GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan – Parents, grandparents, and concerned citizens came to hear parenting expert Israel Wayne on Friday and Saturday, where he addressed apathy in America in terms of family and worldview. Wayne said parents are failing to pass on their values and generational breakdown occurs in correlation to time spent with children.
“Time and affirmation is influence. Children spend 7 1/2 hours in school, and 7 1/2 hours on TV and social media.”
Billed as “clear thinking in an age that doesn’t,” the event drew 120 participants to Fremont and Grand Rapids.
“Parenting is tough these days,” said one mother who works with a home school education network. “We need all the help we can get.”
Carol Spring of Grand Rapids thinks the parents she sees are overwhelmed by stress. “They give their children over to the public schools, to TV and social media, Hollywood and sports. We’re like the Titanic going down, people don’t even know it.”
Wayne said the average “quality time” parents spend with each child per day is 17-19 minutes.
The founder of Family Renewal presented statistics from Barna, the Beemer Group Study, and others quantifying today’s moral relativism, saying the trend among self-identified Christians is downward by age demographic. Only half of one percent of 18-23 year olds report living according to such foundational tenets as biblical reliability.
Kathy Sproul had heard about Horace Mann and Karl Barth, but didn’t know about John Dewey’s role in changing American education. “I’m aware that there was a plan put in place by God-haters,” she said. “They don’t like what our country stands for, our Constitution.”
The Grand Rapids resident has a high esteem for the founding fathers and what they did. “When I see what’s happening, it really bothers me.”
She says she can see God’s hand in President Trump being elected. “I appreciate his deep-seated patriotism.”
Wayne is the author of Full-Time Parenting, and co-author with his wife Brook of Pitchin’ a Fit: Overcoming Angry & Stressed-Out Parenting. The couple were both home schooled, and carry on the tradition with their children.
Richard Keizer of Rockford reads the newsletter from American Decency, sponsor of the event. “They have relevant issues and real people at these events,” something that he says is lacking in his political party activism.
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Abigail Nobel is a reporter for The Michigan Star. Her parents were booked and fingerprinted under charges of truancy in 1977. They successfully defended the parental First Amendment conscience rights to home school in Michigan.
