{"id":1527475,"date":"2022-06-24T07:49:32","date_gmt":"2022-06-24T11:49:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1527475"},"modified":"2022-06-24T07:49:40","modified_gmt":"2022-06-24T11:49:40","slug":"educate-your-kids-in-american-history-with-heroes-of-liberty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/educate-your-kids-in-american-history-with-heroes-of-liberty\/","title":{"rendered":"Educate Your Kids In American History With \u2018Heroes Of Liberty\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Feducate-your-kids-in-american-history-with-heroes-of-liberty%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1527475&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/heroesofliberty.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Public controversies over the books children read in school are not going away. Numerous disputes have arisen as local school boards in states such as Texas, Virginia, and Tennessee have worked to make changes to the secondary literature used in classrooms.<\/p>\n<p>These efforts have been uniformly labeled \u201cbook banning,\u201d which makes it difficult to distinguish possible infringements on free speech from what RealClearInvestigations\u2019 Mark Hemingway has\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.realclearpolitics.com\/articles\/2022\/02\/01\/parental_input_on_education_is_not_book_banning__147121.html\">argued<\/a>\u00a0is part of a process in which localities make \u201cnecessary decisions about what reading material is age-appropriate or meets community standards.\u201d In the midst of these ongoing clashes, a series of children\u2019s books entitled \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/heroesofliberty.com\/\">Heroes of Liberty<\/a>\u201d promotes patriotic role models for young students.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cParents who are sick of what\u2019s going on in their children\u2019s schools are at a loss right now,\u201d states Bethany Mandel, the series\u2019 general editor. \u201cThe way to counter radical ideas is to tell vivid stories that can capture a child\u2019s imagination. These books provide parents a way to make their values alive and take back their children\u2019s bookshelf.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Historian and journalist Gadi Taub says that by offering compelling biographies of important yet underappreciated Western statesmen and thinkers, the series gives parents the \u201cmeans to bequeath to their children a worldview that will protect them from anti-American propaganda.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Designed for parents who homeschool their kids or teachers who are looking for excellent content, the books aim to provide children with \u201centertaining, engaging, story-driven, visually stunning\u201d children\u2019s books that speak of \u201clove and admiration for the American values that made this country great.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Taub says that although the books are written for children between the ages of seven and twelve, younger kids can still get a lot out of them: the books\u2019 magnificent \u201cillustrations are rich enough in themselves for a four-year-old to understand why Winston Churchill is important without needing the ability to be able to read every word.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hearing stories, Taub notes, is far more formative for children than hearing a long list of principles or preaching. \u201cWe don\u2019t just want to offer a bookshelf of role models \u2013 storytelling is an auxiliary to civic education,\u201d he argues.<\/p>\n<p>Each month, subscribers will receive a new, hardcover biography, available to them one month before public sale and at a price below retail. Recent books have covered Alexander Hamilton\u2019s rise from obscurity in the Caribbean to becoming a great American statesman and the life and work of Thomas Sowell, one of the top economists of our time. Since last year, books detailing the lives of Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, Amy Coney Barrett, Douglas MacArthur, and John Wayne have been published.<\/p>\n<p>Mandel says that Wayne, the only non-academic or politician profiled, was chosen in order \u201cto exemplify manhood and honor in a healthy, yet strong, way that hearkened back to classics like the Hardy Boys series and Mark Twain\u2019s \u2018Huckleberry Finn.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The books follow a path marked out by classics of children\u2019s literature such as \u201cPeter Pan\u201d and \u201cAnne of Green Gables,\u201d Mandel notes. They offer kids a challenging read that can \u201cteach and inspire them rather than dumb things down.\u201d She says that these books are intended to be conversation starters rather than teaching unquestioned, rigid doctrines. Taub adds that the books were conceived with \u201cmainstream American values\u201d in mind, not necessarily \u201cconservative values.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Critics have claimed the series is a \u201cconservative echo chamber\u201d that looks to \u201cpack the minds of unsuspecting kids with . . . political brainwashing and to prejudice them against any progressive program of social uplift,\u201d as a reviewer for Current Affairs recently wrote.<\/p>\n<p>In response, Mandel says that the reviewer is \u201cpart of a generation who think Ronald Reagan and Thomas Sowell are in the same league as Mussolini, and it\u2019s exactly people like him we\u2019re trying to raise our children to\u00a0not\u00a0be. We want to teach them that they should be men of honor, men who value manhood and hard work\u00a0instead of worshiping at the altar of socialism.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mandel argues that, in fact, these books contribute to reviving a capacious understanding of American civic education. Too many schools stop teaching American history after World War II. Learning about statesmen like Reagan and Thatcher is necessary to give students a lens through which they can think about the latter half of the twentieth century.<\/p>\n<p>Future books in the series will cover men and women who made important contributions to Western civilization, including Mark Twain (coming next month), Winston Churchill, Clara Barton, Elon Musk, Harriet Tubman, John Adams, Pope John Paul II, and Abraham Lincoln.<\/p>\n<p>Taub and Mandel say American cancel culture has affected the series to some degree. At first, several American artists they contacted did not want to be associated with the project. They\u2019ve since added an American artist due to the series\u2019 subsequent success. Another hurdle: in January, Facebook\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/latest-news\/facebook-bans-conservative-childrens-book-publisher\/\">permanently banned<\/a>\u00a0the series from advertising on its platform.<\/p>\n<p>Mandel contends that one of the series\u2019 virtues is its lesson that freedom requires a healthy skepticism of authority; children should be taught \u201cnot to follow blindly with what they are told.\u201d As a key section of the book on Margaret Thatcher states: \u201cFreedom is never simply given. We always need to preserve and nurture it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>This article is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.realclearbooks.com\/articles\/2022\/06\/22\/heroes_of_liberty_highlights_key_statesmen_thinkers_838724.html\">republished from RealClearBooks<\/a>, with permission.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Mike Sabo is the editor of RealClear\u2019s American Civics portal. He is a graduate of the Van Andel Graduate School of Statesmanship at Hillsdale College. He and his wife live in Cincinnati, Ohio.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Public controversies over the books children read in school are not going away. Numerous disputes have arisen as local school boards in states such as Texas, Virginia, and Tennessee have<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":675,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1527475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1527475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/675"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1527475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1527475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1527475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1527475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1527475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}