Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Parents are 'sleeping giants' who will fix American education
FOX News.com ^ | May 11, 2022 | Mike Dunleavy , Dr. Kevin Roberts

Posted on 05/11/2022 10:06:39 AM PDT by Kaslin

The strangest thing about the debate over parents’ roles and rights in their children’s education is that there is a debate at all.

As former teachers ourselves, we know firsthand that nothing is more valuable to a classroom or school – let alone to individual students – than parental involvement. Of course they should have access to instructional materials teachers use in class. Of course parents should decide when and how morally complicated issues are introduced into the classroom – if at all.

The idea of public school personnel laying claim to children – independent of and even confidential from their parents – would be laughable if it weren’t so frightening. Good teachers bend over backwards to be transparent with their students’ moms and dads. They want parents to be in the loop, part of a team helping each student develop the skills necessary to succeed.

Adults who try to hide what they do with other people’s children for hours at a time, by contrast, have no business in a classroom. Yet somehow a large proportion of America’s school boards, school administrators, and teachers’ unions apparently take as a given this subverted idea that government officials, not parents, are children’s primary educators.

Sadly, this isn’t a new development. Like so many other once-respected public institutions, America’s schools have been breaking down for years now. Declining test scores and political correctness attest to just how far public schools have descended into academic mediocrity and "woke" indoctrination. It took remote learning during COVID-19 to alert parents to the dangers and failings of our school systems.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; US: Alaska
KEYWORDS:
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-38 last
To: devane617

The moms are why public education is where it is today.


21 posted on 05/11/2022 10:53:37 AM PDT by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; not averse to Going Bronson.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: aquila48

They/we are waking up. It’s real. I had my 4 kids in our local (somewhat leftist—CA Bay Area) school district from 2010-2020 and have followed school board policies and union activities closely (and still do).

Prior to 2020, parents in my district were very supportive of teachers and the district, and even believed the union when they went around with phrases like “#ForOurKids” which was of course total BS (I knew before 2020; parents woke up with the shutdowns).

Now since the pandemic, parent involvement has skyrocketed, attendance is high and combative and parents are skeptical of anything the district does now. We also attempted to recall 3 of 5 trustees (the only ones eligible for recall) but were unfortunately unsuccessful (not quite enough signatures). But we have new good parent-focused trustees ready to vote for in the fall. It’s going to be tough, as there is a lot of union $$ to union-backed trustees and the unions are nasty and will try to destroy our candidates most likely.

It’s all very different. Parents are awake and cynical, and question and protest much more than before.

As for me and my family, I moved one teen to private school and one teen to homeschooling in 2020. I stay and fight for other students in my community but was blessed and resourceful enough to have moved my own kids out.

It’s the Year of the Parent.


22 posted on 05/11/2022 10:59:04 AM PDT by olivia3boys
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

As long as the university pumps out woke young teachers, the problem isn’t solved.


23 posted on 05/11/2022 11:00:20 AM PDT by lurk (u)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

I pray the parents succeed but the teachers should be supporting them bigly!!


24 posted on 05/11/2022 11:10:25 AM PDT by FES0844
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: George from New England

A lot of white, middle class, women are concerned with status and standing. They will not fight the school board.


25 posted on 05/11/2022 11:13:19 AM PDT by redgolum (If this is civilization, I will be the barbarian. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
Oh! You mean the “binary” sex education thing that allowed the said species to become the dominant biological force on the planet over the last three hundred thousand years. Hmm... Perhaps we should rethink this whole man woman thing. What could possibly go wrong.
26 posted on 05/11/2022 11:16:07 AM PDT by Desron13 (You may choose to ignore reality but you can't force reality to ignore you.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

This will have a huge effect on the 2022 election...bet on it.


27 posted on 05/11/2022 11:16:26 AM PDT by rrrod (6)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: redgolum

You might be surprised. I’m in a white (and Asian) upper-middle class area of CA. We happily fight the school board. Also—have you been following the white upper-middle class Loudon County school board fights? They’ve led the way for the entire nation.

My district was the first in CA to try to recall the school board—and rich SF parents actually succeeded in recalling their district’s trustees in San Francisco!


28 posted on 05/11/2022 11:17:28 AM PDT by olivia3boys
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: Born in 1950
"My wife had the notion that the silent majority, or the right thinking responsible parents would be a barrier to all this BS. The problem is those cultural forces have dissipated to nothingness. It’s different now."

Sadly, the Christian Coalition and the Silent Majority have passed. The Reagan coalitions are no more. More upsetting is that some once conservative churches now preach a "woke" theology.

29 posted on 05/11/2022 12:07:32 PM PDT by buckalfa (An old man who plants a tree whose shade he will never see is the primary component of civilization.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: olivia3boys

I applaud you and wish you and your fellow fighting parents all the success in the world. Our country is at stake.

So many of these institutions have been taken by a few determined and committed leftist activists.

There are way more of us than them. We just need to make our voices and demands heard and we can send them packing.


30 posted on 05/11/2022 12:10:55 PM PDT by aquila48 (Do not let them make you "care" ! Guilting you is how they control you. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: buckalfa

I live in Florida (thank God) My suggestion is to find men like DeSantis and elected them as governors...


31 posted on 05/11/2022 12:15:59 PM PDT by GOPJ (Biden's motto "America Last". If YOU object you're labeled 'domestic terrorist' and put on a list.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

The Marxist loving universities have poisoned our kids minds. We’ll never be able to turn this around unless we can do something about that.


32 posted on 05/11/2022 12:17:29 PM PDT by Bullish (CNN is what you get when gullible children run a 'news' channel.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

bump


33 posted on 05/11/2022 1:23:43 PM PDT by Albion Wilde (If science can’t be questioned, it’s not science anymore, it’s propaganda. --Aaron Rodgers)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: George from New England

No, the problem are the parents who take the middle class welfare so they can have McMansions, new cars, vacations, country club memberships, all while subjecting their children to the joys of govt education.


34 posted on 05/11/2022 1:27:45 PM PDT by Trailerpark Badass (“There should be a whole lot more going on than throwing bleach,” said one woman.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Eliminate the NEA, teachers unions and the Department of Education to start.

Kick liberals out of education, eliminate school boards, get back to basics including shop and physical education and there’s only 2 sexes and 2 genders. Anything else belongs in psychiatric institutions not to schools because apparently they haven’t figured out science.


35 posted on 05/11/2022 2:23:41 PM PDT by maddog55 (The only thing systemic in America is the left's hatred of it!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: olivia3boys

That is good news!

But what I have seen, in my areas, is a “flash in the pan” followed by the same people being shamed into stopping.

I have family in Loudon, and that is what happened with that boy at first till the father took it to national news.

Similar things happen all the time (my wife is a teacher) and often are covered up, denied, or just buried. Local teenager sexually assaulted someone on a bus two years ago, and the topic quickly became how the assaulter was the real victim because of racism.

Hell, my local school board broke the law on multiple occasions, over spent their budget, and then sued the state for inequality when it the superintendent was charged.

That is one reason our kids go to a religious school


36 posted on 05/12/2022 7:10:48 AM PDT by redgolum (If this is civilization, I will be the barbarian. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: buckalfa

Yep.

The SBC went woke.

Same with many other denominations.


37 posted on 05/12/2022 7:11:44 AM PDT by redgolum (If this is civilization, I will be the barbarian. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
Stop leaving it on the parents.

People act as if the only ones who can or should be involved in public schools are the parents who's children attend those schools.

As a citizen you have every right and maybe even the imperative to be involved. It is your money, it is your culture and it is your society.

Go down and get involved.

38 posted on 05/12/2022 8:22:14 AM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear (It is better to light a single flame thrower then curse the darkness. A bunch of them is better yet)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-38 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson