My home state of MO is toying with legislation that would allow parents to pull their children out of public school classes in which they might be exposed to information about sexual orientation or gender identities. There's a lot of support for it on Facebook, with lots of people saying that they have a right to teach their kids what they believe, and to prevent them from learning about other beliefs, or factual information that challenges their beliefs.
Why on Earth would anyone think that?
How arrogant and entitled do you have to be to think that you have the right to prevent someone else from learning things?
Parenting is not a right, it's a privilege, and that privilege comes with responsibilities which are not optional.
If parenting were a fundamental, inalienable right, adoption would work very differently - there'd be no background checks, no steps at all to protect the child's welfare, because the adult's right to be a parent would supersede any of that.
If parenting were a right, any form of child abuse would be fair game, because your freedom to discipline your child how you see fit would override any standards or morals otherwise agreed upon by society.
If parenting were a right, you'd be under no obligation to feed your child or put a roof over his head. You could give her a bowl of dogfood every other day and make her sleep out in the backyard at night, because your decisions as a parent would be subject to no criticism or oversight.
If it was your right to parent however you wanted, your children would effectively be your property.
But they aren't your property, they're human beings, and you can't choose to do whatever you want to them as their parent (thank God).
You have an obligation to provide for them, to keep them healthy, safe, and nourished, and to prepare them to live independently of you one day. The minor choices are yours to make - do they get chicken nuggets or a hot dog for dinner, do they take violin lessons this summer, do they get a new action figure, do you play the Santa Claus game, etc.
But the big choices are not yours to make. You do not get to decide whether burning your child with a cigarette butt is a reasonable way to teach them good diction, or whether 13 is too young to get married. You do not get to decide whether a breatharian diet would be healthier for them in the long run, or whether blood letting is a reasonable response to chicken pox.
You do not get to do these things, because your children have rights as human beings, and your 'right' to 'parent' however you want does not eclipse society's consensus regarding individual human rights to live free of abuse.
Deliberately keeping your child ignorant is another form of neglect, and lying to them about important things they will need to know to be a healthy adult is a form of abuse.
Your misogynistic or patriarchal beliefs do not entitle you to prevent your child from learning that rape is wrong, or that women should be paid the same as men.
Your racist or white supremacist beliefs do not entitle you to prevent your child from learning about the evils of slavery, segregation, or the holocaust.
Your unswerving faith in Reaganomics does not entitle you to prevent your child from learning about societal problems like poverty, hunger, or homelessness.
Your sincerely held belief that "0" is not a number does not entitle you to deny your child a math education.
And your equally preposterous, indefensible belief that homosexuality, bisexuality, or nonbinary gender identities are 'mental health issues' or 'liberal propaganda' do not give you the 'right' to prevent your child from learning information that challenges or disproves your beliefs.
You have the right to choose to be ignorant; you do not have the right to force your ignorance on others.
No comments:
Post a Comment