This article is part of Upstream, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you. *** We’ve seen the same headlines over and over: Gen Z isn’t dating, or driving, or drinking, or making friends, with record numbers of young people today living with their parents and refusing to build careers well into adulthood. These statistics paint a grim picture of my generation, but beyond our specific cohort, they point to an overall culture of dependency that is antithetical to the free citizenry our democracy relies on — a culture that was built by the failure of our institutions, and especially our schools.  As veteran teacher Paula Edwards (not her real name) told IW Features in a recent documentary, “If we don’t have a literate society, we really don’t have a free society.” She recounted the abysmal classroom environment in the New Mexico public schools she has worked in, from deteriorating academic and behavioral standards to ideological indoctrination. Edwards reached her breaking point and transitioned from teaching to coaching after a second-grade student who was not potty-trained allegedly began smearing feces on his peers when he was angry and wanted to skip his lessons. In this single anecdote alone we can identify several failures: of the state not to assess the child’s home environment, of the school to allow a child who was not potty-trained to be in a general class, and of the school not to remove him from the classroom, give him the environment he actually needs, and protect other children from being traumatized by his behaviors. It’s not the child’s responsibility to train himself in basic functions; it’s the duty of adults, who either failed him or, in the case of teachers like Edwards, were not allowed to give him the help he needed. This is perhaps an extreme (albeit not rare) case, yet such bad outcomes as this arise precisely because of an educational philosophy that has prevailed in schools for decades, even in less difficult situations than this student’s. Generations of students have been coddled to their own detriment, being given passing grades they do not deserve and free rein to act out and hurt themselves and others in the name of “compassion.”  Of course, there is no compassion at all in enabling students’ worst behaviors. The behavioral anarchy that has come to dominate far too many schools around the country and make teaching an impossible profession has its origins in Obama-era policies that essentially considered any form of discipline as a potential form of discrimination. While those were revoked federally during the first Trump administration, many states still have unviable policies that make disciplining students impossible and that encourage the sort of conduct that has led to educators like Edwards fleeing the teaching profession. The Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports system, which was formally enacted by New Mexico in the last decade, after being introduced by the federal government in the 1990s, forces teachers and administrators to ignore negative behavior and reward positive behavior through prizes and tokens, which amount to “bribery,” as Edwards puts it. These gamified incentives inevitably disappear in the adult world, and yet the responsibilities of adult life remain. So then what? Students who have never acquired the discipline to succeed in school are naturally going to struggle with adult life, rendered incompetent and unable to participate fully in society as adults. Sometimes, this type of dependency is not just passively but actively encouraged by the school system. In a particularly horrifying anecdote, Edwards told IW Features how the Bureau of Indian Education schools teach Native American children how to fill out welfare applications. Instead of teaching them to read with evidence-based methods and enabling students to lift themselves out of poverty when they grow up, Edwards said, these schools teach students a different lesson: “Be dependent for the rest of your life.” It doesn’t have to be this way, and it shouldn’t. We have the status quo we have because we choose to tolerate it. We spend billions of dollars on education as a country as it stands, and there is nothing stopping us from redirecting that money from failed progressive endeavors to student behavior reforms and evidence-based instructional methods that actually work. As Edwards advocated, “Get your indoctrination out of the classroom and get us back to the basics. School is for getting our kids to read and write and do math.” *** Neeraja Deshpande is an Independent Women policy analyst and senior IW Features contributor.

This article is part of Upstream, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you. *** Ever look into your precious child’s eyes and wonder if they could possibly be more perfect? Like, literally. Maybe glowier skin? Softer cheeks? Plumper, skooshier lips? Think outside the Cheerios box and smother your kid — who might not be able to read yet — in sugar scrub from Squishmallows x TONYMOLY.  Like a new car driving off the lot, your baby begins aging the second she’s born. Now, even younger members of Generation Alpha brush off old-school “beauty routines” like the nail stickers and Lip Smacker of their millennial parents, opting instead to hard-launch chamomile, yam, and aloe-infused hydrogel face masks. Of course, that’s just entry-level stuff. Turns out “Toddlers & Tiaras” wasn’t as over-the-top as it seemed. “Some people think the collagen spray is kind of crazy,” pageant coach Cambrie Littlefield admitted, spritzing flinching contestants in the face. “But I wish when I was three years old, somebody gave me a collagen spray so I wouldn’t have to worry about getting wrinkles from ‘happy eyes’ all day.” Showing off a tube of cult-favorite Drunk Elephant sunscreen on TikTok, a seven-year-old “Sephora kid” assures her older sister, Gianna Gravalese, “I’m gonna need it for Turks and Caicos.” It goes with the rest of her Drunk Elephant collection, which also includes Virgin Marula Luxury Facial Oil, Beste No. 9 Jelly Cleanser, and Lala Retro Whipped Cream moisturizer with five African oils.  That plus her Glow Recipe Watermelon Mist, Bubble Level Up Balancing Moisturizer, Sol De Janeiro Brazilian Bum Bum Cream, and multiple Dior lip glosses all clock in around $500. “Why do you think you need skincare when your skin is literally flawless,” Gianna asks. “It’s ‘slay,’” her little sister says.  If you’re wondering what the heck is going on, the pint-sized beauty market is exploding. With kids younger than 15 years old somehow having $3,500 a year to spend on “beauty,” major retailers swoop in to bank millions in sales. But these tweens aren’t just obsessed with skincare. Forecasted to pump $5.5 trillion into the market by 2029, they’re revolutionizing the industry.    “It’s a phenomenon where a group of kids … who normally would be indulging in arts [and] athletics … are engaging in what I call consumer aesthetics,” says dermatologist Dr. Reneé A. Beach. Advising against kids using products made with harsh ingredients like retinol, she adds, “A child is really risking skin irritation, eczema, chemical burn, and none of these things are the outcome that we would want from purchasing a $50 product.” Spas, retailers, beauty brands, and celebrities want to saturate the itty-bitty skin cells of your child’s face with their products — as long as they can sneak it into the hands of eight-year-old kidfluencers clicking their fake nails against a can of Poppi before smearing tri-ceramide serum all over their already perfect faces.  “I’m feeling Vanilla Beige today,” a young girl says in her Get Ready With Me, smooshing all over her mouth Summer Fridays $25 Vanilla Beige lip butter, a product that’s marketed to adults. Notably, she also spritzes the Glow Recipe watermelon face mist seen in many other kids’ beauty routines, calling it, “My favorite thing at Sephora.” Not pictured: the mini skincare fridge topping every little girl’s wishlist right now. But “Pretty Little Liars” actor and entrepreneur, Shay Mitchell, faced backlash when she launched Rini Beauty, offering four-year-olds a face mask infused with white tremella mushrooms, glycerin, vitamin E, and beta-glucan. She explained on Instagram that the project was “inspired by my girls, their curiosity … From birthday parties and face paint to wanting to do ‘what mommy does’ with her face masks.” Instead of relating to the mommy-and-me self-care vibe, Instagram commenters clapped back with, “I struggle to find the right words to articulate how disappointing and dystopian this is,” and, “How is this even legal?” with broken heart emojis. Another posted, “Yeah cause that’s just what young girls needed: to be hyper-focused on their appearance even earlier.” Beyond using a gentle soap, lotion, daily sunscreen, and getting a good night’s sleep, a viral multi-step skincare routine can actually do real damage to children’s delicate skin. While formulas from the Bubble brand at Target feature mild ingredients, some kids are dabbling in the clinical-grade stuff. A Northwestern University study of teen skincare routines posted to social media revealed that only 26% of girls used sunscreen, the one thing they should be applying. And some used up to a dozen products at once. Pointing out the consumerist slant, university adjunct lecturer Dr. Tara Lagu noted, “A real desire to have more products and more expensive products in a way that, for seven to 14-year-olds, feels really problematic.” “Many of the ingredients … also carry a high risk of skin allergy,” says Dr. Molly Hales, explaining that applying multiple products with harsh active ingredients — or the same active ingredient — is deeply irritating. “Once you develop a skin allergy to a particular ingredient, [it] can actually endure for the rest of your life and limit the kinds of products that you can apply.” In one TikTok video from the study, the teen creator slathered on 10 products in six minutes and developed a painful rash on camera. “I don’t know what’s happening. But if anybody knows how to get it to stop burning, that would be greatly appreciated, because it actually hurts a lot,” she said.  This intense focus on beauty can also prematurely age kids into the anxious self-consciousness of adolescence. Associate professor of psychology at Barnard College of Columbia University, Tara Well, PhD, says, “Skincare routines, often marketed as confidence-boosting, can have the opposite effect when teens don’t see immediate results or experience breakouts. The pressure to achieve ‘perfect’ skin can worsen insecurities.” Luckily, the solution is simpler than nailing the right order for applying mists, serums, and lotions. But it might not get as many likes or subscribers as that watermelon spritz.  Yale Medicine dermatologist Kathleen Suozzi, MD, advises kids and teens to “Celebrate the skin they’re in … For most kids, it’s the best skin they’ll ever have. They don’t need to fix it — they just need to care for it gently and appreciate it.”

Since 2021, more than 80 churches across Canada have suffered arson attacks. The most recent casualty is the reported fire at the historic Christ Church Anglican in Maugerville, New Brunswick. If Canadian media covers the fires at all, they will claim a total of 30 to 35 churches have burned across Canada, meaning churches that have burned entirely to the ground. The media will often use phrases like “arson is suspected” and “motives remain unclear.” By that description, one would think a Walmart had burned down. An attack on a house of God, however, is treated by the media as an incidental detail. This is not a stylistic tic — it is the prose of a society willfully blind to the crisis in which it is engulfed. One need not be Socrates to see the obvious. These are not random accidents but episodes in a larger campaign: an open war being waged against the West. Our collective silence does not assuage it; it shields it and helps it spread. Every Canadian understands, though few will confess publicly, that these burnings are half-applauded as revenge. Our previous prime minister assured us they are “understandable,” albeit regrettable, responses to the “discovery” of mass graves at residential schools. Except there is one problem: it was and is a lie. Nevertheless, hints became headlines, headlines became dogma, and dogma became license. Source: StatCan To the Left, whether it corresponds to the truth is secondary to the permission it grants. It conceals under the guise of “justice” a hatred that long predates the tale. Much of what now presents itself as moral outrage is little more than repackaged hatred of Western civilization: of its God, its truth, and its nobility. Old resentments have now learned to call themselves righteous. To refuse to name this as such is not neutrality but complicity. Consider Canada’s nominally Catholic Prime Minister, Mark Carney. He is known to thunder like a prophet when it comes to Trump or climate change. And yet here he is conspicuously silent. Indeed, he takes great pains to avoid invoking the terms “the West” or “Western civilization.” One gets the impression Mr. Carney prefers to deliver its eulogy rather than defend its inheritance. This silence is instructive. It educates citizens, especially the young, that nothing is sacred, least of all its own civilization. Resentment, not reverence, becomes the proper orientation towards the highest things. Our enemies, both foreign and domestic, understand precisely what must be erased if the West is to be disarmed. Toronto, ON – June 10: Investigators survey St. Anne’s as they begin to piece together what caused the fire. Historic St. Anne’s Anglican Church at 270 Gladstone Ave. was destroyed by a fire early on June 9th. (Photo by Nick Lachance/Toronto Star via Getty Images) These fires, however, did not begin in sanctuaries but in the seminar rooms of our universities. Our reigning orthodoxy and radical relativism, pushed by the Left, have filtered down through every institution: from our classrooms to our boardrooms and even our bathrooms. The church burnings are simply where theory meets action: where the lit match meets our steeples. For decades, we have taught students that all ways of life are equal; that any claim to superiority is a disguised will to power; and that distinctions between noble and base, just and unjust, good and bad, and above all, true and false, are instruments of “oppression.” Relativism came promising peace. We were told that wars and persecutions arose from the conviction that one’s own way is best. Reduce all virtues to “values,” all truth to “opinions,” and civilization to “cultures,” and the source of conflict would dissolve. After all, if there is no truth, there is nothing over which to fight. But relativism produced not gentle tolerance but a new and fanatical intolerance. “Everything is relative” except, of course, relativism. This alone is absolute and unquestionable. The one unforgivable sin is precisely what the West at its best affirms: that our way of life is superior not by race or conquest, but because it is true; therefore, it is good, just, and noble. For these radicals, the West represents a rival claim to their tyrannical rule. The West does not simply assert that it is true: we boldly proclaim it is true by both God and nature. Our founding is constituted by the twin roots of Jerusalem and Athens: biblical revelation and reason. Despite their differences, both converge on the same point: there is the Truth; there is a best way of life; and there is a standard that stands both outside and above us. This is why our churches must burn. Our steeples are the most visible symbol of the biblical half of our inheritance. It is no wonder these steeples were once the highest structures in cities and towns, rising above parliaments, banks, and homes. Our steeples served as silent reminders guiding our eyes, and with them our souls, upward to the highest things, higher than political power, commerce, or comfort. When the Christian claims that Jesus is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life,” it is a living rebuke to these radicals. It not only condemns them as inferior or unequal, but exposes them as false. The Church testifies that there is an order and law greater than ourselves and accessible to all through our reason: we are neither our own Creators nor legislators. For leftist radicals, this is intolerable. For, when there is God and Truth, then everything is not permissible. Nick Lachance/Toronto Star via Getty Images Our American friends should not delude themselves into thinking this is some uniquely Canadian phenomenon. The same doctrine, the same hatred for the West, and the same fanatics are already entrenched in your universities, bureaucracies, and halls of power. They look north and see not an aberration but a guiding model. Given the opportunity, they would happily bury your churches under ashes, too. And yet, our enemies pay us great compliments. Hatred and resentment always look upwards: inadvertently, they betray our superiority. If we were truly inferior, the proper orientation would be pity or indifference. Confident victors do not waste precious time and energy making war against defeated opponents. One does not attempt to murder a corpse. In this way, we owe our enemies thanks. The vehemence of their rage is proportional to the threat they perceive. Our enemies declare that the West is not dead: it is alive and well and remains the greatest obstacle to the tyranny they wish to institute. Our enemies understand this; it is we who have forgotten. The proper response is not to hide or to apologize for existing, but to regain a seriousness equal to that of our opponents. If they judge this way of life dangerous enough to burn, then it is time we judged it once more worthy of living and of defending in full. * * * Dimpee Brar currently serves as the Director of Engagement for Allies for a Strong Canada. She is a writer whose work can be found in the Federalist, the Western Standard, and the Toronto Sun. She appears frequently on various podcasts and radio shows. You can follow her on X: @isthisdimpeeb

America’s most influential psychological association told The Daily Wire it still recommends children receive so-called gender affirming medical interventions, despite downplaying its support of child transgenderism in a letter to government officials investigating fraud in pediatric gender medicine. The American Psychological Association (APA) confirmed in a written statement that it continues to “support treatments for minors seeking gender affirming care” in alignment with it’s 2024 policy statement, which endorses minors receiving harmful gender medical interventions, condemns state laws banning child sex-changes, and says “non-affirmation” of a child’s transgender identity can cause “significant harm.” In a September 2025 letter to the Federal Trade Commission — which is actively investigating unfair and deceptive practices within the field of pediatric “gender affirming care” — the APA downplayed its support of “gender affirming care,” stating the primary role of a therapist treating children with gender dysphoria is assessment, not affirmation. “It is important to stress that during the assessment and evaluation process, a diagnosis of gender dysphoria or the identification of a youth as gender-questioning is not an automatic or singular pathway to medical intervention or even social transitioning,” the letter reads. This statement contradicts the idea that “non-affirmation” poses a direct harm to children, as included in the 2024 policy. Kurt Miceli, the chief medical officer at Do No Harm, says the APA wants to “have it both ways.” “The American Psychological Association continues its attempt at having it both ways,” Miceli told The Daily Wire. “In its 2024 Policy Statement, the APA explicitly endorses ‘medical gender‑affirming care,’ even urging insurers to cover these interventions for minors.” The APA told The Daily Wire the “2024 policy statement and the FTC letter are consistent” and that “both documents reflect APA’s consistent commitment to evidence-based psychological care.” The APA is the latest medical group to try to shed its reputation for radical transgender ideology. When President Donald Trump returned to office, his administration purged gender ideology from the government and launched investigations into practices within pediatric gender medicine. Since then, gender clinics across the country have closed their doors, while the American Society of Plastic Surgery has backed away from supporting sex-rejecting procedures for minors. “The APA’s 2024 and 2025 statements cannot be reconciled,” Miceli told The Daily Wire. “It is an audacious contradiction for the APA to try to claim that their definition of ‘affirming care’ means anything other than sex-rejecting interventions.” The Daily Wire asked the APA how it simultaneously viewed the “non-affirmation” of a child’s gender identity as causing “significant harm” while recommending a psychologist’s role is to assess, rather than affirm, a child’s gender confusion. The Daily Wire also asked for clarity on what clinical standards the APA recommends to help therapists determine when non-affirmation of gender identity is harmful versus when it’s an appropriate part of a clinical assessment. The APA did not provide a straightforward answer to these questions, but said, “In APA’s professional framework, affirming care does not mean a predetermined outcome, automatic validation of any particular intervention, or bypassing clinical judgment.” The Daily Wire asked the APA if a therapist should withhold using a child’s preferred pronouns — a form of “social transition” — until the child undergoes an extensive assessment. “Affirmation and assessment work together,” the APA told The Daily Wire. “Supporting a child does not mean steering them toward any particular outcome, and neither a diagnosis nor a youth’s questions about gender automatically lead to social or medical transition.” The APA also said it “cautions that equating gender‑affirming care solely with medical transition can stigmatize and limit access to essential mental health services.” With more than 190,000 members nationwide, the APA has a far-reaching impact on the psychological field and the practice of therapy throughout the United States. The APA has received more than 20 million dollars in federal funding since 2020, according to a government transparency website.

After weeks of airport meltdowns and unpaid security agents, the Senate finally blinked. In a late-night vote that stretched into the early hours of Friday morning, lawmakers passed a funding bill to reopen most of the Department of Homeland Security, a move aimed squarely at ending the travel nightmare and getting TSA agents paid again. The deal comes after a brutal 42-day partial shutdown that left travelers stuck in massive lines, airports understaffed, and TSA officers working without pay. Some quit. Others called out. The result was exactly what you would expect. Chaos. Now, relief may be on the way. The bill funds most DHS operations and is expected to restore pay for TSA workers, easing pressure on airports that have been pushed to the brink. The deal on the table still needs to clear the House before heading to President Donald Trump’s desk, but momentum is clearly there after the overnight breakthrough. There is a catch. The legislation leaves out funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and parts of Border Patrol, setting up the next fight in Washington. That battle is not going away. It is just been delayed. Democrats were quick to claim they “held the line” on immigration provisions. Republicans, meanwhile, moved to act as airport conditions deteriorated and the need to get TSA agents paid grew more urgent. Trump had already signaled he was ready to step in to make sure TSA agents could receive paychecks again and provide for their families, with or without Congress, which raised the stakes on lawmakers to get something done. They finally did. At 2 a.m.