Elon Musk takes his child to work — and away from the woke mind virus

The media collectively clutched its pearls when Elon Musk showed up at the Senate with his young son, X, perched on his shoulders. He was headed to meetings on the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency. Critics pounced. The BBC quoted American University professor Kurt Braddock, who called it “a political move to make him seem more personable.” Harvard professor and political strategist Jon Haber dismissed it as inviting “chaos” and distraction.

But strip away the media’s reflexive cynicism, and Musk’s decision makes perfect sense. After publicly condemning gender ideology for destroying another one of his children, it’s hardly surprising that he wants to keep his family close.

Elon Musk knows firsthand what happens when the culture takes too much control. He lost a child to the woke mind virus and now seeks to eradicate it.

Maybe Musk recognizes that protecting one’s children — not outsourcing their values to a broken system — is a fundamental duty. Maybe he sees the cultural rot in American schools and wants no part of it. Or maybe he just loves his kids, which used to be considered normal.

Musk bringing his children to work — even to meetings with world leaders like the prime minister of India — doesn’t signal chaos. It signals commitment. It embodies the essence of home education: personal, practical, and profoundly traditional.

Education vs. schooling

Education trains the mind to recognize truth, emulate goodness, and appreciate beauty. It equips children to think independently, search for meaning, and pursue wisdom. Schooling does the opposite. It programs children to conform, accept whatever “experts” tell them, and obey the dominant ideology without question.

Education liberates. Schooling enslaves. Today’s school systems manipulate children into believing that self-harm is self-care — gaslighting rebranded as guidance.

That institutional hostility toward children now stands fully exposed. Since the fall of Roe v. Wade, abortion numbers have surged, fueled by the widespread availability of abortion pills and Planned Parenthood’s marketing campaign assuring the public they’re “safe” and “effective.” They’re safe for no one. They end lives. Meanwhile, activists now push for legal protection of gender-transition surgeries for minors — procedures that mutilate healthy bodies and bind children to pharmaceutical dependency for life.

The rot runs deeper. According to the House Select Committee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, the American Federation of Teachers, led by Randi Weingarten, played a central role in shaping harmful COVID-era school policies. The AFT lobbied the CDC to keep schools closed, not based on science or evidence, but to strengthen bargaining leverage. The union’s aim wasn’t safety — it was higher compensation. The result: long-term psychological, developmental, academic, and economic damage to millions of children.

Teachers’ unions, long portrayed as champions of children, proved themselves anything but. The report makes it plain: “Any public health response that warrants closing schools should face the highest levels of scrutiny. School closure policy should be informed by science and data, not fear and politics.” Yet no one in power will face consequences.

Homeschooling is better

Does a system that gets worse for children every year while bleeding taxpayers dry deserve the label “education”?

No serious evidence suggests it benefits kids. With their well-being on the line, we should return to what worked for millennia before the 20th century’s great school experiment: parent-led education.

After generations of institutional schooling, we’ve forgotten a basic truth: Children need parents to become healthy, capable adults. In outsourcing education to the state, we’ve sacrificed much. Home education introduces children to more than rote academics. It builds life skills, strengthens family ties, and helps children understand their place in the world.

Compare that with schools today. Age-segregated classrooms teach narrow content in isolated bubbles, infantilizing students while cutting them off from meaningful interaction with older generations. The results speak for themselves: young adults who now need a word — “adulting” — to describe basic responsibilities.

Would anyone argue that Elon Musk has less to offer a child than a Harvard graduate who took a seminar titled “Queering Education”? That class, by the way, trains future teachers to combat “heteronormativity” and “cisnormativity” in the classroom. These so-called experts claim that “negotiating gender and sexuality norms,” including transitioning minors, boosts academic performance.

Musk wouldn’t buy it. No sane person should.

Retaking control

Mocking gender theory isn’t just common sense — it’s starting to look a lot like home education.

Elon Musk made a statement: World leaders matter, but his children matter more. He showed that balancing both is not only possible — it’s commendable. Rather than scoffing, we should applaud it.

Maybe Musk could redefine the DOGE as the “Department of Good Education” and revive a “take your child to work” ethic in American life. Pair that with some math and classic literature, and we’d raise better students — and make better citizens.

Musk knows firsthand what happens when the culture takes too much control. He lost a child to the “woke mind virus” and now seeks to eradicate it. The man who carried a sink into Twitter headquarters on day one understands symbolism. “Let that sink in,” he said.

Then he hoisted his young son onto his shoulders and onto his list of priorities. It’s time we let that sink in, too — and follow his lead.