From: Pastor Steve Bilsborough
Founder & Senior Pastor
Great Life Church
Most people will not know who I am talking about when I say the name “Grace Adkins.” Grace Adkins was a teacher who just recently retired on her 95th birthday. For 75 years, she taught children and retired with honor, grace, and dignity.
There are so many teachers and educators that we do not honor enough for the wonderful work they do with children during the formative years of their lives. Grace is just one of many, and although spanning a spectacular career of 75 years in the classroom, I did not find any issues where she ever once tried to indoctrinate children with her personal beliefs; she simply taught what children need to know. Math, English, History, Science, etc.
Children belong to their parents, not to the teacher, but we trust the teacher to carry out the incredible responsibility they have to educate, not indoctrinate. They are not “your babies” or “your kids.” They are ours, and we trust you to handle them with the utmost care when working with their minds. In fact, we pay the bill to keep you there and expect, like all careers, that you will do the job well. The position of being a teacher is quite possibly one of the most important careers in human history.
I understand how teachers can love our kids, how could they not, we love them, but you can love someone without trying to persuade them to an opinion in your own personal life or belief system.
Of the many great and wonderful teachers we have in Hernando County, Florida, we are truly thankful. Thank you for keeping your personal lifestyle and opinions out of the classroom and truly fulfilling your occupation to teach. Thank you for not trying to persuade our precious children to “go your way” or “agree with your moral, political, and even spiritual belief system.” Thank you for pouring into their minds pure, wholesome instruction and core curriculum and inspiring them to achieve high academic standards. And thank you for not exposing them to anything that is outside of the boundaries of what a teacher should be. Thank you for being a teacher.
A child’s mind is precious. It is loaned to the teacher to impart knowledge, not ideologies. We should be able to ask any child where “Nigeria” is on a map, not if they think it is okay for two men to adopt a child or men to dress up like women in drag. Where the libraries in our schools were once filled with encyclopedias, now we find pornographic books, woke ideologies, and perverted publications.
A loan must be returned, and if the borrower abuses that right, the lender has the right to march into any classroom and rescue that child from the hands of those who fail to carry out their purpose: to educate.
To even think that a teacher takes the place of a parent is ludicrous, insane, and demented. Stick to what you were hopefully trained to do, teach. Keep your personal lifestyle out of our classrooms.
When I grew up in the public school system, our day began with the Lord’s Prayer, the National Anthem, and we sang “God Save our Queen.” I was raised in Canada. We never had what we see going on in schools today. Other than the odd schoolyard fight, things were normal. Children have not strayed; they have been influenced. Children are like arrows in an archer’s bow; they will go in the direction they are pointed.
Wouldn’t you rather live out your career like Grace Adkins, step into retirement at 95, and say, “I have done my job and done it well.” Or would you rather get your face on CNN, looking like a fool, with silly, immature comments that only set you back in the arena of respect from the public?
Winning this battle is easy, but it only happens when those who still believe in morality in education stand together, and by the way, we are, by far, still the majority in this county. Don’t buy into the silly petitions that are stacked by global “Tik Tok” users, get the consensus in Hernando County, and I assure you, they will side with those who want just pure, wholesome education void of woke personal agendas.
Once a person’s loyalty is questioned, it is time for them to move on. The Superintendent in our county sought out another position, which he failed to receive, so has decided to stick around. His loyalty is now in question, and it is time for him to move on.
One particular School Board Member is under attack: Shannon Rodriquez. This woman did not run to be on the school board because she knows all the answers, nor did she run to be on the board because she herself can fix all the problems. What I do know is that she ran a campaign to be on the school board because she believes in the principles she speaks about and stands for. Her passion sometimes brands her as a radical, attracting vile responses from her opponents like a lightning rod, but the majority would line up right behind her, rightly knowing that her campaign for morality is truly the only answer for the School System in Hernando County. Is she the sacrificial lamb? I don’t think so. I believe the majority are just getting ready to be unleashed and need a person like Shannon to open the box of hidden agendas and personal persuasions of the woke society we live in.
A wise parent would be thankful for people like her. Is she wrong in wanting your children to go through their school years without the subtle and often not-so-subtle indoctrination of perversion? Is she wrong in speaking up, investigating, and, if necessary, reporting wrong activity to the Department of Education? Not at all; she is the voice this county needs, and like her or not, she is the voice we need to stand behind and stand with during a very tumultuous time here in our County, Hernando County, FL.
Yes, they will pack the auditorium on May 30th, security will be tight, and we know that the proponents of immoral indoctrination will be there in numbers, but even more so, let the parents and caregivers who truly love their children so much, that they refuse to allow this to advance any further, SHOW UP! Those who believe in teachers like Grace Adkins, who deserves to be honored for the fact that she kept wholesome teaching in the classroom and not the trash that the few rogue educators who somehow slipped through the system, some who are standing in our classrooms, not long after being criminally charged with theft from a Target store.
Let’s take this County back; let’s raise up World Changers, the most brilliant minds in the world can come from this County, cures for cancer, medical breakthroughs, and new inventions that will make the world a better place. We don’t need perverted persuasion coming from our teachers. We need teaching.
Let’s honor those who have given their lives to educate our children, thank them, but don’t be afraid to stand up and remove those few who somehow slipped into the system. Help us straighten out this crooked path of immorality and get back on track to education the way it should be.
Grace Adkins had a motto. She said, “Every child is a winner.” How right she is! If you are an educator reading this, a school board member, or a citizen of Hernando County, Florida, all our children are winners when they begin, but how they end up is in the hands of three major influences, their parents or caregivers, their Teachers, and their Church. Let’s do our job well, and society will reap the results.
Pastor Steve Bilsborough
Founder & Senior Pastor
Great Life Church
