Thank you, Mr Pew, that is a brave teacher. I would, however, take issue with the framing of the parental concerns as "parents' rights." It is better described as "parental responsibilities" and the responsibilities go one way from parent to child.
Parental responsibility is total at the beginning of a child's life with the aim of raising them to be responsible themselves as far as they are able and to be a productive member of society themselves. This includes instilling within a child values, faith, if they wish, character, a sense of self and of purpose. Schools should play an adjunct and collaboratory role in this adding knowledge, methodologies such as mathematics and pushing them to achieve their best and building character by taking on difficult tasks.
Not only are schools failing on this point, or perhaps precisely because they are failing, they are withdrawing from their collaboration with parents centring themselves in the role of raising them. Parents are rightly concerned.
In the particular issue of hiding a gender dysphoric child's issues from parents, this matters for two reasons. Firsty, the Cass Report in the UK on the largest paediatric gender clinic (now shut down) found that there is a 70% comorbidity with 5 other issues, for example autism, anorexia and suicide attempts. Affirmation is quickly being abandoned by progressive countries such as Norway and Holland and teacher is not qualified to make a judgement call on this. The parents are probably already dealing with a difficult situation and need to be able to take parental responsibility here in an holistic manner.
Secondly, unlike "coming out" as gay, which requires nothing of the listener, there are pages of protocols in many school boards advising how to socially transition a child without the parents' knowledge which simultaneously puts other children and the child themselves in potential danger when sharing dorms, sporting teams and washroom facilities with the opposite sex (see Loudoun County School Board in VA for details on how this might go wrong). This is an overreach of the schools adjunct and collaborative role to parents. It is not that the numbers are small to whom these protocols refer, but rather that schools feel emboldened enough to instigate them in the first place which has made parents like myself angry.
That teacher has the right stuff good for her so how about we hear from a few more of the thousands of teachers in Canada or are they simply too cowardly to speak.
Thank you, Mr Pew, that is a brave teacher. I would, however, take issue with the framing of the parental concerns as "parents' rights." It is better described as "parental responsibilities" and the responsibilities go one way from parent to child.
Parental responsibility is total at the beginning of a child's life with the aim of raising them to be responsible themselves as far as they are able and to be a productive member of society themselves. This includes instilling within a child values, faith, if they wish, character, a sense of self and of purpose. Schools should play an adjunct and collaboratory role in this adding knowledge, methodologies such as mathematics and pushing them to achieve their best and building character by taking on difficult tasks.
Not only are schools failing on this point, or perhaps precisely because they are failing, they are withdrawing from their collaboration with parents centring themselves in the role of raising them. Parents are rightly concerned.
In the particular issue of hiding a gender dysphoric child's issues from parents, this matters for two reasons. Firsty, the Cass Report in the UK on the largest paediatric gender clinic (now shut down) found that there is a 70% comorbidity with 5 other issues, for example autism, anorexia and suicide attempts. Affirmation is quickly being abandoned by progressive countries such as Norway and Holland and teacher is not qualified to make a judgement call on this. The parents are probably already dealing with a difficult situation and need to be able to take parental responsibility here in an holistic manner.
Secondly, unlike "coming out" as gay, which requires nothing of the listener, there are pages of protocols in many school boards advising how to socially transition a child without the parents' knowledge which simultaneously puts other children and the child themselves in potential danger when sharing dorms, sporting teams and washroom facilities with the opposite sex (see Loudoun County School Board in VA for details on how this might go wrong). This is an overreach of the schools adjunct and collaborative role to parents. It is not that the numbers are small to whom these protocols refer, but rather that schools feel emboldened enough to instigate them in the first place which has made parents like myself angry.
Amen.
Courage is exactly what is needed. And its lack is exactly what allows these woke travesties to flourish.
Thank God for that good teacher and may she be the first of many.
That teacher has the right stuff good for her so how about we hear from a few more of the thousands of teachers in Canada or are they simply too cowardly to speak.