The Capture of America’s Culture

 

The Capture of America’s Culture

Published in Marietta Daily Journal (GA) March 11, 2023

            More and more so-called progressives (I prefer “leftists”) are increasing their grip on America’s institutions. The institutions of marriage, the family, the university, religion, human sexuality for heaven’s sake, free enterprise, freedom of speech, and even freedom of thought are particularly targeted by progressives. Why is there not more outcry? Several organizations are fighting the onslaught. Even a few celebrities and professional athletes have awakened to it. Some pulpits are addressing it but most are not. Hence, progressive ideology and policies are foisted on our children.

            Perhaps the most unsuspecting and therefore the most neglected force that is removing traditional values from the culture is public schools. I hasten to exempt Cobb County Schools from my charges of educational craziness. Cobb schools are not going crazy with drag queens, Critical Race Theory, transgenderism, or any other leftist endearments as long as board members Chastain, Wheeler, Banks, and Scamihorn are there. Atlanta and Forsyth County schools? Who can be sure?

            Overall though, public education long ago adopted a tendentious view of the purpose of schools, of American history, and of the chief characteristics of America itself. Leftists rule in so many local and state boards of education that resistance is difficult. Except for the leadership tenure of William Bennett and Betsy Devos, the federal – and constitutionally illegal – Department of Education has been run by leftists since Jimmy Carter succumbed to the National Education Association and gave it Cabinet status. Since then the claims of systemic racism, white privilege, and what I call sexual chaos have been embraced by many school systems.

             One of the least talked about influences on public schools, one that citizens often miss is that of powerful teacher unions. I have a background of resisting that influence. In 1975 I wrote my first letter to the editor, the editor of this newspaper in fact. The letter was an effort to inform MDJ readers of what was happening with teacher organizations in Georgia. The one of which I was a member, the Georgia Association of Educators, was taking a turn that I believed was not good.

            That turn was called unification. For years state associations like GAE could affiliate with the National Education Association (NEA) but teachers could join their state association without joining NEA. Unification meant that if you joined a state association you automatically joined the national organization. Call it forced “unity.” Because of what NEA stood for (collective bargaining, teacher strikes, teacher-only membership), I chose not to join. My letter argued that professional organizations are a good thing until they steer off their appointed path. I rued the fact that I no longer had a professional organization through which to contribute to fellow teachers.

            A few days after the letter was published I received a call from Fred Rainey, a man I did not know. Fred was a Smyrna, GA resident and a teacher in Atlanta. His first comment was “You must not know about PAGE” (Professional Association of GA Educators). He informed me that a small group of Atlanta and Dekalb County teachers were forming a new organization in response to unification. Right away I joined the 75 or so teachers. Times were hard or the group would never have asked me to be the editor of their publication, PAGE ONE. I was an English major, not a journalism major, and knew nothing about editing anything except high school and college essays. But with the help of PAGE members who contributed articles and with the blessing of a small living room floor, my wife and I spread and arranged news and opinion pieces on the floor, trying to get them into some kind of order that Star Printing in Acworth could make sense of.

            The 1976 issues of PAGE ONE were humble and sparse compared to today’s glitzy but substantive issues. But PAGE didn’t have over 90,000 members then as it does today. The joy of it all is that the majority of Georgia teachers then as now opposed the grip that teacher unions have on education. They oppose organizations that pit teachers against principals, superintendents, and board members and foster adversarial relationships instead of the team concept that schools badly need.

            Today teacher unions contribute over $50 million annually to the Democrat party. Thus the craziness seeping down from super-sized school districts like New York, LA, and Chicago to smaller systems throughout the country, craziness that considers schools more foundational than family, equity more important than mathematics, and localism a relic of the past.  

            Schools are the foremost perpetuators of culture. What they teach and allow is what our culture will be. Parents and non-parents alike best take note. The culture itself is at stake.