Parents are Angry, With a Reason

A moral dilemma

I have a friend, (we’ll call her “Sandy”), who was recently certified as a public school teacher in California.  For reasons that will become obvious shortly, I’m protecting her identity.  She is allowing me to tell her story since–after spending a great deal of money and time qualifying for her position–she may have to give it up.  She fears that she might be asked to violate her conscience, and she just won’t go there, especially since it would involve lying to small children.

She was recently required to take an el-gee-bee-tee sensitivity training course, led by a fellow whose sanctimony was only outdone by his poor grammar.  Over the hour long course, Sandy was told..

• If a child chooses a name opposite their biological gender, teachers are not allowed to let the child’s parents know about their confusion.
• Parents are the enemy in allowing a child to choose their gender and their sexual preference.  Do not accommodate any parents with objections.
• “None of this is about sex; it’s all about identity.”  Got that?  It’s about sex but it’s not about sex. Translation: “we really want to talk to your child about totally age-inappropriate sexual issues, so we’ll call this an identity discussion.  Jon Lovitz voice: Yeah.. that’s it.”
• A child should be allowed to use the restroom of his or her choice, and, again, parents have no right to know about that choice.
• Teachers should use gender neutral language.  No more “mom” and “dad,” or “he’s very strong” or “she’s very pretty.”  Nothing but neutral gray-speak for the next generation.
• Teachers should liberally decorate their classrooms with alt-sex affirming messages
• Teachers must honor a child’s chosen pronouns.
• All children know their sexual preference by the time they are in second grade.
• If teachers don’t affirm a child’s chosen preference, he or she will likely commit suicide.
• Teachers should go out of their way to normalize same sex parenting
• Learning can’t take place in an atmosphere characterized by homophobia.  (Did anyone tell Oscar Wilde?)
• Teachers should make an effort to cast alternative sexuality and gender reassignment in a positive light.
• Moral objections based on religious belief are not allowed.

My word.  We don’t even teach fire safety or food-handling hygiene with quite that much ministerial passion or dogged devotion to detail.

The presenter made a great show of gloating over financial penalties that Temecula Unified School District might suffer as a result of making efforts to counter this agenda.  He was joyfully clear about the consequences of any disagreement.  “It could cost you millions.  Got that?”

All of this strikes me–and I think most reasonable folks–as a hybrid between gay fascism and a secular, fundamentalist cult.  Most Americans are reasonably libertarian about what goes on in the bedroom, but the urge to make those bedroom and identity decisions the stuff of a second grade education?  If these folks have their way, cross-dressing and same-sex parenting will be as much a part of a child’s contemplated reality as French toast and cinnamon oatmeal are a part of his breakfast.

Regardless of your politics, can you think of any other identity quite so fixated on making sure your child gets 10,000 milligrams of this stuff every day?  Can you imagine a Christian or Jewish equivalent?  (“You WILL include examples of Christian and Jewish contributions to American history.  You will NOT inform a parent about a child’s decision to convert to Christianity.”)

And what happens when people who like having sex with goats demand the same accommodation and indoctrination?

If you don’t agree with me by now, you are either an idiot or a child of the devil.  None of this has any place in a child’s public school education.  I chose my words carefully there.  A “public” school education means that we teach truths that represent our cultural consensus.  If you really believe that parents are the “enemy” and that they have no right to shape their child’s conscience, you don’t deserve any place in American “public” education, because you don’t represent the American “public,” not even a little bit.  You mistake a few hand-wringing leftists with broad cultural consensus, but you aren’t looking at public school board meetings lately.  Parents are angry — with a reason.

But what about my friend? What should she do? She thinks she needs to quit.  Her husband wants to move to Arizona or Texas or Florida.

I have another strategy for those of you in Sandy’s position: lie, delay, resist, engage in passive aggression, and, if you are brave enough, speak prophetically.

Be a Shiphrah

Let’s turn to a very ancient example.  Remember when the children of Israel were enslaved to the Egyptians?  When faced with a growing Hebrew population, the king of Egypt demanded that all Hebrew midwives kill male born children.  The Hebrew midwives listened to the king, and then they lied through their teeth..

Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah, and the other was named Puah; and he said, “When you are helping the Hebrew women to give birth and see them upon the birthstool, if it is a son, then you shall put him to death; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.” But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded them, but let the boys live. So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this thing, and let the boys live?” The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife can get to them.”

Catch that?  They both disobeyed the king and they lied to him.  And what did God do in response?

So God was good to the midwives, and the people multiplied, and became very mighty.

Wherever you are in the federal, state, or local government my advice is to follow your conscience and know that the Bible allows you to lie when faced with evil superiors.  You have no obligation to be truthful with a gay fascist who wants you to preach his religion to your nine year old. Be tricky.  Here are just a few examples off the top of my head..

“Lack of ell-gee-bee posters?  Our printer isn’t working.”
“Posters you gave me are taken down?  We have some real behavioral problems in this class.  Give me 400 and I will put them up all over.”  (And then throw them away.)
“I told a parent about a bathroom decision?  No, the child told his parents.”  (Even though you did.).
“Positive ell-gee-bee examples in history?  Gee, I was looking all night and I just couldn’t find any. So sorry.”

Have fun with the idiot pagans. You are up against evil.  You are at war.  The rules are suspended.

And if, by some chance, you decide to go the Elijah route, and you do have the courage to speak the truth, and they do terminate you, know that it could be costly to them, and go out with glory.

You are going to heaven. They are going to hell, wearing a millstone.

Categorised in: Farm Journal

This post was written by Jim Riley