to taxes,
Everyone needs to pay.
It strengthens our communities,
That’s the American Way.

Notice how this poem stresses that taxes are supposed to “provide services,” and “take care of the poor.” Then it links “the American way” to these socialist principles. It’s as if all the government is there for is to give us stuff. At least, that is what these poor kids will learn.

Also, notice the lack of definition for taxes. This poem makes believe that “taxes” are all the same when they most certainly are not. There are different kinds of taxes levied for different reasons, but these kids are being told that “taxes” pay for their teachers, roads, police and librarians. There is no distinction between the property taxes that really do pay for teachers, and other taxes that pay for other things. This is certainly the rhetoric we are used to seeing from our unions, isn’t it?

Now, don’t get me wrong, taxes are an extremely important thing. It was, in fact, one of the most argued about item on the agenda for our founders. So, it is absolutely an important issue to teach our children about. First grade, though, may be a tad early to teach children about this vast and intricate topic.

But, it’s not too early if you want kids to imagine that government is there to guide our lives. It’s not too early if you want kids to learn that they must look to government to solve every problem and to be our provider.

This incident reminds me of a book that my 2nd grader brought home years ago. It was called something like “Chipmunk’s first time home alone” and it was a picture book story of a young chipmunk being home alone for the first time. It was ostensibly about how the young chipmunk was responsible enough for his parents to leave him alone.

Yet, stuck in the middle of the story was the reason the chipmunk parents were going out that night. You see, the parents had to rush off to a meeting of all the woodland creatures because a mean, evil corporation was clear-cutting the forest and they were banding together to stop it!

Right in the center of a story that was supposed to be teaching children how to be responsible when home alone was this anti-corporation, anti-capitalist message.

Yeah, that’s what passes for “teaching” these days in our socialist schools.

And this brings me back to my main point here. If we conservatives expect our current young voters and voters into the future to have even the slightest understanding of our ideas and positions, we need to stop turning our collective backs on the education and ceding the battlefield to those that are enemies to the real American way.

Otherwise, we will continue to see people graduating from our schools and into the voting polity that haven’t got the first clue what we are talking about and why we are right. They’ll have no reason to vote for us because they will simply have no basis of understanding from which to make a decision favoring our policies.

And, if that continues to happen we will have no one to blame but ourselves.

____________

Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston