The schoolmarm is an iconic figure from America’s western past. She was a 19th-century schoolteacher who, in that one-room schoolhouse on frontier territory, taught American children the three Rs, as well as reverence for their country. Fast forward 150 years or so, and you have an epicene, whatever gender teacher urging students to call her “mom” so that they disgorge their secrets to her. However, there are weapons to fight against this vile scourge.

Up until quite recently, the teacher’s job was to pass on concrete knowledge to equip children to be productive adults and good citizens. That was the beginning and end of a teacher’s job. Then, states passed laws that imposed on teachers the obligation to file a report if they thought a parent was abusing a child. That was a reasonable thing to do, given that a teacher might be the only other adult in a child’s life and, therefore, would be the one who noticed bruises or malnutrition.

Somehow, though, this responsibility morphed into a cadre of teachers deciding that all parents are potential abusers—not physical abusers, but potential mental abusers. And what constitutes mental abuse? Parents who challenge those teachers who deviate from the hard work of teaching concrete information (math, reading competency, etc.) and slide effortlessly into celebrating their own life choices in the classroom—and the more deviant, the better.

And that’s how you end up with the peculiar human being in the video, below, who is delighted that her students are confused about her biological sex. In her classroom, the most important thing is for students to learn “gender identity.” And to further that knowledge, this teacher explicitly usurps the mother’s role. It’s a case of “Go away, mommy. For the few hours a day and finite months of the year that I have your child, I know and love that child better than you ever could”:

Teacher explains that she’s out as queer at school and tells kids she can be their mom so that students confide in her pic.twitter.com/TQwBJcKlUK

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) February 27, 2023

Will it surprise you to learn that this woman says of her relationship with her own mother that “it’s broken”? But still, she wants to be your child’s “mom.”

Chaya Raichik, the woman behind Libs of TikTok has spent years documenting the predatory behavior that America’s K-12 teachers are bringing to the classroom. It’s no wonder that she’s published her own children’s book, one that has a very important message for children: If your teacher is trying to come between you and your mommy and daddy, your teacher is doing a bad thing. Here’s Raichik’s little promo for her book:

If an adult tells a child to keep a secret from their parents, that’s a huge red flag. I wrote a kid’s book which will give parents and children a tool they can use to spot predatory behavior.

My goal is to get this book into as many homes, schools, and https://t.co/qkD4dAW3O4… https://t.co/B1BTHSfY69 pic.twitter.com/aVMILL2ivJ

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) February 26, 2023

I’ve been fortunate that I always had a strong channel of communication with my children. As readers are probably aware, I’m hyperverbal, so nothing went unsaid in my household. The two other tricks I learned as a parent were to catch my children being good 75% of the time and to be opinionated but not judgmental, both of which create trust.

“Catch them being good” is a reminder that children must learn to be good. If you only catch them being bad (a) they will often be bad to get your attention because all children crave parental attention, and (b) they will view you as a dangerous person for confidences because the likelihood is that they’ll get in trouble for anything they reveal to you.

That principle does not mean that you cannot teach children that their behavior is wrong, and that’s where “opinionated but not judgmental” comes in. If my kids told me something of which I disapproved, I’d give my opinion about whatever they told me, but I would not attach to my children or their friends the label (or judgment) that they were bad, stupid, lazy, etc. It kept them from getting defensive and allowed me to express my concerns about behaviors or people that were dangerous to them.

One of the best days of my parenting life was when my teenager told me, “I can tell you anything. You don’t make me feel bad about myself, but you give always give me helpful advice that makes things better.” That’s not because I’m so wise; it’s just because I kept the channels of communication open in a way that encouraged honesty, not secrecy. And I was lucky, of course, that I didn't have to parent against the COVID backdrop, complete with lockdowns, but I do know that keeping the channels is better than the alternative.

As parents, we all must do that nowadays because the culture is aggressively opposed to us. That happened in the 1960s, too, when college campus culture encouraged kids to follow Timothy Leary’s mantra to “turn on, tune in, drop out.” They did in droves, and so many shining young lights got snuffed out.

Now, the same aggressive culture tells the K-12 kids to “turn against their parents, tune in to sexual deviancy, and drop out of their biological sex.” The long years of the COVID lockdown made children even more vulnerable to these lessons. It’s totally toxic and can best be countered by parents and children who have strong lines of communication and trust between them.

Raichik is right to help children remember that their parents love them more than their teachers ever could. And I really promise that “catch them being good” and “opinionated but not judgmental” will make sure that the kids confide in you, and not the purple-haired weirdo at the front of the classroom.

Image: Call me Mom teacher. Twitter screen grab.