Schools continue to take rights from parents.

Re: Schools continue to take rights from parents.

Why not?


Sez who?

bm

Those parents have every right to home-school their kids.

Otherwise, they have to follow the same curriculum as the other children do; even if that means letting their kids learn about immoral gays...

Cycloptichorn

Methinks we will be seeing a lot of these stories for a while.

I am sympathetic to the concerns of relgious parents in public schools. I think that schools need to be sensitive to this cultural differnce.

However, I don't believe that the Parkers want what they say they want.

Would you want your 5 year old son singled out to be taken out of the classroom for any diversity activities?

This would be more damaging to a child than any other solution. Even if I believed that homosexuality was a sin, I don't think I would subject my kid to this.

In a pluralistic democratic society such as ours, it is very difficult (if not impossible) to keep kids from dealing with these issues. A girl in my sons class has two lesbian mothers. Is it fair to not deal with the issue with this little girl. Doesn't she has the right to not have her family life labeled as "unhealthy" or even "sinful".

I teach my kids my values, and I realize that they are exposed to values that I probably disagree with, and I don't have a problem with this.

The key is talking to your kids and helping them reason through the sometime complex world they are a part of.

Perhaps the school could have been more sensitive to these parents concerns (while keeping true to their goal of providing a complete education in a world that includes these complications.) We don't have the full story of what happened.

I believe strongly that public schools should work very hard to meet the needs of all cultures within its community-- and from this story, in this case, the failed. Whether it was possible for them to succeed is another question.

But, as a parent reading this, these parents seem like idiots. We live in a multicultural world and like it or not their kids need to deal with it.

How will the kids ever learn to deal with reality if their parents refuse to?

So do you think that when they're talking about families in kindergarten that they are really talking about the copulation habits of the parents?

I doubt sexuality and sexual habits even enter the picture.

Mo has two mommies: me and his bio mom. I'll be damned if he is made to hang his head in shame if he draws me, Mr. B and bio-mom as his family. We are all his family.

Well, I have had parents specifically request their children be reomved from the classroom during "certain activities"--from plain old sex ed. to the watching of Harry Potter.
Some families "don't believe" in magic, just like some don't believe in homosexuality.
Fine. That is the way they want to raise their children, and educators who are worth their weight will respect that request, regardless of their personal or professional beliefs.

That being said, this Dad sounds a bit like an attention whore and seems to be pushing the envelope as far as he can. I'm getting the feeling that this man is not an innocent bystander. Being one of the most physically imposing teachers in my school, I have had to more or less physically remove a parent from the school because they refused to leave--which is my duty should they pose a threat to the students.
Glad to see he spent a night in jail, sad to see O'Reilly blowing his horn for him, but different strokes eh?

However, I'm not surprised that this "type" of individual prefers to shove his child's head in the sand right beside his. It's much much safer in there.

<the homos are coming the homos are coming>

So he got arrested for civil disobedience.... Where's the problem?

If you don't like what the school board is doing, then vote 'em out. That's democracy.

Plus, you can always home-school or private-school your kids.

Why does this guy hate America, anyway?

I think he's with the terrorists...'cause he sure ain't with us! :wink:

Our children are among the most ignorant in the free world and although I have no problem with them learning tolerance and understanding that there are diverse beliefs and lifestyles, I'd like to see them learn how to read, write, speak grammatically correct english and be able to identify the f**king vice president from a photograph before we teach them about homosexuality. It's a priority issue.

The ignorance our children display is abominable and our own fault.

I try to make sure my cubs aren't so ignorant, but it's an uphill battle.

You know, bvt, I have to agree. Tolerance is a noble thing but it can really only be taught by example, not by pamphlets and workbooks.

Sounds like ya'll are for No Child Left Behind, then.

No Child left behind is doublespeak and bullshit.

No, I'm for taking all that money that we spend on testing the pants off of our kids and spending it on teachers and schools so that kids can get the individual attention they deserve. That's something that's been proven again and again to work and ironically it's the one thing that nobody seems to want to do.

Im also for eliminating social engineering programs and spending that time and money on teaching children a foreign language starting in elementary school. But I believe I'm in the minority.

Well, his acts of dissent will likely comfort and embolden our enemies. :wink:

I agree that there are very important things to learn. But from my own experience, I have to laugh when the old school (which I'm part of) talks about how dumb our kids are today. All the old school, long-hand math students can't figure out how to buy a combination ticket at a museum - it takes those stupid little kids to quickly show them how it's done. They have more common sense in their little fingers and can understand things quicker without using long-hand. They know how to relate to today's world - and the old timers really don't. So we don't compete with a third world country's math students. It doesn't mean that our kids will fail financially and emotionally in the world. "Intelligence" isn't the only measure of success, and I would rather my child be successful and happy than just being a rocket scientist. Our president is a fine example. As he said (and I can't remember his exact words), "A "C" student can be president." I'm not saying a good one, but I wouldn't say that an "A" student automatically makes a good president either.

My point about NCLB is that it ditches other types of learning (music, art, etc.) for language and math skills.

Personally, I think NCLB has been foisted on us by the test and textbook writers.

We're talking Kindergarden, here. I remember that being about social skills and museum visits more than math or English.

I would rather my child be a well-educated and knowledgable janitor than a dumb-ass ignorant president. And by well-educated, I'm talking about art and music and other studies that round out a complete education as well as the basics. But I think that programs like DARE are useless and take up time that kids need to focus on their studies. And kindergarten kids need to learn how to follow instructions and get along with their classmates, as well as the skill they will need for first grade. If one of the stories that are read to them happens to be about a family with two moms, great! But a special packet? A lesson plan? Come on.

Just so I'm clear, I think the objective is noble and I don't see any reason why young children should not be exposed to all kinds of people and families and I can appreciate what they're trying to do. I just think that after a while, all these noble objectives take up a lot of time in the classroom.