I just read the book Unbroken. It has overwhelmed me. I guess I had believed that all people are God’s children and are inherently good and want to play fair and do right. It took me by such surprise to read of the shocking brutality meted out to Americans in P.O.W. camps in Japan during WWII. On top of this, I just viewed America: Imagine a World Without Her by Dinesh D’Souza which heightened my anxiety for America.
What’s a mother to do?
I cannot fight wars. I can barely vote sensibly. Between the rebuttals and the counter-rebuttal to the rebuttal, I get lost. Aside from voting responsibility, one thing you and I can do is to raise up patriots in our own homes. We have the responsibility and the power to teach the principles of liberty to our children. The public schools cannot do it: government funding propagates government agendas.
If you live in a rural community like I do, the teachers themselves are often patriotic and try their best to do what they can to teach love of liberty. But sooner or later, as the children grow, they will be confronted in school with progressive, modernistic ideas that are anti-American. It is unavoidable. It is in the books assigned, the media, the movies…the attitudes. It is promoted by our own President! Without a foundation of belief in core principles, a pre-teen or teen may not be able to discern well enough to resist embracing those ideas that will destroy America. The hope of the future is our children…but if the children do not know what protects freedom and what destroys it, how can they grow up to sustain our liberty?
I love Alexis de Tocqueville’s claim that “America is great because America is good…”! Teaching kids to “be good” is a fundamental priority, but we must do more. We must teach them to love freedom, to believe in freedom, to realize how privileged they are to live in a free country and to feel committed to keeping it free!
How?
Start young. Anti-freedom ideas such as entitlement, disrespect for authority figures such as policeman, expectations for free education and government subsidies—these ideas are “caught” rather than taught, so we must make sure our own ideas support freedom! We ourselves are not exempt from believing cultural lies.
Over the years of teaching my children, I have found some tried and true resources that are a huge help. Although this list of necessity will be brief, it is enough to give your children a foundation. You can add many other excellent resources to give your children a thorough education in what it means to be an American and to uphold the amazing precepts that made 1776 the beginning of something very precious and wonderful!
Age 3 years and up
Wee Sing America CD and Songbook
Play it in the car, sing along, tell your children the stories of the songs.
Ages 6-12 years
Take Your Hat Off When the Flag Goes By
Kids’ Translation of Founding Documents
Explained within a kids’ understanding, the most meaningful documents: The Pledge of Allegience, The Star-Spangled Banner, The Bill of Rights, The Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg Address.
 |
A wonderful, faith-building overview of America’s history. Read it aloud to your children. Inspiring!
Ages: 12 and up
Learning the Bill of Rights in Minutes
How can you defend your rights if you don’t know them? I learned at least as much as my children did!
What Would the Founding Fathers Think?
Learn to think, to analyze what is happening today in light of what the Founding Fathers would think.
Learn it, know it, enjoy its provisions for freedom, defend it!
Principles of freedom propelled our world forward 5,000 years! Everyone enjoys the benefits of freedom.
Comments on this entry are closed.