Emboldened by the political right's growing influence on public policy, opponents of school activities aimed at educating students about homosexuality or promoting acceptance of gay people are mounting challenges to such programs, at individual schools, at statehouses and in Congress.
-- Gay Rights Battlefields Spread to Public Schools
Our parents have a constitutional right to send us to private and religious schools. They also have limited rights (as do students themselves) to limit public school curriculum, including when it wrongly mixes church with state or inhibits other freedoms. We don't, however, have a general right to put our values over that which are at the heart of public school itself.
For public school does teach certain values ... all education does, and education put forth by the state does as well. For instance, besides the three Rs,* it teaches good citizenship, how to work with a diverse group of people, and overall free inquiry. The attempts by some to limit such values and educational principles is problematic -- if they don't like secular education, open and free inquiry, and meeting together of points of view or groups that they might disagree with, send their children elsewhere. Don't try to alter the basis of public education.
Let it be noted that libs might run into problems here too in certain cases. For instance, perhaps they wouldn't want their children to learn about war or be exposed to clubs (including gun related) that they don't like. It is not just a right thing. Still, when the right tries to limit the range of material taught in school, the (federally protected ... law protects religiously themed clubs as well as gay friendly clubs) after school activities, and honest and well-rounded health education, it is troubling.
As with the battle over stem cells and the like, public policy these days is not just a matter of foreign policy or questionable tax/business "reforms." As usual, cultural matters dominate as well, and a proper balance must be reached. The public schools are not the place to limit the range of knowledge, debate and openness in the ways discussed below ... in fact, any limits must be looked upon with askance.
And, they better watch out -- when the political winds changed, their call for censorship and skewering things their way might come back to bite them.
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* What a trite metaphor anyway. Who actually believes that the schools should only teach reading, writing, and math? Note how many who speak of the 3Rs are quite concerned with prayer in school as well -- where does that fit? Prayer before tests? Reading the Bible? Or, sports. Then, again, football is a religion in some areas.