Problem is, they believe your kids are part of the state and not to you. Many on the left feel so outraged that parents might question what their kids are learning in school.
Christina Wyman, author of the piece she wrote for NBC News, argued against parents having any say in what children learn. The article is an instructive exercise in the “appeal to authority” logical fallacy, as the author essentially argues that since educators are the experts, they alone are the ones who should decide what goes into the curriculum that is taught to students.
Wyman claims that parents pushing back against Critical Race Theory (CRT) and other problematic ideas is “like entering a surgical unit thinking you can interfere with an operation simply because the patient is your child.”
She said:
The problem lies in the fact that many parents believe they are entitled to teach and learn because it is their kids who have this right. This is not the case! doesn’t work that way. It’s sort of like entering a surgical unit thinking you can interfere with an operation simply because the patient is your child.
The author continued, pointing out that “[t]eaching, too, is a science,” and that “unless they’re licensed and certified, parents aren’t qualified to make decisions about curricula.”
Her argument was:
Parents can even hinder student growth. An educator’s primary goal is to teach students to think. Parental influence with personal ideologies, biases and opinions can hinder this goal.
Odd that she takes issue with parents supposedly trying to influence education with “ideologies” and “biases,” when it is schools teaching elements of CRT and wokeism who are actually injecting ideology into their lessons. Apparently, ideology in the classroom isn’t an issue — as long as it is in line with so-called progressive thought. Reminds me of the saying: “Always accuse your opponent of that which you are guilty.”
Hyman continues to detail the steps she took in her journey towards being an educator. The extensive education Hyman received along with other teachers is what she continues to ramble on about. All of this is supposed to hammer home the message she and her ilk wish to send to parents: We’re the experts. You’re not. You are not.
Continued the author:
Politicians and parents have been trying to influence curricula through their constant efforts to target book selections, history teaching in schools and specific terms in the classrooms. These distractions are nothing more than theater, and school boards and administrators should be protecting their teachers — and students — from it rather than bowing to it.
Hyman also wrote
But short of that, parents, community members and politicians who aren’t qualified to teach should keep their noses out of school curricula. A teacher’s main goal should be to teach children to think for themselves, and parents’ dictating the curriculum interferes with the nurturing of that independence.
The author’s arguments are flawed for a myriad of reasons. Consider, for instance, the surgery analogy. She is not realizing that it is the parents who determine what type of medical procedure is performed on their child. The vast majority of children would never allow surgeons to perform surgery on them without their consent.
This principle is also applicable. Parents should be allowed to comment on the material being taught to their children by educators. This does not give them the authority to teach children a specific ideology. It certainly does not indicate that teachers should be able to infuse their curriculum with ideas about “whiteness” and separating students by skin color.
Hard left struggle with the fact that parents do know best what’s best for their children. They may not understand the “science” of teaching, but they know what type of material will be damaging for their kids. It is commonsense, and something that Democrats fail to understand. The fact that this specific issue was one of the main reasons why Terry McAuliffe was destroyed in Virginia’s gubernatorial election is because he echoed these sentiments. This article shows that the left still hasn’t learned their lesson.
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