The choice of homeschooling children isn’t a luxury a lot of American families can afford. The reasons for the wide inability to choose this option range from single parent households lacking income or homes where two parents must work to afford cost of living expenses. The ability to stay at home with children to teach them in a homeschooling atmosphere (even from an online learning curriculum) isn’t something a lot of families can do without quitting their jobs and forfeiting much-needed income.
Private school is another alternative to public school but, in many cases, the price tag attributed to such programs is daunting, at best, even with scholarships and financial aid. Some parents may elect to hold 1-3 additional jobs to finance such a venture but that isn’t an option for all families.
The message spread to many is, if they cannot or choose not to send their children to private schools or homeschool, their child’s education is not in any way under their control and they should be satisfied with whatever bare minimum they receive. The “bare minimum” comes in the form of public schools. Many families find they do not have a choice in which public school their child attends due to zoning and cannot have their child attend the school of their choice without moving to a new home.
Public schools are and have been at the zenith of national attention for failed policies, violence, funding mismanagement, and corruption (such as the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting on February 14th, 2018 in Parkland, Florida, which took the lives of 17 students and staff members and injured 17 others).
At the front of this battle is David Horowitz and his foundation, the eponymous David Horowitz Freedom Center (DHFC). Through the Center, a campaign against a specific affront to freedom is underway: K-12 (Kindergarten through 12th grade) indoctrination. Aptly named, the “Stop K-12 Indoctrination” program serves many different purposes, but their main goal is to educate parents and teachers about the instances of indoctrination in schools but also how to combat such occurrences when spotted.
One of their many advocates is Sean Fitzgerald, a YouTube personality with 61.8k subscribers who goes by the moniker “Actual Justice Warrior”. Fitzgerald’s content is largely non-partisan/centrist in nature but seeks to call out hypocrisies within the “social justice warrior” (SJW) culture or among far-left-leaning promoters.
On Febuary 3rd, 2018, Sean posted a video he believed was an “isolated incident”. The video gained him attention from “Stop K-12 Indoctrination” and the DHFC. “After I posted a video on the Edina school, I was contacted by David Horowitz and asked to get involved,” said Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald’s main job within the DHFC is to research and produce video content on his YouTube channel. As of the date of this publication, Fitzgerald’s video count on this specific subject is 22, with more to come. Fitzgerald’s content doesn’t come primarily from DHFC, however, but rather tips from concerned parents and citizens.
Though not a parent himself, he finds that no one has given him grief for it or accused him of not having a stake in the situation. Many parents, he says, feel they cannot come forward due to threat of reprisal/unfair treatment of their children and are happy he is there to be their voices when they cannot be.
I heard from parent who wanted to remain anonymous that his kid, who was normally a lock for an A, was given a D and an F for his junior year finals…then after he went to the school and disavowed his father, his grades were changed to A’s.
Fitzgerald explains one instance of retaliation, which many parents are terrified of.
He says it is incumbent upon all people, whether parents, teachers, or taxpayers, to be involved in this fight, even those who have withdrawn their children from public school.
If you recognize the problems in the public schools, you should still be fighting to fix them…even if you get your kids out…we have a generation of kids learning this and they’ll grow up to be the majority of our country in the future.
Private schooling, he says, is something parents should be involved in curriculum-wise, as well, and is not free from the problems found in public schools.
The struggle to fix the system is a grueling one but Fitzgerald and Stop K-12 Indoctrination hopes through education and support, they can turn the tide to a saner/less partisan approach to teaching children:
We advocate for the Code of Ethics for K-12 educators to keep partisan politics out of the classroom as much as possible. I’d like the curriculum to push critical thinking…teach kids how to think, not what to think. We also want to restrict politics to classes that actually have something to do with it and give kids as many perspectives as possible.
While Fitzgerald highlights fighting against general “far-left” leaning policies in public schools, he isn’t against teaching these principles if they’re presented in equal measure with other world-views and viewpoints.
Islamic indoctrination is one topic tackled within that realm in Fitzgerald’s videos, but he says it does not mean he is against the teaching of Islam in public schools if, like how he views all leftist ideology, it is done fairly:
I have no problem with kids learning about what is known as ‘the Islamic world’ to better inform them about our world, but the standard set with every other faith is you cannot implement these types of curriculum… but Islam gets special treatment and I don’t support that. We consider these types of religious programs First Amendment violations, that should be applied the same across the board.
Fitzgerald continues to make videos for Stop K-12 Indoctrination along with other content tackling a range of topics from politics to pop culture news. His videos can be found on YouTube with a specific playlist to his Stop K-12 Indoctrination body of work. He can also be found on Twitter at @IamSean90.
For more information on Stop K-12 Indoctrination:
https://www.stopk12indoctrination.org/ – Website
https://www.facebook.com/StopK12Indoctrination/ – Facebook
https://www.davidhorowitzfreedomcenter.org/ – David Horowitz Freedom Center
