This should be required in every public school district in the country. Public schools have demonstrated that many of them have forfeited the confidence and trust of parents.
Yep
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
One suspects that this particular Governor is only doing this because of his egregious mishandling of the 2020 election and wishes to prevent a successful primary challenge. He saw the writing in the wall with Virginia and believes that this will save him from the wrath of the conservative Republicans in his state come primary time, but like his fellow traveler in Georgia, his efforts are doomed to failure.
I am a Catholic schoolteacher and have to post my lesson plans online – had to for years. If you have good technology and train people, it’s not that hard. It might be some extra work for your school’s tech guys, of course, especially if you want texts and district documents available also.
Parents have a fundamental right to know what their kids are learning in school, but that does not extend to choosing textbooks or reviewing each teacher’s lesson plans. Especially at the high school level, students are expected to be challenged, to learn to think for themselves, and to form their beliefs. As a high school social studies teacher, for example, my job was to ask deep questions – Jefferson told us that all men are created equal, what are some examples of that? How do you think Jefferson reconciled the idea of freedom with his owning slaves. Does the First Amendment provide for freedom of religion or freedom from religion? How does freedom of speech protect people who say hateful things? Etc.
Parents have a fundamental right to know what their kids are learning in school, but that does not extend to choosing textbooks or reviewing each teacher’s lesson plans
Why not? They have a triple right to do so as parents, taxpayers and voters. This of course would not be an issue if so many teachers and school boards and school administrations hadn’t indicated by their actions that they were more interested in indoctrination rather than education.
Either the parents have authority over what their children are learning, or they do not.
The school only gets authority in so far as it is granted to them by the parents.
The very reason that we are having this problem is that schools took that authority, abused the trust, and have spent decades trying to teach kids what to think, rather than how to think.
If you, as a teacher, cannot defend what you are teaching the children of others– then clearly you either cannot teach the kids how to think, or you are abusing the authority they have granted you.
Parents have a fundamental right to know what their kids are learning in school, but that does not extend to choosing textbooks or reviewing each teacher’s lesson plans. Especially at the high school level, students are expected to be challenged, to learn to think for themselves, and to form their beliefs. As a high school social studies teacher, for example, my job was to ask deep questions – Jefferson told us that all men are created equal, what are some examples of that? How do you think Jefferson reconciled the idea of freedom with his owning slaves. Does the First Amendment provide for freedom of religion or freedom from religion? How does freedom of speech protect people who say hateful things? Etc.
Again, you have an inflated sense of your own function. From the parents perspective, we have schools for one reason only: efficiencies derived from division of labor. Which is to say the hired help have to be acting in accordance with the common objects of parents. Very few parents are pleased with malevolent social propaganda, however much people of your ilk which to trade in it.
While we’re at it, in a sensible world, there are no ‘social studies’ teachers because there is no such thing as ‘social studies’. There is history, there is geography, there is anthropology, there is civics. It may bore you to see to it that your students have a fund of factual knowledge (and you may be lacking such yourself), but that is the function of primary and secondary school teachers.