High school student filling out test answers with pen

San Francisco Banned ‘Racist’ Algebra A Decade Ago. The Results Are Now In.

San Francisco Banned 'Racist' Algebra A Decade Ago. The Results Are Now In.

Blacks

College

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

Education

High School

Mathematics

Matt Walsh

Opinion

Public Schools

Teenagers

Violence

Whites

Societies that tend to mainstream delusions and treat them as though they are normal, especially mental illnesses that have an extraordinarily high crossover with suicidality and depression, are not doing anybody any favors.
It is very difficult to deny that we are now seeing an emerging trend in mass shootings from trans shooters. This was not an issue 15 years ago. Derangement took other forms.
That has obviously changed, and the media and governmental policy have a lot to do with it.
It is now being reported that the Canada school shooter in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, is a person who identified as trans. This has become an alarming pattern: people identifying as trans and engaging in acts of violence. It is not totally surprising, given that people who identify as trans have a very, very high rate of suicidality and depression.
The media continue to treat this as though it’s of no consequence. They&#8217;re referring to the prospective shooter in Tumbler Ridge as a “she,” even though it’s pretty clear it’s a biological “he.” This goes to our entire society&#8217;s willingness to say things that are biologically false, supposedly in pursuit of sympathy for people who are suffering from a mental disorder.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2366-tape-emerges-in-nancy-guthrie-kidnapping?elementPosition=6&amp;row=6&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974957" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-300x50.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-768x128.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1536x256.webp 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-2048x341.webp 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
Over the course of the last couple of weeks, major medical groups have now come out and completely reversed themselves regarding “gender-affirming” care. For years, it was de rigueur in the medical community to proclaim that hormone treatments, social transition, or actual surgery were the solutions for people suffering from gender dysphoria, particularly minors. The idea was that if you didn&#8217;t arrest puberty when a kid was 11 years old, that person would look more like their biological sex than they otherwise would.
Now, after a few lawsuits, it turns out that the science doesn&#8217;t reflect any of this.
“I would say that when gender clinicians and their allies are speaking to the public, in particular to the skeptical public, lawmakers and legislative hearings, to news reporters and mainstream media outlets, and even to parents who kind of have concerns about their kids and want to know what to do, then, yes, they frame these interventions as a mental health intervention,” Leor Sapir of the Manhattan Institute told me. “They make claims about reduction in depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation and so forth. When they talk amongst themselves, and you can see this when you look at their videos from conferences, when you watch video calls that were somehow leaked to the public, you see that they actually offer different rationales. They say that this is about helping kids or helping people in general who are otherwise healthy achieve their embodiment goals, achieve their cosmetic goals for how they want their body to look in light of their internal sense of gender.”
We are not doing anyone any favors when we ignore the mainstreaming of mental illness.

Canada Lowers Flags To Half Staff After Mass Shooting In British Columbia

Crisis Of Reality: Mental Health, Media, And The Transgender Movement

Ben Shapiro

Canada

Gender

Mental Illness

School Shooting

Suicide

Transgender

We are now witnessing a massive cultural retreat from the most controversial elements of activist-driven gender ideology aimed at children. And corporate America is a major part of that shift.
For years, the gender ideology narrative captured our society’s most prominent institutions. The notion that the provision of hormone regimens, puberty blockers, and gender transition surgeries was the only compassionate response to young people facing confusion about their gender morphed from a fringe theory into a near-unquestionable dictate during the last decade. In 2019, a doctor who believed in the Biblical and scientific notion of differences between the sexes was<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-birmingham-49904997"> told</a> that his views were “incompatible with human dignity.” Parents of children struggling with gender dysphoria were often <a href="https://www.centerforbiblicalunity.com/post/would-you-rather-have-a-dead-daughter-or-a-live-son">presented</a> with a ghoulish, faux-paternalistic ultimatum by therapists and psychologists: “Would you rather have a dead daughter or a live son?”
Perhaps the most impactful driver of this narrative was the boardroom. The dictates of gender ideology were not only pushed forward by activists but also supported by some of the most recognizable brands on Earth. One of the most high-profile examples was Amazon: scholar Ryan T. Anderson, whose 2018 book When Harry Became Sally offered a thoughtful Christian response to gender ideology, had to fight through a <a href="https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/amazon-statement-on-when-harry-became-sally">book ban</a> and <a href="https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/amazon-statement-on-when-harry-became-sally">smears</a> of “hate speech,” before it could be sold in the world’s largest online market. Countless companies, from Apple to Target, were <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-left-wing-activists-are-trying-to-save-corporate-wokeness">participating</a> with corporate activist organizations like the Human Rights Campaign, one of the major promoters of gender ideology in corporate America.
In the 2010s and early 2020s, it was perfectly reasonable to believe that the way major companies handled gender ideology was less about science and more about <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/corporations-that-pushed-gender-ideology-owe-america-an-explanation?author=Isaac+Willour&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=8&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Corporations+That+Pushed+Gender+Ideology+Owe+America+An+Explanation">placating</a> goalpost-shifting activists. And then, as so often happens with activist movements, the goalposts got shifted too far. It wasn’t just adult choice that was the focus of gender ideology. It was about the attempted normalization of surgical interventions for children. That was when the momentum shifted.
Three recent occurrences illustrate just how quickly the tide is turning.
First, a 22-year-old ‘detransitioner’ — someone who regrets their gender transition — just <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/this-court-case-has-gotten-little-attention-but-just-changed-everything">won</a> a $2 million lawsuit against the New York doctors who approved her surgery. Fox Varian, who had a double mastectomy (surgical removal of both breasts) when she was just 16 years old, is the first detransitioner to take a medical malpractice case to trial and win.
That ruling came on January 30. On February 3, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons <a href="https://www.plasticsurgery.org/for-medical-professionals/health-policy/position-statements">released</a> a statement asserting that “there is insufficient evidence demonstrating a favorable risk-benefit ratio for … gender-related endocrine and surgical interventions in children and adolescents.” 
Days later, the American Medical Association <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/04/health/gender-surgery-minors-ama.html">announced</a> its agreement: “The AMA agrees… surgical interventions in minors should be generally deferred to adulthood.”
Let’s be clear about what that means: in the span of approximately a week, two absolutely critical points have been proven about gender ideology: (1) performing gender transition surgeries on children is a source of major legal liability, and (2) the medical consensus does not neatly support the necessity of such treatments.
These are precisely the arguments we have made to companies for years about their healthcare coverage. For companies that spent the early 2020s placating activists pushing gender ideology, the mid 2020s may be a painful reckoning with how out-of-touch with reality those activists truly were.
Activist groups like the Human Rights Campaign <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-radical-intolerance-behind-woke-corporate-activism?author=Isaac+Willour&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=11&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=The+Radical+Intolerance+Behind+Woke+Corporate+Activism">told</a> companies that covering hormone regimens and transition care were prudent ways to minimize risk. It’s incredibly apparent that this was a wild guess at best, and a cleverly worded activist ploy at worst. As the era of corporate wokeness comes to an end, companies seeking to stay politically neutral and avoid becoming entrenched in culture war issues (remember, companies have a fiduciary duty to do this) are taking a serious look at their healthcare coverage.
For companies that cover gender transition care for adults, do they also cover detransition care? If not, that hardly reads as politically neutral. Do companies have clear stances on not covering gender transition care for children? These are the questions that we, as corporate engagement professionals, are asking hundreds of companies.
Some companies are setting the standard. Walmart, the world’s largest company, <a href="https://me.walmart.com/content/dam/themepage/pdfs/AssociateBenefitsBook-2026.pdf">publishes</a> its full Associate Benefits Guide, which includes a clear carve-out prohibiting health plan administrators from providing transgender medical interventions to minors. The company has also been incredibly constructive in engaging with its shareholders on this issue. Other companies should follow Walmart’s example. You’d be amazed by how many haven’t. But the winds are blowing in our favor.
One major example of the large-scale retreat is the widespread drop in support for the Human Rights Campaign, whose ‘Corporate Equality Index’ grades companies in part by their adherence to activist criteria surrounding hormone regimens, transition surgery, and the like. In 2025, almost 380 Fortune 500 companies participated in the Index. In 2026? Fewer than 150. Many of the major names that <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-radical-intolerance-behind-woke-corporate-activism?author=Isaac+Willour&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=11&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=The+Radical+Intolerance+Behind+Woke+Corporate+Activism">ceased participation</a>, including Capital One, Goldman Sachs, and Google (Alphabet), are companies we’ve engaged with surrounding these issues.
If these signs are any indication, there’s much more to come. As the consequences of such treatments become more widely understood, by major companies, providers, and especially insurers, we may well see the forming of a new consensus, the one that always should have been: the dictates of gender ideology, that promoted and supported major and often irreversible medical interventions for children, are being rejected by the brands that make up our capital markets. For the sake of America’s children, that rejection can’t come fast enough.
* * *
Isaac Willour is an award-winning journalist focusing on race, culture, and American conservatism, as well as a corporate relations analyst at Bowyer Research. His work has been featured at outlets including USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times Opinion, C-SPAN, and The Daily Wire. He is a member of the Young Voices contributor program and can be found on X <a href="https://twitter.com/IsaacWillour" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@IsaacWillour</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Wall Street Sign

Corporate America Quietly Backs Away From Gender Ideology For Children

American Medical Association

Business

Children

Corporations

gender ideology

kids

transgender surgery

When hundreds of students across the country walked out of class last week to protest ICE, the scene felt uncomfortably familiar. The chants, the certainty, and the urgency to declare a side reflected a pattern my generation repeats during nearly every political moment: strong emotion paired with limited understanding. Watching it unfold as a high school student, the issue appeared larger than a single protest. The walkouts exposed an education system that failed to teach students how the government functions — or how federal law enforcement actually operates.
From Georgia to California, students are walking out of class demanding that ICE be “removed” from their communities. In practice, for many of my peers, these walkouts function less as political statements and more as an excuse to miss class. At Lakeside High School in Georgia — where many of the protest videos originated — approximately 1,500 of the school’s roughly 2,200 students participated in an organized walkout protesting ICE. That would suggest that more than half the student body is so politically engaged that they are willing to sacrifice instructional time for a policy cause — an assumption undermined by the fact that fewer than 40% of Americans ages 18-19 vote.
For the small minority of students who genuinely care, the protests offer an opportunity to join a cause they assume is morally righteous. For all participants, however, these walkouts rest on an incomplete — and often incorrect — understanding of what ICE actually does and who holds authority over immigration policy.
The collapse of civic education in K–12 schools has produced widespread confusion about how the federal government functions. Many students believe ICE writes immigration law rather than enforces statutes passed by Congress. Others assume a president can simply suspend laws at will, or that public outrage alone can override the legislative process and reshape federal policy.
What no one has taught my peers is that Congress — not ICE, and not the White House — writes immigration law. Every administration, including President Trump’s, is obligated to enforce the laws Congress passes.
This confusion among students is not a failure of intelligence. It reflects an education system that avoids political controversy at all costs. Teachers are warned not to “take sides,” administrators steer clear of any topic that might provoke backlash, and students grow up believing that discussing the law or governance is dangerous. Instead of learning how the government functions, students learn how to talk around it.
This silence shapes how my generation engages with politics. Only a few miles from my Long Island high school, Generation Z played a decisive role in electing a socialist mayor in America’s most capitalist city. Many of those voters were never taught about the historical consequences of socialism — the collapse of economies, the erosion of democratic institutions, and the human suffering that follows. Those lessons are treated as too political for classrooms. The result is a generation making political choices without understanding the ideas being supported.
Students are not avoiding dialogue because of apathy. They avoid it because schools have trained them to fear disagreement. When issues such as immigration, abortion, or Israel arise, classrooms go quiet — not from a lack of opinion, but from concern over social and academic consequences.
Before becoming a nationally syndicated columnist, I hesitated to speak openly in classrooms. I rewrote comments, withheld arguments, and waited for safer moments to share my views. Now, I voice those perspectives in front of millions of readers, fully aware of the consequences. But even with all the pushback, my openness has not only sharpened my passion for politics but produced an impact far greater than I ever anticipated.
The danger of silence becomes clear during moments like these walkouts. When students protest without understanding what they want to change or how change occurs, it reveals how unprepared they are for civic participation. Informed activism cannot exist without civic knowledge.
Restoring serious civic education remains the only path forward. Students should learn not only which policies exist, but why they exist. They should understand how Congress, the courts, and federal agencies interact. Schools should encourage substantive debate rather than discourage it. Avoiding discomfort leaves students unprepared for the responsibilities of citizenship — and for the world they are about to enter.
* * *
Gregory Lyakhov is a nationally syndicated columnist and podcast host, regularly appearing on national television to discuss education policy, U.S. politics, and public affairs.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

College Students Walkout In Protest Against ICE In Texas

The ICE Walkouts Prove My Generation Wasn’t Taught How Government Works

anti-ICE protests

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

Leftists

Protests

Students

A new $2 million verdict indicates that the “transitioning” of children in America is dying or dead.
If you go back just a few years, it was de rigueur for every major commentator and every major politician to say that boys or girls could become one another.
Major medical establishment organizations claimed that it was the purest form of science to say that boys could become girls, and in fact, the best treatment for people suffering from gender dysphoria was for them to have hormone treatment and surgery.
In 2021, the American Medical Association was <a href="https://www.ama-assn.org/press-center/ama-press-releases/ama-states-stop-interfering-health-care-transgender-children">telling governors</a> to oppose state legislation that would prohibit “medically necessary” gender transition-related care for minor patients, calling such efforts “a dangerous intrusion into the practice of medicine.”
That, of course, was not relegated only to psychological care or social transition, or even to hormones. It also included, on many occasions, surgery. 
In fact, the AMA specifically <a href="https://www.ama-assn.org/press-center/ama-press-releases/ama-states-stop-interfering-health-care-transgender-children">put out a letter</a> stating:
<blockquote>Empirical evidence has demonstrated that trans and non-binary gender identities are normal variations of human identity and expression for gender diverse individuals. Standards of care and accepted medically necessary services that affirm gender or treat gender dysphoria may include mental health counseling, non-medical social transition, gender affirming hormone therapy, and or gender affirming surgeries. 
</blockquote>
This was the standard of care, according to the American Medical Association.
It was a load of horsesh*t.
If you ever wonder about the signal moments in the last 30 years of American history in which people fell out of love with institutions and decided that institutions had betrayed their trust — this was a big one.
There have been many, including the coverage of Biden&#8217;s mental health issues, education, Critical Race Theory, scientific organizations, and COVID.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2361-transing-of-children-in-america-is-dead"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-981859 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner.avif" alt="" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner.avif 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner-300x50.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner-768x128.jpg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
But the biggest one was likely this — a lie that everyone above the age of one and a half knew was a lie — which was to deny that boys and girls aren&#8217;t the same. The medical establishment said that boys could become girls, girls could become boys, and the best treatment for someone who was struggling with body dysmorphia was not to work on their mental health, but to surgically alter their body by cutting off healthy body parts, by creating fake new body parts.
This was insanity. It was pathological. It was nuts.
But it became de rigueur.
The fact that Democrats are still struggling with this shows how out of touch they remain with reality.
So what finally broke the system? As always in America, trial lawyers.
The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/03/health/gender-surgery-malpractice-varian.html">reported:</a> “In the first malpractice verdict against providers of gender-affirming care for minors —&#8221;
Stop right there. That well-known language is insane. “Gender-affirming” is sex-rejecting. That’s what “gender-affirming” means in this context.
We are not talking about a woman who had a double mastectomy because she had breast cancer or the BRCA gene, and decided to have that double mastectomy, and now wants to reconstruct her breasts. That would be gender-affirming.
Gender affirming in this context means sex-denying. A boy believes he&#8217;s a girl, so they cut off his penis and testicles. That is what they mean.
Back to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/03/health/gender-surgery-malpractice-varian.html">the piece</a>:
<blockquote>In the first malpractice verdict against providers of gender-affirming care for minors, a jury in New York State has awarded a woman $2 million in damages for a double mastectomy she received as a teenager that she said had left her disfigured.</blockquote>
Obviously, it left her disfigured. That’s a reality when you have your breasts cut off, not because you&#8217;re worried that you&#8217;re going to get breast cancer or for any other real medical reason, but because you say you want to look more like a boy.
<blockquote>The plaintiff, Fox Varian, 22, of Yorktown Heights, had accused her psychologist and the plastic surgeon who performed the operation of failing to obtain adequate consent about the risks before she agreed to undergo the procedure in 2019. She also claimed that the providers had deviated from standard practices governing gender-related medical care. Ms. Varian, who was 16 at the time of the surgery, was assigned female at birth but as a teenager identified as a man.</blockquote>
Legacy media verbiage that is totally psychotic. “Assigned female at birth?”
You are not assigned anything. A doctor looks at you and knows you are female by looking at you when you are a baby.
This woman later came to regret the decision to transition and returned to being a woman in accordance with her actual biology, an example of a process known as detransitioning, or what some people might call “recognition of reality.”
Very often, when people cite studies suggesting that people don&#8217;t really detransition, that is because the studies do not include people who don&#8217;t follow up with the doctor. The vast majority of people who decide that they don&#8217;t want to carry forward with their “gender transition” never get back in touch with the people who were trying to transition them in the first place.
Thus, the continued pressure tactics are used by people in this industry.
The Times continued:
<blockquote>According to Kinnon MacKinnon, who studies transgender care at York University in Toronto, a vast majority of young people who opt for a medical transition say the procedure resolves their gender dysphoria and improves the quality of their lives.</blockquote>
Do you think they&#8217;re coming back to Kinnon MacKinnon to explain that things went badly? That’s not the way that this works. 
So why do I say this verdict means that the transition of children in America is dying or dead? Because plastic surgeons now find themselves at risk of medical liability for doing something that is clearly non-medical, such as cutting off healthy body parts, doctors are going to stop doing it.
On Tuesday, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons <a href="https://www.plasticsurgery.org/for-medical-professionals/health-policy/position-statements">put out a statement</a> saying:
<blockquote>Consistent with ASPS’s August 2024 statement that the overall evidence base for gender-related endocrine and surgical interventions is low certainty, and in light of recent publications reporting very low/low certainty of evidence regarding mental health outcomes, along with emerging concerns about potential long-term harms and the irreversible nature of surgical interventions in a developmentally vulnerable population, ASPS concludes there is insufficient evidence demonstrating a favorable risk-benefit ratio for the pathway of gender-related endocrine and surgical interventions in children and adolescents. ASPS recommends that surgeons delay gender-related breast/chest, genital, and facial surgery until a patient is at least 19 years old.</blockquote>
What’s hilarious about this statement is that they are not making the case that they picked the age of 19 because the brain is developed enough for a teen to make a good decision. That is not the case they&#8217;re making. They&#8217;re not saying there&#8217;s a difference in kind between these sorts of surgeries performed on a 21-year-old and those performed on a 17-year-old.
The reason they are putting out “19 years old” is very obvious: At 18, you can legally consent, and once you can legally consent, the doctors can&#8217;t be sued.
That&#8217;s all that&#8217;s happening here. Liability came to the plastic surgeons, and now they&#8217;re saying, “We still want to do these surgeries because we get paid for them even though they&#8217;re really bad. We&#8217;re going to continue to do them, but we&#8217;ll do it for people above the age of 18.’
That is still bad medical practice. It does not solve the problem politically for people who claim that men can become women and women can become men.
This is a barrier for Democrats. When I was on Gavin Newsom&#8217;s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrDpBwpSqSc">show</a> in California, this issue came up, and he really struggled with it. The reason he struggled with it is because he knows it is not only a political loser, but in his heart, he knows it is not true.
The vast majority of people in the United States also know it is untrue that a man can become a woman.
But there are social demands to mirror that nonsense. And if Democrats decide to follow this issue all the way down the political rabbit hole, they will not be able to get out. It is legitimately a barrier to entry for voters.
The bottom line is that if Democrats keep running up against both the science and legal liability, they are in for a continued world of hurt.

Transgender person from behind, wearing pink and white striped sweatshirt, holds transgender flag

Transing Of Children In America Is Dead

Boys

Girls

Lawsuit

Plastic Surgery

Trans flag

This Court Case Has Gotten Little Attention But Just Changed Everything

Doctors

Medical

WPATH

Like many young American girls, when I was a teenager, I hated myself and my body. I was unhappy and anxious. Eventually, I was diagnosed with depression and anorexia. 
It goes without saying that I was no stranger to feeling like I wasn’t “me” in my own body. No one told me to get liposuction for my anorexia. But when I went to the counselor’s office for my first appointment for gender dysphoria, I left with a letter of approval for testosterone.
Since I’ve detransitioned, life has felt like a roller coaster. The physical distress I experienced going through hormone “therapy” and surgery that drastically changed my body is only one portion of how horrific it truly is to not only attempt something impossible by supposedly transitioning from one gender to another, but to return to identifying with reality.
I was called a patient, but from start to finish, I was never treated like one.
Being a patient requires informed consent and the exhaustion of all avenues of care before resorting to the most drastic option. And yet, from the start, doctors were ecstatic to accelerate my so-called transition without once suggesting mental health treatment. Instead, a counselor suggested almost immediately that I needed to be put on wrong-sex hormones. When I raised any suspicion that this was not the right choice for me, the doctors were far from supportive and made me feel like my voice didn’t matter anymore. I was praised for raising my voice and embracing who I thought I was, but only when I identified as trans. Yet when I voiced a dissenting opinion on the same topic, the response was underwhelming and even shame-inducing.
For years, gender clinics, medical associations, and activist groups have driven the conversation around so-called “gender-affirming care,” but there has never been any long-term testing done to see what the implications of these treatments are on minors, especially the ones still going through puberty. Any time a question was raised as to whether this was safe, or if there could be a possibility of trans-identifying minors changing their minds down the road, it was diminished as “rare” and accused of putting politics over the mental health of these children.
The Trump administration has been the first presidential administration to sound the alarm on these harmful practices. For the first time, federal agencies started to ask the questions that detransitioners had been trying to warn the public about: are these “treatments” actually safe, or are they doing more harm than good?
In his first year back in office, President Trump has elevated the voices of detransitioners like me. Last summer, I had the honor of testifying <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/GAC-RFI-FINAL.pdf">in front of the Federal Trade Commission</a>, sharing my experience of how I was essentially forced into “gender-affirming care,” instead of the mental health care and therapy I desperately needed. Only a few years ago, my voice would have never been heard in the federal landscape.
Gender medicine has thrived in a system with zero accountability. I am proud to be at the forefront of a movement that is finally asking for the kind of accountability that is long overdue.
Detransitioners like me have been gaslit into believing we are anomalies, and that if doctors hadn’t taken action, we would’ve been suicidal or worse, dead. What the mainstream doesn’t want you to know is that my mental health issues didn’t magically disappear overnight once I began transitioning — they actually got worse. Yet the doctors who led me down this path have faced zero opposition and zero accountability — until now.
President Trump and his administration have been a disruptor to the system of gender ideology since day one. His administration has led the charge to make sure that the doctors, experts, and gender-ideology apologists finally answer the questions that have been stamped down, argued as ridiculous, and smeared by those who chose ideology over reality.
One of the first actions President Trump took upon being back in the Oval Office was <a href="https://www.independentwomen.com/2025/01/28/president-trump-protects-americas-children-from-chemical-surgical-mutilation-in-latest-executive-order/">signing an executive order</a> to protect minors from receiving any sex-changing surgery or procedure. This executive order also directs the Department of Health and Human Services to prevent taxpayer dollars from being used to subsidize irreversible medical harm to children. HHS’s proposed guardrails bar hospitals that perform “gender-affirming care” from participating in Medicare and Medicaid.
Late last year, HHS also <a href="https://www.independentwomen.com/2025/12/18/hhs-takes-historic-action-to-ban-body-mutilating-medical-procedures-targeting-gender-confused-youth/">released a peer-reviewed, evidence-based review</a> concluding pediatric gender interventions lack long-term safety data and do not meet professionally recognized standards of care. Secretary Kennedy formally declared that these dangerous procedures were far outside acceptable medical practice. This bold move was the nail in the coffin of the claim that “the science is settled” and got gender medicine back on track based on evidence, ethics, and informed consent.
Detransitioners like myself are grateful for the actions taken by the Trump administration that will ensure the safety and well-being of the next generation.
While my detransitioner friends and I may not have been protected, I know that the work we have put in — in speaking out, standing up, and tirelessly testifying across the country — will have a meaningful impact in protecting kids who are struggling with their mental health. I will continue to fight for the childhoods of every gender-confused kid out there so that they are protected from fear, coercion, and medical harm.
* * *
Prisha Mosley is an Independent Women ambassador and detransitioner. Independent Women Features, the storytelling platform of Independent Women, featured Prisha’s story as part of its “Identity Crisis” docu-series, which highlights the irreversible harms of gender ideology. Prisha’s story, including her pregnancy journey, was documented in two parts, which can be found <a href="https://www.iwfeatures.com/documentary/mentally-ill-teen-betrayed-by-health-professionals-who-recommended-testosterone-and-top-surgery/">here</a> and <a href="https://www.iwfeatures.com/documentary/a-detransitioners-pregnancy-journey/">here</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
This article has been edited for clarity.

Trump Executive Orders

A Year Of Action To Protect Kids From Child Mutilation

Donald Trump

Puberty blockers

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Democrats are looking at 2028 and see Republican vulnerability.
What they see is a 2024 election that — while it was fairly solid as a win for Republicans in the Electoral College — was a pretty narrow win in the popular vote. They think that perhaps they can reverse the tide, perhaps take the White House in 2028 with someone like Gavin Newsom.
Thus, Democrats have shifted away from their 2024 failing strategy, taking the least popular parts of their agenda and moving those to the back burner.
We heard all about equity in the run-up to the 2020 election. It was the centerpiece of the Joe Biden campaign. In 2024, it was again the centerpiece of the late-breaking Kamala Harris campaign in 2024.
You no longer hear Democrats talking about equity each and every day the way that they were before. Instead, they are talking about “affordability.” The same thing is true about radical trans issues. The politics of transgenderism are awful for Democrats.
The vast majority of Americans believe that boys are boys and girls are girls, and boys cannot become girls, and attempts to brainwash children into the idea that they are, in fact, members of the opposite sex, or even could be members of the opposite sex, is perverse. Telling a young kid that you might have a girl’s brain in a boy&#8217;s body is not only gnostic and scientifically nonsensical, it is also terribly wrong to do that to children.
That was the general perception among Americans, and it drove huge numbers for President Trump. The single most effective ad of the 2024 campaign was on this issue from the Trump campaign, and suggested that Kamala was for transgenders while President Trump was for you.
If you talk to people in minority communities who swiveled from Democrat to Republican, this was a major issue because the trans issue — which affected a fairly small percentage of the population, went to fundamental truths about our society.
Could you trust people who told such a basic lie: that boys could be girls?
The answer was no.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974957 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-300x50.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-768x128.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1536x256.webp 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-2048x341.webp 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
So Democrats have decided that they are going to put that on the back burner. One of those Democrats was Gavin Newsom.
A few months ago, Gavin Newsom was doing a podcast with the late Charlie Kirk in which Charlie pressed Gavin Newsom on trans politics. Newsom admitted that boys should not be playing in girls’ sports, admitting that it was unfair.
But — the other day, Newsom — having been asked questions by members of the Democratic base and believing that he is the front runner for the 2028 Democratic nomination — did a podcast with Ezra Klein of The New York Times in which he was asked about his take on trans politics.
Now that Newsom believes that he has to win primaries in the Democratic Party as he prepares for that 2028 run, he swiveled back into a losing strategy for Democrats. 
“I want to see trans kids,” he proclaimed, continuing: “I have a trans godson. There’s no governor that’s done more pro-trans legislation than I have. No one has been a stronger advocate for the LGBTQ community.” 
The normie position is that there is no such thing as a trans kid. There are kids who may have gender dysphoria. That is a different thing. There is no such thing as a kid who is a boy in a girl&#8217;s body, or upon whom we should be performing hormonal therapies and surgeries that are utterly unscientific and permanently damaging to them.
So when Gavin Newsom says, “I want to see trans kids, there&#8217;s no governor that&#8217;s done more pro trans legislation than I have,” that creates a real awkwardness for the Democratic Party. 
This broke into the open because it precipitated a confrontation with Elon Musk.
America, a PAC founded by Musk, posted the video of Newsom, and it went viral. Gavin Newsom&#8217;s press office replied, referring to one of Musk’s sons who identifies as a woman, “We&#8217;re sorry your daughter hates you, Elon.”
It&#8217;s insane to get personal on these sorts of issues.
When I discuss these issues, I try not to get personal. The reason I try not to get personal is because once you&#8217;re into the emotional valence of somebody&#8217;s family, you have a problem.
A few years ago, I spoke at the University of British Columbia in Canada, and it was about this issue. A person got up who identified as a woman. He started personalizing the question, saying, “My family treats me as though I&#8217;m a girl.”
I replied, “You know, I would really appreciate it if we could keep this on the level of the philosophical and issue-based, because once we get into critiquing interpersonal relations, this is going to get very personal very quickly.”
This person kept insisting, ”No, I know that I&#8217;m a woman because my family treats me as a woman.” And I kept saying, “Please, I don&#8217;t want to talk about how your family treats you because that&#8217;s about your family. It&#8217;s about the broader issue, which is the question of public policy and how we ought to deal with these issues as a general society”.
But the person wouldn&#8217;t stop. Finally I said, “The reason that your family is saying to you that you are a woman and confirming you in your delusion is because they are afraid that you will do something bad to yourself, not because they actually believe that you are a woman. They do not believe that you are a girl. They know that you are not. They are trying to humor you because they&#8217;re afraid of what will happen if they do not.”
This person got extremely emotional and rushed out of the room. It was a perfect YouTube clip, but the reason you&#8217;ve never seen that on YouTube is because I went to the organizers of the event and asked them to remove that from the tape of the event, because I knew that this person was going to be damaged by that tape. It would have hurt him.
Not only that, I then found friends of the person and asked this person to come to breakfast the next morning with me to make sure this person was okay.
That’s because when you merge the personal and the political in this way, it gets really ugly, really quickly.
Gavin Newsom&#8217;s press office targeting Musk over his child was truly ugly stuff.
Musk then tweeted back, “I assume you’re referring to my son, Xavier, who has a tragic mental illness caused by the evil woke mind virus you push on vulnerable children. I love Xavier very much and hope he recovers. My daughters are Azure, Exa (she goes by Y) and Arcadia, and they do indeed love me very much.”
The fact that Newsom&#8217;s office went that low is really disgusting, and shows how the Democrats are going to run headlong into their own radicalism on this issue.
Newsom seems like he&#8217;s trying to avoid the issue altogether. But if he is dragged back into discussing this issue, and if Democrats keep making the same moral litmus test as to whether boys can be girls, especially minors, then they&#8217;re going to be in for a world of hurt.

Business And Government Leaders Speak At New York Times’ DealBook Summit

Gavin Newsom Wants To Trans The Kids

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Artificial intelligence has been taking the world by storm, beginning a whole new technological revolution that has already influenced tens of millions of Americans and encouraged hundreds of billions in <a href="https://hai.stanford.edu/ai-index/2025-ai-index-report/economy">corporate investments</a>.
A recent Elon University <a href="https://www.elon.edu/u/news/2025/03/12/survey-52-of-u-s-adults-now-use-ai-large-language-models-like-chatgpt/">poll</a> found that over 50% of Americans now use large language models like ChatGPT and Google Gemini, some of the most popular artificial intelligence resources in use.
As a student, I can validate these findings.
When ChatGPT was released almost three years ago, many of my classmates and I quickly adopted artificial intelligence as part of our daily routine, using it for tasks like summarizing texts and exploring topics that would normally require far more time and effort. My phone now includes a quick access button linked directly to Perplexity AI’s voice mode, allowing me to directly open the app and verbally ask questions or verify comments.
An <a href="https://cdn.openai.com/global-affairs/openai-edu-ai-ready-workforce.pdf">OpenAI report</a> confirms this trend, finding that three in four college-aged users desire to use AI in their education and career.
Personally, my work and education has greatly benefited from this technology, as I am able to selectively choose the AI most applicable to my research and generate clear, yet expansive information on any subject that interests me, all without cheating or stealing information.
But, as everyone who pays even the slightest bit of attention to the news knows, there are plenty of valid concerns associated with artificial intelligence and its uses.
<a href="https://datascience.hawaii.edu/profile/peter-sadowski/">Dr. Peter Sadowski,</a> an Associate Professor at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, has been examining this issue. His work focuses on machine learning and artificial intelligence, specifically how to use these methods to address the most challenging problems in science and engineering.
As a teacher, Dr. Sadowski has noticed a massive shift in the way AI has transformed education as we know it.
“With these language models, it is just so easy for students to take an assignment and run in through ChatGPT and get results,” he told The Daily Wire. “It can write an essay, it can solve a programming assignment, it can solve math assignments. That is just a huge shift.”
In response to this new challenge, Sadowski made some changes to his teaching model.
“The first week ChatGPT went live, I immediately abandoned take-home tests, since ChatGPT could just do all the questions … Most schools have some evolving AI guidances and policies, but the best way to learn is to experiment to become familiar with the capabilities of these technologies.”
Many schools have introduced AI policies to inform both students and faculty on how to use the new technology responsibly. For instance, my own school, the Franciscan University of Steubenville, introduced <a href="https://franciscan.smartcatalogiq.com/en/2024-2025/undergraduate-catalog-2024-2025/academic-and-university-policies/academic-integrity/use-of-artificial-intelligence">guidance</a> on using artificial intelligence, including <a href="https://magazine.franciscan.edu/articles/navigating-ai/">discussions</a> on its use in the <a href="https://magazine.franciscan.edu/articles/artificial-intelligence-in-the-classroom/">classroom</a>.
“The teaching profession has to adapt to these new technologies,” Sadowski said. “We need fair ways to evaluate student learning — more in-class exams, more careful assignments that test student learning beyond what they can do with AI.”
While many students like me largely support a responsible integration of AI into academia, sentiments remain divided among the American public, with 42% believing that it will make life worse, according to an <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/nbc-news-polls/poll-americans-form-views-ai-divided-role-school-everyday-life-rcna212782">NBC News poll</a>.
Some have a far darker view of the technology, with a new <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/article/poll-most-americans-think-ai-will-destroy-humanity-someday-212132958.html">Yahoo/YouGov poll</a> finding that 53% of the 1,770 individuals polled believe that AI is likely to someday “destroy humanity.”
“It&#8217;s become so easy and free for students to do this that it&#8217;s just shaken up education,” Sadowski said. &#8220;In computer science, the process of building something yourself helps you learn to think clearly and break down problems. If you let AI do all your homework, you will miss out on important learning opportunities, and when the AI fails, students get stuck. I see that happening in the classroom.”
Despite the possibility of cheating and outsourcing labor through AI systems, I’m optimistic — and so is Sadowski.
“In my own field, it takes students a long time to learn these technical skills to make progress on the research side,&#8221; he said. “I’m excited about the ability of AI to help student scientists accelerate research. That’s the hope.”
* * *
Simon Olech is a reporter studying journalism at the National Journalism Center in Washington, D.C.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

High school students e-learning over computers in the classroom.

I’m A College Student. Here’s Why I’m Cautiously Optimistic About AI.

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As a lawyer who represents detransitioners like Chloe Cole in medical malpractice cases and parents fighting for the right to notice and consent before public schools may socially transition their children, I am all too familiar with how bad science gets laundered in pediatric gender medicine. For the record, a detransitioner is an individual who medically transitioned but now identifies and presents as their natal sex.
Activists take over medical associations (most notably, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health or WPATH) and use the imprimatur of those organizations to justify providing children with puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and even irreversible surgeries. The unreliability of much of the medical literature on pediatric gender medicine makes the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ recent report, <a href="https://opa.hhs.gov/gender-dysphoria-report">Treatment for Pediatric Gender Dysphoria: Review of Evidence and Best Practices</a>, a necessary development in the field. 
Here are ten key takeaways from the review.
<ol>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Children who receive puberty blockers to keep them in a pre-pubescent state longer have marked deterioration of bone health. One-third of patients’ bone density scores exhibit osteoporosis of the hip, while one-fourth have osteoporosis of the spine. </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">A scientific review shows that the effect of puberty blockers on neurocognitive development is unknown, but there is “some evidence” that puberty blockers suppress children’s IQ scores. </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Females who receive testosterone experience vaginal atrophy and other concerning medical symptoms, including one study showing “100% of vaginectomy specimens contained abnormal prostatic tissue growth.”</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">There is moderate and high certainty evidence of some incidence of “cardiovascular events” in women under twenty-six who received testosterone.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">If a male starts puberty blockers at Tanner Stage 2 (the initial stage of puberty) and goes on to take estrogen, he will almost always have the genitalia of a pre-pubescent or early puberty male.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">A Swedish study from 2011 found that adults who had medically and surgically transitioned had 19 times the rate of suicide deaths and nearly three times the rate of all-cause mortality and inpatient psychiatric care compared to peers of the same sex and age group.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">While the precise detransition rate is not known, a British study revealed that one-fifth of patients stopped hormone treatment within five years and that half experienced detransition or regret.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">American, British, Dutch, and Swedish researchers each examined the mortality rates among trans-identified individuals relative to the general population, and while the rates varied, each study found significant increases in mortality among trans-identifying people, with the Swedish study showing that a transgender individual faced a 2.8 times higher risk of death than their age- and sex-matched peers.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">The report concludes that it would be unethical to conduct a study on the effect of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones on fertility because the “mechanism [of how this treatment interferes with fertility] is well-understood” and does not have to be established in a clinical trial.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">A 2025 JAMA Pediatrics study showed that between 2018 and 2022, one in one thousand (0.1%) of American seventeen-year-olds received cross-sex hormones. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is, in absolute terms, a large number of children.</li>
</ol>
The review’s key points put the risks children face when undergoing transgender medical interventions in sharp focus. Do doctors explain to their minor patients that they may experience significant negative health outcomes years or even decades in the future? When children are warned, are they mature enough to appreciate the risk of long-term consequences? Are children asked to consider the possibility that they may not identify as transgender in the future? Are children led to examine how they might feel about the interventions they received if they do indeed detransition? (My work as a lawyer in detransition cases tells me the answer to all these questions is often “no.”)
Debates about pediatric transgender interventions have largely been framed in terms of politics (what are the major parties’ stances?), law (does the Constitution permit states to prohibit transgender interventions for children?), and even philosophy (what is a woman?). But the central question we all should be asking is whether these interventions work. HHS’s exhaustive review of the medical literature makes a compelling case that the medical risk to minors posed by puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries significantly outweighs any benefits these interventions might confer.
* * *
Jesse Franklin-Murdock is the Miles Visiting Fellow at the Center for American Liberty and a counsel at Dhillon Law Group Inc., where his practice areas include political law and civil rights.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
* * *
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Here Are My Ten Takeaways From The HHS Pediatric Gender Medicine Review

Gender Identity

This Thanksgiving, parents across America have much to be thankful for — their children, their health, and the simple gift of gathering around the table with people they love. We’ll share food, laughter, and stories about how quickly the kids have grown. And yet, many parents will also feel a quiet, unspoken worry about the world their children are growing up in.
Today’s kids face a culture that’s louder and more confusing than ever before. From social media to entertainment, they’re bombarded with messages about identity, relationships, and sex that can leave them adrift. They’re told to “follow your feelings” and “do what feels right.” Commitment is treated like a burden, and pornography is always one click away. It’s no wonder parents worry about how their kids will turn out — or whether they’re equipped to guide them through it all.
But amid the noise, Thanksgiving gives us a moment to pause and remember there’s still so much to be grateful for. Because despite the cultural chaos, research continues to show there is a proven path that works, one that’s as practical as it is hopeful.
It’s called the Success Sequence.
Researchers Ron Haskins and Isabel Sawhill at the Brookings Institution <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/brookings-scholars-ron-haskins-and-isabel-sawhill-make-history-as-the-first-joint-recipients-of-the-daniel-patrick-moynihan-prize/">uncovered</a> this refreshingly simple roadmap to stability. Finish high school. Get a full-time job. Get married. Then have children, in that order. It may sound old-fashioned, but the results are remarkable. Only about 3 to 4% of young adults who follow this path end up in poverty. What once seemed like common sense has become one of the strongest predictors of lifelong success.
And it’s not just about money. Young people who follow this path will have fewer sexual partners, fewer sexually transmitted infections, and more stable families. I’ve seen this to be true throughout my medical career. Decades of experience tell us that children who grow up with both parents in a committed home are more likely to thrive emotionally and physically.
That’s something to be thankful for, not just as researchers or clinicians, but as parents and grandparents who want to see the next generation flourish.
So this Thanksgiving, as we give thanks for food and family, let’s also give thanks for the wisdom that still lights the way forward. Let’s be grateful for the teachers, mentors, and parents who still model responsibility, hard work, and faithfulness. And let’s be grateful that even in a changing world, some truths don’t change.
The future isn’t fixed. Despite what the headlines say, our kids aren’t doomed by the world around them. The choices we encourage and the examples we set can profoundly shape their lives. The Success Sequence isn’t about restriction, it’s about freedom. It gives young people a sense of direction and the structure they need to build meaningful lives, one decision at a time.
That’s what I’m most thankful for this year, the privilege and responsibility of guiding the next generation. As parents and grandparents, we get to be the competing voice our children need. We get to show them that real joy doesn’t come from instant gratification, but from purpose, discipline, and love.
So yes, be thankful for the turkey and the laughter, but most importantly, be thankful for the family gathered around the table. Look at your children and the generations below you and be thankful for truth that still holds, for children who still turn out right, and for the grace that allows us to keep trying.
The world may change. The challenges may look different. But the truth doesn’t change, and that’s something worth celebrating every Thanksgiving.
* * *
Joe S. McIlhaney, Jr., MD, is a board-certified obstetrician/gynecologist who resides in Plano, Texas.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
* * *
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A Thanksgiving Reminder: Our Kids Still Have A Clear Path Forward

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For all the attention Generation Z gets, we need to start talking about Generation Alpha while there is still time to save them from their older siblings’ dismal futures. Born between 2010 and 2024, Gen Alpha is the youngest living age demographic with its members ranging from toddlers to younger adolescents. Most still have all of high school ahead of them and none have entered the workforce as adults.
American twelfth graders, who are on the younger side of the Gen Z cohort, are at their <a href="https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/test-scores-low-reading-math-naep-d87099b6?mod=Searchresults&amp;pos=1&amp;page=1">lowest reading proficiency levels</a> on record. Our broken education system has enabled that steady decline over the last two decades as K-12 schools push forward failing students who cannot read, and college curriculum has made it possible to earn a degree <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/11/the-elite-college-students-who-cant-read-books/679945/">without reading a whole book</a>. Poor literacy levels have, of course, led to a national crisis with <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/07/05/lifestyle/gen-z-turns-to-ai-for-homework-essays-and-college-apps/">writing ability</a>.
This confluence of trends — combined with the rise of AI — risks Gen Alpha’s future success in work and in life. The good news is that the solution is found at home. Parents can make the home life more conducive to their children’s future success by prioritizing off-screen reading … yes, physical books. Reading books is vital to keeping children ahead of the AI curve. And the home is where children need to become good readers so they can go on to become good writers.
Writing is the necessary transferable skill young people must perform to apply critical thinking, self-awareness, and logic to their jobs, tasks, and everyday lives. Lack of proficiency in the classroom leads to lack of accountability and responsibility in adulthood.
It is impossible to be a good writer without being a good reader, which makes fixing reading proficiency all the more urgent for today’s elementary and middle schoolers. As <a href="https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/agentic-ai-vs-generative-ai">generative and agentic AI</a> reorganize the workforce, high social and economic status will not be won by those that can simply use AI well, but those who think better than AI and can apply the technology in the production of new knowledge.
The urgency is today. A grown adult with poor reading proficiency is already lost and will spend the rest of his life behind the curve of those that can read, write, think, and do better. That string of verbs is not a list — it is a sequence of inseverable skills necessary to achieve success. If that prognostication seems bleak, that’s because children who use AI to do schoolwork do not see the pitfall lying beyond short-term convenience.
Children&#8217;s futures may come to resemble Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World in which the lower castes of menial workers toil under the elite few who are capable of intelligent output. AI <a href="https://www.weforum.org/stories/2023/02/ai-can-catalyze-and-inhibit-your-creativity-here-is-how/">does not create</a> new ideas or knowledge; it produces and iterates content based on past information and results. It yields answers derivative of other people’s intellectual labor without activating or engaging critical reasoning skills in the user.
The solution is for children to read good books that stand the test of time and have complex sentence structure. Reading early and reading often in childhood <a href="https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/why_reading_is_important_children_brain_development#:~:text=We%20discovered%20that%20reading%20for,time%20spent%20on%20electronic%20devices.">unlocks</a> intellectual and productive potential <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/education/brief/foundational-learning">later in life</a>. Parents should replace at least some of their children’s screentime with good books. The number of books children read is less important than the quality of stories they read. They should mix non-fiction with fiction. The topics and sub-genres do not matter. It is the complement between truth in fact, and truth in expression that helps cultivate minds and critical reasoning.
Millennials are the parents of Gen Alpha and their childhoods model how to select rewarding books in a digital age filled with screentime. Millennials grew up on Reading Rainbow and Wishbone. Reading Rainbow brought children’s books to life with lively narration and Wishbone retold William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Walter Scott, Walter Irving, and other great authors. 
Parents can find worthwhile books about the animals, fantasy settings, sports, historical figures, and situations depicted in their children’s favorite shows, movies, and games. That is the strategy Reading Rainbow and Wishbone deployed: limited but enriching television content as a tool to catalyze lifelong love of reading and intellectual exploration in children. 
Technology has crushed the inner drive and desire to read, and AI is poised to turn that absence into personal failure on a mass scale. Meeting children where they are with a physical book can transition them away from complete dependence on digital technology for entertainment. Exposing children to slightly more literature can open up their worlds and increase chances for success.
I already dubbed Gen Z as the <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/gen-z-shaping-itself-into-wasted-generation">“Wasted Generation”</a> in early 2024, and that still holds true. But if nothing changes substantially, Gen Alpha will suffer from more severe and longer-lasting consequences than the arbitrary concentrated learning-loss Gen Z underwent during COVID-19.
Even with the lightning speed of President Trump’s educational reforms, it will still take years for reforms implemented today to take hold and reverse prevailing trends. Let’s focus on where we can make a long-term difference for most people. That focus needs to be on Gen Alpha. Let’s help them now while we can. Cultivating and encouraging reading at home is the best way for parents to set their children up for success in our brave new world.
* * *
Zachary Marschall, PhD is Editor-in-Chief of Leadership Institute&#8217;s Campus Reform and an adjunct assistant professor of arts administration at the University of Kentucky.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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