I Am a Survivor of My Public Schools’ Liberal Brainwashing

I have always thought that it was something of a miracle that my public education in deep-blue, teachers’ union-dominated inner-city Boston got me to where I am today—as a student in the Ivy League and, more importantly, the National News Editor of the renowned Cornell Review. There is no doubt that there are many problems and controversies that currently plague the public education system, such as Common Core, charter schools, racial disparity in achievement, etc. However, the greatest threat to my intellectual cultivation throughout my years of attending Boston Public Schools is the prevalence of blatant left-wing indoctrination entrenched in the academic content.

Since middle school, the vast majority of the required readings in my English and Humanities classes have incorporated strong liberal social and political agendas. It all began in 6^th grade, when my English teacher assigned Al Gore’s The Inconvenient Truth as core class reading. She mandated that we write an analytical essay discussing the harmful effects of Global Warming using the evidence and geographical case studies in his book, but how can such evidence be incorporated if it is rooted in political motives rather than factual, scientifically valid findings? I certainly do not deny the existence of climate change, but it’s quite irrational to bolster an academic paper with unverified junk science that incorporates alarmist cries of an apocalyptic doom caused by the melting of Greenland. Any book that would make conspiracy theorists nod in approval should not be presented as academic content to students.

Then, in high school, racial tensions and identity politics superseded “green” propaganda. In 10^th grade, my peers and I were asked to read Black Boy by Richard Wright. Although it begins as a novel that recounts the racial injustices that African-Americans suffered from the discriminatory culture in the South during the early 1900s, it ends as a war cry for a communist revolution driven by racial discontent. Of course, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that public school administrators assigned students to read Wright since he was an involved member of the Communist Party.

Further along the road of indoctrination, we were forced to read a number of novels by British socialist authors such as Charles Dickens, whose writings depict the capitalistic pursuit of wealth as an immoral action that inflicts harm upon society. Much like Black Boy, novels like A Christmas Carol and Oliver Twist ascribe all of society’s problems to the “rich, white male patriarchy.”

Additionally, other novels such as Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried present emotionally-charged attacks and repudiations of foreign intervention and do not seek to engage the topic of warfare in a more intellectual context. Isn’t an objective of public education to train students to read, interpret, and write in a logical and consistent manner? Are we supposed to discard logic whenever a left-wing author invokes an emotional argument?

From the racial conflicts, anti-interventionism, and pure propaganda present in these assigned readings, it is evident that the key actors behind the public education system are willing to sacrifice diversity in thought and opinion in order to advance their radical socialist/left-wing agenda. The consequences of this is disastrous; by exposing students to only one point of view, they will lack the ability to engage new information through logical analysis and will instead rely on “standardized” arguments and platitudes that they have acquired over the years from these left-wing sources.

It still amazes me to this very day that I survived my public schools’ systematic indoctrination without bowing down and conforming to my tree-hugging, race-baiting, anti-capitalist conquerors. However, we must have a moment of silence for the unfortunate majority and commemorate the sanity possessed by our friends and peers before they fell victim to the public education brainwashing.

As a solution to this socially-deleterious problem, I strongly advocate for the adoption of books, novels, and other readings that present an alternative view to the themes of novels in the standard reading list. Students should be presented with readings by authors with literary merit that advance an “alternative” or minority view. Examples include Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged and F.A. Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom, which directly balance out the socialistic viewpoints presented by the aforementioned authors and novels. With more views represented, students will be able to have a more eclectic view on important social and political issues.

I am not arguing for this proposal as a conservative; I am arguing for it as a freethinker who wishes to educate myself on all viewpoints. If students who attend public schools care about the education they receive, they will recognize the merits of my suggestion and reject their current reading lists in favor of ones that encompass all opinions and beliefs.