Parents have the right to know what their kids are learning

Over the past few years, the media has been flooded with encouraging stories of freedom-loving men and women who stood up to tendentious school boards that were attempting to introduce Critical Race Theory (CRT) and LGBTQ content into their curriculum. And while the backlash to this divisive proposition has certainly been encouraging, it has also exposed an even deeper problem with our public schools.

As parents are waking up to the harsh realities of the system that has essentially become the indoctrination branch of the radical Left, they’ve come to discover that schools have been hiding controversial content from them for years and even decades.

In many instances, students have been exposed to unnecessary, indecent and highly objectionable content before their parents ever even heard about it — much less approved of it. In one such instance, parents were stunned to learn that their first-graders had read It Feels Good To Be Yourself, a book with the basic premise that “Some people are boys. Some people are girls. Some people are both, neither, or somewhere in between.” A local news outlet reported that “none of the parents were notified of this curriculum ahead of time.”

In another instance, parents were horrified when they discovered that Leander ISD, a school district in Texas, distributed literature to its students that contained, “detrimental themes such as minors abusing substances, racially stereotyped characters, self-harm, abusive relationships, gang rape, R-rated language, and mature sexual content.” According to Lori Hines, a concerned citizen who berated the Leander ISD school board for its inappropriate conduct, one of these books, “is so explicit that introducing it to minors probably constitutes child abuse under Texas law.”

Another one, My Friend Dahmer, details the early life of serial killer and sex offender Jeffrey Dahmer, whose seventeen murders often involved dismemberment, cannibalism and necrophilia.

Alarmingly, parents knew nothing about the introduction of this content until after it had already been recommended to their children.

Sadly, these are just a few of many examples. From a racist video containing quotes such as “What percentage of white women do you hate?” and “I believe that you are not concerned with how annoying white women can be,’’ to an age-inappropriate sex-ed training for 1st graders on why “their own parents or grandparents must first ask for permission before touching them,” many young students are being bombarded with “educational” material that is inconsistent with the values of their parents.

To those who would assume these are individual, isolated events that are not at all indicative of a national problem, it’s worth noting the progressive nature of the National Education Association (NEA), the labor union that represents public school teachers. At its 2019 Representative Assembly, the NEA officially embraced a number of problematic and distinctly partisan resolutions, including, for example, that it “vigorously opposes all attacks on the right to choose and stands on the fundamental right to abortion under Roe v. Wade.” It also promised to “incorporate the concept of ‘White Fragility’ into NEA trainings/staff development, literature, and other existing communications on social, gender, LGBTQIA, and racial justice.”

It’s safe to say that a huge amount of parents disagree with these positions. They would certainly object to exposing their children to such ideas. Scariest of all, schools seem to be totally aware of this.

There is a reason why schools are anxious to hide the particulars of “progressive” education from parents. They know that a sizable portion of the country still has enough common sense to object to inculcating our youth with a radical, leftist worldview, so instead of even asking for parental approval, they have decided to simply leave parents out of the equation. More than its radical agenda, this is the biggest problem with our education system: the fact that parents are the last to know what their children are learning.

As a self-governing people, we each have a responsibility to take an active role in raising the next generation. To remain ignorant to the true condition of our children’s school is to play Russian roulette with their principles. It’s no longer safe to assume that the public classroom is a safe learning environment. Perhaps it is, but I would recommend finding out for yourself.

If you don’t, just don’t be too surprised if the next generation turns out to be woke, anti-God, left-leaning activists and social justice warriors.