Before I begin, I will acknowledge the likelihood that some of you have only the most excellent of schools, whose personnel would never do such a thing, but that this will not change the fact that this has become the trend, not only in the United States but elsewhere, from what I understand. Increasingly, school officials are behaving as if they, not the parents, have primary responsibility for enrolled children, and others have gone even further, making claims on those who are homeschooled or enrolled in private or religious institutions. As is nearly always the case, it may have begun with something that seemed reasonable, with a demand that school officials look for and report cases of parental abuse and neglect. Excesses usually begin with something that sounds reasonable, and in this case I think it began with a reasonable demand that school officials not look the other way when a child exhibits signs of abuse or neglect. However, in every school that I am aware of, and have heard of from other people I know, this has gone way beyond that. This isn't something new, as in the last ten years. In the 1980s, a friend of mine grounded her 14 year-old daughter for coming home from a football game at 4:00 in the morning. My friend received a telephone call from the school counselor asking her to come in and speak with her. The counselor argued that she could not ground her daughter from football games because she was a cheerleader, and that was an important part of her educational experience. A few days after my friend reminded her who the parent was in this situation, she received a visit from child protective services, who made suggestions about overly harsh parenting. There are also multiple cases in which children have been medicated upon recommendations of school officials, contrary to the wishes of the parents, largely intended to make them easier to handle in school. Anecdotal? Of course, but there are thousands of anecdotes covering any number of issues that should be the parent's responsibility rather than that of any school official. Of course, the definitions of abuse and neglect have also been stretched all out of proportion, so that pretty much any issue in which a liberal school official disagrees with a parent, there may be allegations of abuse or neglect on the part of the parent. Children have been removed from their parents' care for any number of reasons, largely based on reports made by school officials over things having nothing to do with what any reasonable person would consider abuse or neglect. Children are being encouraged to report on their parents, and to disagree with their parents on any number of issues, such as gun control, birth control, abortion, and issues related to sex. School time is being used to shape the morals and viewpoints of students, including a denigration of Christianity and the embracement of Islam. Recently, in many schools, we have seen student walk-outs engineered by school officials, with the encouragement of gun banning advocates, using children as props for their own agendas and, in some cases, students who disagreed, who refused to take part or instead protested in favor of the 2nd Amendment, have been punished for disagreeing with the school's position on the matter. Whatever you might believe about the ownership of guns or the 2nd Amendment, I would hope you would agree that children are not the property of the schools, and should not be used in such a manner. In both the Millinocket and East Millinocket school districts, who share the same liberal superintendent, the students rejected the students chose not to participate in the school sponsored protest of the 2nd Amendment, but in schools were such an opinion might be a minority opinion, children might not feel free to do so, especially when by doing so they may face suspensions or other punishments. My point is that, while parents should not have the right to beat their children, to starve them, or to neglect other basic needs, the school's responsibilities should concentrate on education rather than indoctrination, and they should surely not be free to use children as props for their own agendas.
@Ken Anderson "Children are being encouraged to report on their parents, and to disagree with their parents on any number of issues, such as gun control, birth control, abortion, and issues related to sex. School time is being used to shape the morals and viewpoints of students, including a denigration of Christianity and the embracement of Islam." It is well documented that institutionalizing the school system is not a new thought. Originally, none-other than Thomas Jefferson wrote that the educational system in the new United States should be organized and institutionalized in such a way as to adequetely shape the atitudes of the young ensuring they become properly guided during their most formative time. In other words, his thinking paralleled greatly the trend seen lately, which IMO, has gone pretty much overboard and now lies beyond the acceptable. Small wonder that home-schooling has gradually come back to popularity. Frank
It's not, but it's still wrong, particularly when the indoctrination is contrary to the parents' wishes. Throughout much of our history, schools were used to promote patriotism and duty to country, which shouldn't be a surprise that government schools were promoting government interests. Now though, they are being used to promote global interests that often contradict those of the parents.
Many states have "In loco parentis" laws, which give the schools the rights of parents while they are in school without the responsibility for their overall welfare. As a homeschool dad of 6 children over 28 years, I have seen the way the schools dealt with the children of our friends. While I doubt Jefferson had any inkling of what would come, just he had no idea that most of the country would one day believe that his Letter to the Danbury Baptists is part of the Constitution. John Dewey was the one who decided that the schools could be tools to push a Progressive Agenda. His ideas have been steadily moved into public education over the decades until they now dominate. I doubt the nation will ever recover from the damage that Mr. Dewey has inflicted on our children and grandchildren. As Ken pointed out, an under-educated snobbish kid took it upon himself in a recent demonstration to lecture the adult population of the country on the use of democracy. His speech was lauded by the media, but it reflected a sad lack of education on his part, and probably reflected on the education of the reporters as well.
It's not really that new Ken for as you well know, the Brown Shirts of Hitler's regime were nothing more than school kids who were told that they were the new authority. If their parents didn't adhere to the Nazi agenda then the kids reported them and were rewarded accordingly.
Any time Washington D.C. has anything to do with any institution or business, those in power believe they have a right to help navigate what initiatives those institutions or businesses are practicing. Of course, Washington is right, they do have some leverage and do have a right to an opinion but it has gone much further than that and nearly mimics the preferences of whoever holds the majority in congress. To say "public school" is nearly ludicrous because while they may be public, they are run by Washington D.C. which makes them "Government Schools" and as such will mirror the agenda (s) set forth by whatever interest groups or the underlying majority of congress. In a government school, it is the government who holds the scepter of divine parenthood for who can challenge the wisdom that comes forth from such a powerful god as it has become? Parents are only the providers of educational sustenance for a short while and then the real parents emerge in the form of a public school to newly indoctrinate the young with processed knowledge befit that of a goose stepping society.
I remember protesting the start of bussing. For so long they wanted parents to participate in school activities and this began the downfall of that. Parents didn't have any chance of stopping it ,for I later found out that this plan had been developing for years. I understood the reasoning behind it but no choice was given to the parents of the children being transported to schools miles across town. School activities were held in late afternoon or evenings clashed with working schedules not to mention those with no transportation to get there.
My objection to the schools indoctrinating our children is not based on a specific viewpoint. Parents who wish to raise their children as atheists or some other religion should not be undermined by Christian school teachers either, unless they are enrolled in a Christian school. That's not happening right now, as we've gone way in the other direction, to a point where simply being Christian is a detriment to a public school teacher's job - but if it were to happen, that would also be wrong. Teachers are people and the things that are important to them are likely to come out in what they say, so I wouldn't micromanage every word that a teacher says, whatever viewpoint it reflects, but there should not be a concerted effort to push a political or religious agenda onto public school students. These students should not be viewed as the property of the schools, in terms of using them to advance a political agenda, such as the recent school-sponsored walkouts for gun banning, or a political-religious agenda embracing Islam over other religions, or to assign students to write letters to elected officials promoting an agenda advanced by the school or the teacher. I wouldn't even do that as a parent, and I'd really be upset to find that a school was using my child in such a way. Students should be taught, not used as pawns to advance an agenda.
In a sense, you're right. They are more properly defined as government schools but, today, they are not being run by Washington, DC. Rather they are being used to advance a global agenda that continues along the same path regardless of who is in office in Washington, DC.
@Von Jones "Slithered" is so appropriate a term! As I see it (though my stand is strongly motivated by remaining armed), so long as those folks homeschooling their kids remain a part of the American "Gun Culture", their homes will remain "unslithered into" by the institutionalizers. Frank
Some schools are taking kids in at age two now, and they are feeding the breakfasts. Its as if they are supplanting the parents, little by little.