Not many people seem to comprehend why there are so many extremists and wacko protesters screaming on America’s streets. I believe the answer is tied to one of the deep mysteries of today’s America: the hold “progressive” politics has on college students. If they only knew what lies in ambush for them. If they only realized the tragic flaw in a worldview taught by most of their left-wing professors. Who knows if these students will awaken in time to see the truth of what the progressive “vision” will bring?

Here’s a big scoop of straight talk for those students, who can still rescue themselves from the great educational hoodwinking of the young.

Are many young people misguided because they’re naive, or is it because of what they’ve been taught in the last two generations?  The growing body of evidence suggests that “progressive beliefs” among some young people start with wrongheadedness in the American K-12 education system. For example, professional educators have refused for several decades to teach civics to young students. It’s a basic lesson everyone should learn from a young age so that we all understand how our system of government and society is supposed to work, how it all fits together coherently and how all students must mature to take on responsibilities as citizens.

Instead, students are given a pass by educators, on both the behavior and educational fronts, destroying the sociocultural structures. Disruptive and anti-social behavior, vulgar language and disrespect for teachers are permitted, while discipline goes by the wayside. Corporal punishment is considered too harsh. Kids showing deviant behavior have learned they can remain in school except in the most extreme circumstances.

Educational policy has encouraged teachers to tell deviant children that they are “special.” Children are permitted to behave differently if they’re “finding” themselves and “expressing their individuality.” Teaching self-esteem sounds noble, but in effect, it often gives students an inaccurate view of themselves. Too many students were never taught to think for themselves or self-evaluate accurately. They left K-12 thinking they possess talents they don’t, only to get slammed by reality when they enter a world that won’t tolerate their teacher-inflated view of themselves.

So the national K-12 system, while failing to teach students the truth, has also graduated too many who weren’t taught civic or personal responsibilities, who don’t value America’s long-standing institutions, who can’t think critically, and who lack the conviction to be responsible, informed citizens.

If these students enter college, they often find a world where “progressive” academics exercise incredible influence over how these future generations will develop and how their value systems will be built. That is how the left recruits its soldiers, infesting America’s campuses and imprinting the malleable minds of students in captive audiences with several years of the progressive worldview.

These students then become ripe for embracing slickly delivered “hopey, changey” policies that replace what works with what sounds good.

What are we to learn from this sorry state of affairs? First, the conservative community must insist that the education system teach students about America’s successful heritage, which will only survive if young people learn to carry the banner forward.

Next, educators must curtail the mind-poisoning propaganda campaigns of nanny-state teachers and professors, who are undermining the fabric of America’s greatness. Instead, they need to teach the values of American exceptionalism and personal responsibility. And let kids compete, which is how they learn to overcome weakness — coddling, social promotion and telling kids it’s OK if they come in last don’t work in the long run.

Finally, young people must look behind the servings of idyllic pabulum being fed to them by collectivist instructors. The young need to see how they will be hurt by the false promises of progressive politics, and how they will pay all the bills when socialism, class warfare and Obamacare reap their bitter fruit. More than anything, as our youth enter society, they need to seize Tocqueville’s sage canon: “The state — with its seductive promise of ‘security from the cradle to the grave’— is the real enemy of civil society.”

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John R. Smith

John R. Smith is chairman of BIZPAC, the Business Political Action Committee of Palm Beach County, and owner of a financial services company. He is a frequent columnist for BizPac Review.

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