It’s always a reality check to see just how angry progressives in politics and the media get when a rogue politician decides to actually consult with parents and respect the fact that they are the primary guardians of their children. For example, consider the sort of language that iPolitics used in a news—not opinion—article on Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government’s latest move to overhaul the sex education curriculum. Titled “Ontario launches site for tattling on sex-ed teachers bucking Ford-ordered curriculum,” the alleged reporter makes it crystal clear which side she’s on:
The Ontario government is launching a snitch site for parents to lodge complaints against teachers they believe aren’t following provincial curriculum. In a press release issued Wednesday, Premier Doug Ford warned teachers against teaching the 2015 sex-ed curriculum the Progressive Conservatives repealed in July.
“We expect our teachers, principals and school board officials to fulfill their obligations to parents and children when it comes to what our students learn in the classroom,” he said. “We will not tolerate anybody using our children as pawns for grandstanding and political games. And, make no mistake, if we find somebody failing to do their job, we will act.”
The release also announced the start of consultations in September which will cover a new sex-ed curriculum and several other curricula, including math, trades and life skills…The province is also asking for parent feedback on Ford’s campaign promise to ban cellphones in the classroom. Neither the premier nor Education Minister Lisa Thompson was made available for questions or interviews.
Until now the government said it would rely on the sex-ed curriculum from 1998. However, the government instead put out a revised version of that curriculum from 2010. As part of a plan to ensure teachers only use the 2010sex-ed curriculum, the government unveiled a complaints website for parents — branded fortheparents.ca — and reminded them of other ways to complain about teachers both online and over the phone with the Ontario College of Teachers.
In a tweet, the president of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) called the government’s plan a “blatant attack” on teachers.
It’s “unprecedented, outrageous, and shameful!” Sam Hammond said…ETFO has previously said it will “vigorously defend” any teacher who uses the modernized 2015 sex-ed curriculum in their classes. At the time, Thompson refused to answer repeated questions about what if any consequences teachers would face if they teach the newer curriculum.
The media is quite literally using the same terminology as the NDP is when they refer the Ford government’s plan to loop parents into the discussion as a “snitch-line”—but you’ll notice that they scarcely mention why the government needed to create this in the first place: Because the teacher’s union, a long-time ally of Andrea Horwath’s NDP, publicly stated that their teachers were free to ignore the government and teach whatever they want. In response, the Ford government created a way for the voices of parents to be heard—parents, according to the NDP, the teacher’s union, and the media, who are apparently nothing more than “snitches” and “tattle-tales” for wanting there to be some accountability between the elected government and the educators they employ to teach Ontario’s children.
The fact is that the teacher’s union has its own ideological agenda, and have decided to act as if the people of Ontario did not elect a Progressive Conservative government. Instead, they have decided to go rogue, and ignore the concerns of parents—with the backing of Andrea Horwath’s NDP. The media obviously agrees with them, and is pretending that the government is forcing this on parents rather than responding to widespread complaints about a lack of consultation. Not that the media objects to the government forcing curriculum on unwilling schools, mind you—they’ve been fully supportive of the Alberta NDP’s demands that religious schools change their policies, because it suits their ideology.
I genuinely wish more people would call out politicians like Andrea Horwath when she implies that concerned parents are “snitches” for objecting to the idea that teacher’s unions can do whatever they like. Progressive politicians need to realize that the children of Ontario do not belong to them, and that they and their union cronies simply do not have the right to impose their ideology on other people’s children at the taxpayer’s expense.
_________________________________________
For anyone interested, my book on The Culture War, which analyzes the journey our culture has taken from the way it was to the way it is and examines the Sexual Revolution, hook-up culture, the rise of the porn plague, abortion, commodity culture, euthanasia, and the gay rights movement, is available for sale here.
