A French teacher dressed in drag, strutted his stuff before students at a Wisconsin high school.

In Michigan, state attorney general Dana Nessel mocked conservatives during a civil rights summit, saying that drag queens are not a problem for kids seeking a good education.

"Drag queens make everything better. Drag queens are fun. Drag queens are entertainment. And ya know what else I'll say that was totally not poll tested? I say this: a drag queen for every school!" Nessell exclaimed.

In school districts throughout America, parents are demanding that teachers stop instructing children about gender fluidity and Critical Race Theory. They also want pornographic materials removed from school libraries.

The authors of the new book, Battle for the American Mind: Uprooting a Century of Miseducation, say socialist beliefs like these weren't introduced overnight - they started creeping into U.S. public school more than one hundred years ago.

"It happened gradually, and then it happened suddenly, as Hemingway would put it," Pete Hegseth explained.

Hegseth is a best selling author, and co-host of Fox and Friends Weekend. His co-author, David Goodwin is president of the Association of Classical Christian Schools. They write that educational reformer John Dewey advocated progressive teaching in the 1920's. And in 1935, after they fled Nazis Germany, Marxists from the Frankfurt School of Social Research introduced their views to students at New York's Columbia University.

"These were all atheists. These were all socialists, or almost all of them were and their goal was social change, and they knew the schoolroom was the place they could do it. And it started with the removal of God," Hegseth said.

David Goodwin believes the biggest change sidelining Christian education occurred when the U.S. Supreme Court, under Chief Justice Earl Warren, removed God from the classroom.

"They gradually took prayer out of school, they then took the Bible out of school, and they then forbid really any teaching of Christian instruction in school, " explained Goodwin. "But that was the kind of the capstone of a long effort. It wasn't the beginning, it was really the end."

Also, Goodwin and Hegseth contend that progressives intentionally replaced classical Christian education with American nationalism.

"We look at our Pledge of Allegiance - at least we do as conservatives and patriots and say, 'Hey, that's a great thing under God.' Well, the original pledge was written in the late 19th century by a socialist who ultimately wrote it without under God, because the pledge was meant to shift kids away comfortably from God at the center of the class, from the cross, at the center to the flag at the center of the classroom, which was an easier sell to parents at the time," Hegseth explained. "And now, of course, fast forward to today, and they're happy to get rid of the flag."

So, do Hegseth and Goodwin believe that America's elites possess a well-devised spiritual strategy that transcends politics?

"You see, we fight in terms of politics now and may win incremental battles here or there. What the left understood is they had to go to the heart of what made us who we are. What do we value? What's our vision of the good life? What do we consider our virtues?" Hegseth explained. "And when they targeted that, they targeted at the foundation of who we really are, really the current underneath the top waters of the stream of cultures, the top waters, the current is paideia underneath, and they targeted that."

Goodwin explained further, "Yes, I think if we turn to Ephesians 6, really, it's a great chapter that kind of encapsulates the responsibilities and the upbringing of you know, pretty much all the classes of society at the time, but which says, 'Fathers raise your children in the' - and there's a whole bunch of words that are used there - education, instruction. The two that are most commonly used are fear and admonition. All of those are derived from the one word, 'paideia.' So, it's a command of our Lord to raise children in the 'paideia' of the Lord."

But many parents who want to raise their children up in the way of the Lord have discovered they cannot afford classical educational alternatives.

Many Americans are now being forced to choose between putting gas in the tank, or food on their table so, how can they afford it?

Hegseth said it's a fair question to ask during this challenging period of skyrocketing inflation.

"I'm going to start as a parent who has three of my kids and soon all seven of them in classical education, and I'll tell you, first and foremost, it's worth every dime and I have to sacrifice in any other place to make sure they can afford it. I will. I will say, first of all, look, look inside your life and the things you spend money on, the things you value and how much are the hearts, souls, and affections. How much are your kids affections work in your mind? Kids deserve to go to a school that reinforces what you believe and teaches them to be free thinkers. Education should be number one," Hegseth insisted.

"If you love God and you love this country, how we train up the next generation will determine whether we have a republic or not in future generations. Because right now, we're pumping out kids who don't know God and hate America, and their minds are captured by indoctrination that will not perpetuate a free society."

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