May 27, 2005
THE LEFT'S LAST REDOUBT:
Sex-ed opponents part of movement to reclaim schools (Jon Ward, 5/26/05, THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Parents who stopped a new sex-education curriculum in Montgomery County, Maryland are at the nexus of a national trend in parental activism in school matters.
"Montgomery County has become a symbol for parental activism," said Robert Knight, director of the Culture and Family Institute, an affiliate of Concerned Women for America.
Warren Throckmorton, a psychology professor at Grove City College in Pennsylvania, said parents "are beginning to take matters into their own hands and are looking for ways to collaborate with other like-minded parents to protect their kids." [...]Curriculum supporters said the course taught tolerance for homosexuals and included factual instruction on how to deal with homosexual feelings.
But parents who formed the group Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum (CRC) said the course promoted homosexuality and promiscuity, disregarded scientifically proven health risks and denigrated traditional, religious views about sex.
A federal judge ruled in CRC's favor when he granted a temporary restraining order against the course on May 5.
"What this really illustrates is that parents have a particular set of principles and values. They work hard to instill those in the home, and they don't want this undermined in the health class," said Melissa Pardue, social welfare policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation.
The NEA should have its next convention at Masada. Posted by Orrin Judd at May 27, 2005 10:32 AM
How about Guyana
Posted by: ratbert at May 27, 2005 10:46 AMThe Constitutional law on education makes reform impossible. It has been firmly established that public schools are organs of the state rather than of civil society or of individual parental prerogatives.
For this reason, the only way to "reform" public educatin is to crush the infamous thing.
Posted by: Lou Gots at May 27, 2005 11:22 AMpublic schools are the cornerstone of a decent society. the problem lies in the centralization and politization of the various systems. charter schools help solve this problem, as does outsourcing to companies.
Posted by: cjm at May 27, 2005 12:40 PMLou,
In addition to the points you cite let me add another: parental abdication of responsibility for their children. NEA flatters the parents' ego by praising their involvement and support for "quality" schooling (unlike those other bad parents who would upset the status quo) while simultaneously abeting parental irresponsibility by offering professional "outsourcing" services for family life. They work pride and sloth very well.
Posted by: Luciferous at May 27, 2005 1:20 PM