Like many of you, I grew up in that archaic age of education during which my parents were notified about everything I did in school. The good, the bad, and the ugly, my parents knew when I did well and the rare occasions I got myself into trouble. And when the educators were in the wrong, my parents had my back. My parents also knew when I sought medical care on and off school grounds, and the school required their consent to give me basic, over-the-counter pain medications.
All of this is in sharp contrast to what’s happening in schools today. A child can change his or her pronoun and gender identity without parents ever being notified. In some states like Washington, once a child turns thirteen, their parents cannot access their own child’s medical records without explicit permission from their child. And while the parents and their insurance continue to pay for all medical services the child undergoes, those services are not line-itemed or disclosed to those parents.
Unfortunately, the public school system, which was established to provide a basic education for all, is more than complicit in undermining parental rights; it has become an active participant.
In this post I’ll discuss how public schools are eroding parental rights, why we should be concerned, and what we can do about it.
Politicization and Sexualization of Education
Schools used to teach on reading, writing, and arithmetic. Today, many of them teach anti-racist wokeism, sexuality, and “praxis.” I’ve written about the first two 21st century subjects in previous posts.
I wrote a post titled Gaslighting in Education, in which I explained how a substantial number of teachers and administrators employed by the public school system draw on the core tenets of Critical Race Theory to shape their teaching philosophies. This means that students are segregated into groups like privileged oppressor and varying degrees of the victimized and oppressed based on their identities. This explains why Oregon decided that insisting on one right answer in a math class is a form of white supremacy. Not kidding.
In another post titled Return to Innocence, in which I outlined the ways in which some public schools are sexualizing young children. Schools are pushing gender and sexuality worksheets, permitting sexually explicit material written for young grade schoolers in school libraries, and teaching 1st graders about masturbation. This is outrageous!
And let’s not forget how the term “praxis” has infiltrated the classroom. What’s “praxis?” It’s an academic term that basically means putting theory into practice. For today’s teachers, it means leading students in protests and political action undergirded by ideologies like Marxism, black supremacy, and wokeism. Teachers themselves are becoming more overtly political in their professional capacity (see this from the National Education Association). As such, Black Lives Matter’s agenda has become an increasingly foundational part of our public school system.
As a political scientist who specializes in American social movements, I understand the importance of collective political action and citizen participation in a democratic republic. And I support the right for all activists and citizens to engage in peaceful, lawful, actions regardless of their political views. I also recognize the right for others to choose to refrain from such political activity. The problem with teachers turning students into activists two-fold.
One problem is the power differential between teachers and their students. Even if a teacher doesn’t require participation in politicized actions, students will likely feel not only peer pressure to participate, but also pressure from an authority figure. Also, most young children look up to their teachers and will likely follow their lead even if those children don’t have the capacity to understand the ramifications of political actions.
Another problem is that the political actions most teachers encourage their students to participate in are one-sided, with little if any thought given to the other side of the political argument. This, by definition, is political indoctrination, not education. If a middle school teacher wants to talk about Black Lives Matter, that discussion should be balanced, even-handed, and instructive. I’m willing to bet most political discussions led by public school teachers fail along these dimensions.
Ramifications of the Current Public School System
These developments in the American public education system are disconcerting and disturbing for two reasons. First, schools are unrightfully taking the place of other institutions. Families and trusted, local institutions used to be charged with sex education, moral instruction, and a child’s initial understating of politics. Children also developed healthy relationships with adults and other children in a supportive network that remained after graduation.
This isn’t to say that teachers have no place in enforcing good behavior and punishing bad behavior, or that schools must ban all political expressions on school grounds. But the more of our child-rearing we relinquish to the schools, I believe the more degraded our families and institutions like organized religion will become. And that’s the point. There are teachers and administrators who are highly interested in replacing these institutions because they tend to get in the way of turning students into activists and political supporters.
Secondly, our kids are not getting educated. No matter how much money we pour into our schools, our test scores in reading and math didn’t look good before the lockdown and haven’t recovered since then. As such, American students continue rank below students from other developed countries. For those of you who criticize schools for “teaching to the test,” I say that it depends on how valid the tests are, and in some cases, teachers should be “teaching to the test.” For example, if a driving test is a valid way to ensure new drivers are competent, a good teacher would “teach to that test.”
If you’re still not convinced, go ask a middle schooler or high schooler to diagram a sentence, explain the causes of the American Revolution, or how to write a five-paragraph persuasive essay. I taught college students for seven years at high-ranking universities in the Pacific Northwest, and I know some of them couldn’t answer those questions. But they sure could tell me about how oppressed they are.
The most frustrating part of teaching college students, many of whom didn’t have reading and writing skills necessary for introductory university work, is that I had to teach them what their high school teachers should have taught them. And I’m sure high school teachers thought the same thing about middle school teachers, and on it goes. This meant that I had less time to help these students level up and expand their minds. But those students could definitely spout the tenets of wokeism.
One Solution: Parental Bill of Rights
Gov. DeSantis recently signed into law the decried and falsely labeled as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which is a significant step in reasserting parental rights in the Floridian public school system. This legislation requires parental notification “if there is a change in the student’s services or monitoring related to the student’s mental, emotional, or physical health or well-being and the school’s ability to provide a safe and supportive learning environment for the student.”
It also bans school policies that would “… discourage or prohibit parental notification of and involvement in critical decisions affecting a student’s mental, emotional, or physical health or well-being.” Likewise, the law states that schools cannot create “procedures” that “prohibit parents from accessing any of their student’s education and health records created, maintained, or used by the school district…”
So, where did the “don’t say gay” nonsense come from? It is a purposeful misreading of one line of this law that states: “Classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.”
As you may have guessed, it has nothing to do with banning the word “gay,” or anything of the kind. Some teachers have responded by saying that they cannot talk about their marriage or relationship with their students if those teachers are not heterosexual. First, this law doesn’t prohibit that because it wouldn’t qualify as “instruction.” Secondly, why do these teachers think they should be divulging details their personal lives to their students?
We should be appalled that anyone is opposed to sexual instruction of six, seven, eight, and nine-year olds. It begs the question, why are this law’s opponent’s outraged that they can’t sexualize kids this young?
Florida isn’t the only statedeveloping a parent’s bill of rights. Parents should demand an explicit bill of rights like this one in every state and ignore detractors who say they have no place in guiding their own children’s education and development. It’s ridiculous that a parental bill of rights is necessary, but here we are.
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