Once upon a time in America, parents could send their children off to school—even to public schools—and presume accurately their little ones were being taught simply “the three Rs.” No longer. In modern America, it’s more likely one of the three Rs students will be taught is “racism,” perhaps even more likely than adequate reading, “riting,” and “rithmetic.”

A radical progressive political agenda has replaced the pursuit of truth and objectivity in our nation’s classrooms, and it’s time parents and responsible citizens put an end to it.

At New Trier High School, a public school in Winnetka, Illinois, students will be subjected in February to an “All-School Seminar Day” aimed at “understanding today’s struggles for racial civil rights.” The entire day is chock-full of race-baiting discussion topics, left-wing speakers, and one-sided, indoctrinating ideologies.

ADVERTISEMENT

One of the workshops scheduled is the “21st Century Voter Suppression” workshop (no, that’s not a typo; “suppression” is misspelled multiple times on the school’s agenda). On “Vote Suppression” day, students will discuss “the methods and regulations used in the U.S. to deny or limit the voting rights of various minority groups.”

Another workshop is the “Advancing Civil Rights or Reverse Discrimination?: Affirmative Action in Elite College Admissions,” during which students will learn how affirmative action policies “often unnecessarily incite racial tensions and anxiety.”

Don’t forget about the “Appropriate Alliances: Working in White Spaces” workshops. On “White Spaces” day, students will talk about “how white students can help break down stereotypes and other types of structural racism in white spaces” and “address why white guilt is an ineffective form of acknowledging racism.”

There isn’t enough space here to mention all the absurd, bigoted material that will be forced on Winnetka students come February 28. “Race” and “racism” are mentioned in the 25-page program 82 times (not counting the misspelled versions my word-find tool failed to pick up); “black” is mentioned 37 times; and “white” 26 times—this from the same set of people who claim to be “color blind.”

What place does the discussion of “identifying biases and challenging stereotypes” or “trans-people of color navigating the U.S.” have in our public schools? It isn’t as though students and teachers are simply acknowledging current events and the various mindsets associated with them.

I would argue it’s not even possible to talk about such inherently subjective topics without infusing the discussion with some form of bias, regardless of one’s personal or political beliefs—and when it comes to government entities, if they don’t have something neutral to say, they shouldn’t say anything at all.

What is happening at New Trier is an obvious, systematic brainwashing, going so far as to goad students who don’t observe racism in their daily lives into believing they do, as the Seminar Day agenda reads: “Most systemic racism is invisible ... often to both ‘sides’... until you know it’s there.

Once you know it’s there, you can’t stop seeing it. In this workshop, you’ll participate in an activity that will help you see the unseen, and possibly recognize some systematic biases that you see every day without realizing they are there.”

Despite claiming to be open to “diversity,” these molders of young minds are the same people who fight tooth and nail to prevent school choice programs from flourishing, apparently because parents might choose to send their children somewhere other than to the local failing school.

They might even, God forbid, send them to religious schools. They are the same folks who rally against prayer in school and any mention of the Bible while they inject one-sided, liberal-fueled propaganda about how to think and feel on moral issues into every facet of our children’s public educations. I guess it’s ok to indoctrinate kids about “right” and “wrong” so long as God isn’t involved.

The progressive left is proud of its infiltration into the school system and truly believes it has a right and duty to force its “superior” viewpoints on everyone else. Breitbart reported on New Trier’s similar stunt in 2016, in which the school forced students to attend a “Racial Identity” day.

The Huffington Post took Breitbart to task for reporting New Trier parents feared the curriculum contained a “political agenda.” Huffington Post writer Celia Buckman mocked Breitbart and defended New Trier, because, according to Buckman, “Our learning environment never was neutral. … New Trier is overwhelmingly white and affluent—over 80 percent of students are caucasian, and just 3 percent of the student body is low-income … New Trier students live in a bubble that needs to be popped.”

How’s that for racist?

New Trier is an extreme example, of course, but this type of shameless indoctrination is happening in government schools all across the country.

Teaching “just the facts” goes against the nature of government schools and their employees, because it is in their best interests to produce wards of the state who love big government as much as they do.

In theory, the products of public schools will perpetuate government’s growth and influence so those in its employ gain the power and prosperity they so salaciously desire.

Though I’m curious to see what happens when students “examine the lyrics of several contemporary rap songs,” explore their “deeper meanings, historical context, cultural impact, and their intersections with race,” and “analyze a song of their choosing,” I know the exercise will be more than just a waste of time.

Government employees can’t be trusted to leave their political ideologies at home, and so they, and teachers especially, should never venture from them.

Teresa Mull (tmull@heartland.org) is a research fellow in education policy at The Heartland Institute.

The views expressed by Contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.