Live from Music Row, Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed Professor Emeritus at Emory University and author, Mark Bauerlein to the newsmaker line to explain the thesis of his follow up book which examines the Godless digital plague of adult millennials.
Leahy: On the newsmaker line right now is a Professor Emeritus at Emory University, Mark Bauerlein. Good morning, Mark. Thanks for joining us.
Bauerlein: Good morning, sir! I’m glad to be here!
Leahy: So in 2009, that’s 14 years ago, you wrote a book called The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupifies Young Americans and Jeopardizes our Future. Now, 14 years later, you have a new book out. The Dumbest Generation Grows Up: From Stupefied Youth to Dangerous Adults. What sir, is your main thesis?
Bauerlein: (Chuckles) You remember back, you know, 15 years ago the millennials, they were the greatest generation in human history. They were on the cusp of the digital revolution. They were the early adopters. They were the digital natives, and they were running circles around boomers with these little devices in their hands. And Facebook had just come out.
Twitter started in 2008, texting and all the rest. And of course, all the gaming, they were the ones most adept at it. And there was all this cheerleading for the millennials going on at that time and everyone thought, Facebook and, and, and the rest were absolutely miraculous.
And so I just came out and said, no, no, no. This is awful. It is awful for a 15-year-old to walk around with 250 pictures of himself in his pocket at all times. (Leahy laughs) I gave a talk at BMI and 1,200 cadets were out there I told my wife last night, please put this on my tombstone. He never took a selfie.
And of course, the kids, are all doing selfies. Anyway, my prediction then was, look, they’re sinking into these little screens. They’re having peer pressure, peer-to-peer contests, twenty-four-seven. They sleep with a phone right next to the pillow. They’re on the games and, and, and playing and texting, and all passing pictures all night long. This is awful.
They’re not reading books as much as they used to. They’re not reading newspapers, they’re not listening to intelligent radio and watching intelligent TV. And when they grow up, they’re, they’re gonna be unhappy. Rootless, groundless, and who knows? We didn’t give them God. We didn’t give them church.
We didn’t give them a country they could be proud of. We didn’t give them any tradition, any great works of the past, or any great heroes. We gave them nothing. Now, 15 years later, these fabulous millennials are 33 years old. They’re unhappy, not to mention rates of narcissism, depression, anxiety, and suicides are up.
They are not getting married and having kids, which is a sign of their pessimism about the future, not nearly the rate that boomers did. And lives are empty. They don’t have any big picture. They have no transcendent orientation. And this is why so many of them turn to these false gods of racial justice.
Social justice or the fears of climate change, catastrophe, and the end of the world. And it’s because they’ve got no religion, they have no faith. They don’t have any patriotism, and here we are.
Leahy: Professor, if I can ask. This is interesting because you are at Emory, which is sort of a liberal operation. As they all are. And you’re a professor of English, of all things. Crom Carmichael has a question for you. He’s the original all-star panelist on the program. Crom, go ahead.
Carmichael: Do you think part of the reason for this is the K through 12 and then the woke college system that is more or less, not trying to educate as much as it’s trying to indoctrinate? Is it also a combination of that and narcissism, or are they related?
Bauerlein: Oh, uh, totally, totally a combination. It’s all related. The K-12 schooling has managed to let get prayer out of the classroom. Let’s not read the King James Bible which is the most important book in all of American history. It’s all over Abraham Lincoln’s speeches. The indoctrination into the woke really begins with the removal of the positive beliefs about God, family, and tradition.
What we do is we kill all that and we open them up to pour in identity politics, which is a moralistic outlook. This is not like your easy relativism, Hey, you know, whatever you do your own thing, whatever floats your boat. No, no, no, no. The woke stuff is aggressive. It is a joyless, humorless, punitive enterprise, and it thrives on people who have no other faith.
Leahy: Crom has another question for you.
Carmichael: He’s right on target here. Yep. And cause, you know, a great question is to ask when humans, when babies are born, are they inherently good or are they inherently bad? And according to religion, we all sin. But what the professor’s also saying is that we can become what we are taught.
Leahy: Exactly. Now, that doesn’t mean we’re not sinning, but it means we can have a moral set of values that is a positive one or we can be taught the opposite.
Leahy: Exactly. Which, which is what they’re being taught now.
Carmichael: They are being programmed.
Leahy: What is your solution to this problem?
Bauerlein: Take your kids out of the public schools and get them into K-12 schools that are strong on faith, on a core tradition, on the value of family, and on the great legacy of Western civilization. We want the kids to have all those fundamental, solid forms of devotion in life.
So they feel good about life. We need, yes, we all have original sin. It’s all inside us and we need God. We need the Lord to carry us forward. And they were denied that. And what a horrible thing to deny 17-year-olds.
Leahy: Mark, do you have children in this age group by any chance?
Bauerlein: I’ve got a 17-year-old and I homeschool him.
Leahy: Got it, got it. And I note that you’re Professor Emeritus at Emory. Are they very happy with your point of view here?
Bauerlein: You know, it’s interesting. I was a liberal in the 90s and I had tensions with colleagues because I still believed in great books and Western civilization. When I became an outright outspoken conservative, everyone just kind of left me alone. You know life was pretty good.
And I think it’s because the left doesn’t waste time going after people it can’t intimidate. The bullying doesn’t work with someone who just says, sorry, this is who I am and I’m voting this way. You know. I’m totally outnumbered. But the left really likes to target the mushy.
Leahy: And intimidate.
Listen to today’s show highlights, including this interview:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Mark Bauerlein” by OU College of Professional and Continuing Studies. Photo “The Dumbest Generation Grows Up: From Stupefied Youth to Dangerous Adults” by Amazon. Background Photo “People Crossing a Crosswalk” by Jacek Dylag.
Live from Music Row, Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed CEO and Founder of PJTN, Laurie Cardoza-Moore in studio to talk about the upcoming event this Sunday called, Taking Back America’s Children for families of students.
Leahy: In studio right now, our very good friend, Laurie Cardoza-Moore, the founder and CEO of Proclaiming Justice to the Nations. Good morning, Laurie.
Moore: Good morning, Michael!
Leahy: It’s always great to have you here in studio. It’s so much more fun to be in studio.
Moore: I know, I just can’t see doing it over the phone. Doing it live! We have to do the phone, okay fine. But this is more fun.
Leahy: Now, you do have to get up early.
Moore: I know, I was up early.
Leahy: You were up early. So thank you for that. A big event coming up this Sunday. Taking Back America’s Children will be held from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.. You’ll be there as well as many speakers there. People can go to pjtn.org to sign up. Tell us about this event, Laurie.
Moore: This is an extension, Michael, of what we did a decade ago. And you remember that a decade ago we found a Pearson published textbook that was not just antisemitic, but anti-American, anti-Judeo Christian, and anti the values that our nation was founded upon.
And that was in Williamson County. This was a parent who came to us, whose student was in the 9th grade. He came home questioning his faith. Now, listen to this and all of our audience who are believers.
He came home questioning his faith. He said to his mom, he said, who has legitimate rights to the land of Israel? And this is a kid who came from an evangelical home. He had been in youth Bible studies.
He knew what the word of God said. And she said to her son, well, what does the Bible say? He said, no, Mom, I know what the Bible says, but tell me the truth. Who has legitimate rights to the land?
That mother, of course, being her family background is Jewish. They have Jewish ancestry. She started to look into the materials that he brought home that day, and she contacted me and she said, you will never believe what we found in Williamson County school is what we’re teaching our kids.
And so she brought me the book. I reviewed it cover to cover, and we started the process of trying, as most parents have been doing, with these school library books and some of the textbooks and the wit and wisdom that our children are being subjected to this garbage, these lies.
And so we went through the proper protocol, and we ultimately went to the school board. The school board said we’re going to put a committee together, we’re going to look at the book, and we’re going to deal with this.
They looked at the book and they were to vote. One night, there was a school board meeting, and of course, we went on the radio two weeks prior to that meeting, because I knew I had to get parents and citizens to show up at that meeting.
And we started airing spots, just examples of what we were finding in this textbook mom and dad in Williamson County. Do you know what your kids are being subjected to? And that night at the school board meeting we ended up having standing-room-only.
The parents lined up to tell the school board, we want these books removed. We want this book removed. I got up and I said, this is an election year, and if you don’t remove this textbook, we’re going to remove you from office.
They voted that night. They slapped the parents and citizens in Williamson County in the face, and they kept the book. They said, ‘Oh, the issues in the book do not warrant removing it.’ So we went to work. We had four months to be able to flip that school board.
We looked for parents who are citizens, tax-paying citizens that were willing to run for the school board, and the community got behind them within four months. We had four months to do it.
Michael, come election day in August, those six sitting school board members that were up for reelection, we removed all six. Well, it’s been a decade, and we’ve watched moms and organizations come in to try to right the wrong, and we still have a problem in this school district. The school board has got to go, and that’s what this training is about.
That’s why we’re hosting this meeting coming up this Sunday and why it’s important that you as tax-paying citizens, as parents with your children or even grandparents with grandchildren in the school system, you need to show up at this so you can be trained and can hear from top-tier leaders who are coming in from across the country. We’ve got Robert Arnakis, who’s coming in from the Leadership Institute.
Leahy: And we’ll go through more details. I think here’s the bottom line on all this. The educrats and the left have an ongoing onslaught that keeps bad curricula in the schools.
Moore: That’s right.
Leahy: And on our side, you have to constantly fight, fight, fight. This event next, this coming Sunday will be an opportunity for people to learn about how to fight back. It’s Taking Back America’s Children-National Southeastern Conference.
Listen to today’s show highlights, including this interview:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Laurie Cardoza-Moore” by Laurie Cardoza-Moore. Background Photo “Classroom” by Wokandapix.
Live from Music Row, Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – guest host Cunningham welcomed Robin Steeman of Moms for Liberty-Williamson County to the newsmaker line to outline the indoctrinating curriculum of Wit and Wisdom and its efforts to push back against the school board and superintendent.
Cunningham: Robin Steeman is with Moms for Liberty in Williamson County. Robin, good morning.
Steeman: Good morning, Ben.
Cunningham: Thank you so much for taking the time to join us this morning. We just wanted to get an update on what’s going on. The last I heard, you guys were attending school board meetings.
Your thrust has been to highlight and expose Critical Race Theory in schools and other issues that are going on. Give us an update on what is going on right now with you guys.
Steeman: Sure thing, Ben. As you know, we started our journey taking on Critical Race Theory in Williamson County. And it really started with the hiring of the diversity equity inclusion consultancy in which – that we anticipate they’ll identify systemic racism in the county.
And then we’re off to the races with CRT-type policy. In that journey, we became aware of students ashamed of their skin color and students feeling like a victim because of their skin color.
So we really turned to look at where CRT already existed in the system. And, of course, our first suspicion was the curriculum. So we’ve done a deep dive into the Wit and Wisdom curriculum, and there are pockets of CRT.
But the problem with Wit and Wisdom is it’s really social-emotional learning from K through fifth grade. It’s extremely dark, extremely graphic. Emotions run high, but they’re all negative emotions and just a lot of age-inappropriate material.
And that’s where our battle is right now is Wit and Wisdom. And as the school year starts, literally next week, parents’ emotions are running high. For some parents, there are some stress levels out there.
Cunningham: And it just sounds so Orwellian. All of these terms just sound really, really strange and Orwellian as if we all need to be forced into equity and inclusion. And as if there’s some great moral rule out there that we’re not attuned to that – parents must be educated about the great moral issues of the day.
This is just ridiculous. Parents should be in charge of what goes on in schools and schools should prioritize teaching reading, and writing, and arithmetic first before they get into the social-emotional and all these other issues. How did we drift so far away from the basics of education?
Steeman: I wish I knew that. (Chuckles) I’m new on the scene. I think it’s a slide and we’ve been going down a slope for a while and parents have been busy, and we’ve been living our lives.
And we’ve put a lot of faith and a lot of trust in the school district and in those that run the school district and assume that they’re on the same page with us and at least the same side with us. And then COVID happens, and parents get to sit in on what their kids are being taught and low and behold what’s going on.
Cunningham: It’s been a huge revelation, I think, to parents and grandparents and everybody. And thankfully, I don’t know, it may be a mixed blessing of COVID that we are getting some insights into exactly what is going on and beginning to hold them accountable. What do you see for Moms for Liberty as your role over the school year that is about to start?
Steeman: We’ve put in well over 1,200 hours by now of research into Wit and Wisdom by over 20 parents to really get to the bottom of it because each module, each lesson also has a teacher’s manual and that teacher’s manual must be looked at thoroughly.
And I’ll give you an example real quick because we just found something new. There’s a book in the kindergarten grade, module one, and it’s called Bojangles. And I bought the book and read it, and I have no problems with it. I would let my daughter read it.
She’s about to go into first grade. But it talks about Bojangles and how he danced and how that was a positive thing in the world. And there’s this one page where he’s dancing past open and closed doors. And two of the doors are closed.
And then a couple of the doors are open and the people are waving. But there’s this one door that’s closed. It looks like a man is turned the other way. It was kind of an angry expression. And what is his skin color? Well, it’s white.
I mean, is that historically accurate? I’m sure. But I have no problem with that for a child. My child would see that and would probably focus on the waving happy people and would focus on the pictures of Bojangles dancing.
But then you look at the teacher’s manual and it’s striking because it says, okay, kids, let’s focus on the angry white man. Look at his expression.
Cunningham: You are kidding me? Does it literally say that?
Steeman: Well, it doesn’t say the white man, but it’s the angry man. It wants them to focus on that. And, of course, the skin color is very evident. But then it goes on to say that Bojangles, that these doors were closed to him because of his skin color.
And it says it multiple times. I mean, a child would have never picked up on that in just the reading of the book. But the teacher’s manual will not allow them an innocent reading of the book. It will not permit their children’s innocence.
It has to force a kindergartener, a five or six-year-old, to look at this story through a racial lens, to say, oh, Bojangles is racially oppressed. And this man behind the door and the angered expression has something to do with that.
And then further, it goes into the Harlem Renaissance for kindergarteners. I would submit that the kindergartener has no idea what the regular old Renaissance is. So it’s just not age-appropriate. The book itself is fine.
But the teacher’s manual is where it just goes off the rails. And the teacher’s manual even puts a note in there for the teachers like this word is too advanced. The word is closed for module one and the kindergarteners because of the blended sounds. But due to the narrative of the story, because that’s more important, then we’re going to use it anyway.
So put it up on the word wall, but the students don’t need to read it. Those are just out of whack priorities. This is English language arts. You’re teaching a child to read and write for the first time and you’re choosing words that are too advanced because they hit the narrative that’s being presented.
So once you read that teacher’s note, it’s really all you need to know about the priorities of this particular lesson. The teacher’s manuals are really crucial. There are many examples of a book that may be okay or maybe not that bad.
And then you match it up with the teacher’s manual and it’s incredibly stilted in ideology, especially in the third grade. We’re digging up more stuff about Story Messenger, which is a book about Galileo, which normally would be a great thing.
But the teacher’s manual, instead of focusing on his scientific advancements, this new way of thinking, and how he changed the world, it absolutely focuses on how he was persecuted by the Church. The Church and its traditions are bad.
Cunningham: It’s indoctrinating kids into a particular worldview. I don’t think there’s any question about that.
Steeman: No, there’s not. So what we’ve done is we’ve raised our objections with our school board and with our superintendent. We submitted letters requesting a forum back in June that we could present our findings, but our superintendent would really have nothing to do with that.
We had a forum anyway, and three school board members and a handful of our local elected officials attended. But instead, now we’re wrapped up in this 4.403 process, which is a board policy title request for reconsideration of instructional materials.
Which really was geared for a parent filing a complaint about a single book, whereas we’re following it complaining about the whole curriculum. But now we’re in a 4.403 process. It’s a pretty loose timeline.
They’re not giving us a lot of specifics. There are five members on the committee that we don’t necessarily agree with. We weren’t given a seat at the table even though we’re a legitimate parent organization.
And the policy allows for the parent organization to be at the table. So school starts imminently and parents are getting nervous. Some have pulled out altogether. And then for those that are keeping their child in because not every parent can withdraw their child …
Cunningham: We are coming up on a break. Can you stay over the break for us? I apologize for interrupting you there. I’d love to ask you some more questions.
Steeman: I sure can.
Listen to the second hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Live from Music Row Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – guest host Ben Cunningham welcomed Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles and Grant Henry of Americans for Prosperity in the studio to discuss the increasing indoctrination of young children, the desperation of generations to have a purpose, and the waking of the silent majority.
Cunnigham: It’s great to rant and rave in front of the big Michael Patrick Leahy microphone for a day. And I appreciate Michael letting me come in and sit in for him. He’s out expanding his huge media empire, going to state after state. I’m telling you, the guy is just unstoppable.
And thank goodness, because the media has been taken over by the liberals, just like most of our other institutes. And we’ve got to fight back. Andy Ogles, Maury County mayor, is with us in-studio this morning, and Grant Henry with Americans of Prosperity, also sitting in.
A triumvirate of hosts this morning to fill in the big shoes of Michael Patrick Leahy. All right, guys, I got a culture update for you this morning. It turns out that in the Baby Muppets TV series, and frankly, I don’t even know where the Baby Muppets are shown. But this last episode, apparently, Baby Gonzo decides he wants to go to a ball, a dance, a royal ball as a Princess and as a female.
And so the transgendered agenda is being pushed even to our children. This show is aimed at kids four to seven years old. And this is from a Fox News article. It says a fairy rat father grants Gonzo his wish to become a princess. And later in the show, the piggy character tells Gonzo we met the most amazing princess.
And this gushing kind of affirmation of transgender to our kids. If there’s any tendency of some poor kid out there to be confused, who has gone through some kind of emotional wounds, this will give them an avenue to go into the transgender role just as easily.
And we see this so much with young kids these days. You guys have probably seen this Libs of TikTok. There’s a Twitter account called Libs of TikTok, and the guy goes on TikTok and takes the most outrageous videos on TikTok.
And it is just amazing how far into this delusional world the young kids have gotten. And the left is pushing this transgender and basically saying to anybody who comes out against it and who doubts it that you are a bigot. You’re a hater. And that really is where we’re going.
Ogles: Well, I’ll come out against it. It’s a bunch of crap. I’ve got a six-year-old son.
Cunningham: I like that.
Ogles: And I’m offended by this. This transgender, which is a mental disorder. We’re pandering to less than one percent of the population. When you have a six-year-old boy or six-year-old girl, but they don’t understand the world, they don’t understand their boundaries.
And so they’re gonna ask questions like, you might have a boy say, hey Dad, can I have my nails painted? And the answer is no, because that’s what girls do, right? Or a girl may want to do something that is overtly masculine. And there’s nothing wrong with boys being boys and girls being girls.
And we’ve got to stop pandering to these lunatics on the left. There was a time and day that a kid could turn on Saturday morning cartoons and the parents didn’t have to be worried about what’s going to be forced down your children’s throat.
And now you’ve got a screen, everything, even the content for your four or four, five, six-year-old child. And I’m offended by that. And it’s time that we take this country back, which is why we’re doing this freedom tour. We are a conservative state and it’s time we start acting like it.
Henry: So speaking purely as myself here, not on behalf of AFP or any other organization, just Grant Henry. You said it before, Ben. This is a program that’s targeted primarily towards the ages of three to eight. Pregnant pause for effect.
I think that’s kind of the answer. Can kids just not be kids today? Is there not an availability anywhere in the nation anymore to just allow the innocence of a child to remain? And part of it speaks to me in this, Ben. I’m reading through Viktor Frankl’s book Man’s Search for Meaning right now.
Cunningham: Great book.
Henry: Here’s a quote: Man searches for meaning is the primary motivation of his life and not a secondary rationalization of instinctual drives. This meaning is unique and specific, and that it must and can be fulfilled by him alone. Only then does it achieve a significance, which will satisfy his own will to meaning.
That to me, screams that humanity itself is yearning for purpose. Meaning. There is motivation behind that like there is nothing else in our lives. A little bit of what this is right now is this desperate search to find meaning in something.
And I’m telling you, all right, now it is incumbent upon conservatives and primarily Christians, to start presenting a better alternative to some of the stuff that we’re seeing out there.
Cunningham: Absolutely. And we’ve seen this in other totalitarian states. The children are the first thing they go after. And it happened in the Soviet Union. It certainly happened in China. It happened in Cambodia, with Pol Pot.
In Cuba. The first thing they will do is to change the education system and the culture so that these kids are targeted with big government and authoritarian orthodoxy.
And that’s exactly what this is part of. And they’re basically saying to us, if you disagree with this, you’re a bigot and you not only will be silenced, you should be silenced. That’s the scary part. This is a quote from Victor Davis Hanson, who I love, and his analysis. He was writing an article about this process, and he says now, with the money and institutions in its hip pocket and cool popular culture on its side, the left would not just damn American institutions but infect them.
Alter their DNA and reengineer them into revolutionary agencies. And that is precisely what has happened. They’ve infected them with their far-left DNA and they’ve re-engineered them. Another guy that I love, Leonidas Johnson, who is one of the great black conservatives on Twitter.
He says, we’re now faced with a situation where cowardice is called courage. Failure is called success. Men are called women, abortion is called health care. Racism is called antiracism. Fascism is called antifascism. Opinions are called facts. Facts are called hate, and regressive is called progressive. And we have these poor kids that you see on TikTok that are just so deep into this delusion.
I don’t know if in our lifetime, certainly not in my lifetime, whether or not they’re salvageable and whether the culture is salvageable. We just got to take our own little Baileywick, our own little sphere of influence, and try to do what we can.
Henry: I do find hope, though, in some of these statistics that I look at with Generation Z, which I believe is the most recent generation, is the most conservative portions of it. Portions of Generation Z are the most conservative generation to have existed in American history. At least in the last 800 to 150 years. Now someone’s going to have to fact-check me in that. But the point I’m making here, Ben, is that I think that pendulum swings in both directions.
As widely as it swings left, it’s swinging that far to the right as well. There will be a point where it settles back down. We’re in this time of over 10 windows shift this time where what settles back down to a state of normalcy and what we accept as commonly accepted principles. That’s the real fight. That’s what’s so fun about being alive right now. Now is the time to actually have principles, stand on principles, and make your virtue known.
They matter now more than ever in American life. And I’m telling you one more time, free-market being what it is, let’s start responding with choice here. Let’s start responding with, hey, if you don’t like this show, turn to a different show, man.
Ogles: That’s right. If you don’t like it, move along as people get upset about some of my posts on social media. And it’s like, then why are you reading it? But to your point, Grant, it’s like again, anecdotally – Kingsport 400 people. Tellico Village, which is just outside of Knoxville, 400 people showed up.
Tonight I’m expecting, say, 500 people. And it’s this undercurrent of frustration. And people want their voices heard. This ‘silent majority.’ And I looked at this story on Breitbart we’re just talking about. The Internet Celebrates the Collapse of a Left Woke Olympic Icon. So you have people who love America. I love the Olympics.
Henry: Me too.
Ogles: You anticipate watching these. We’ve got three children, and you’re going to watch these things with your kids, and you’re going to pass along these traditions. And there’s more leftism and transgender in it. The dude weightlifter pretending to be a woman who competes in the weight lifting, and then he totally chokes. But I’m glad. Because that’s not what the Olympics is about.
Cunningham: Absolutely. There is one thing we’ve learned and that’s culture is just as important as politics. And exerting a cultural agenda. Like you say, Grant, is that is: a counter to this leftist orthodoxy is just as important as asserting an alternate political agenda.
Listen to the full second hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Live from Music Row Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed Senior Editor-At-Large at The Epoch Times Roger Simon in studio weighed in on the indoctrination of children through Critical Race Theory implemented in Williamson County public schools and the need to cut federal funding.
Leahy: I am in studio with the newest all-star panelist and good friend Roger Simon. My former boss at PJTV, Academy Award-nominated screenwriter, a refugee from Los Angeles, California, and Editor-At-Large for The Epoch Times.
Roger, you’ve been following Williamson County and the Critical Race Theory curriculum that’s been apparently involved and taught in the schools. Mom’s For Liberty, a Williamson County group that, you know well, has documented that.
A big meeting last week. They invited school board members, and they invited Jason Golden, the director of schools. He didn’t attend that meeting.
Simon: Well, you know what I call Jason Goldman? The Fauci of Williamson County.
Leahy: Jason Goldman, the pouchy of Williamson County. Oh, that is so cruel to Fauci. (Laughter) That’s pretty good. Now, why do you call Jason Golden the director of Williamson County schools the Fauci of Williamson County?
Simon: Because he’s interested only in himself and not in the children.
Leahy: He’s interested only in himself and not the children.
Simon: Also, he gets a prohibitive salary, very similar to Anthony Fauci, who is the highest-paid member of our federal government.
Leahy: The highest-paid member of our federal government. The only other thing is that if you listen to Jason Golden, you get the impression that they’re not teaching Critical Race Theory at all. You get the impression they’re not teaching Critical Race Theory, Roger Simon.
Simon: Well, and when you’re teaching four-year-olds the essence of Critical Race Theory, which is that the color of your skin is the most important thing about you, you’re just doing a bad thing. Critical Race Theory is a fancy word for that. Who cares?
Leahy: Yeah, exactly.
Simon: The whole system is racialized to such a degree that all these children don’t even know who they really are or what’s going on. It’s terrible. Basically, there’s a simpler word for the whole thing, and it’s called child abuse.
Leahy: That’s what we got going on. Jason Golden, we had this guy before him named Mike Looney. Looney was aptly named. He’s gone. He introduced the training back in 2019. We did a big story of White privilege that was being taught to teachers there. We exposed that. Look at how fast this has moved.
Simon: The reason we talk about Williamson County, of course, it’s local here. And I’m sure Williamson County can hear what we’re saying now. But it’s a national problem. And Williamson County is an interesting example of what’s happening because it’s a Republican County where theoretically, this kind of thing should not happen at all.
Secondly, it’s a county famous for its educational system which has been growing by leaps and bounds because of the educational system. And people who can afford it are moving there.
Leahy: (Laughs) Exactly.
Simon: And little do they know, they’re moving there to get their kids indoctrinated. It’s an incredibly crazy situation, but it’s national, too.
Leahy: You said something very important there. People are moving to Williamson County to get their kids indoctrinated to hate America in the public schools.
Simon: They don’t realize it.
Leahy: The key point, isn’t it?
Simon: They think they’re moving to Mayberry.
Leahy: They’re not.
Simon: Obviously not. They’re not. Look, I was in Franklin the other day having dinner, and I live in Green Hills, but I’m up in Franklin all the time. I was up there having dinner and you drive around Franklin, it is Mayberry. It’s like one of the most attractive towns in the United States.
Leahy: Franklin, Tennessee, is a spectacular city. I mean, it’s just a great place. Downtown Main Street, love it!
Simon: It’s right out of some Norman Rockwell meets modern times.
Leahy: A Norman Rockwell meets Modern Times movie. By the way, I’m delighted you mentioned Norman Rockwell. I love his paintings. In fact, I got for a Father’s Day a couple of years ago the Four Freedoms.
Of course one of them, freedom from want, is eh, that was an FDR thing. You may know this. I interviewed his son once and said Norman Rockwell, he thought was probably not that political, but was a sort of a John F. Kennedy type liberal way back when.
Simon: Makes sense.
Leahy: Makes sense doesn’t it?
Simon: Yes, totally. But he was an absolutely great artist.
Leahy: Oh, spectacular.
Simon: When I was younger, I used to think he was corny, but actually, he’s not.
Leahy: This is because you were a sophisticated guy from Manhattan. I was a chump from upstate New York. I was a yahoo from Upstate New York, so I always liked him. (Laughs)
Simon: Listen, give me credit. I got there. But back to Franklin itself. Franklin is a great town, and people really want to live there and it’s coveted because of this educational system. It’s the worst kind of bait and switch.
You’re being sold a junker and something’s got to be done and something needs to be done across the country. But the great thing is something is being done because this Mom’s for Liberty, which is a national group is not just local.
Leahy: Mom’s for Liberty is a national group and it’s a Williamson County chapter.
Simon: Exactly. It is a great movement because it wakes people up. It’s easy to go about your job and your kids going to a good school and you don’t know what is happening. It’s been happening for 50 years.
Leahy: Or even longer. John Dewey. It all started with John Dewey and Columbia University. He basically wanted to turn American kids into robotic lovers of the great state.
Simon: Yes. Trotski-ites.
Leahy: Unfortunately, now that’s kind of the system that K-12 public education is today.
Simon: Yes. Unraveling it is not going to be simple. One of the reasons it’s not going to be simple is there’s no curriculum left that’s any good. My wife has been involved with this.
You can protest these curriculums that they foist on six-year-olds but then you’ve got to have something to give the teachers instead.
But they don’t have anything left anymore. We’re in bad shape, and we got to wake up because we’re making it really easy for Xi Jin Ping.
Leahy: Oh, yeah, absolutely. I’d like to get your reaction to my idea. And I’ve talked to members of the Tennessee General Assembly about this and surprisingly they have become increasingly open to it.
Simon: Great.
Leahy: Part of the problem, Roger, in my view, is that 10 percent of K-12 public education is funded by the federal government.
Simon: That’s a big problem.
Leahy: 40 percent local, 40 percent state. Well, what the feds do is say, we’ll give you this money, but you got to do X, Y and Z. And you see what X, Y, and Z is. What they’re now trying to dis through the Biden administration is promote the teaching of Critical Race Theory. That’s what they’re trying to do. Here’s my idea. Are you ready?
Simon: Cut federal funds.
Leahy: The Tennessee General Assembly should send a very polite note to Joe Biden. Dear Mr. President, you can take that 10 percent and put it somewhere else. I’ve got another way to describe it, but put it somewhere else is a polite way to start.
Simon: I agree. You’re going back to Joy Behar. (Laughter)
Leahy: That is very funny Roger. Here is the thing about all of this. We are going to have to really work with the Tennessee General Assembly. I think the majority of them agree with us intellectually.
There’s pressure from the school districts and the teachers’ unions to keep taking that federal money because nobody turns down money. This is money with such bad strings that it’s leading to the propagandizing of our kids and it’s utterly destructive.
Simon: I couldn’t agree more.
Leahy: Are you with me on that?
Simon: 100 percent. And I’ll add to it. The add to it is, I don’t think money has much to do with education at all.
Leahy: You are exactly right.
Listen to the full third hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
