Dobson: Get kids out of California public schools

by Christine Hall                                                                                           Vol. XV, No. 5, May 2002

James Dobson is urging parents not to send their kids to public schools in California for fear they could be corrupted by a pro-homosexual agenda, CNSNews.com reported March 29. "In the state of California ... if I had a child there, I wouldn't put that youngster in a public school," Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, told his radio audience March 28.

"I've been very careful not to be negative to the public schools because there are many Christian teachers that are struggling mightily to do what's right," Dobson said. "But ... in every classroom in the state, for 13 public school years, they're being taught homosexual propaganda and these other politically correct, post-modern views.

"I'm going to get hit for [saying] that," Dobson acknowledged.

His recommendation drew praise from the Alliance for the Separation of School and State. "With today's courageous and insightful statement, Dr. Dobson joins the millions of Americans who have already discovered that the public schools have become government indoctrination centers which are no place to train new generations of freedom-loving Americans," said Marshall Fritz, the organization's president.

"Dobson is so significant," said Fritz, noting that Dobson's broadcast is heard by 200 million people daily in more than 100 countries. "This could open up debate much wider."

Dobson's organization has been critical of the California legislature and governor for passing legislation that will "devastate children in the state's public schools and harm family life in the state."

Focus on the Family last year singled out 10 "radical bills" that would "require teachers to tell children that homosexuality is normal and that anybody who objects is hateful." "If these bills are passed, homosexual activists will likely use California's schools to destroy the Christian ideas about sexuality that parents teach at home," Focus on the Family warned in June 2001.

Regarding schools, Focus on the Family criticized state-passed bills that extend "hate crime" policies to public and some private schools; use school-based health clinics to allegedly refer children as young as 12 for birth control, abortions, drug and alcohol and mental health counseling "all without parental notification or permission"; and define harassment to mean talking about moral objections to homosexual behavior.

Former presidential candidate and talk show host Patrick Buchanan was the guest on Dobson's March 28 radio show. He agreed with the host that parents should take their kids out of California public schools.

"Anyone who teaches a child that homosexuality is a moral, natural and healthy lifestyle is lying to that child," Buchanan said. "You're exactly right. You should not let your children be lied to by people in authority [in] the classroom." [BP]

[Hall is a staff writer with www.CNSNews.com. Used by permission.]

On 9 April “Dr. Laura” said on her broadcast, “I stand with Dr. James Dobson: Take your kids out of public schools.” She did not limit her recommendation to California as had Dobson. And on the same day popular Christian talk show host Marlin Maddoux also gave his support to Dr. Dobson.

The Alliance for Separation of School and State is led by Marshall Fritz who commented, “Our mission is to re-establish parental control of education by eliminating the government control which has led to propaganda masquerading as education.” Visit the Alliance at www.sepschool.org.

Evangelical Protestant Rev. E. Ray Moore, founder of Exodus Mandate, reacted to Dobson’s remarks by saying, “This could be one of the most important broadcasts Dr. Dobson has ever made. I know people are writing him from around the country urging him to sound the warning that public schools are dangerous to the faith and morals of Christian children in their states, too, maybe almost as bad as California.” See www.exodusmandate.org.

[Comment: Parents in Virginia and other states should not dismiss the above just because California is a different state and far away. What is being done openly and aggressively there has begun quietly here, more so in some school districts, less in others. But there is no doubt, the same immoral, ultra-liberal agenda is underway all across the country.

      Moreover, there are several basic fallacies with the entire concept of government schools:

(1) Whose children are they? Do they belong to the government or to their parents?

(2) Who understands and loves each child as an individual, government or parents?

(3) In what other of life’s circumstances do we find ourselves quarantined with people plus or minus one year of our own age? Any age-graded school is an artificial arrangement which inevitably restricts opportunities for the child to learn from elders and to help juniors. Moreover, such isolation by age exerts great pressure on the inmates to focus only on the needs and desires of one’s own age cohort thereby encouraging a narcissistic approach to life that disdains those either younger or older.

(4) In a country which prides itself on individualism and innovation, why do we have a school system that quashes both? Any large class school, public or private, cannot avoid the “herd factor”. The “shepherd” must keep the sheep together. Oh, some will habitually be in the lead, some bringing up the rear, but they will all cluster together in one flock. Any sheep who seeks to strike out on his own will, must, be rapidly brought back into conformance with the rest. Do we really want ingrained conformity?

(5) Why should we have a school system based on a false concept of learning? Any large class, age-graded school assumes that all children learn each subject at uniform rates. But repeated studies prove that is simply untrue. Instead, most learning occurs in spurts interspersed by longer periods during which the brain apparently digests what it took in during the brief period of intense learning. Moreover, often a child (or an adult for that matter) will develop an intense interest in a particular topic and be able to absorb rapidly immense amounts of information on that subject, but not be interested in or able to deal with other material. And of course, all children do not experience the rapid learning spurts simultaneously, or become truly interested in the same topic at the same time. When academia ignores these fundamental characteristics of learning, the child – forced into a mold that doesn’t fit – becomes discouraged, disinterested, and rebellious.

(6) Why do we tolerate an educational arrangement that inevitably becomes increasingly inefficient and decreasingly effective in producing learning? Monopolies unswervingly move toward bureaucracy and inefficiency, toward hubris hiding pathetic performance, toward failure touted as excellence. And the state school system in the United States is one of, if not the, largest monopolies in the world.

(7) Why should the United States pursue a mode of education which is inimical to the long-term continuation of democracy? Democracy is in large part the amiable interplay of competing ideas. Perhaps its greatest good is that it provides for the peaceful growth, coordination, and competition of values, economic endeavors, religions, the arts, and individuals. Our lock-step, increasingly top-down, large class, age-segregated schools are the antithesis of proper preparation of new generations to understand, function within, and further our democracy.

The Bible expressly commands us to teach our children, yet we directly disobey God and think nothing of it. God creates in parents those qualities of love and insight which make them uniquely fitted to educate their children. We reject His plan and command at our peril ... and the peril of the lives and souls of our children. TCP]