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

Over to you, Washington Post:

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.”

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.

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

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.

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

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Tags: childreneducationindoctrinationJack SchneiderJennifer BerkshirekidsparentsschoolWashington Post