10 Wild Ideas that Might Save Public Education – Here’s Your Part

Okay, you might’ve sensed a hint of sarcasm in this headline. Guilty.

Do we need “wild” ideas to fix schools in America?

Since our culture is systematically veering away from clear logic and common sense, even the simplest remedies might seem wild to some. The tried, true structures using sound judgment and data to bring winning outcomes for students are clearly out of vogue.

How have we gotten to this place where absolute madness seems to have taken hold in our educational system?

• Simple math has been deemed racist; its equations with correct answers, a “white construct.”
• Some school districts don’t give “D’s” or “F’s” any longer – they pass each failing student regardless of later challenges or outcomes.
• Gender ideology (learning that gender is a “choice”) is standard in many schools’ sex-ed curricula beginning as early as kindergarten.
• Teachers are told that to expect students to complete assignments on time or hold them to other minimal standards reveals the instructor’s “white privilege.”
• Critical Race Theory is infused into lessons throughout subjects – teaching children they are doomed to be different and at odds with each other.
• Hardcore pornography is available in some schools – masked by an accusation that concerned parents are nazi-like book banners.

That’s not all. There’s so much more. Too much, mamas!

So, can public education be saved? Should it be saved? We would like to think there is hope for the future.

You may have fond memories of being a tree in the school play, attending football games, or learning from engaging educators like my high school social studies teacher, Mrs. Susan Morhart. (Shout out to one of my favorite teachers ever!) She taught us about the Great Depression by assigning each student a different persona and circumstances as if we were from that era. To me, that creative and memorable lesson represents the best aspects of what public education in America used to be.

Our schools weren’t perfect back then, but they were markedly different than now. The drivers then were math, English, science, history, social studies, literature, PE, and even home ec (where I learned to sew a poncho). Some things we loved, other classes, not so much (looking at you, every math class I ever took).

This straightforward focus has fallen by the wayside, and moms have had enough! School choice options are growing as homeschooling explodes in our nation. We’re speaking up at school board meetings and getting involved. Still, something has to change for public education to be viable for current and future families.

Here are ten wild ideas that might save public education:

1. Define the Relationship

Schools must understand the hierarchy. Families are the center of a child’s life; parents are paramount. Moms and dads raise their kids with the values, faith, and moral code of the family. It’s not public education’s place to weigh in on religion or sexuality or a particular political worldview to the exclusion of a fair representation of others.

2. Refocus: Reading, Writing, and ‘Rithmetic

Schools must return to teaching the basics well. Test scores in US schools have plummeted. You can pin it on COVID and the poor response to that pandemic in some school districts; however, you might also draw a line to the new priorities revolving around DEI. This worldview seems to have schools taking their eyes off the ball. Back to the basics, people! Public schools must refocus on the achievement of solid educational standards. Reading classic literature, math calculations, non-political science, and non-skewed history needs to return to the classroom in a big way.

3. Challenge Kids to Greatness

We may be partially to blame for this one. My generation of parents clapped wildly as our kids received participation trophies. However, schools need to reinstitute or protect (if they exist) standards that reward achievement – unapologetically. Some students will be overachievers – that is life. Some will pull all-nighters to ace the test. Not everyone gets the award. It hurts a mama’s heart, but it doesn’t hurt kids to lose. Failure can become a motivator and a stepping stone in life. It’s arrogant and ultimately shortsighted for educators (and parents like me) to remove challenges and disappointments from kiddos’ lives.

4. Create Standards and Hold Teachers Accountable

There must be simple standards of performance, achievement, and oversight of the materials instructors use since clear breaches have been made to contradict and undermine family values, politics, and moral codes. Administrators must be on board to guide and hold accountable the teachers who hold a place of “trust” with kids. Those who insist on their own agenda outside the agreed-upon standards should be removed.

5. Nix All Sexually Explicit Material from Schools – maybe even Sex Ed

Hardly a Puritanical idea – it’s stunning that it even needs to be said. My child doesn’t need to know about the personal lifestyle or sexual preferences of their teacher. School isn’t the place to house any books that portray sex acts, instructions about how to engage in various sexual activities, rape, incest, and bondage. We’ve written previously about the graphic nature of these books, but did you know that it’s rife in some widely used school sex-ed curriculum? Schools have jumped the shark on this one. This is why, in their current state, they can’t be trusted to teach sex education at all.

6. Reunite Students as Peers, Not Enemies

Kids are kids, regardless of race, creed, or ethnicity. They naturally see each other as peers until activist teachers seek to divide them by race and label them unfairly as villains or victims. Shame on all who have perpetrated this on the next generation. Since CRT’s poison has crept into many different courses – it must be rooted out until it is entirely gone. CRT should be a footnote in history class taught as a fatally flawed theory pushed by racist activists, kind of like the flat-earthers of the 1800s. CRT doesn’t help a single person regardless of where they fall on the contrived victim/oppressor continuum.

7. Send Drag Queens Back to the Clubs

End any drag queen involvement in schools. This includes drag queen story hour, drag queen shows, and Q & As. It is degrading to women and wrong for schools.

8. End ALL Gender Fluidity Lessons

This is another reason we can’t have nice things. Teachers have gone from normative biological and relational lessons about male and female to inviting our youngest and most vulnerable little ones to question their own gender. Educators who single out students to discuss personally with a child whether they were “born in the wrong body” are predators. Instead, if my child comes to a teacher to ask questions about such things, that instructor should reach out to me out of concern. The fact that, in many cases, this isn’t happening is state-sponsored child abuse.

9. Partner with Parents

Parents are not the enemy. Nobody really wanted to go to school board meetings. We don’t want to distrust teachers, many of whom are dedicated professionals working in a skewed and broken system. But, we have been forced. It may take some effort, but it’s time to lock arms again as teachers support parents and parents return the favor. In that order. Will the day come when we can trust our schools to be advocates for our kids and support our families – respecting (even if not agreeing with) our values and faith? Unsure.

10. Bring On Competition

School choice is all the rage right now. Parents want out, and in 29 states, that’s taking shape. Some public school advocates decry it as a death sentence for our public education system. However, in some states with the longest history of school choice, the test scores for private and public schools have significantly improved. In short, public schools that have had to compete rose to the challenge, improving their performance and giving families reason not to leave. It’s capitalism 101. When there is competition – everyone improves.

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Those ten ideas aren’t wild.

Making them happen could take time, much rethinking, conversation, collaboration, and commitment. Many have ideas about getting rid of the Department of Education, which might be needed. Much more will have to shift in the hearts and minds of those with the high calling as teachers. Their universities have taught them a warped view of education, making the needed shift more difficult.

As promised, here’s your part:

• Listen – Behind the pink hair and the lanyard with a rainbow pin, your child’s teacher is sincere about the calling to teach – and probably for all the right reasons. It’s essential, when possible, to take time to hear the story and the heart of those we imagine we disagree with. They didn’t become teachers because they hate kids, so understanding another’s point of view and even offering empathy can build bridges.
• Learn – Many non-traditional ideas and priorities seem to have originated from our nation’s teachers’ colleges. Try to learn more about your teacher’s views so that when you communicate what you and your child need in this collaboration, you can express it productively and respectfully.
• Encourage – Use your position as a parent to lift up and encourage your child’s teacher(s). They have an unbelievably challenging and sometimes thankless job. Your kindness can go a long way in the life of a busy educator.
• Stand Firm – Sincerity, empathy, kindness, and respect will give you a more open door and voice with your school and teachers. These virtues will promote cooperation when you stand firm for your child. If these things don’t bring the needed accommodation, we can’t back down when it comes to our kids. Some lines mustn’t be crossed.
• Pray – God cares about you, and He loves your kids. Pray for your school, your teachers, and especially for His divine protection of your little ones. 2 Chronicles 20:15 says, “Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God’s.”

Can our public education system be saved? We don’t know the answer to that. It’s a behemoth of bureaucracy, spending roughly half of every tax dollar on the system – not the student. It’s a little like when you meet someone hopelessly addicted to drugs. The first question is – do they even want to be saved?

Are there leaders willing to enact such “wild” ideas?

That remains to be seen.

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Podcast Note: Don’t miss our conversation with author and education advocate Victoria Manning on this week’s podcast. She’s a mama like you who saw the problem and jumped in, running for and winning a school board post for one of the largest districts in Virginia.

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