B is for Bears, Beets, and Battlestar Galactica

Jeremy Walker (00:15):

And welcome back to another episode of Preschool Pioneers. I'm your host, Jeremy Walker. You can follow us on our parent network CR101 Radio, on social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, Gab, and YouTube. And you can subscribe to this podcast on your preferred platform so you never miss an episode. Visit cr101radio.com/preschoolpioneers for these links.

(00:46):

Welcome back, guys. We have another episode here on our second season. Episode number two entitled, B is for Bear, Beets, and Battlestar Galactica. How various theoretical viewpoints believe that they have found the key to successful child-rearing and why they are wrong. I'm glad to have everybody here with us today on this episode of Preschool Pioneers. We are going to discuss why Christians should become teachers. And just why, oh, why are Christian parents and Christian teachers so important?

(01:29):

We're going to start with a Bible verse. Proverbs 3, 1-12. "My son, forget not my law, but let thine heart keep my commandments. For length of days, and long life, and peace shall they add to thee. Let not mercy and truth forsake thee. Bind them about thy neck. Write them upon the table of thine heart so shalt thou find favor, and good understanding in the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones. Honor the Lord with thy substance and with the first fruits of all thine increase, so shall thy barns be filled with plenty and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, neither be weary of His correction, for whom the Lord loveth, He correcteth, even as the father, the son, and whom he delighteth."

(02:55):

There are so, so, so many people who think they have found the keys to successful child-rearing. The world is full of parenting books, parent guideline books, paedology, people talking about this, people talking about that. "Everybody in the past was wrong. We now today have found the true keys to success, how children can learn to thrive."

(03:30):

I'm going to touch on three points and then we're going to discuss why they're all wrong and in the middle. Bears, Beets, Battlestar Galactica. If you're not familiar with that term or where it comes from, it does come from that really great series called The Office. And if you haven't seen it, go back and watch it, and you'll be quite entertained. But these three points are three various theories, points of view, that people think that will help children to thrive. How you, as the parent, what you should do. As the teacher, what you should do if you want to be successful and help your children, help your students.

(04:17):

Bears. Well, first off, you need lots and lots of outdoor time. Children need to learn to be one with nature. Go on nature walks, be outside, play under the trees, pick up leaves, go around and running in the dirt with their bare feet on. Children need to be outdoors. And this is one absolute key to success is being outside.

(04:52):

The second one is Beets. Your diet, what you're feeding your children will determine what child you get. There are those people out there that believe that diet is the key to everything. Every single thing, every good thing, every behavioral problem can all be tied to diet.

(05:15):

Then Battlestar Galactica. Media, entertainment of sorts, what children are allowed or not allowed to play with, and how it affects them. If you just control their media and entertainment and toys and structure, you can then try to ensure a successful child-rearing, a thriving child, somebody who is ready to face the future.

(05:44):

So let's go ahead and jump into Bears, outdoor time. All three of these are really just an environmental approach. That's it, environmental approach. The child doesn't need to change is the idea. The child is a victim of sorts. They're just the clay that's unmolded. And what we need to do is by being careful about the environment and what we put into it. They're like a soup, and what you put into it determines the outcome of the taste and flavor. This is their approach to children, environmentalism, lack of a better term. When you don't approach children from a Christian perspective, where children are born with sinful natures, they're in the humanistic perspective, they're born good. And anything that happens, any problem, any personality defect, any temperament issues, any violent behavior can all be traced back to a source. And that source is not the child, never the child. This is not normal.

(07:01):

Working in childcare as long as I have, I can't tell you how many people will say, "I just don't know where they're getting this from. I don't know where this comes from," as if the behavior from a child doesn't come from themselves. It must be learned behaviors. One of the terminologies that gets tossed around a lot. And if you stay inside too much in our modern approach with all the technology, and the tablets, and the iPhones, and the computers, and the TVs, if you don't spend enough time outside in the outdoors, then you're going to mess up and ruin your child.

(07:40):

I have to say, I grew up and I was outside all the time, tons and tons and tons of time outside. And so were my friends, and so were the relatives, and all the other people that I knew. And I can tell you this much, it did not affect, at all, in any shape, form, or fashion, our moral direction. It just didn't do it. It didn't affect it at all. So if you want to have your children spend more time outside, excellent, go ahead and do it.

(08:11):

I'm a child of the '80s. I remember a time when people really didn't even know where you were. Nowadays, considering the decline of our society, as a parent in particular, this idea is foreign to me now. Because I would never in a million years allow my children to go and have the freedoms that I did growing up as a child of the '80s. We were all over the place, in the woods. You could be down the road with all the neighborhood kids on your bikes, playing in the woods, whatever you were doing. You were out there having fun. But guess what? That did not make us good people. Not even remotely. Being outside does not affect your moral compass, your moral behavior.

(09:02):

Diet was a big thing. When I first entered into the child care field, I heard about... And even as a kid, actually, I did remember, come to think of it, heard about this. You had to be careful with red dye number 5. Red dye they put in there, into your food, and these additives into your different drinks and things like that. You got to watch out because if you're not careful, this is going to affect your child's behavior. Every child outburst, every disobedient act can be tied back to red dye number 5. It makes you crazy. And after all, the kid is not, the child is not responsible for their actions. How can they? They've been drugged by red dye number 5. After that, there was sugar, too much sugar intake just makes you wild. These kids are crazy and it's all because of the sugar.

(10:04):

Then I heard one, it was years later, along the same lines, wheat, bread products. I was dealing with a kid in one of our schools, and this kid's behavior was way out of control. And as I was talking to the parent and they had gone home, come back the next day, they had talked to the so-called nutritionist about the behavior. And wouldn't you know it? This was all caused because of bread. So all you have to do is cut out the bread and this child's behavior will clear up, right as rain. As you can guess, it didn't, not even a little bit.

(10:51):

The concept of diet, the Beets' concept, is ridiculous. I love using that word. I like saying it, ridiculous. Why? Because that's what people are when they give excuses to children for behavior, as if they are victims and it's not them. You are handicapping your child when you don't look at them and say, "You, no doubt, are the problem. You need to control your behavior." Don't give children excuses, like, "Well, they just weren't outside enough. They're inside too much. They have to sit in their seats and they don't have enough nature time. They ate bread. How can you expect a child to be polite to their friends when, after all, they had bread? There was toast involved. Did you not see the toast? Did you not see that Jolly Rancher? Did you not see that there was M&Ms with peanuts? You terrible person, you. Can't tell Johnny he's responsible when there were M&Ms involved."

(12:09):

Moving to Battlestar Galactica. This is probably the biggest modern day one because it's something that every child has grown up with is an iPad, iPhone, TV, streaming service on demand. You call it, it's there. And our kids are just obsessed with this. And I saw a video, I saw a video. It showed children who were born in the era of the iPhone and the tablet. And when the tablet was taken from the child, when the Xbox was turned off, when the video games were turned off, the children went wild. They were manic. They could not control themselves. Outburst of rage and behavior because the tablet was the problem. The video game is the problem. We just have to take away all the tablets to get rid of this behavior.

(13:08):

Ridiculous. None of these things are, one, the root cause to good or bad behavior, nor are they going to change it. Going outside, changing your I eat sugar, don't eat sugar. I don't eat bread, I have cupcakes. Or we watch the tablet, we don't watch the tablet. We play video games, we don't play video games. These things are not the root. They're not the root at all.

(13:40):

See, the truth is this. Our children need to be taught about who they are and what God expects of them. That's the root. They are not born clean, good, impartial. They are born believing, wholeheartedly, that they are God, meaning that no one has the right to tell me anything and to restrict anything that I want. That's the problem. They will harm, they will insult, they will steal, they will do whatever they feel is right in their eyes unless they're stopped. They have to be taught that living in accordance with God's commandments, and the truth that He gives to us about them, is how you live in harmony with reality.

(14:41):

Now, there is easily something to be said about the abuse of certain things, like too much technology. I have to limit it myself. I have younger sons who like to play games, like Fortnite and things like that, on their Xboxes. And, yes, they have moments of frustration and anger where they're screaming at the video game. But is it the video game that's the problem or is it them? Where does the rage and the anger come from? Did the video game give it to them? Or is it the fact that they have this outlet where they just want to rage and be angry because that's what's inside? They have to learn self-control.

(15:23):

When we have God's law, as we had in Proverbs 3, this is our guide to have favor, good understanding in both with God and with other men. When you see a child obeying God's commandments, not stealing, not lying, being respectful to authorities, et cetera, this is going to promote this child. God is going to bless this child. This child is going to be pushed into the future. It's not the outdoors, it's not the diet, it's not the video games and the tablets that are the problem. The problem is inside each of us. That is the key.

(16:06):

And we need help. If we want to benefit our children, we don't teach them as if somehow the environment is to blame. The environment does not mess you up. You mess up the environment. You, no doubt, are the problem. This is something very important that, as a Christian parent and as a Christian teacher, we must convey this properly. No doubt, the environment is not the problem. It is you. And your solution is to obey God and keep His commandments. You'll both find favor with other people and God. It's going to be health to you. You are going to, no doubt, succeed in life because you're living in harmony with reality. There is a God. He has created the world as He has. There are rules that govern this, God's commandments, how we interact, both by ourselves and with other people.

(17:13):

And you can't ever blame someone else. As a parent, as a teacher, if you want to benefit children, never give them a crutch. Never allow them to believe that the environment, or even other people, are holding them back. Nothing is holding anyone back except their own level of character and morality. And that's it. It's not the M&Ms that caused you to hurt Johnny. You hurt Johnny because you wanted to hurt Johnny. Getting rid of the M&Ms will not get rid of you wanting to hurt people.

(17:56):

Let's go ahead and move on a little bit. I want to remind our listeners, if you have not yet subscribed to this podcast, Preschool Pioneers, you can do that on all major platforms. Just look us up, Preschool Pioneers, and you will find us. Subscribe to us, catch every episode, and never miss one.

(18:14):

I want to jump to the next part of our episode, and this is my take on the current state of education. I think it's very important to keep your ear to the ground. If you're a parent, it informs about what's going on in the world so you can know what to do. As a teacher, it helps you understand why in the world you are so important. Absolutely important. Christian parents and Christian teachers.

(18:42):

I'm going to touch on a few here for this episode. First one I'm going to touch on is a cartoon. A cartoon, and it showed a picture of a mother and her young son. And the child had just come home. That's how the setup is. And the mother asked, "How was school?" And then the next panel of the comic is the child vomiting, except the liquid, of course, is rainbow-colored as it comes out. The image is supposed to be striking to show the idea and the concept that in our current educational system, education, reading, writing, arithmetic, is unimportant, is unimportant to the entire educational sphere. They are not trying to educate children so that they can be educated in the concept of classical education, as far as, I can read, I can write, and I can do arithmetic. They have instead become religious institutions, absolute religious institutions, which are bent on teaching a religious perspective. And for theirs, it is an absolute dedicated education in perversity. Everything about it is perversity. Perverse, sex, and everything that goes with it.

(20:06):

If you haven't paid attention to social media, many people go into school boards trying to confront these people, the school board members who are allowing these things to take place in government schools, which the vast majority of people do attend. And these children are being, by everyone's knowledge, sexualized. They are talking about things at these board meetings. They'll pull out the books that are being taught in schools, in schools, and they will start to read them. I've seen them at school board meetings. I've also seen them on the floors of Congress in the United States. And as they begin to read, the content in the book that is being put in the schools and being put in front of the children and being taught to them, so the curriculum, they are being stopped. The board members of schools are saying, "You can't talk like that. That is obscene. That's not okay. We must be civil. That kind of language is not tolerated here. These topics are not tolerated here. You must not do that."

(21:16):

I saw another image as well, and it was along the same lines. And it was the man who was trying to stand in front of his school boards and deliver... It was a little cartoon, trying to read these books. And people were freaking out in the cartoon saying, "You can't do that. That's not acceptable here." And the next scene was him sitting in a classroom with young children, reading the same book and saying, "Ah, now, it's finally an appropriate place, our classrooms."

(21:47):

When you stop and think about it, along those lines, that adults refuse to allow schoolbooks with such perverse language, graphically perverse language, teaching children how to have perverted sexual acts with each other and promoting it. And people are supposed to be shy about saying, "That is not going to happen to my kid. You are not going to teach that to my kid. I am not going to allow that. You're not going to do that." But do you know what happens? People act like they're victims. Is there anyone forcing anyone to go to any of these schools that are doing this? And the answer, of course, is no, they are not. Therefore, what it means is, don't for one second act as if somehow you are being victimized. You're not being victimized, and neither is your child. You are electively giving your children over to these people who are teaching perverted sexual acts in explicit discussion, explicit language, and images. And you're just perfectly okay with that. You're just going to keep going. You're going to go to the next school board and complain about it.

(23:22):

No, no, no. You are the parent. You are the teacher. As a parent, and especially if you're a Christian, you shouldn't be putting your kids anywhere near somebody that would teach such perversion to your kid. It's not an option. As a teacher, how could you possibly be in a school that is promoting such things? At what point... No, no, stop. At what point, parent, at what point, teacher, at what point do they have to get before you say, "I'm not going to participate with that"? If this isn't it, where is it? Honestly, where is it at? At what point do you say, "No more"? Well, for me, we're way beyond that point, but you do have to make up your own mind of where you want to be at.

(24:12):

So, for me, I think one of the reasons why I do this podcast is to help shed light on these subjects. And so what I want to do, if I can help it, is to promote Christian parents and Christian teachers to do their job. To stand against evil, to stand against anybody who would try to hurt children. And to help those parents in their jobs. Thank you again for joining me. This is Jeremy Walker, Preschool Pioneers, signing off.