How ‘It Takes a Village’ Turned Into ‘There’s No Such Thing as Other People’s Children’

For the greater part of the last century, the Left has been systematically conquering every institution in American society. This was not some grand design implemented by a central power, rather it was a specific mindset that began with a small group. 

That mindset was “the personal is political, the political is personal.” This can be seen everywhere, from Hollywood to Big Tech, but it is incredibly prevalent in schools. Before the country knew what was happening, the notion that parents have no say in their children became the very bedrock of the public education system.

Back in 1996, then-First Lady Hillary Clinton published the book “It Takes a Village,” borrowing from the old African proverb, “It takes a village to raise a child.” The message of the book was clear; every aspect of society is involved in the raising of children, not just the parents. Doctors, neighbors, grandparents, the government and — of course —  teachers are all part of this “village.” This mentality didn’t originate with Clinton, but she certainly popularized it.  

Republicans vocally opposed this mentality. In Bob Dole’s acceptance speech at the 1996 Republican National Convention, he challenged the verbiage directly:

“And after the virtual devastation of the American family, the rock upon which this country was founded, we are told that it takes a village, that is collective, and thus the state, to raise a child,” he told the crowd. “The state is now more involved than it ever has been in the raising of children. And children are now more neglected, more abused, and more mistreated than they have been in our time. This is not a coincidence. This is not a coincidence. And with all due respect, I am here to tell you it does not take a village to raise a child. It takes a family to raise a child.”

Yet despite this warning, Republicans continued to increase funding to the Department of Education. For the rest of the Clinton Administration, with Republicans in control of the House and Senate, the funding for elementary and secondary education increased by roughly 8-15% annually. Then, during the Bush Administration, the “No Child Left Behind” bill passed, and funding increased by 21% in 2001 and 17% in 2002, crossing the $30 billion mark.  

So who benefited from this massive spending blowout? Certainly not children, whose test scores in reading, math, and science had flatlined or gone down a few years following “No Child Left Behind.” The only upward trend lines since 2002 belong to the asset allocation of the teachers unions. In 2002, the National Education Association (NEA), the nation’s largest teachers union, had around $160 million in assets. In 2019, it had over $411 million, an increase of over 150%. In that time, its membership increased by less than 12%.  In that same time period, the second largest teachers union, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) increased its assets by 68% (from $79.8 million to $135 million) while its members increased at a commensurate rate.

These monstrous unions don’t stay out of the political discourse, content with merely molding young minds. They are in fact some of the largest political donors in the country. The NEA made over $32 million in partisan donations from 2000-2020, 91% to Democrats. The AFT donated $36 million, 99% to Democrats.  

Meanwhile, the rhetoric around the importance of teachers increased as well. Teachers went from a part of a child’s life to the main role models for children to the only ones who care about children. This message had its first major breakthrough in 2013, in a MSNBC show promotion starring professor-turned-host Melissa Harris-Perry.  

“We have never invested as much in public education as we should have because we have this private notion of children,” Harris-Perry says. “’Your kid is yours, and totally your responsibility.’ We haven’t had a very collective notion of ‘these are our children.’ So part of it is to break through our kind of private idea that kids belong to their parents, or kids belong to their families, and recognize that kids belong to whole communities.”

At the time, the backlash was so fierce and immediate that Harris-Perry wrote an explainer on MSNBC.

“Of course,” she wrote, “parents can and should raise their children with their own values….No individual household can do that alone. We have to build that world together.”

“Build that world together” is a euphemism for “teach children OUR values, even if they differ from yours.” That is what has been happening in both schools and entertainment. Countless children’s programs have been infused with woke propaganda, from transgender Gonzo on Muppet Babies to drag queens on Blue’s Clues. A 2020 episode of Arthur had two characters worrying about the history of racism in America. The interesting part of it — besides an aardvark and a rabbit interacting with black humans and no one being confused — is that the two 8 year-old boys don’t ask their parents for help.  They call their teacher.

Through government spending and corporate propaganda, teachers, along with school boards, administrators, and union heads have convinced themselves that their values should be your children’s values. They don’t bother to hide it, either. Social media sites like TikTok are filled with posts by teachers bragging about how they are indoctrinating children in the latest woke trends.  

Finally, during COVID, parents started to realize what was going on. After months of remote learning, parents got a much closer look behind that curtain, and they did not like what they saw. They began attending school board meetings, only to be called terrorists by the DOJ. They voted in droves for Glenn Youngkin in Virginia, only to have the school boards defy the governor’s orders.  

Now, Democrats in Florida and around the country are protesting the Parental Rights In Education Bill. They are lying and saying that it’s a “Don’t Say Gay” bill, proudly posting themselves repeating the word “gay” over and over on social media.  This is for a simple reason, as perfectly described by LGBT activist group Together Rising: “there’s no such thing as other people’s children.”

This is the natural evolution of “It takes a village.” Once the Left diluted the parental role, it was far easier to extricate the parent completely. This was done methodically, by giving the schools more money, by giving the teachers unions more power, and by creating a culture of dispensable parents. The only ones who have the means and ability to fight back are the parents themselves. 

Moshe Hill is a senior fellow at Amariah, an America First Zionist organization. His work can be found on his blog, www.aHillwithaView.com. You can follow him on Twitter @TheMoHill and on Facebook @aHillwithaView.