A Georgia school board voted along party lines Thursday to fire a teacher after officials said she improperly read a book on gender fluidity to her fifth grade class.

    • mrbubblesort@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      No genuinely, 100%, actually, fuck that. Forget gender, lgbt, and all that for a moment. In a very general sense, a teacher has a duty to society to challenge children and teach them to be better people. Sometimes that will clash with the bigotry and racism held by their parents, and that’s a good thing. The moment we prevent teachers from trying to make a better world is the day our society ends.

    • Decimit@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Don’t teach my kids reading!

      Don’t learn my childrens ‘bout no demonic algebra.

      Don’t read that evil evolution book to my offspring.

      • CoderKat@lemm.ee
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        I mean, have you seen the symbols they use in math? It’s obviously a demon summoning. No kid of mine will learn about librul irrational numbers. /s

        But naw, that’s what they sound like. They want to pick and choose facts to teach their kids. They might not be going after math symbols this time, but they’re still anti-reality. Parents can have some leeway in how to raise their kids, but they don’t get to choose to keep their kids ignorant of reality. Well, unless they live in Georgia apparently. Or Florida. Or one of several other states that have done similar and just coincidentally happen to be red states.

        • Decimit@lemm.ee
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          Oh, my bad. I didn’t realize the parents were all experts in education and also made the rules and could even change reality to fit their whims.

            • DessertStorms@kbin.social
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              Says the person doing exactly that.

              Like it or not, parents don’t own children, nor do they have an absolute authority over them.

              If parents abuse or neglect their child (and yes, depriving them of an education is both) then the other responsible adults in that’s child’s life have not only every right, but the absolute responsibility, to override the abusive parents’ instructions or demands, and intervene in the child’s best interest.

        • originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com
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          one of the man benefits of public education are having the kids taught by people who actually know what they are teaching, rather than random parents who think they know. yeah, its not perfect, but parents generally make worse teachers than, ya know, trained teachers.

          its classic micromanagement of the kid. let go

        • dragonflyteaparty@lemmy.world
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          That’s some absolute nonsense. I shouldn’t have to rely on other parents for my kid to be able to learn certain things in school. They don’t like it, they can pull their kid from the class during that instruction. This whole thing of “I don’t want it, so no one gets it” is absolute bullshit.

        • yawn@lemmy.world
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          Parents have the option of homeschooling their kids. That’s them exercising their authority. But public school curriculum should be decided by an apolitical body that follows evidence based practices. Don’t like it as a parent? Then homeschool.

    • TurboDiesel@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It’s not parents’ job to dictate school curricula. All these “PaReNtS’ rIgHtS” bills are bullshit pandering to people afraid of their own shadows. They can all take a long walk off a short pier.

    • Monkey With A Shell@lemmy.socdojo.com
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      Personal responsibility for all, if you don’t like the public system teaching publically accepted science of psychology and biology pay for your own schooling then.

        • Monkey With A Shell@lemmy.socdojo.com
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          Independent thought IS overrated after all. Many things in society are tamped down to some lowest common denominator level to placate the masses and be palatable to the broadest cross segment. Emerging ideas though need discussion and facts being what they are the adults in the room are much more likely to be fixed in their ways and unwilling to acknowledge anything that goes against their ‘good old days’ perceptions of right and wrong.

          I happen to be one of those adults and understand that some of the lenses I view things through are tinged by the experiences and perspectives around me while growing up. Those things though are not the current reality that we have to work within. I may not agree with every notion that my kids bring forth, but they’re welcome to challenge me on it to explain their point. If you don’t allow kids the information to make a detemination of their own however then the future world suffers for it.

            • Monkey With A Shell@lemmy.socdojo.com
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              The way around that around here is a parental permission slip if there is any question on a topic being age appropriate. Affirmative rejection of education by the parent is recordable and should be actionable by society if at egregious enough levels where it’s seen as restricting a proper education.

                • Monkey With A Shell@lemmy.socdojo.com
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                  The notion of the slips as I’ve seen them implemented is as such:

                  In X grade we will have education on Y topic which has some measure of content that parents may find questionable for their children. If you object to this then please advise us in writing (through whatever means the school prefers) and we will have them placed in an alternative class dring that time.

                  If the parent rejects the class then it will be presumed they will attend the class the next year/semester, if it is rejected again at that time then there needs to be some intervention to have a discussion to identify a specific cause. That could include school counselers, social services or whomever else is required to ensure the kids get a comprehensive education in accordance with the established modern standards.

                  Parental interests should be noted, but not the exclusive dictation of what information is available to a kid. Those who look to restrict access to information are almost universally going to be doing so because they’re afraid that their own version of things is going to be seen as wrong, usually for good reason. Ignorance is bred in isolation through unopposed repetition of opinions stated as facts.

                  Helping shape curriculum is distinct from the choice to engage with it at any given point and not mutually exclusive. Arguing for the exclusion of information is almost always bad, arguing for the inclusion of it is less often bad but needs to be backed by sound logic and science.

    • stillwater@lemm.ee
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      If things went your way, we’d still be teaching kids that the universe revolves around the Earth and that sound travels infinitely into space to other orbs where giant eagles live.