NBC News: Judges Who Ruled Against Trump Say Harassment and Threats Have Upended...
Tim Walz Says ICE Raids Are What Happens ‘When They No Longer Hide...
Ho Ho No: Libertarian Compares Santa to Illegals, Gets Ratio'd Into the North...
Former EU Commissioner Butthurt About Being Banned From the US for Censorship
Derek Hunter Violated X's Rules Against Hateful Content With Post About Jennifer Welch
Peak Christmas Nerdery: Full Probability Analysis of Why the Home Alone Family Slept...
Margaret Sullivan Says Journalism's Goal Is to 'Afflict the Comfortable and Comfort the...
Conservative Clash: Bari Weiss Allegedly Turns on Megyn Kelly After She Snubs CBS...
A Warm AI Christmas Card From The Democrats, But Not Really
Cali's Insane Solution to Wildfires: Force 2M Homeowners to Rip Out Gardens Instead...
Katie Miller Hits Taylor Swift's Donation to Feeding America With a Reality Check
Merry Christmas from the Map-Challenged: Jesus the Palestinian, According to Clueless Left...
'You Know Who I Am': Former RI Mayoral Candidate 'Abused' by Cop Who...
Belated Festivus Grievances: X's Broken Algo, Scams Stealing Billions, and Anti-Semitism C...
ICE Aims to Speed Up Deportations by Renovating Warehouses to Hold 80,000 Illegals...

'Holy hell': WaPo lets education experts explain why parents *don't* 'have the right to shape their kids' curriculum'

For all the Left’s faults, at least they’re transparent. Maybe not on purpose, but transparent nonetheless.

Over to you, Washington Post:

Advertisement

Ooo … this sounds promising, doesn’t it?

Let’s hear from “scholar of education history and policy” Jack Schneider and education podcaster Jennifer Berkshire, who you may remember from her passionate argument against “parents’ rights”. This is good stuff, people:

Given this frenzy, one might reasonably conclude that radicals are out to curtail the established rights that Americans have over the educational sphere. Yet what’s actually radical here is the assertion of parental powers that have never previously existed. This is not to say that parents should have no influence over how their children are taught. But common law and case law in the United States have long supported the idea that education should prepare young people to think for themselves, even if that runs counter to the wishes of parents. In the words of legal scholar Jeff Shulman, “This effort may well divide child from parent, not because socialist educators want to indoctrinate children, but because learning to think for oneself is what children do.”

When do the interests of parents and children diverge? Generally, it occurs when a parent’s desire to inculcate a particular worldview denies the child exposure to other ideas and values that an independent young person might wish to embrace or at least entertain. To turn over all decisions to parents, then, would risk inhibiting the ability of young people to think independently. As the political scientist Rob Reich has argued, “Minimal autonomy requires, especially for its civic importance, that a child be able to examine his or her own political values and beliefs, and those of others, with a critical eye.” If we value that end, “the structure of schooling cannot simply replicate in every particularity the values and beliefs of a child’s home.”

Advertisement

That’s a very interesting argument when you consider that what people like Schneider and Berkshire are advocating for is for school to supplant the child’s home.

More:

The sudden push for parental rights, then, isn’t a response to substantive changes in education or the law. It’s a political tactic.

Wethinks they doth project too much.

That’s far too charitable a characterization for this.

Advertisement

Hard to conclude otherwise when none of the criticism of such overreach seems to be coming from the Democratic side.

Advertisement

They really do.

We’ve gotta agree with that assessment.

We can’t let them be in charge of anyone’s kids.

Heh. Homeschooling may not be a viable option for everyone, but fighting for your kids should be every parent’s top priority.

Start by showing them at the ballot box.

Advertisement

Editor’s note: This post has been updated with an additional tweet.

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Recommended

Trending on Twitchy Videos

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement