We usually highlight a few stories on Sunday but today we wanted to focus on one important video clip from parentalrights.org. It is entitled "Overruled" and this 36 minute movie is worth your time and should question how parental rights are being recognized (or not) in your school district.The second story in the video specifically has to do with an educational issue. Who has the ultimate right in deciding what a child should learn...or not? The parent or the state? As you will see in the video, Dr. Parker's son was 5 years old at the time a book was sent home in his backback the parents found objectionable.
The book, included in the "Diversity Book Bag", Who's in a Family, was listed on the school's website:
"Shows the various combinations of individuals that can make up a family, emphasizing the positive aspects of different family structures, including grand-parent headed, single-parent, adopted, gay-headed, and mother-father families. Uses examples from the animal kingdom to illustrate how family groupings can differ."
In the author's own words:According to the parents, they objected to the introduction of this theme to a 5 year old child as they believed it was their parental right to be able to be notified when such curriculum was introduced to their child and have the right to opt their child out if the parents deemed it as objectionable.
"The whole purpose of the book was to get the subject [of same-sex parent households] out into the minds and the awareness of children before they are old enough to have been convinced that there's another way of looking at life.
. . . It would be really nice if children were not subjected to the -- I don't want to use the word 'bigotry,' but that's what I want to say anyway -- of their parents and older people.
. . .The book was written because my neice and her partner [two lesbians] decided to have a family."
Author Robert Skutch, National Public Radio interview, "Here and Now", May 3, 2005
Dr. Parker writes about the video:
The 9th Circuit in 2005 affirmed “Parents…have no constitutional right...to prevent a public school from providing its students with whatever information it wishes to provide…when and as the school determines that it is appropriate to do so.” This is the point the docudrama seeks to convey.
The Court decided the parents have no rights to withhold information from the child (even though the parents have the legal custody and responsibility for the child) that the school deems appropriate for that child. That's amazing to me, is it to you?
The Supreme Court refused to hear the Parkers' appeal. Here is a timeline of this issue. As you read it, remember, this came about because PARENTS objected to a book sent home by the school for their 5 year old son. Shouldn't PARENTS (aka as taxpayers) who fund the existence of the school and the jobs for the teachers and administrators have the right to opt their child out of material they find objectionable?
Do parental rights exist in America? Do you as a parent have any recourse in the teachings your child is learning in public education short of pulling your child out of the school? Is this acceptable to you as a parent and a taxpayer? Is this the type of education that will allow our students to become globally competitive and STEM ready or is this early introduction for such material for some other purpose?
The answer to your last question is simple and is even admitted by the author himself. This material is for social engineering, which has nothing to do with students being competitive in the job market. The sad truth is that education is more about social engineering than helping students become career ready.
ReplyDeleteParents are being marginalized to the point of being nothing more than the persons responsible for room and board for state owned children. I have watched and fought this battle for nearly 28 years now and have seen the state gain ground and parents lose it. Unfortunately, today's parents were educated in the same failed system of social engineering, called public education, and they have bought the lie that they really aren't capable of doing the best for their children and therefore they should leave it to the state.
More and more as parents assert their "God given" rights to raise and be responsible for their children on every level, they are being marginalized and as in this case ruled against by activist courts with judges on the bench who have also been educated in the same system that is now failing. That includes both primary and secondary public education. The progressives responsible for this are now implementing their end game, the Common Core Standards and Longitudinal Data System which promise to be the final nails in the coffin of parental rights and will validate the idea that parents are fit for nothing more than financially supporting their children and should leave the rest to the state. The CCS is not about fixing our borken schools, it is about redistribution and making the field level for all students which requires further dumbing down and creating a cookie cutter education system.
Unfortunately, many parents are willing to abdicate their responsibilities in raising their children and letting the state do it for them.
Our chance to turn this around is quickly diminishing and the sad and horrible truth is that our children are the sacrificial lambs on the alter of the state run schools and activist courts. The clock is about to strike midnight and we will wake up in a new world if we fail to wake up before and act to remove our children from those alters and send these social engineers back to the abyss they crawled out of.