Tags

, , , , , , , , , ,

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

Paraphrase of John Stuart Mill

The sort-of-national battle over to whom children belong continues to rage.  “All your children are belong to us,” proclaim the Marxist/racist wokesters, while parents foolishly persist in thinking just because their children are the product of their merged DNA, they have some connection to them.  Silly parents.  All right—left—thinking people know only Marxist, racist, statists are fit to raise children, otherwise they might grow up to think they have individual rights, and even worse, responsibilities.  They might think their allegiance is to their families rather than the all-encompassing state.  Consider this from The Washington Examiner:

Woke lunacy is top down and bottom up

In a national John Zogby Strategies survey, 48% of parents of children 12 and younger said authorities have ‘too much control,’ while 17% said ‘too little control.’ About 23% said schools have ‘just enough control.’

In the poll, Zogby found larger shares of most groups agree state authorities have too much control in classrooms rather than too little. That includes liberals (41% think there’s too much control compared to 21% who think there’s not enough), conservatives (57% compared to 14%), parents of young children (49% compared to 18%), and women (49% compared to 16%).

Hey, you have to have priorities

The accuracy of polling of this kind is surely affected by the reality parents satisfied with their schools may or may not vote according to what they know about damaging trends in schools elsewhere.  We seldom hear about schools where teachers focus on teaching their disciplines rather than on politically indoctrinating their students, or grooming them for sexual deviance, yet I suspect these schools are the majority.  In such schools, school authorities are responsive to parents, and my quarter century in education in such schools, which tend not to be unionized, makes clear school authorities do not fear or listen much to teachers, but they certainly fear and heed parents.  It’s also fair to wonder whether the 41% of “liberals” who think there is too much control do so because their children attend school districts that aren’t sufficiently woke.  In any case, Breitbart reports on the prevailing woke attitude:

No, you so unprofessional and evil

Leftist organization Together Rising is investing money and raising funds to help transgender youth advocacy organizations in Florida after the Sunshine State passed a bill prohibiting gender theory from being taught from kindergarten to third grade.

‘There’s no such thing as other people’s children,’ the group claims, following a longstanding narrative from leftists that children do not belong to their parents, but rather to the community as a whole and are effectively wards of the state.

We now travel to Eau Claire, WI, where Andrea Widberg at The American Thinker reports on the front lines in this continuing battle:

 What’s happening in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, exemplifies this battle and can be summed up in a sentence from a staff training session: ‘[P]arents are not entitled to know their kids’ [gender] identities. That knowledge must be earned.’

That arrogant message came from a ‘professional development facilitator guide’ that was used in the school district at a staff development session:

 

‘Teachers are often straddling this complex situation. In ECASD, our priority is supporting the student,” the professional development facilitator guide states. Teachers were encouraged to ‘Talk amongst yourselves!’

D/S/Cs are sooooo tolerant…

In my quarter century teaching career, I endured countless “staff development” sessions.  Virtually all were pure torture—a horrific waste of time, and usually, insulting to the intelligence of every teacher present.  Most consisted of a few hours of actual material of questionable—at best—value, stretched to cover eight hours.  At least none of them were as blatantly Marxist and stupid as this:

The lesson — that teachers know better than parents about what is best for their kids — is not sitting well with some community members.

‘We are appalled that ECASD would display such blatant disregard for the parents and guardians of our community’s children. We are equally dismayed that current school district leadership would pressure teachers into breaking a social contract that we all know and understand—that parents and guardians hold primary responsibility and decision making for the welfare and care of their children,’ said parents and school board candidates, Nicole Everson, Corey Cronrath and Melissa Winter in a joint statement.

What radical, white supremacist, racist, domestic terrorist, insurrectionists.

The same article linked above explains that the Wisconsin Supreme Court has before it a case out of Madison, Wisconsin, that saw similar staff training in the public schools. The policies before the Court include the following language:

*Children of any age can transition to a different gender identity at school, by changing their name and pronouns, without parental notice or consent.

*District employees are prohibited from notifying parents, without the child’s consent, that their child has or wants to change gender identity at school, or that their child may be dealing with gender dysphoria.

*District employees are even instructed to deceive parents by using the child’s legal name and pronouns with family, while using the different name and pronouns adopted by the child in the school setting.

Among the things about the trans “movement” that so outrages Normal Americans is the demand that everyone not only tolerate their excesses, but that they praise and promote their individual and collective deviance. Normal Americans are generally willing to allow others to do as they please, so long as they don’t break the law or infringe on the rights of others, including parental rights and responsibilities, which include the right to be informed about any situation or condition involving their children.  They tend, understandably, to be a bit prickly about that.

What compassion; what tolerance…

As Widberg argues state may establish child welfare agencies to investigate claims of child abuse or neglect, but as informed Americans know, such agencies can be abusive of individual rights.  Woke schools argue parents who do not fully embrace woke beliefs and political stances are prima facie  child abusers.  Sane parents argue they are ultimately responsible for their children and their development, and woke schools are attempting to sexually groom and politically indoctrinate their children rather than see to their intellectual and civic educations.

Widburg provided a number of tweets from Libs of TikTok, covering a mere two weeks.  Provided throughout this article, they provide an accurate sampling of what woke schools are “teaching”:

That’s Donald Trump’s photo displayed upside down

Yes, she praising a convicted murderer and Marxist who is hiding in Cuba

D/S/C “leadership”

Not like that’s hypocritical or anything…

I trust I don’t need to comment on this one…

Would you want this guy anywhere near your children?

But I thought they didn’t teach CRT stuff in schools…

This actual child abuse took place at Summerville Elementary School in Tuolumne, CA

Final Thoughts:  As I’ve often written, it’s imperative parents play a very active role in their children’s educations.  This must include polite, continuing and persistent, demands for the specific curriculum and methods of instruction provided in their schools.  Schools with consistently engaged parents tend to be less likely to cross boundaries, though this is not necessarily true in blue states/cities.

As regular readers know, I not only encouraged as much parental involvement as possible, I welcomed it, including having parents sit in on classes whenever they pleased.  I took it as something of a compliment very few ever took me up on that offer.  Teachers who are not so willing should raise the suspicions of parents.

I’ll not argue for the primacy of parental rights and ultimate responsibility for the care and development of their children.  Sane people understand this, and no productive, healthy society can survive without that understanding any more than America can survive unless its citizens willingly embrace   American Constitutionalism with its strong individual liberties and limitations on government.

It’s important too to understand the kinds of things these school districts and teachers are doing are exacerbating the distrust of essential institutions, and the chasm between Americans that threatens to break out into secession and hot civil war.  We’re discussing, in this article and elsewhere, the current cold civil war.

One of the primarily lessons I learned in my first, police, career was nothing enrages people to the point of violence faster than messing with their children or their pets.  The comparison is far less frivolous that one might imagine.  Children and pets are innocent and powerless, and Normal Americans, who willingly take on the responsibility for their welfare, are serious about protecting both.  They certainly don’t see animals as the equivalent of human beings, but they absolutely, rightfully loath anyone who would harm a helpless animal.  Imagine how much more exercised they become when anyone is trying to harm their children.

There are some lines sane people do not cross.  The woke, D/S/C left recognizes few, if any, of them unless they have no choice, and for many not even then.  When trust in institutions is lost and non-violent means are exhausted, what’s left?  Our constitutional republic functions on trust, and trust lost may never be regained.  Loss of trust leads to secession and civil war, yet woke schools knowingly discard that public trust.

The SMM Second Civil War series is here, and contains to date, 30 articles.  If you’re not familiar with it, you may find it worth your while.