What the hell is happening to our schools?

Reading, writing, and maths results are finally heading in the right direction. So why is one of the biggest education stories in New Zealand about the "manosphere", "toxic masculinity", and hunting for "extremists" in our classrooms? As a man and a father of three boys, I'm sick of watching young men become the latest political punching bag.

For years we've been told boys are privileged, boys are toxic, boys are the problem. Now teachers' unions are literally paying people to decide which political beliefs make school children "extremists."

You couldn't make this up.

The PPTA is paying someone $10,000 to write guidelines telling teachers what extremism looks like in schools.

According to the terms of reference, views such as opposition to feminism and "trad-wife" beliefs are being flagged. Conference material has also described some views on co-governance as "anti-Māori racism."

Since when did teachers' unions become the Ministry of Truth?

Who gave them the authority to decide which political opinions are acceptable and which require intervention?

ACT MP Laura McClure asked the right question this week:

"Who would trust the PPTA to police students' opinions?"

Exactly.

Parents send their children to school to learn to read, write, solve problems, make friends, and prepare for adulthood.

We do not send them there to have activists dissect their political beliefs, lecture them about masculinity, or convince boys they're inherently dangerous.

At PILLAR we've said it from day one.

Parents are the primary educators of their children.

Teachers exist to assist in that education, not indoctrinate.

But too many institutions have forgotten that.

Instead of fixing literacy, numeracy, attendance, and classroom behaviour, they're obsessed with identity politics, gender ideology, and creating new categories of thought crime.

The profession has been captured by activists who mistake political campaigning for education.

And ordinary families are paying the price.

The greatest lie sold to this generation is that masculinity itself is the problem.

It's not.

The world doesn't need fewer strong men. It needs more good men. 

Men who protect women. Men who honour their word. Men who work hard. Men who sacrifice for their families. Men who take responsibility instead of making excuses.

That's what I want my boys to become.

They will never be ashamed of being boys.

They will never be confused about who they are.

They will never apologise for being masculine.

And they will never allow activists, bureaucrats, or teachers' unions to tell them otherwise.

Children are not the property of the state.

They are not social experiments.

They are not blank canvases for ideological activists.

They belong to families.

And it's time parents started acting like it.