We Need Some Learning

It seems lately that there has been a push to get parents more involved in their classroom activities. More involved parents lead to more successful students, so in that regard, good. However, should parents have the last say in what their children learn about?

That’s an emphatic no.

Why? Consider creationism for one example. In 2019, Gallup did a poll on how many people believe in creationism (the strict, 10,000-or-less-year-old church kind). Care to guess how many people? 40% of Americans. Fortunately for you and I, there are federal standards that ban the teaching of creationism and that enforce science standards and math standards across the nation. So even though many of those 40% are likely parents, their children are at least getting introduced to the idea that no, actually, it’s evolution.

And yet, what you have (predominantly in red states) are people trying to dictate on what their children learn about “the gays”, “the trans”, and banning books, getting in shouting matches at PTA meetings, and the like. All for the purpose of dumbing their children down. That may not be exactly what their motives are, but that’s the freaking result. No, do you want that 40% to continue to inject their nonsense into our educational ecosystem? Of course not.

That’s because education systems aren’t for the parents. They’re to prepare the child to enter into society and be a productive member. That’s it. And bowing to parents who got their feelings hurt like this woman in Florida who decided to take a teacher to task for watching a relatively benign Disney movie. I mean, come on. Really?