From shocking assignments and library books to intentionally keeping parents in the dark, today’s public education is raising questions about how and what this system is teaching the next generation.
Cissie Graham Lynch says parents must remain vigilant.
“These educators feel like it’s their job to teach our children about things that we should be teaching our kids,” she said.
As Election Day approaches, Cissie says it’s imperative to vote for candidates who support curriculum transparency and parents’ rights to know what’s happening in the classroom.
On the most recent episode of her Fearless podcast, Cissie sat down with longtime friends Josh and Bethany Bidwell, who are the parents of four. The Oregon couple discuss the highly concerning direction many schools are headed, sharing alarming experiences their children have had in public school.
Listen as Cissie and the Bidwells talk about what they’re doing to protect their children and stand up for truth—and how you can do the same.
Read more about why education is such an important issue as you head to the polls in the following devotion, taken from Cissie’s Fearless Family: Eight-Day Election Prayer Guide.
Reading: Ephesians 6:1–4
Don’t Tell the Parents
Abraham Lincoln once said, “The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.” This is what’s happening in America today, and as a Christian mother, I am deeply concerned by the dangerous philosophy that believes the state—not the parents—should be the primary educator on gender, sexuality, and racial issues.
Thankfully, parents are waking up and getting more involved than ever. It is becoming common to see viral clips of parents sharing their concerns and at times, their disgust at public school board meetings. Many times, these parents simply read from the books in the school library that contain graphic violence and sexually explicit content. The material is often so disturbing, it makes board members squirm in their seats. In Nevada this summer, one school board meeting stopped twice after lurid and obscene passages were read from the district’s school library books. …
How Do We Protect and Prepare Our Children?
So how do we stand against a culture that rejects anything related to Biblical morality when it comes after our kids?
- We need to know the truth of God’s Word so we can easily identify counterfeit messages. Without knowing and understanding God’s Truth ourselves, how will we ever be able to share it with our children?
- We need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Christian parents cannot sit silent on tough cultural and sexual issues. If we don’t teach our children—someone else will. We have to be prepared to discuss any topic so our children don’t go elsewhere for their information.
- We must be willing to make necessary adjustments to our children’s environments—school, sports, friendships, health care—even when it’s unpopular with our children and their peers. Our job is to remove them from any setting where they are being inundated with messages that oppose God’s Word. We wouldn’t leave our children unprotected in a dangerous physical place, such as the middle of a busy street, and the same goes for dangerous spiritual environments.
- We need to know who is teaching our children and what they are teaching them. … We also need to know the exact curriculum they are using in school. It seems educators are more worried about teaching children emotional intelligence, critical race theory (CRT), and other agenda-based topics than they are in helping them learn to read and write and understand subjects like science, history, and math.
- Just as we need to know our children’s teachers, we also need to make sure we know their coaches, dance teachers, tutors, youth pastors, piano teachers, and whoever has influence in their lives. Those who oversee our kids’ interests, hobbies, and talents can sometimes have an even bigger impact than teachers because our kids want so badly to please those who might hold the key to their biggest dreams and aspirations.
Our Vote Matters
We have an opportunity to protect our children and our parental rights at the ballot box this election. …
We should consider supporting candidates for office that support school choice or who are willing to explore and promote creative ways to spend federal and state dollars on education and who are not totally beholden to the public school system as the one option for funding. For decades, when it comes to everything from academic performance to morality to safety and fairness, public schools fail to make the grade.
This is why it’s imperative that we research where political candidates stand on these issues. We must read their campaign points and review their voting history to make sure that their words match their actions. This election is our opportunity to vote for candidates who support transparency in our schools and who will uphold our right to have a say in what our children are being taught in the classroom.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the gift of free public education for all in this country and for the freedom to educate our children at home if we wish to. Please help us as parents to rise to the challenge of truly discipling our children so that they will be prepared to stand for You, even if it means standing against the culture. Please help us to gain confidence and clarity when it comes to teaching our children what Your Word truly says about challenging and important topics such as justice, equality, race, gender, and sexuality. We pray that that those who are elected will lead by seeking Your wisdom and will uphold the rights of parents and the protection of children. …
