A teacher within the school district of Philadelphia is lamenting the increased chance of parental oversight if classes are taught online amid the coronavirus crisis — especially when it comes to so-called sex education.
“I am most intrigued by the damage that ‘helicopter/snowplow’ parents can do in honest conversations about gender/sexuality,” the teacher said. The teacher, Matthew R. Kay, works for Philadelphia’s Science Leadership Academy. In 2018, he published his book Not Light, but Fire: How to Lead Meaningful Race Conversations in the Classroom. While his tweets are private, one Twitter user posted a screenshot of his thread of complaints.
“So, this fall, virtual class discussions will have many potential spectators — parents, siblings, etc. — in the same room,” Kay began. “We’ll never be quite sure who is overhearing the discourse. What does this do for our equity/inclusion work? How much have students depended on the (somewhat) secure barriers of our physical classrooms to encourage vulnerability? How many of us have installed some version of ‘what happens here stays here’ to help this?”Top of FormBottom of Form
Kay then went on to mention “honest conversations about gender/sexuality” as an issue where parents who are involved in their children’s education would be unhelpful. Kay admitted that “‘conservative’ parents are my chief concern” but said “that the damage can come from the left too. If we are engaged in the messy work of destabilizing a kids [sic] racism or homophobia or transphobia — how much do we want their classmates’ parents piling on?”
The Family Research Council (FRC) in May released a publication on “Sex Education in Public Schools” outlining how “sex ed programs push the limits on what is appropriate, both in terms of the material presented to students and the age at which it is presented.” Often, parents are unaware that these things are happening at school. According to the publication, “[p]arents have two main concerns about sex ed to-day: That it sexualizes children and that it is load-ed with LGBTQ indoctrination.”
Consider that for a moment: Many teachers are actively attempting to indoctrinate kids without the knowledge of parents to ensure that the children will reject the views of the parents. Parents are essentially seen as an impediment to the state’s ability to raise and educate children as they see fit. This is especially true with the issue of transgenderism. Abigail Shrier, the author of the recent book Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters details how public schools keep parents in the dark even when children request transition and ask to be called by a different name. And Robert Hoogland, a BC man told by the courts that he must refer to his daughter as his son or be considered guilty of “family violence,” realized later that the school his daughter went to was bent on affirming a new gender identity.
I won’t belabor the point, as I’ve written on this topic many times. In short: If your kids are in public school, take them out. Their futures may well depend on it.
