Whether it is lowering the bar for a medical degree or removing honors math for eighth graders, the result is the same: the sacrifice of exc
By: Diana Blum
Published: Mar 18, 2026
Whether it is lowering the bar for a medical degree or removing honors math for eighth graders, the result is the same: the sacrifice of excellence at the altar of ideology.
As a physician, my world was defined by the sanctity of the individual: the quiet, sacred space between a doctor and a patient where human dignity and the preservation of life reigned supreme. My professional life was governed by a singular, sacred commitment: the Hippocratic Oath. This wasn’t just a formality; it was a prescription for a healthy society, rooted in the primacy of the individual and the objective pursuit of scientific truth. I believed that by defending ethical standards in my beloved profession, I was holding the line for Western civilization.
But then the world changed in 2020. The pandemic didn’t just bring a virus; it brought a mirror. As I watched the medical establishment succumb to a suffocating groupthink and a “mob-like” dismissal of heterodox thought, I realized that the rot wasn’t just in the clinics. It was in the marrow of our society. The same ideological forces destroying the sanctity of medicine were already hard at work destroying the minds of the next generation in our K-12 schools.
I realized I could no longer just be a doctor. As a mom, I had to become an advocate for the very foundation of our future: our children.
The Echoes of a Soviet Past
My perspective is not merely academic; it is ancestral. I am a Soviet Jew. My DNA carries the memory of what happens when a society abandons the individual in favor of the collective, and when “the greater good” becomes a justification for dehumanization and violence.
To me, Jewish values are not separate from Western civilization; they are the pillars of it. The emphasis on questioning, the pursuit of objective truth, and the infinite value of a single human life are what built the modern world. When I see the terrifying rise of Jew-hatred in our streets and our schools today, I don’t see a random flare-up of bigotry. I see a direct, coordinated attack on American values. History has shown us that Jews are the “canary in the coal mine” when a society begins to hunt the Jew, it has already begun to eat itself.
From the Nazi Era to the Modern Classroom
The turning point in my transformation from medical advocate to education defender occurred during a webinar I hosted for FAIR titled “Health Professionals in the Nazi Era.” Preparing for that presentation was a chilling experience. I saw with terrifying clarity how the most “educated” professionals of the 1930s, doctors and teachers, were the first to succumb to ideological capture. They didn’t wake up one day as monsters; they were slowly conditioned to prioritize activism over their professional oaths.
I looked at our current K-12 landscape and saw the same patterns. As depicted in the documentary Killing America by Eli Steele, the erosion of merit and the introduction of “social justice” frameworks in schools like those in the San Francisco Bay Area, where I grew up and raised my own kids, mirrored the lowering of medical standards I had fought against. Whether it is lowering the bar for a medical degree or removing honors math for eighth graders, the result is the same: the sacrifice of excellence at the altar of ideology. Unnecessary suffering inevitably follows.
The Neurology of Hate
When my grandfather, Srul, passed away in 2022, just 4 months shy of 101, something broke and reset within me. He was a man who survived the unimaginable, a living link to a world that tried to erase him. After his death, I knew I couldn’t stay silent. I realized that while I was treating patients for neurological disorders, a different kind of pathology was being wired into the brains of millions of children.
As a neurologist, I understand how the brain learns. I know that the neuroplasticity of a child is a gift that can be easily exploited. When schools replace actual education with social justice activism, they are quite literally wiring tribalism and resentment into the developing mind. They are teaching children to see color before character, and power dynamics before humanity. This isn’t just bad teaching; it is unintentional neurological injury to a generation of humans.
A New Oath
I am often asked why a Parkinson’s Disease doctor is so involved in school board battles and curriculum transparency activism. My answer is simple: I am still practicing medicine.
In medicine, we say Primum non nocere - First, do no harm. By allowing our education system to replace the pursuit of truth with ideological indoctrination, we are doing profound, perhaps irreversible, harm to the individual and, inevitably, to society at large.
I have moved from defending the Hippocratic Oath to defending the classroom because the battle is the same. It is a battle for the soul of the West. It is a battle to ensure that no child is ever taught that their worth is defined by their group identity, and that no doctor is ever forced to choose a narrative over a patient. For my grandfather, for my children, and for the country that gave my family refuge, I will not be silent.
