{"id":1553566,"date":"2022-07-14T07:35:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-14T11:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1553566"},"modified":"2022-07-14T07:35:09","modified_gmt":"2022-07-14T11:35:09","slug":"todays-kids-despise-authority-thanks-to-a-disastrous-duo-lockdowns-and-crt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/todays-kids-despise-authority-thanks-to-a-disastrous-duo-lockdowns-and-crt\/","title":{"rendered":"Today\u2019s Kids Despise Authority Thanks To A Disastrous Duo: Lockdowns And CRT"},"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\">24<\/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%2Ftodays-kids-despise-authority-thanks-to-a-disastrous-duo-lockdowns-and-crt%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=1553566&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\/07\/desks-scaled-e1657739506700.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>The kids are not all right. The number of school shootings in 2020-2021 was the highest (93 in total) since 2000-2001, according to a recently <a href=\"https:\/\/nces.ed.gov\/pubsearch\/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2022092\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">released report<\/a> by the National Center for Education Statistics. Other negative indicators also increased since the pandemic lockdowns: cyberbullying, student verbal abuse of teachers, student acts of disrespect for teachers other than verbal abuse, and widespread disorder in the classroom.<\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/education\/2022\/07\/05\/absenteeism-behavioral-issues-pandemic-data\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">separate federal study released in early July<\/a> found that more than 80 percent of public schools reported that the pandemic had taken a toll on student behavior and social-emotional development, and that more than 70 percent of schools saw increases in chronic student absenteeism since the onset of the pandemic (and school closures). And about half of schools also reported increased acts of disrespect toward teachers and staff.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not difficult to identify what might have triggered this new \u201cpandemic\u201d of student misbehavior. For an entire school year, if not longer, millions of American students went to a fully virtual learning environment in which it became easy to skirt the rules, <a href=\"https:\/\/fordhaminstitute.org\/national\/commentary\/lax-school-discipline-wont-cut-it-kids-return-school\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">avoid discipline<\/a>, and still pass. Largely free from the structure and discipline of a school environment, many academically (and\u00a0socially) regressed. Educators overwhelmed and frustrated by distance digital learning had difficulty teaching and motivating their students, and for many, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nea.org\/advocating-for-change\/new-from-nea\/getting-serious-about-teacher-burnout\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">burnout or apathy<\/a> became the norm.<\/p>\n<p>Lockdowns have been associated with all manner of problems in our nation\u2019s youth, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2022\/01\/10\/1071896986\/how-the-current-covid-surge-is-hurting-learning-and-kids-mental-health\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">declines<\/a> in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.edweek.org\/leadership\/new-research-shows-how-bad-the-pandemic-has-been-for-student-mental-health\/2022\/01\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">student mental and emotional health<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2021\/03\/01\/health\/kids-pandemic-wall-wellness\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">motivation<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unicef.org\/parenting\/mental-health\/managing-long-term-effects-pandemic-your-childs-mental-health\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">social skills<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/03\/08\/us\/pandemic-schools-reading-crisis.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reading proficiency<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.brookings.edu\/blog\/brown-center-chalkboard\/2022\/03\/03\/the-pandemic-has-had-devastating-impacts-on-learning-what-will-it-take-to-help-students-catch-up\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">general academic achievement<\/a>. Some <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pnas.org\/doi\/10.1073\/pnas.2022376118\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">studies<\/a> have found that students made little or no progress while learning from home. Lockdowns have also been correlated to increased <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2022\/04\/11\/the-mystifying-rise-of-child-suicide\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">child suicide<\/a> rates. <\/p>\n<p>This tracks with anecdotal information I\u2019m hearing from those working in public schools in my native Fairfax County, Virginia. A high school athletic coach with more than 30 years of experience \u2014 including multiple state titles \u2014 recently told me that the most recent crop of players is the most arrogant, disengaged, and resistant to instruction he\u2019s ever seen. He\u2019s now contemplating retiring.<\/p>\n<h2>CRT to Blame Too<\/h2>\n<p>Yet I suspect it\u2019s not only the (entirely unnecessary) lockdowns that are affecting students\u2019 behavior and antagonism toward authority. For at the same time that lockdowns were beginning to have deleterious effects on students, another dramatic social crisis was already enveloping our nation\u2019s schools: anti-racism curricula. <\/p>\n<p>The progenitors of the 1619 Project (published in August 2019), subsequently followed their error-ridden propaganda with <a href=\"https:\/\/pulitzercenter.org\/lesson-plan-grouping\/1619-project-curriculum\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">an extensive educational initiative<\/a> promoted in school districts across the country. In September 2019, the chief executive officer of Chicago Public Schools <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/u-s-schools-have-openly-taught-1619-project-months-1530138\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">announced her intention<\/a> to disseminate 1619 Project education materials. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.educationnext.org\/1619-project-enters-american-classrooms-adding-new-sizzle-slavery-significant-cost\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">More than 3,500 classrooms nationwide<\/a> are now using the curriculum.<\/p>\n<p>And it\u2019s not just the 1619 Project that\u2019s in on the game. The Southern Poverty Law Center\u2019s \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.learningforjustice.org\/frameworks\/teaching-hard-history\/american-slavery\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Teaching Hard History<\/a>\u201d anti-racism curriculum project has been welcomed by many educators, <a href=\"https:\/\/roanoke.com\/opinion\/columnists\/chalk-principles-behind-virginias-new-curriculum-are-self-destructive\/article_90b49c73-339d-5dcb-9e4f-5effbc4e3269.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">including in my home state of Virginia<\/a>. (Some of my fellow social studies teachers from my time teaching in Virginia public schools are its biggest proponents.) A social studies curriculum crafted by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2022\/04\/07\/1091487910\/blm-leaders-face-questions-after-allegedly-buying-a-mansion-with-donation-money\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">corrupt<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heritage.org\/progressivism\/commentary\/marxism-underpins-black-lives-matter-agenda\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Marxist<\/a> group Black Lives Matter also spread to many school districts. BLM\u2019s objective, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.city-journal.org\/black-lives-matter-in-the-classroom\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">textbook writers explained<\/a>, is to make \u201cclassrooms and schools sites of resistance to white supremacy and anti-Blackness, as well as sites for knowing the hope and beauty in Blackness.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Millions of American students are now exposed to anti-racist curricula that encourages skepticism and cynicism, if not outright enmity toward our country and its founders. They are taught to interpret all events in our nation\u2019s history through the lens of racism, sexism, bigotry, and the manifold \u201cphobias\u201d (e.g. xenophobia, transphobia) supposedly endemic in American culture. Children are told the history of the United States is one defined not by generations of men and women who sacrificed and suffered for the sake of a more perfect union, but by evil white men who sought to perpetuate white supremacy for their personal aggrandizement.<\/p>\n<h2>A Generation Taught to Despise Authority<\/h2>\n<p>In other words, an entire generation of American youth is actively being inculcated not in civic virtue, but radical activism, if not outright Marxism. They have been encouraged to not only question authority, but <em>despise <\/em>it. Who can be trusted? Certainly not George Washington or Honest Abe, who, students are told, were racist bigots responsible for terrible evils against black and indigenous people. And if the men who built this country and its great institutions are worthy not of emulation but censure, then why should students bother respecting the teachers or principals who represent this supposedly systemically racist regime?<\/p>\n<p>It should come as no surprise then that we are witnessing an increase in social degeneracy and a decrease in intellectual acumen among American youth. A teacher at my local public elementary school not long after the end of this recent school year related how misbehaving students, rather than being punished, are now given time to \u201ccool down\u201d by going to play outside or in the gym. Teachers, he added, are terrified to discipline minority children and risk accusations of racism from the kids and their parents. He too has decided to retire.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, the left for many years has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heritage.org\/the-critical-classroom\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">pursued education policies<\/a> that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the74million.org\/article\/eden-studies-and-teachers-nationwide-say-school-discipline-reform-is-harming-students-academic-achievement-and-safety\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">discouraged discipline<\/a> and promoted an activist, anti-authority mindset, as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aei.org\/research-products\/report\/two-steps-to-restoring-school-safety\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Max Eden\u2019s research has well shown<\/a>. But lockdowns and the political fervor that followed George Floyd\u2019s May 2020 death dramatically accelerated this process, as The Federalist <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/12\/15\/schools-are-making-lockdown-recovery-even-harder-for-kids-by-refusing-to-remove-violent-classmates\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported<\/a>, not only <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/08\/02\/new-study-shows-just-how-much-school-lockdowns-harm-innocent-kids\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">for the United States<\/a>, but <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/03\/24\/shocking-data-shows-school-closures-caused-severe-learning-loss-for-children-around-the-globe\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">globally<\/a>. Moreover, it was <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/08\/11\/senate-democrats-vote-to-keep-anti-science-school-closures\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">liberal politicians<\/a> with the support of many <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/08\/05\/chicago-teachers-union-threatens-school-shutdowns-over-delta-variant\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">educators<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/01\/25\/the-lefts-anti-science-school-closures-are-killing-more-students-than-the-virus\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">school administrators<\/a> who suppressed resistance to lockdowns, and aggressively <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/05\/13\/left-wing-activist-teachers-are-ditching-curriculum-for-indoctrination-against-the-will-of-parents\/\">tried to assert primacy over parents<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/10\/11\/in-canceling-gifted-education-in-new-york-city-the-left-tells-parents-yet-again-your-kids-belong-to-us\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">when it came to the needs of children<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Let there be no doubt: It is the corrosive effects of lockdowns and the anti-racism education regime that best explain a generation of American students who oscillate between laziness and violent activism. Kids lost out on more than a year, and sometimes multiple years, of essential socialization and time in the classroom. When they were \u201ceducated,\u201d they were exhorted to challenge authority and spit on the political, cultural, and economic inheritance bequeathed to them by their forebears. Moreover, the more students witnessed school authorities abdicate their responsibility, the more their activist, anti-authority mentality was reinforced.<\/p>\n<p>There should be little surprise then if they become the most intellectually and emotionally impoverished generation in our country\u2019s history. The consequences of this will be felt for decades. Those responsible for these disastrous decisions need to be held accountable. Elections this year offer us one way to do exactly that.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Casey Chalk is a senior contributor at The Federalist and an editor and columnist at The New Oxford Review. He has a bachelor\u2019s in history and master\u2019s in teaching from the University of Virginia and a master\u2019s in theology from Christendom College. He is the author of The Persecuted: True Stories of Courageous Christians Living Their Faith in Muslim Lands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The kids are not all right. The number of school shootings in 2020-2021 was the highest (93 in total) since 2000-2001, according to a recently released report by the National<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":658,"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-1553566","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\/1553566","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\/658"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1553566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1553566\/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=1553566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1553566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1553566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}