Former Virginia governor and current gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe was supposed to win next week’s race against Republican Glenn Youngkin in a walk. So thought most Democrat strategists, at least. McAullife instead finds himself in a neck-and-neck race, due in part to several missteps. One such misstep is the veteran Democrat’s insistence that parents should not have a say in the education of their children.
Yes, just like all good Democrats, McAulliffe’s soul belongs to the teachers’ unions.
In this case, the all-powerful American Federation of Teachers. “Shockingly,” the union rolled out a pro-McAulliffe ad program on Sunday, featuring public school parents and educators singing the praises of McAuliffe’s education proposals while trashing Youngkin’s plan.
Two liberals who share McAulliffe’s belief that parents need to stay the hell out of their kid’s education are Jack Schneider, self-proclaimed “scholar of education history and policy,” and Jennifer Berkshire, “education, policy, and politics podcaster.” The duo penned an article for The Washington Post titled:
Parents claim they have the right to shape their kids’ school curriculum. They don’t.
Parents claim they have the right to shape their kids’ school curriculum. They don’t, write @Edu_Historian and @BisforBerkshire in @PostOutlook https://t.co/FUZUSDTQTR
— Washington Post Opinions (@PostOpinions) October 22, 2021
Democracy Dies in Darkness, WaPo proclaims. That it does. And Education Dies in Indoctrination, as well.
Like the good Democrats they are, Schneider and Berkshire began their op-ed by slamming Republicans for having the audacity to “circle around the cause of ‘parents’ rights.'” Via WaPo (emphasis, mine):
In their search for issues that will deliver Congress in 2022, conservatives have begun to circle around the cause of “parents’ rights.” In Indiana, Republican Attorney General Todd Rokita recently introduced a Parents Bill of Rights, which asserts that “education policy and curriculum should accurately reflect the values of Indiana families.”
In Florida, the legislature passed an even more comprehensive bill, assuring that the state and its public schools cannot infringe on the “fundamental rights” of parents. A growing number of states are allowing parents to sue districts that teach banned concepts.
And in Virginia, Republican Glenn Youngkin has made parents’ rights a centerpiece of his campaign for governor, staging “parents matter” rallies and declaring, “I believe parents should be in charge of their kids’ education.”
The notion that parents shouldn’t have a say in the education (indoctrination) of their children is insane; for the sake of the kids, not the parents. In this respect, I’d argue that what we should be talking about is as much a Children’s Bill of Rights as a Parents Bill of Rights — the right to not be indoctrinated based on the color of their skin or the predisposed beliefs of teachers and school boards.
Scenes from @POTUS’ first stop in NJ today at East End Elementary pic.twitter.com/uILl66x3KJ
— Molly Nagle (@MollyNagle3) October 25, 2021
The authors then busted out this upside-down bit of nonsense:
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.
Then came the “but” card, meaning, as is the case in general, whenever someone in a debate, argument, or whatever tosses in a “but,” everything he or she said before the “but” should generally be discarded.
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.”
Oh, c’mon — you clowns are making it way too easy.
How in the hell are young people supposed to think for themselves when teachers are shoving Critical Race Theory, systemic racism, white supremacy, and climate-change armageddon crap down their throats?
If young kids object to “any of the above,” are they excused from such indoctrination?
And how does a young mind know what’s right and wrong with his or her education — particularly when know-it-all teachers and school systems push their beliefs on kids? Where does the independent thinking of kids come in, in that reality, Mr. Schneider and Ms. Berkshire? Gimme a break.
Let’s wade through one more chunk of this blatant propaganda, then I’ll leave it to you to determine how much more of it you can stomach. The authors next approached the subject of the divergence of interests of children and their parents.
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 [like Critical Race Theory, systemic racism, climate alarmism, et al.] that an independent young person might wish to embrace or at least entertain.
To turn over all decisions to parents, [as opposed to teachers and school boards] 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 [please] that a child be able to examine his or her own political values and beliefs, and those of others, with a critical eye [uh-huh].”
If we value that end, “the structure of schooling cannot simply replicate in every particularity the values and beliefs of a child’s home.” [But it can replicate the values and beliefs of the radical Left.]
OK, I’m done with this, gang — click on the link at the top and continue if you so desire.
This is what we now face. Not dissimilar to an old Twilight Zone episode, perhaps, in which The State pushes parents out of the way — or locks them up — so as to avoid any interference in the “proper education” of the leaders (and followers) of the future utopian state.
Check out the following related RedState articles if have not already done so.
Condi Rice Stuns ‘View’ Hosts With Knockout Argument Against Critical Race Theory
Reporter Just Embarrasses Terry McAuliffe During Heated Exchange on Critical Race Theory
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