The problem is that too many times a decision is left to people with an agenda like tough love learning, it carries with it a responsibility to make the right decision. It’s kind of like teachers taking kids to the doctors for birth control or an abortion: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/teen-abortion-high-school/story?id=10189694, http://www.lifenews.com/2016/06/01/teacher-pregnant-after-sex-with-13-year-old-student-has-abortion-to-hide-sexual-abuse/, http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/5005497/Schools-arrange-secret-abortions, http://www.schoolcounselor.org/magazine/blogs/september-october-2012/district-policy-and-student-pregnancy.
This is what I mean by a slippery slope. They should not step between the children and their parents for anything legal. That is not their job to “teach” kids adult responsibilities. It is the job of the parents. School systems do not raise children. They educate them.
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To some extent I agree with you - if you are talking about public schools. Schools run by the state which are often schools parents did not really choose for their children to attend (yes, there's always some choice and alternatives like homeschooling but I think most people understand the distinction.
But that isn't the case with the school in this article. And it isn't the case with my school either. We're private schools, which means parents have chosen to send their kids to the school. If they don't like the way the school operates they could choose something different. And one of the big reasons parents choose schools like that is because they want the schools to do more than just the bare minimum. They want the school to be part of raising their child.
I'll admit to being somewhat ambivalent as well to the idea that even public schools shouldn't step in. When parents aren't there for their kids, somebody has to be. Sometimes that's because the parents aren't doing what they should. Sometimes they can't - in my own case my parents died when I was only nine and if it hadn't been for my school and my teachers being able to do more than just teach me, I don't know how I'd have turned out.
I've never helped a kid get an abortion (I teach boys so that issue hasn't arisen but it's not something I would be any part of any way). I have helped a boy get an eye test and glasses. And I am glad the law where I am allowed me to do that. I won't discuss in detail why that kid couldn't get help from his parents at that time, but it was a fact we had to deal with.
Yes, I've got a responsibility to make the right decision. I can't see how letting a kid sit in a classroom unable to read the board would have been the right decision. But I wouldn't have gone against his parent's express wishes. In fact, I'm pretty sure they would have wanted me to do exactly what I did.
One of which is: exposing their precious snowflakes to the valuable experience of natural and logical consequences.
This leads to a phenomenon called "maturity".