In their 2022 book, “Battle for the American Mind,” Pete Hegseth and David Goodwin write, “Today, after 16,000 hours of K-12 indoctrination, our kids come out of government schools hating America. They roll their eyes at religion and disdain our history. We spend more money on education than ever, but kids can barely read and write — let alone reason with discernment. Kids are bored and aimless, flailing to find purpose in a system that says racial and gender identity is everything.”

No wonder so many parents are home-schooling, or sending their kids to Christian schools. But it is heartening that over 500 children have enrolled at Cornerstone Christian Academy in Lake Ridge, Virginia. According to a Sept. 8 report in The Christian Post, the head of school stated that “CCA was founded primarily to help Christian parents trying to protect their children from LGBT ideology and other unbiblical doctrines.”

Now, I think it’s fine and dandy that Fisher Hill Elementary School in Orange opened to “rave reviews” (“Reviews: New school is ‘awesome,’ Recorder, Sept. 25), but I’m disgusted that Providence Christian Academy in Greenfield has (so far) received only negative front-page stories. And don’t get me started with the letters and My Turns on this page where Christians are routinely disparaged.

A Greenfield School Committee member blasted PCA’s Abeka curriculum (and, unfortunately, hasn’t been fired); and on Aug. 19, a retired principal and teacher accused the Christians at PCA of being white supremacists (I am still appalled that this newspaper printed such rubbish). Then a Charlemont historian (who claims to be a Christian) attacked Christians. These women should apologize.

In 2023, kids don’t know how to write cursive, but they do know what puberty blockers are. Of course there are good teachers out there, but the grim reality is that children’s minds, bodies, and souls are being harmed by godless Democrats in our nation’s schools.

As Darla Romfo (president of The Children’s Scholarship Fund, which offers scholarships to students in poorly performing inner-city schools) said in a recent news report, “When more than half of students can’t even read proficiently and the pandemic only exacerbated this learning loss, especially for our most vulnerable students, why do schools insist on diverting time and resources into non-academic, controversial subjects that are confusing at best and don’t align with many families’ values? Parents are tired of it and rightly so. And my advice is if your school doesn’t respond to your concerns, find another school that will. There are no do-overs when it comes to your child’s education.”

Danielle Miller lives in Deerfield.