Democrats vs Parents; Education Edition
Last weekend, Glenn Youngkin was sworn in as Governor of Virginia. Youngkin is a Republican, and this was the first office he ran for. So, to most political pundits it was kind of surprising that he won. What was more surprising was the the Republicans won not just the governorship, but the Lt. Governor’s office and the Attorney General’s office. Republicans also took back control of the Virginia House of Representatives.
And, if there’s one reason why Republicans had such a dominating performance in what has been a Blue state for the past 20 years, it’s this one sentence from a debate between Youngkin and former Governor, Democrat Terry McAuliffe.
I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they teach
-Terry McAuliffe
I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they teach. That’s what he said. And, he meant it. What’s more is a lot of Democrats believe that. It’s why they push transgender education into classrooms. Parents don’t want that taught, but Democrats do. It’s why they push for critical race theory in classrooms. Parents of all races are opposed to critical race theory but Democrats want it taught in schools, and not only do they not care what parents think, they are trying to hide what they are teaching in schools and in teacher development courses from parents.
There are numerous examples of this from coast to coast, and I don’t really have time to go into all of them, but a simple search on Duck Duck Go will show you exactly what I’m talking about.
Essentially, when it comes to education, the Democrats’ motto is….
You will respect my authori-TAY
-Eric Cartman
One of my favorite quotes from Albert Einstein is “unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.”
Democrats don’t want you to question their authority. They just want you to respect their expertise without any questions about whether they are right or not. They want your unthinking subservience to their expert authority. And, after two years now of just about every expert being wrong about everything about the pandemic, more and more Americans are becoming more and more resistant to blind devotion to the so-called experts.
Since the Democrats got their butts handed to them soundly in the elections last fall in Virginia - a blue state, mind you, and since the biggest reason why voters in the Commonwealth turned from Democrats and towards Republicans was because of problems with schools in Virginia, you’d think Democrats would learn their lesson. The lesson should be that parents absolutely should have a say in what’s taught in public schools. At the very least, Democrats should have learned not to tell parents they don’t believe they should have a say in what’s taught in school.
Well, sometimes, adults can be slow learners.
This brings me to some news out of Michigan...
Over the weekend, the Michigan Democrat party posted on Facebook, "Not sure where this ‘parents-should-control-what-is-taught-in-schools-because-they-are-our-kids’ is originating, but parents do have the option to choose to send their kids to a hand-selected private school at their own expense if this is what they desire. The purpose of a public education in a public school is not to teach kids only what parents want them to be taught. It is to teach them what society needs them to know. The client of the public school is not the parent, but the entire community, the public"
Nope nope nope nope. Wrong wrong wrong wrong. There are four big ideological and philosophical errors in this single arrogant and ignorant post. Let’s go through them.
First of all, this 'parents-should-control-what-is-taught-in-schools-because-they-are-our-kids' idea comes from the Bible. The Bible tells parents to teach their children, not school boards...
Proverbs 22:6
Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.
Deuteronomy 11:19
Teach them to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.
God wants parents to teach their children. So, if the Democrat party in Michigan thinks they know more than God, that might explain why they have such little respect for parents.
Second, not all parents do have the option to choose to send their kids to a hand-selected private school at their own expense. If they did, we wouldn’t need public schools at all. That’s the whole point of public schools is to give kids who’s parents aren’t wealthy the same opportunities as kids who’s parents are! Isn’t the Democrat party the party of the poor in America? Aren’t they the ones who keep telling us they care so much about the poor and the Republicans are only for the rich? Republicans are the party of Bill Gates, oh, wait, no, he’s a Democrat - the party of Jeff Bezos, wait, no, he’s also a Democrat, - the party of Tim Cook, wait, no… the party of Mark Zuckerberg, wait, that’s not right… the party of George Soros… hmmm, well, I’m sure there are some rich people who are Republicans somewhere…. Oh! Trump! He’s rich and a Republican, see Republicans are the party of the rich and heartless!
Look most parents want to send their kids to a different school. But, they can’t afford it. There’s new poll out this month from National School Choice Week that says 52% of Parents considered moving their kids into a different school this past year.
Parents realize their kids are falling behind, and they realize the people in charge of their school system are failing their kids and don’t really care what the parents think about it. But those parents are not sure exactly what to do about it. Put simply, the vast majority of parents can’t afford to send their kids to another school. Most parents can’t even afford to homeschool their kids. That same poll said that while 52% of parents considered a change in schools for their children, only 18% were able to make one. They are stuck, and as a result, their children are stuck, too.
Third, the client of the public school is not the entire community. It's the individual student. This is the problem with the Democrat mindset in general. They believe society is more important than the individual. That's wrong. Society is made up of individuals. If you want a healthy, educated, prosperous society, then you must have healthy, educated, and prosperous individuals! You can’t educate society and have that trickle down to educating individuals. That’s completely backwards. You educate individuals, and as a result, you end up with an educated society.
The clients of the public schools are the individual students. The job of the school system is to serve the needs, not of society at large, but of individual students on an individual basis.
That concept is actually enshrined in Michigan law!
Section 380.10:
It is the natural, fundamental right of parents and legal guardians to determine and direct the care, teaching, and education of their children. The public schools of this state serve the needs of the pupils by cooperating with the pupil's parents and legal guardians to develop the pupil's intellectual capabilities and vocational skills in a safe and positive environment.
Michigan law says schools serve the needs of the students, not society!
So, the Democrat party wants you to respect their authority when it comes to the control of educating your kids, but they don’t want to respect the authority enshrined in the very state law that gives government the ability to educate children in the first place!
Fourth, and finally, the purpose of a public education is not to teach kids what society needs them to know. It's to teach kids what they need to know to have a better chance of pursuing their own happiness.
Remember to filter all of your political thoughts through the Second Sentence of the Declaration of Independence. Our founding document says the only purpose of government is to secure our Rights to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That's it. The specific job of a government school system is to help children be prepared to pursue their happiness as they reach adulthood. It has absolutely nothing to do with what “society needs them to know.”
If you focus on teaching kids what you think society needs them to know, you aren’t educating kids, you’re indoctrinating them. How do you know what it is society needs children to know? Society is made up of lots of different people who will all have different ideas about what people may or may not need to know. So, if you, as the unquestionable authority are the one who decides what society needs kids to know, you’re behaving like an autocrat, not a democrat - or at least, not a democrat with a lower case “d.” For all their barking and shrieking about saving Democracy, it’s quite stunning how many Democrats have autocratic mindsets and belief systems.
Now, the Democrats in Michigan did take down the post after they got slammed on Facebook. But, that post reveals the error built into their world view. They wanted to protect society, not serve individual students, so they closed down schools and kicked kids off campus. As a result, not only did they not stop COVID, but they damaged kids all across this country, who are falling further and further behind in their education. And, as parents are seeing the damage these autocrats have done to their children, parents are demanding more of a say in what’s being taught in school, where it’s being taught, and how it’s being taught. And, Democrats don’t like it when you question their authority.
Maya Angelo said, “when someone shows you who they are, believe them.” When it comes to their belief in who should be in charge of your children, Democrats have shown us who they are, twice, in two different states. We should believe them. And because their beliefs are so wrong, we need to do what parents in Virginia did, and vote the autocrats out. Maybe then, enough individuals in the Democrat party will finally learn what society needs them to know, that parents are in charge of their kids; the government is not.