Public School Tells Kids: Government ‘Like A Nation’s Family’

Are American schools indoctrinating children and teaching an entire generation that becoming dependent upon the government is a good thing?

A “government is like a nation’s family” public school assignment appears to indicate that youngsters are being taught civics lessons which stray drastically from worksheets our Founding Fathers would have created.

The East Prairie School in Skokie, Illinois, gave children instructional sheets which depicted an Uncle Sam-style character holding a child. An excerpt from the worksheet reads:

“Government is all of the agencies, departments, organizations, groups, individuals in a nation who make, carry out, enforce, and manage conflicts about rules and laws. Government is like a nation’s family. Families take care of children and make sure they are safe, healthy and educated, and free to enjoy life. Families encourage children to be independent hardworking and responsible.  Families make and enforce rules and give appropriate punishments when rules are broken. Government does these things for its citizens, too.”

Children are asked a series of questions which ask first how the family provides the necessary service or item, and then follows up by posing the same query by asking how the government offers the same item. One question in the public school worksheet reads, “How does the government keep its citizens healthy?”

Take a hard look at the true state of public education…

The Blaze calls the message depicted in the worksheet as “socialist.” A concerned parent of a fourth grader at the Illinois school sent a copy of the big government assignment to Glenn Beck’s news network. East Prairie School District 73 Superintendent Teri Madl insists the worksheet is not indoctrinating students.

“In response to your questions and said worksheet,” Madl said, “it is meant to offer a simple analogy that helps children understand that part of a government’s role is to set rules, enforce those rules, and provide safety, security and freedom for its citizens. It is not an attempt to include and/or promote a political message. If a parent does have a concern I would encourage him or her to contact the child’s teacher.”

The worksheet contained the following questions:

1. How does your family keep you safe?
2. How does the government keep its citizens safe?
3. How does your family keep you healthy?
4. How does the government keep its citizens healthy?
5. How does your family help you learn and become educated?
6. How does the government help its citizens learn and become educated?
7. What kind of rules does your family have for you?
8. What kind of rules does government have for its citizens?
9. How does your family punish you when you break the rules?
10. How does government punish citizens who break the law?

The “government is like a nation’s family” worksheet was taken from the US Government and Presidents workbook by Carson-Dellosa Publishing. Depicting the United States federal government as a fatherly figure is not only the polar opposite of what the Founding Fathers intended, but it also influences children in a manner which should be reserved for parents. If the federal government is family, it is one of the most dysfunctional groups of relatives I have ever encountered.

Instead of being taught that the government will take care of you, protect you, feed you, and make sure that your stay healthy, students should be learning the personal responsibility values and warnings about an omnipotent government voiced by our Founding Fathers. Instead, the Illinois students will come to not only expect, but embrace big government actions depicted in George Orwell’s novel, 1984.

How do you feel about the Government is like a nation’s family worksheet?