Social Workers (and Teachers and Nurses, etc.) Are Exhausted

Why we need civics, trust, and possibly miracles

My son is applying to the U.S. Service Academies this year — the Naval Academy, West Point, the Air Force Academy. It’s his senior year of high school. During my pregnancy with him, I was one of those rare moms who did not want to know the gender of my baby before birth. When he was born, and the doctor announced, “You have a baby boy!” My first thought was, “Wow, that is the loudest cry I’ve ever heard.” My second thought was, “I hope he doesn’t want to go into the military.”

In fourth grade, he bounded into the family room and handed me the laptop computer with the homepage of the Air Force Academy on the screen. “Look at this, Mom!” he exclaimed. “Doesn’t this look awesome?”

The first word I saw on the website: “Indoctrination.”

“Indoctrination!” I yelled. “I don’t want you to be indoctrinated!”

He snatched the computer away, glaring at me. “You don’t understand,” he sulked. I’d betrayed his sense of possibility and hope.

I thought for a few minutes. “I’m trying to indoctrinate you, too. I guess that’s what parents do. There will always be some kind of force to try to shape your thinking and your actions. I really just hope you…