To be or not to be - The Erosion of Parental Rights
By the cranky housewife
When I was in second grade, our teacher announced that as a class we were going to create a book called VIP (Very Important People). In this book there would be a separate page for each student which would be biographical in nature and would include a picture that was drawn by the student to depict the detail of his or her biography. Each day, a different student would be picked to be the VIP and would be asked a series of questions about his or her life. “When is your birthday, how many siblings do you have, do you have any pets”… you get the idea. This all led up to what I considered to be the most exciting question of them all, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” My mind just reeled in anticipation. I could hardly wait until it was my turn and I could answer the all-important question for the whole world (well, my second grade class was nearly my whole world) to hear.
I waited very patiently… and I had to, because the teacher was very particular about equity. It was “boy-girl-boy-girl” all the way. I must have waited a full and most dreadful month, listening to the two alternative answers… “I want to be a teacher!” vs. “I’m going to be a baseball player.” Very humdrum, I must say. I was looking for something with a little more razzmatazz.
But then it was my turn. I wriggled in my seat – I was so excited. With concerted effort, I remaining composed and justified and answered all the perfunctory questions with poise and dignity. Birthday? Check. Siblings? Check. Pets? Check. And then my moment was upon me. My whole state of being hummed with breathless anticipation… “And what would you like to do when you grow up?”
Without skipping a beat, I blurted it out. “I want to have a baby.” There was a momentary silence while the class digested that information. Silence, followed by laughter. The teacher looked a little frazzled and settled my classmates before turning to me and responding, “But what kind of work will you do?” Puzzled but defiant (which sums up my entire academic career) I repeated, “I want to have a baby.” I overheard a girl who sat a row away whisper to her neighbor, “That’s a silly job.” Again, the class twittered with laughter. My teacher (She must have been on the verge of an aneurysm - I’m sure her mind was whizzing with what kind of picture I intended to draw as illustration to this little biographical tidbit) answered, “Well, that’s okay too.” And thus my VIP moment ended. It hadn’t been as much fun as I thought it was going to be. I now realize that this is because my answer had been wrong.
I don’t mean wrong in any real biographical sense. I am doing exactly what I said I was going to do. I stay at home. I raise my children. I am a scourge to the sociological evolution that social planners have in mind for our world and for the universe at large. When I say that my answer was wrong, I mean that the expectation was that little girls would grow to be good social workers and little boys would grow to be big boys. I could have said, “I want to work at the DMV” and that would have been a more acceptable answer. I could have said, “I want to work in a daycare center and change the diapers of other women’s babies who are out being more productive than I will be,” and this would have still fallen into the bell curve of proper responses. To suggest that I would stay at home and have children and raise them with my own value system was just shy of Progressive blasphemy. I think this may have been my first inkling that the public school system is dysfunctional. But to heck with them. To quote the always irreverent Indigo Girls, “I spent four years prostrate to the higher mind. Got my paper and I was free.”
I hear a lone voice out there whispering, “So, what is your point Madam Housewife?” Don’t be timid. Don’t be shy. Speak right up. Your question falls into MY bell curve of proper responses. Or to quote my second grade teacher, “That’s okay too.”
Back in 2005, there was a court case that is referred to as Fields v. Palmdale School District in which the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decided that parental rights do “not exist beyond the threshold of the school door.” More precisely, “We conclude that the parents are possessed of no constitutional authority to prevent the public schools from providing information on the subject [of sexuality] to their students in any forum or manner they select.”
Do you remember the old days when we had the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? It seems like a long time ago - before the days when our only right was to be a productive and useful member of society as determined by society for the purpose of moving our species forward to some non-specified evolutionary end for the greater good, and to which the individual and his rights have no relevance or meaning (big gasp for breath inserted here.) I only vaguely remember those days too, for the response, “Well, that’s okay too” foreshadowed the beginning of State influence upon the American family in a way, which may look like some Huxley-an acid trip…but which is, in fact, our current reality.
Think back even ten years ago. Would you have ever thought that there would be a time when there would be a school system created and run with monies that had been extracted from abused taxpayers in order to support areas of studies, which are often not only of little educational value, but offend the very people who are paying for the whole mess…and that a court, which is funded with monies extracted from those same abused taxpayers would rule that the taxpayers have no right to stop the offensive studies and have no right to stop funding the offensive studies…and that they have no right to protect the children that they have born and raised once they have entered the school system, which by law they must hand their children over to. It’s insane. For six hours a day and for thirty-six weeks a year, parental rights become subordinated to a system that is intended to teach, but rather undermines parental authority and corrupts children against parental value systems. When did the saying, “He who pays the piper picks the tune” become “I don’t care if it sucks - You’ll pay for this crud and you’ll like it?”
Do you find this as fascinating as I do? Please check out Parental-rights.org and learn more about the erosion of your personal liberties at the hands of corrupt educational and judicial systems.
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