Pepe wrote:
Kraichgauer wrote:
Very well said.

Hardly.
It is more than a little out of touch when you consider the two recent elections where the democrats suffered greatly because parents voted against teacher indoctrination.
One election was won by the republicans, and the other nearly won.
It was the
*voters* who spoke
*LOUDLY* 
Just because politicians are skillful at pushing buttons and making a community believe something is an issue, doesn't mean it actually is. But Democratic candidates burying their heads in the sand on the reality of certain emotions hasn't exactly helped.
Most voters do not currently have school age children and don't know the facts on the ground.
Teachers are individuals, and make mistakes. One minor mistake gets broadcast nationwide while the much more accurate and effective work is ignored. But 1 teacher of thousands of making a mistake isn't national indoctrination; it's one teacher. That one mistake is then used by politicians under the GUISE of parental rights to promote an extreme agenda that ultimately has nothing to do with actual parental rights.
The political conversation also discounts that thinking children can and do challenge teachers on, well, EVERYTHING, and in public education here in the US that is OK. The goal is to teach kids to think for themselves, and teachers in public education do actually try to embrace that. Again, there are always exceptions, but the exceptions are not the rule. What the politicians want to do is SQUASH the vibrant discussion because, Lord forbid, THINKING students raise issues and points those politicians do not want the voting population to believe.
Anytime you tell teachers that certain topics are prohibited in the classroom, you prevent students from having the vibrant and challenging conversations they need to have to grow their minds. And, lately, it's all been about what CANNOT be mentioned in the classroom.
My kids learned a lot of things at school that I would personally have preferred they could have stayed sheltered from. But just because I worried about the timing on their loss of innocence doesn't mean what they were exposed to was bad or wrong. They were ready for a lot more than I wanted them to be, it turned out. They only have until 18 to get an accurate handle on the world and develop enough critical thinking to vote. And they DO develop a whole lot faster than any of us parents would like them to. They also had some teachers who sent poor messages, but my kids never lock stock and barrel assumed everything a teacher said had to be gospel. They brought home questions and observations and we talked about it. Having an open minded home environment where questions and debate are welcome is the single best answer to any potential "indoctrination" by some teacher, event leader, TV show or, well, anything. And that is on the parents, not the school.
But we do have a way out for parents who can't handle someone else deciding what their kids are taught 6 hours a day: private or home school. That choice is always there.
_________________
Mom to an amazing young adult AS son, plus an also amazing non-AS daughter. Most likely part of the "Broader Autism Phenotype" (some traits).