7 Comments
User's avatar
Andra Watkins's avatar

This week, I'm writing about how I was indoctrinated as a Christian Nationalist child. Republican Christo-fascists are OBSESSED with education, because they start indoctrinating children in kindergarten. It took me almost two decades of work to unwind that indoctrination, but they understand that MANY VICTIMS NEVER DO.

Expand full comment
Neil Keicher's avatar

If conservative ideas and values are so great, why can't they stand up to academic scrutiny?

Expand full comment
Christine's avatar

Jesus, you’re so good at seeing through the BS and articulating it for the rest of us.

Expand full comment
Mark D. Siegel, M.D.'s avatar

Another fantastic column. I agree with most of what you say, though I thought The Daily’s interview with Chris Eisgruber was well-done and nicely complemented his inspiring essay in The Atlantic. You’re right that our universities will happily accept conservative views that are well-researched, rigorously analyzed, and, most importantly, fact-based.

Expand full comment
Neil Keicher's avatar

I've heard that a lot of conservatives have started homeschooling their kids. Public schools are hotbeds of wokeness and liberal indoctrination. They can't be trusted.

I feel like that is really dangerous. I really don't think homeschooled kids get the same quality of education. They won't be prepared for college or the real world.

Expand full comment
Steve Florman's avatar

Homeschool families do it for a variety of reasons, some good, some absolutely terrible. We homeschooled for awhile, because my oldest son has what was later (for a short time) called Asperger's Syndrome, and the public school system didn't know how to deal with him except as a discipline problem. (It would be better now - he's 34). My wife is a licensed teacher; we ignored the creationists and the religious lunatics and made sure that our kids were actually educated. Minnesota also has some decent laws regarding homeschooling that force some accountability.

If you want to see culture clash, go to a homeschool conference and observe the uneasy truce between the crunchy granola hippie crowd and the young earth creationist anti-woke crowd. Browse the marketplace and check out seminar titles. You'll quickly get over the notion that all homeschoolers are religious nuts or that all educational outcomes are bad, although these things are certainly sometimes true.

Expand full comment
Susan Travis's avatar

Great job, Jill!

Expand full comment