“Academic instruction has taken a back seat to social justice and the sexuality and gender identity of children,” writes Cynthia Tobias in her new book, Reclaiming Education: Teach Your Child To Be a Confident Learner.”
She quotes some astonishing numbers to support her statement:
- One in four American children grows up without learning to read.
- Fifty-four percent of Americans between the ages of sixteen and seventy-four read at or below the sixth-grade level.
- In 2018, the U.S. ranked 38th in the world in math scores and 24th in science.
- About 130 million adults in the U.S. have low literacy skills.
The statistics demonstrate the rampant failure of our public schools to teach basic subjects.
Despite this, Tobias, an author, speaker and educator, believes parents can take control of their children’s education, helping them achieve academic success and become life-long learners.
To explain what’s gone wrong in education, she points to a post from the radical National Education Association in 2022, where the teachers union stated, “Educators love their students and know better than anyone what they need to learn and to thrive.”
Educators love their students and know better than anyone what they need to learn and to thrive.
— NEA (@NEAToday) November 13, 2022
Clearly, the NEA is attempting to usurp the role of parents.
In addition to teachers unions, Tobias points to groups like Planned Parenthood and Black Lives Matter at School which seek to sexualize, radicalize and indoctrinate school children – from Pre-K to 12th grade.
Reclaiming Education points out that “there are thousands of good teachers in public schools, and many are exceptional teachers.” But Tobias notes:
The public school system is stacked against the educators who want to make their students the top priority. Teachers actually have little control over curriculum and administrative policy.
As a result of all these forces working against student achievement, the author says:
As Christian parents, we have to take back the education of our children. It won’t look the same for everyone. But we must no longer take someone else’s word for what and how our children are learning.
So Tobias goes on to give practical tools for parents to help their children become confident learners and ensure their success in school – whether public, private, home, charter or some other hybrid model. These tools include knowing the environment that helps the child concentrate and learn, understanding each child’s learning style, and knowing how a child best processes information.
The goal is to help children learn about themselves and deal with educational challenges, but Tobias is clear that parents must be willing to sacrifice and fight for their children to become lifelong learners.
In today’s day and age, we can’t depend on the education system to do this for us.
Tobias includes two chapters written by Mary Jo Dean, who writes about her journey into homeschooling, despite the fact that she felt ill-equipped for this task, as an average student with a high school diploma.
Olson explains that her children were “involved in church activities, sports, music lessons, home school co-ops, 4H” and other activities throughout the years, and for each of her three children, homeschooling was tailored “to the specific needs and learning style of each individual child.”
Both Tobias and Olson note that there are many ways to homeschool, with all kinds of resources and support. And, as the Daily Citizen has reported, many states are now moving toward educational freedom, which gives parents in those states even more options.
Reclaiming Education provides valuable encouragement and insight for parents to stay engaged in their children’s education – especially given the state of many schools across the nation.
Tobias exhorts parents:
Don’t put your children’s education on autopilot. Keep your hands on the wheel. … This is the foundation for success for the rest of their lives.
Don’t relinquish their youth to those who will not teach them to honor and cherish the Creator who made them. …
Do everything in your power to protect you children from those who would try to instill in them a secular worldview instead of a biblical one and therefore negatively influence how they think.
Cynthia Tobias has been a frequent guest on Focus on the Family – With Jim Daly, including the March 11 broadcast, “Putting Children First in Education,” where she discusses Reclaiming Education: Teach Your Child To Be a Confident Learner.
Reclaiming Education: Teach Your Child To Be a Confident Learner, by Cynthia Ulrich Tobias, with Mary Jo Dean, is a Focus on the Family Book.
Related articles and resources:
BLM at School Week – Indoctrinating and Training Radical Activist Children
‘Critical Social Justice’ in Education – If it Can Happen in Idaho, It Can Happen Anywhere
Educators, Parents and Students Rally to Support National School Choice Week
Iowa, Utah, Oklahoma and Florida Move to Expand Educational Freedom
What’s Happening in Schools? Why We Need Educational Freedom
Image from Focus on the Family.
