Whose Children Are They?

Christian TotoMarch 29, 2022

The creative team behind the documentary “Whose Children Are They” have been taking notes from the Left.

Liberal documentaries are often unabashed op-eds, brimming with a singular perspective and burnished by deeply personal stories.

“Whose Children Are They?” leans hard on both tactics, but the film brings something invigorating to the debate over education in the 21st century.

Truth.

The exhaustive, and sometimes exhausting, film darts from heartbreaking tales to hard news headlines to support the arguments in play. It’s a devastating critique of public schools, and it couldn’t come at a better time.

It all starts with a comical scene from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” but the tone quickly changes from giddy to grim. It’s hard to escape what’s happening in schools nationwide, whether you have young children or simply scour Twitter each day.

Public schools, aided and abetted by teachers unions, have transformed the classroom into indoctrination hubs. Sound outrageous?

“Whose Children Are They?” bombards us with too many examples to consider that rationale. We meet dozens of teachers, educators, students and parents, all with a personal stake in education today.

The film opens with a quick dissertation of Marxism and how what’s happening in modern schools accurately mirrors what the socialist gurus crave.

Children, Marx said, should belong to the state. Some parents, having lived through Communist oppression, recognize all too well what’s happening nationwide.

“Mao is our real parent,” A Chinese-American immigrant says of songs she was once forced to sing back in her native land.

A Cuban parent echoes that sentiment. Another parent warns our children “are an easy target” to Marxists. And that’s precisely how too many educators see their role, instead of teaching kids to be open minded, curious and smart.

It’s no accident that, according to the film, 94 percent of teachers union spending steers to the Democratic party.

The film’s two-hour running time may be much for some viewers. There’s so much information to absorb, and the heart-rending stories leave audiences woozy. But that running time allows for a comprehensive snapshot, allowing the film to “follow the money” and show how the administrative state balloons while hard-working teachers struggle for scraps.

The unavoidable through line? The massive, corrupt and venal teachers unions, the bodies that coordinated with the CDC to keep children out of schools and, later, masked up despite the science. The system also lets lackluster teachers retain their jobs while the best and brightest talents often get pushed aside.

And it’s ground zero for the indoctrination campaigns, ranging from Critical Race Theory and hardcore sex education to grievance culture gone mad.

The film’s timing couldn’t be more fortuitious. The red wave in Virginia had deep roots in parents becoming fed up with a system gone mad. We’ve just seen the last of school masking mandates, targeting a population under a microscopic threat from COVID-19.

Viral videos of impassioned parents fighting the system flood the Internet.

“Whose Children Are They?” will throw gasoline on a national, necessary fire.

The documentary veers from the bizarre – young band students playing music in mini-tents to avoid COVID-19 – to the outrageous. The latter involves the grotesquely sexual information trotted out for young children to process.

The film has a specific, and uniform, point of view, but few could claim it lacks diversity. We see a crush of smart, passionate people of color arguing against the new status quo. The assembled talking heads, regardless of skin color or heritage, are engaged and plainspoken. It’s impossible not to connect with their stories and feel their pain.

And there’s pain a plenty here, from frustrated teachers forced to push agendas in the classroom to parents aghast at what their children must endure beyond the three Rs.

We even hear from some students, eloquent voices sharing the despair they faced during the lockdowns and aggressive masking rules.

In short order you’ll be as angry as the voices assembled for the film.

“COVID didn’t break the public school system. It was already broken,” says noted education expert Corey DeAngelis.

The pandemic wrought havoc on most families, but the film suggests one silver lining emerged: Parents got a glimpse of what their children are learning, and many were shocked at what they discovered.

Except too many teachers, and their unions, loathe transparency. It’s hard to blame them when schools are actively pushing gender fluidity, radical racial lessons and more on unsuspecting kids. The elites know how the public at large will receive this information, so they do their best to keep it a secret.

Movies like “Whose Children Are They?” are opening the lid on said secrets.

The film may lack the sizzle of some mainstream documentaries, but it’s handsomely assembled and offers a few robust sequences like a comic book detour sprung to life.

A limited series format may have suited the material better given the expansive details packed in every segment. It’s at times draining to soak it all in, from progressive policies that make schools more dangerous to the farcical notion that impoverished white students must renounce their privilege.

A brief segway into school shootings doesn’t precisely fit the narrative in play, but hearing how anti-gun zealots turned a heroic student’s memorial into a political event will turn anyone’s stomach. That lad’s parents recall the awful moment, teary eyed but resolute.

Chances are, John Oliver and the rest of the late night crew didn’t get around to shredding those activists on their nightly shows.

The sexual material being introduced to children adds another horrifying chapter to a film overflowing with them. This isn’t a case of overly protective parents recoiling at any form of sex education. The material in question is clearly meant for adults and has no place in the classroom.

It’s often the teachers who are on the front lines of the indoctrination. They’re meant to be transformed first, so they can then push the new narratives onto their children. Some embrace that assignment, witness the outlandish TikTok videos where they brag about saluting LGBTQ flags and cheer on sexually explicit lessons.

The push for equity also comes under fire, showing how eliminating standards and advanced education tracks only hurts the students themselves.

The viewer may feel like one of Mike Tyson’s early, anonymous foes by the time the film’s bullying segment roars into view. The confessions sound eerily familiar to the Cancel Culture scolds who punish anyone who doesn’t agree with them.

“Whose Children Are They” is like a cultural smart bomb dropping at just the right time. It’s compelling, consistently so, and brings a measured tone that’s hard to slam or destroy.

The film arrives with serious conservative credentials, but it has the power to cross the aisle and bring left-leaning parents into the fold … and fight.

The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.