“Ever wonder why 31-year old pro-quarterback Colin Kaepernick and other young people became so alienated from the freest, most generous nation in the world?” asks writer Herbert W. Stupp in the Washington Times last summer.

Perhaps it’s the history book used in countless high schools and universities, A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn.

I first heard of Zinn in this article. “Zinn’s work is a go-to book on college campuses — for nearly everything. It shows up in courses not only in history but in political science, economics, literature, and — of course — women’s studies,” says author Rich Lowry.

While Zinn has many defenders (why else would his book attract wide use?) credible historian describe him as “a polemicist, not a historian,” an “Agit-Prof.”

Mary Grabar takes on this educational mistake in Debunking Howard Zinn. You can read Stupp’s review here  and another here,  by Paul Grabor, who says, “Of course, any honest historian of America shouldn’t ignore this country’s past sins, but what Zinn did was weaponize those sins to reconstruct and frame and America that is the ugly embodiment of those sins.”

How do parents fight back against school’s use of these texts and the teachers who love them?

Author Connor Boyack suggests parents take things into their own hands, exposing their kids to the values on which our country thrives. He offers The Tuttle Twins, a series of illustrated children’s books in this boy-and-girl set of twins discover principles of liberty and economics. I recently bought the set and looked it over.

The strength of the series lies in each book’s tie to a classic text of economics, such as I, Pencil and The Road to Serfdom.

The weaknesses of Boyack’s series are references to Ron Paul, which will date these books over time, and a final volume which touts “polycentric law — when two or more governments compete in the same jurisdiction.” I certainly caught on to the books’ unmistakable libertarian bent, but an idea like polycentric law is libertarianism taken to an extreme. While freedom of choice is good, we all exercise that freedom by choosing from a limited menu of options, constrained by the freedoms of our neighbors.

Boyack’s idea isn’t the only option for concerned parents. Author Joshua Lawson offers his list of “8 Back-to-School Books to Protect Students Against Leftist Brainwashing.”  It’s an attractive list; I’ve read a title or two, and listen to a few of these authors on podcasts.

At any rate, the stakes are high. Said Attorney General William Barr at his recent speech to the Notre Dame Law School,

“Education is not vocational training. It is leading our children to the recognition that there is truth and helping them to develop the faculties to discern and love the truth and the discipline to live by it.
“We cannot have a moral renaissance unless we succeed in passing to the next generation our faith and values in full vigor.
“The times are hostile to this. Public agencies, including public schools, are becoming secularized and increasingly are actively promoting moral relativism.”

If parents themselves need a little remedial education in American values, they can add titles from this book list and this one to their arsenal.

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