12 Terrifying Facts about Your Children

When my daughter was in 1^st Grade, she brought home a little book they had put together at school about Cesar Chavez.

When I asked her why they were learning about Chavez, all she could tell me was that he moved 18 times before he was 18. The labor union leader and proponent of passive protest techniques for agricultural laborers’ rights was their subject of the day.

I’m certain today she couldn’t tell me anything about this lionized revolutionary.  It still begs the question – why did they learn about him?  Why not James Madison, Thomas Jefferson or Dr. Ben Franklin? Because it doesn’t fit the PC (née liberal) agenda of our public schools. But that’s just the beginning of the madness of our education system.

In Marybeth Hicks’ new book “Don’t Let the Kids Drink the Kool-Aid, Confronting the Left’s Assault on our Families, Faith and Freedom,” (Aug 2011, ISBN 978-1-59698-151-5, Regnery Publishing, Inc. $24.95), she gives a ton of facts about what your kids are learning (or not learning) in school, and you may not want to hear it.

She digs out facts, surveys and statistics that are frightening. She also follows the money and “usual suspects” we are all coming to know more about who are influencing and indoctrinating our future generations – billionaire George Soros, ghostwriter Bill Ayers and his brother Rick, atheist and Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane, radical revolutionary Saul Alinsky, the founder of the American Atheists Madalyn Murray O’Hair, atheist Richard Dawkins and Matt Damon’s favorite socialist/educator Howard Zinn who is literally rewriting history for our kids.

Here are a dozen facts she cites in her fascinating book about our education system and the product thereof (our children) that are guaranteed to scare you.

• · 2/3^rds of America’s young adults don’t favor capitalism either because they do favor socialism or because they don’t know what they favor, according to a 2009 Rasmussen Report poll of adults under 30.
• · When the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs administered a basic citizenship test to Oklahoma high school students in 2009, a measly 2.8% of those students passed the test.
• · Almost one third of high school students do NOT learn about the Constitution, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. This has grown from a quarter in just 5 years. These are our future leaders, folks.
• · While 51% of teenagers like the idea of starting their own business, only 15% of them say this is the path to make the most money, according to a 2009 Junior Achievement survey. Only 9% believe business ownership allows them to create jobs and spur economic growth and only 3% say they have a good idea for a business.
• · According to an every-other-year survey, conducted since 1997 by Jump$tart Coalition, our children’s financial illiteracy (that’s things having to do with money and economics) has jumped among teenagers from 42.7% in 1997 to 51.7% in 2008. That may be the result of the “social justice math” Hicks writes about that will floor you. If we are teaching to test, then we are failing.
• · In 1960, 72% of adults were married, according to the Pew Research Center. In 2008, only 50% are. The gap in marriage rates between college graduates and high school graduates has moved from a mere 4% in 1960 to 16% in 2008.
• · While 80% of American adults believe their children are receiving a good education, 54% of us believe the system stinks, according to Gallup. This math just doesn’t make sense to me. Does this mean 30% believe both?
• · 1/3^rd of pre-teens believe the Earth won’t exist when they are grown up. (What’s to live for then, seriously?) Over half of these 500 children surveyed by HabitatHeros.com believe the planet will be basically uninhabitable or obliterated by the time they grow up. Now, really, if your kid believes this, a) are you going to try and help them better understand? or b) understand their malaise at finishing their homework?
• · A 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress exam proved that only 1/3 or American students are minimally proficient in science (say it again, that’s minimally). Only 3% were advanced. (Those must have been the homeschoolers who wandered in to the test to see what was going on).
• · 57% of Americans believe the government should have some involvement in childhood obesity “epidemic” according to a March 2011 Pew Research Center poll. Of people aged 18-29, 69% believe that is the case. The Nanny State indoctrination – the government fixes everything…even what you weigh. Hicks presents evidence that the obesity numbers are, like global warming statistics, cooked to serve an agenda – gosh, we’ve never heard of that happening before.
• · Last January, the Kaiser Family Foundation found that children ages 8-18 are able to absorb over 7 ½ hours of media content per day – that’s over 53 hours per week (yes, more than a typical work week). This actually grew from 6:21 in 2004, which researchers had thought represented the maximum children would be able to absorb. I can’t actually figure out how a child could even do this between school, homework, sports and other activities so maybe someone can explain.
• · And finally, in the coup de gras for the American family, over 70% of American kids have a television set in their bedrooms. They also are likely to own one or more of the following: computer, game system or mobile device as well. We have 5 kids and only the oldest, a sophomore in high school, has a cell phone, so again, this is beyond my ability to comprehend.

I tore through this book – it’s a quick read, and yet, almost like watching a train wreck. You just can’t take your eyes off of it and you can’t believe what you are reading. My copy is full of dog-eared pages of snippets I wanted to remember and be able to refer to.

Hicks has thoroughly researched her facts – this not about conjecture but about surveys, polls and test results. It will amaze you and frustrate you. It may even make you think again about homeschooling, if you aren’t already.

It explains a lot about where we are as a nation. Our youth aren’t learning to look inside themselves to form their future and that will be our downfall unless we stop the freefall and get the kids back on track.

Please read more about this crisis in our country and see what you can do to help reverse this course and get us back on track to be the most exceptional nation on Earth. Hicks’ website is www.marybethhicks.com.

Marijo Tinlin is the editor in chief of Family First, one of the oldest family-oriented websites on the internet. She is also the author of the new book “How to Raise an American Patriot, Making it Okay for Our Kids to Be Proud to Be American” available at www.raisinganamericanpatriot.com.