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this post was submitted on 10 Oct 2023
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It is worth trying to understand where general support for "parents rights" comes from. I live in a rural area where it's getting a fair bit of support. From the parents I've talked to:
Parents care about their kids. If their child is facing something monumental, they want to help. They feel that they will be able to help their kid navigate the situation. They are less concerned about other kids who might be harmed by their parents.
Parents have had bad experiences with teachers. Many parents can name one or two members of staff that have treated their kid poorly, ignored problems, or done a bad job teaching.
Parents don't have good experiences with school policies. Parents see math and reading being taught badly, and don't think schools will do a good job helping their kid understand their sexuality.
That's not understanding, that's whitewashing (or being naive). Those 3 points don't actually add up to "parents rights" unless you add one key additional component.
I'm not saying they add up to "parents rights", I'm trying to get across that a lot of parents feel like they've been let down by their kids schools.
That makes for fertile ground when a right wing campaigner comes along and says "do you trust the school?"
No, it comes from concern that their kid might be exposed to something that differs from what they are taught at church. Then it expands into nobody else's children should be exposed to what they are taught at church.
I can guarantee you something, most of them don't go to church. I know many people in that crowd and none of them practice anything related to religion except sinning.
You must know a different set of parents than I do. Over the couple of decades raising my kids, interacting with other parents, and dealing problems at school, my experience is that people in general and parents in particular typically complain a lot more about other kids' lousy parents than lousy teachers or lousy schooling.
I think it depends on the kids and their situation.
One of my kids had no problem with reading, but the other had a really hard time with cueing. I was surprised to find that it's part of the curriculum in both Ontario and NB. Fortunately, both provinces seem to be switching back to phonics.
Another parent in my cohort found their daughter was having difficulty with math, got little support from the teacher, and ended up teaching her daughter remedial math in the evenings.
So far, other kids and parents have been fine.
Those stories mirror my own experiences with school and teachers. I, too, had to take on teaching math and, more surprisingly, how to actually approach the challenge of learning.
Yet, somehow, at the block parties, dinner parties, BBQs, picnics, and across the back fence I could always count on people to complain about how badly this or that person or couple was at parenting. Rarely did I hear people complain about schools or teachers except in the most egregious failures.
Hilariously, the most vocal people I know worried about their "parental rights" homeschool their kids.
You have to wonder if it has never occurred to them that they can tell themselves if their child/student chooses to use a different pronoun at home/school.