At the May 7, 2024, New Hanover County school board meeting, fellow Republican Josie Barnhart stated that “Our schools don’t need to be a place of activism.” As much as I truly believe Ms. Barnhart’s intentions were good, I couldn’t disagree more with her statement. Here’s why.
Nobody wants to see our public schools become battlegrounds for violence, vandalism, and pandemonium. Nobody wants to see teachers or faculty members trying to indoctrinate our students and recruit them into their way of thinking and become pawns in their army. We want our students to become well-informed critical thinkers who can decide for themselves what they believe and the causes they are passionate about. Nonetheless, we do indeed want our students to become activists in our community, state, and nation.
Our public school system exists not only to provide a career path for graduates, but also to produce well-informed citizens. Citizens who are not just self-interested but are also willing to stand tall for what is right and true, and help our community, state, and nation fulfill the vision of our founders. We are charged by Jesus to be the “Light of the World” and the “Salt of the Earth.” and not just live for ourselves. As Abraham Lincoln noted, we all have a responsibility to be activist citizens:
It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
(Gettysburg Address)
Most conservatives (including me) would love to see groups like Students for Life, Teen Age Republicans, and School Clubs for Christ flourish in our schools, and be active voices for the causes we care about. Yet, there is a growing number of conservatives who seemingly want to sterilize activism from our public schools and neuter the free speech of its students. I believe these conservatives are acting out of fear – fear that our children will adopt viewpoints and advocate for causes that we strongly disagree with.
Of course there is no way to avoid this possibility altogether. If we try to limit free speech and activism to only those viewpoints and causes that we believe in, then we clearly violate the 1st Amendment and are no better than the educational system in communist China. However, we have no reason to be overly fearful. If parents have done a good job raising their children and if our shared viewpoints and causes are just and Godly, then we shouldn’t have a huge worry that our children will depart drastically from what we believe in. In fact, I have faith that God can use our students as instruments and be successful in transforming the next generation.
In summary, our school board should enact sound policies to ensure that student activism does not lead to violence, vandalism, and pandemonium. It should also adopt policies that ensure that teachers and faculty members teach all viewpoints, and do not use their position in an attempt to indoctrinate our students. Nonetheless, this much is true: Yes, Our Schools Do Need to be a Place of Activism.
