Sheltering our children from the current sociopolitical divide rocking our country
Nothing is more important in this day and age than protecting our children’s innocence. With the rise in political violence threatening to destabilize the core of our nation, we, the adults, must do all we can to shelter our children from the blows rocking our sociocultural landscape. We must return to immersing our children in the principles and ideals upon which our nation was founded. It is the only way in which our schools can truly serve as thriving centers of scholarship. In the wake of the assassination of Charlie Kirk, a proponent of free speech on university campuses, what other response should there be?
Our children should be busy investigating the ideas that inspired our Founding Fathers to declare independence from Great Britain, risk their lives in the Revolutionary War, author the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. Our American heritage dates back to Magna Carta, the English Bill of Rights, and the Mayflower Compact. When our children learn of all of the trials and tribulations it took to create this great nation, coursing over centuries, our freedoms, endowed to us by our Creator, will not be taken for granted. Through this method, our students will learn to honor their fellow citizens’ unalienable right to freedom of speech, regardless of where they stand on the political spectrum.
During an incredibly tumultuous time in our nation’s history, Frederick Douglass delivered one of the most significant statements ever made by an American on the importance of free speech and the open exchange of ideas in a democratic republic. He wrote, “Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one’s thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist. That, of all rights, is the dread of tyrants.” Douglass echoed the same ideas as Benjamin Franklin nearly a century earlier, who said, “Freedom of speech is a principal pillar of a free government: When this support is taken away, the constitution of a free society is dissolved, and tyranny is erected on its ruins.” We, the people, must safeguard liberty at every level by creating schools centered on honoring the First Amendment.
Currently, leftist ideologies are deeply embedded within our school system, limiting freedom of thought and expression. BLM and LGBTQ+ flags adorn classrooms and hallways. Critical race theory is central to Social Studies education from elementary through high school. These ideas are presented as the only course of righteous action for the rising political activists our schools aim to create. We risk entrenching our children in unnecessary future turmoil by framing the trends of our time as the only just causes. When “all the things” that are good can only come from the Left, what happens to anyone who believes differently? Where do those children and their families fit in our schools and our communities?
It is time for our school leaders to embrace adopting policies that foster true freedom of thought. Content-rich, knowledge-based, direct instruction will create the cohesive and focused learning environment we seek for our children. The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty has several model school board policies aimed at ensuring classrooms remain spaces for inclusive and respectful dialogue. We want our schools to encourage open discussions and welcome diverse perspectives. We cannot become a society where expressing political views, even controversial ones, leads to violence. “[E]nlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body & mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day,” wrote Thomas Jefferson. It is time for school leaders to take the task of providing a quality education for all of our children as seriously as life and death.
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