Though the phrase “parental rights” is by no means a new term it has re-emerged during recent conflicts over sexual orientation and gender identity policies in Canadian schools. Here’s a look at what the phrase means, where it comes from and who is included — and excluded — under its umbrella.
Fundamentally, “parental rights” is a dog whistle about limiting children’s rights, usually in contravention of Charter Rights.
Our youth in schools have a right to not be discriminated against based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. SOGI curriculum is based on anti-bullying, pro-inclusiveness principles, to make schools safe and accepting places for all, including gender and sexual minorities. (The same thing can be said about anti-racist education, regarding racial minorities.)
That’s it. There’s no “hidden agenda” to groom or sexualize children. No teachers anywhere are pushing children toward having non-cis gender identity or non-hetero sexuality. And nobody is showing porn in classrooms.
The lies and gross misrepresentation of what’s happening in schools is fueled by conservative politicians manufacturing wedge socially conservative issues to get voters who will ignore their economic policies.
We must have no tolerance for intolerance.
The best explanation I’ve seen so far is that now that the abortion issue was crushed by a conservative supreme court in the USA, the next thing they’re trying to do is indoctrinate the youth, because church attendance is dwindling.
Of course, it doesn’t take long for that bullshit to bleed into Canada.
It’s time to double-down on the demand for free/cheap and secular education.
I don’t get it. There are untold fields in which I haven’t got the expertise to educate my kids. That includes all this gender stuff that is newer to me than the technology I struggle with. And that doesn’t even consider actual methods of teaching! I’ve been an job-retraining instructor, but I can’t help thinking that has little in common with getting school aged kids to make progress.
It’s like finding a mechanical repair shop. You find the people who know what they’re doing and how to do it, then pay them to do what you can’t.
In the society we’ve built, we all have become dependent on expertise that we don’t possess, so sometimes we just have to get out of the way. Not just when we know we don’t have a clue or are feeling lazy or pressed for time, but even when it’s hard to admit that someone might know more than us.
The state must be allowed to totally raise the children in their image so that the state can control them for life.
It doesn’t matter what you teach or how you teach or even if you teach. It all helps set the directions taken. Personally, I’ll take knowledge over ignorance and inclusion over exclusion, even when I find those things personally uncomfortable.
Ah yes, the conservative doctrine.
The state would need to get involved to stop most if not all of these teachers from teaching kids about gender identity and expression though, wouldn’t it?
