More evidence is surfacing that the public school classrooms are increasingly hostile to traditional American values. In addition to the bankrupt theory of evolution, textbook writers are moving political correctness down into the early childhood grades.

One trend is to include in history texts some of the more unsavory characteristics and misbehavior of major historical figures. They want to make sure that the kids know that Thomas Jefferson had several children by one of his slaves. It seems important that they also are well informed that George Washington was really a toothless old man wearing hippo ivory dentures.

John F. Kennedy's extramarital affairs and President William Howard Taft's obesity are pointed out to be sure that the child's admiration for great men is properly tempered with reality.

Another subtle change is the censorship of "offensive" items. Textbooks are now routinely submitted for a "bias and sensitivity" review. Some of the things removed include references to peanuts as healthy food because a few people are allergic to peanuts. Or, suppression of a story about the designer of the monument at Mt. Rushmore for fear of offending local Native Americans who consider the mountain sacred.

One publishing company president summed it up this way: "Everything written before 1970 was either gender biased or racially biased." Current guidelines for textbook authors specify that stories and illustrations must be "multicultural." Even the range of writers must come from diverse ethnic, religious, cultural and racial backgrounds.

All references to religion in history must be positive since no belief or practice is to be considered primitive or strange. Judgmental language such as use of the word "myth" is forbidden.

The guidelines contain long lists of forbidden words, phrases and images. Gender terms such as manpower, lady, tomboy, forefathers, and brotherhood are banned.

Parents who send their children to public school must be increasingly diligent to personally tutor them to counter this humanistic bias. Many organizations such as the Southern Baptist Convention and Focus on the Family are encouraging parents to consider home schooling or private schools if available.

Some parents are successfully taking a stand against some of this drift. One father in North Carolina was "flabbergasted" when his first-grade daughter brought home a book from the school library entitled King & King. It was about two princes falling in love and getting married.

He and his wife refused to allow the book to go back to the school until they had showed it to several dozen other parents. They then filed a formal complaint with the school district and the book was restricted to adults, over the objection of one of the school board members who happens to be homosexual.

The incident even caught the attention of Congressman Walter Jones who wrote the state superintendent of public instruction requesting that the book be removed from all the school libraries in the state.

Another similar case in Michigan cost the Ann Arbor Public Schools over a hundred thousand dollars to settle with a student who filed suit because she was forbidden to share her religious views against homosexuality during her high school's "diversity week" program. These cases prove that parents and students can resist and win against the persistent homosexual lobby.

Parents must not assume that all is well with their children in any school. Talk to your child and let him feel free to talk to you about what is being taught. Review his textbooks and homework assignments and investigate the nature of any special assemblies. Establish a relationship with his teachers and school administrators. Salting the school with gospel literature can also have an inoculating effect on the kids against the humanistic propaganda they are fed.