The Hamas massacre of Oct. 7 was depraved and shocking in and of itself; a pogrom livestreamed by the terrorists themselves, of the rape, murder and kidnap of innocent men, women and children. Then on Oct. 8 the aftershocks hit America, when significant numbers of people reacted not with abhorrence, but celebration.

It was as if radicalized students and faculty members on college campuses were sleeper cells suddenly activated in support of Hamas. It wasn’t a massive surprise to those of us who have been following and challenging these trends for years.

But many others were taken aback by the extent and influence of these extremists. They cast Jews who objected to the massacre of fellow Jews as “colonizers” and “white supremacists” and Arabs who objected to the Hamas death cult as “collaborators” or “traitors.” Posters of kidnapped and subsequently murdered children were ripped down.

It was identity politics taken to its most absurd and immoral conclusions. Good becomes evil. Evil becomes good. And the sole basis for determining which is which is the group to which the victim or the perpetrator belongs. All that matters is a person’s identity: members of some groups can never be innocent, even if they are a baby, and members of some groups can never be guilty, even if they murder that baby with their bare hands.

The agency of individuals is sacrificed on the altar of identity. Individual rights, freedoms and agency — the bedrock of America and all liberal democracies — get kneecapped. It is illiberal, anti-democratic and un-American.

But this level of moral inversion did not happen overnight. It was a process of grooming our kids — brainwashing them — for decades. Some parents know their kids need to get prepared to encounter this stuff at college. But in fact, the grooming process started way earlier. Even in K-12 education teachers and unions are pushing radical, anti-democratic agendas.

As K-12 aged kids prepare to go back to school, how can parents build their resilience for when they encounter these agendas in the classroom?

The first step is to understand there is a problem. Take the teacher from United Teachers Los Angeles, the second largest teachers union chapter in the U.S., who last year gave a PowerPoint presentation at a union meeting entitled: “How to be a teacher & an organizer. . . and NOT get fired.”

Or the Massachusetts Teachers Association that distributed material to its members that included a dollar bill folded into a Star of David, a poster calling President Biden a serial killer and a poster that said, “Zionists F*** Off.” These are not isolated examples.

We’re seeing a surge in classroom materials that frame America as a colonial oppressor, but disregard the democratic values it gave the world. We’re seeing lesson plans that feed resentments but offer no framework for civic engagement, agency or positive change and teacher guides that don’t just deal with the obvious historic faults and imperfections in American democracy but are calling to run the whole thing into the ground.

That’s not giving young people tools and motivation to improve the society around them, but a blueprint for burning it down. It’s feeding a worldview of grievance over gratitude, division over unity, cynicism over hope.

Young people need to be equipped with knowledge about racism, inequality and the importance of diverse voices. And we shouldn’t be afraid of teaching them their country’s history with honesty and rigor even when uncomfortable. But when curricula steer students to despise the United States and Western democracies, and whitewash undemocratic alternatives, that’s not education — that’s indoctrination.

How did we get here? Radical social justice activism in schools has its roots in critical social theories that gained prominence in the 20th century. These theories: Marxism, decolonization, and critical race theory offered critiques of Western societies and advocated for the dismantling of existing institutions.

Beginning in the late 1960s, these ideas became embedded in university curricula and academic programs often under the guise of “ethnic studies,” influencing not only students but also faculty and administration. Those who celebrate and justify Oct. 7 do so in the language of those theories.

Today, social justice activism plays a central role in teacher training, most of which are based in universities. Aspiring teachers are often trained in critical pedagogy, an educational approach grounded in the principles of critical theory.

As a mother, this concerns me. Studies show that students taught to view institutions as irredeemable are less civically engaged by age 18. They’re more cynical and more disconnected — more likely to believe in nothing and therefore fall for anything. But those grounded in history, complexity, and even pride are more likely to inquire, vote, and serve.

Our democratic civil society offers a chance to participate that many around would die for — and often do. Just ask Americans who fled here from Russia, China or the Islamic Republic of Iran.

This type of activist education is failing students. We are seeing test scores at their lowest levels in decades. Two-thirds of 4th and 8th graders are not at grade level in reading and math while teacher unions focus on passing anti-Israel policy over the science of reading. Teachers are supposed to be teaching students how to think, not what to think.

So what can parents do?

  • Know what they’re learning. Go through your child’s reading list with them. If something strikes you as extreme, go through the right channels to ask the school why it was chosen and what other perspectives are included.
  • Model critical thinking and ask schools to do the same: Show your child that you can question authority, respectfully — they’re allowed to disagree with their teachers, other students and even you. Being able to take part in civil discourse, even and especially when you disagree, is crucial to democracy. Ideological conformity is not.
  • Foster agency and not just despair. If lessons emphasize injustice, ask what can be done to fix it, who fought for and achieved progress and what more can be done?

Parents have to reclaim education, before it’s too late. This is about whether our children will grow up believing in free speech, human rights, and democracy — or whether they’ll be groomed into hating the very values that define this country. A way to transform society is through education, we need to decide if we are going to let the next generation be indoctrinated or educated.

Today’s educational battleground of ideas isn’t just on college campuses. It’s also in elementary, middle and high school classrooms. We don’t want kids programmed to hate democracy, but to cherish it and improve it. So be present. Read that syllabus. Ask questions.

We don’t need to teach them that America and Western democracy is perfect. But we should give them pride that societies that hold as self-evident the truth that all people are created equal are preferable to those that don’t. And that as citizens of the world’s greatest democracy they have the agency to put those words into practice rather than burn it all down.

Tishby is a two-time New York Times best-selling author and served as Israel’s first-ever special envoy for combating antisemitism and delegitimization. She recently founded Eighteen, an institute to combat antisemitism and inspire Jewish pride.