As a teacher of public school (17 years), private school (7.5 years), and homeschool (11 years), I have a unique perspective on education.  I've experienced K-12 education from just about every angle imaginable.  I've taught at day schools and evening schools, and I've privately tutored many students.  I've taught on sprawling 200-plus-acre campuses in buildings costing hundreds of millions of dollars, and I've taught in trailers that would barely keep out a strong gust of wind.

Likewise, I've experienced students from almost every background imaginable.  I've taught students who were homeless and those whose parents who could afford $25,000-plus tuition for a year of high school.  I've taught students who have never traveled more than 100 miles from their northeast Georgia homes and those who traveled hundreds and even thousands of miles – from Mexico, Guatemala, China, Korea, Russia, Ukraine, Vietnam, Nigeria, Egypt, and so on – to sit in my classroom.  Safe to say, I've just about seen it all in K-12 education.

In my quarter-century of teaching mathematics, there's almost nothing in education I can say all teachers, students, administrators, parents, and politicians agree upon, save this: we want our schools to be safe.  One of the great tragedies of our time has been the wanton slaughter of helpless students, faculty, and staff in what could – and should – be one of the safest places in the world.  Sadly, as we are in the shadows of another horrific school slaughter, most of what we are hearing would do virtually nothing to make our schools safer.

As about 100 of the 1,700-plus students at my high school walked out in protest on March 14 (for a moment, I thought it was merely an overzealous Pi Day party), I mentioned to a colleague that the whole episode was little more than a ploy to elect more Democrats.  I found out a short while later that others thought exactly the same.

As most of us watching well knew, several reports have revealed that the student walkouts across the U.S. last Wednesday were far from "organic."  Sadly, liberal organizations across the U.S. have seized on the wicked act that took place at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. in order to push the agenda of the modern left.  Note that what we are currently witnessing with the left's co-opting of American K-12 students is about much more than mere "gun control."

As they push, prod, propagandize, and otherwise take advantage of youthful students across the U.S., taking guns out of the hands of law-abiding Americans is only part of the end game for American leftists.  Make no mistake about it, young folks: though you are often hailed as our nation's "greatest resource," your safety is far from the primary concern when it comes to the American left.

If the left is so concerned with students' safety, why for decades have they ignored or lied about science and sound morality and refused to stand up for the most innocent and defenseless among us?  For all of their lives, these kids have been deceived about the humanity of the unborn.  Could they recall in their science classes where the humanity of the unborn has been a point of emphasis?  If they take any form of sex education in a government school, are they told that once sperm fertilizes egg, the life of a human being is at stake?

When it comes to violence in our culture, abortion is something that must be honestly discussed.  No one should be surprised that a nation that has killed over 50 million of its children in the womb is a violent nation in other ways as well.  As Mother Teresa taught us:

I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child – a direct killing of the innocent child – murder by the mother herself.  And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?

If today's left is so concerned with students' safety, why have they waged a decades-long war on the oldest, most foundational institution in the history of humanity?  As is the case with life in the womb, all of their lives, these kids have been lied to about family and marriage.  Tragically, many – if not most – of them are daily experiencing the dismal consequences of these lies.  Because of divorce and out-of-wedlock births, through no fault of their own, tens of millions of American schoolchildren today are growing up in a home without a mother or a father.  It was not supposed to be this way!  They deserve better!

As has been pointed out ad nauseam, children who grow up in broken homes are much more likely to suffer a whole host of negative outcomes.  One of the most common traits of the worst murderers in the history of the United States is a broken home.  What's more, American students are far more likely to suffer – even to the point of death – from violence and abuse in a broken home than they are from gun violence anywhere.  Again, one of the most dangerous places for a child in America is at home with his mother and her live-in boyfriend.  Many kids today know this all too well.

If modern liberals are so concerned with students' safety, why do they continue to lie about the dangers of a hedonistic, promiscuous sexual lifestyle?  One of the most shocking statistics of the modern era is that 110 million Americans – over one third of our population – are now saddled with a sexually transmitted disease.  Tragically, many kids today know this firsthand.

Sexual promiscuity is killing far more Americans than are guns, but you almost never hear such from those who operate from a liberal worldview.  What's more, recent studies have shown – as if we needed more studies to reveal what sound morality has always taught – that teenagers who engage in risky sexual behaviors, especially homosexuality, are much more likely to put their health and lives in danger (along with the health and lives of others) than are those who follow the moral precepts of their Creator.

Finally, if liberals are so concerned for students' safety, why do they continue to lie about the presence of guns and the frequency of gun violence?  The data on guns and violence is clear: some of the safest places in America are littered with guns, while some of the most dangerous places in America have the lowest rates of gun ownership and our strictest gun control laws.

In addition to these dangerous lies, in order to push their godless, big-government agenda, today's leftists – led by Hollywood; the establishment media; the Democratic Party; and yes, most of modern academia – has misled you about the role of good government, the value and purpose of education, the importance of hard work, the state of the Earth's climate, and even what it means to be a male and to be a female.  Thus, for the sake of students' spiritual, mental, and physical health, for the rest of their lives, I encourage them to "walk out" on the modern left.  Don't cast a vote for them; don't purchase their entertainment; don't engage their news and information; don't heed their teaching; and most of all, don't live out their lies.

Trevor Grant Thomas
At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.
www.trevorgrantthomas.com
Trevor is the author of the The Miracle and Magnificence of America
tthomas@trevorgrantthomas.com

Image: Tcodl via Wikimedia Commons.