Either that, or we could reorganize public schools to get back on track as to what their purpose actually is.
I don't want crazy religious idea being taught, I don't want people's opinions about how there are 57 genders being taught and I don't want a teacher or a school district trying to instill their chosen value system on my child. I want them to learn how to read. I want them to learn how to write. I want them to learn how to add and subtract. Frankly, considering how miserably school systems are failing to teach kids basic literacy, they should be embarrassed to even discuss their cultural, religious and/or political agenda (even when they insist that their agenda isn't cultural, religious and/or political).
When I was in school ~40 years ago, with 3 or 4 exceptions out of a class of ~100, every child could read, write and do math at or near grade level. I didn't know a single thing about the personal lives of any of my teachers, whether they were married, had kids, and certainly not what their sexual orientation was. It didn't matter - because they were there to teach academic subjects! Nor did any of my teachers know (or concern themselves with) my personal life, my sexual orientation or anything else aside from my academic performance in the subject they were teaching. There are a lot of reasonable, normal people who just want schools to become centers of academic learning again instead of another battleground in the cultural war.
At the same time you can agree the library having a few books where the protagonist has two mom's or two dad's isn't reducing the literacy rate of the school, right?
I'm still trying to square your "every parent has an absolute right to decide what their own children are exposed to" with parents who feel the round Earth is a lie.
>At the same time you can agree the library having a few books where the protagonist has two mom's or two dad's isn't reducing the literacy rate of the school, right?
I'm arguing that the literacy rate in the average school is currently so low in the United States that many students are unable to read at all. I'm arguing that anyone who is more concerned with the number of gender diverse library books than the number of students who are unable to read and write is part of the problem.
From most measures I can find, reading and math ability was higher pre-COVID than 40 years ago at US public schools. Maybe your experience with only 3% below grade level was 1) not an accurate measure given you were an elementary school student at the time and 2) just a single school out of literally many thousands in the US. I don't know about you, but my recollection of my elementary days sure isn't accurate enough to base an unbiased recollection of an entire nation of public schooling. I barely remember my grades, much less my classmates, much less the classmates the next classroom over or the next school over or the next district over or the next state over.
At my ultra prestigious school 60 years ago all seven members of my class could read and write at college level by third grade. Schools are so terrible compared to yesterday.
I'm still waiting to hear about what to do when a parent says the round Earth is against their beliefs and they have the right for their child to never be exposed to such absurd, extreme, and unnatural ideology. It seems pretty core to your idea that "every parent has an absolute right to decide what their own children are exposed to."
>From most measures I can find, reading and math ability was higher pre-COVID than 40 years ago at US public schools
In many of our largest cities, we are spending over $15,000 per student, every year. In many of these schools not a single student meets grade level standards in reading or math. That's right. Not one single student in the entire school. Let's take Baltimore, which spends over $17,000 per student, and has been one of the most outspoken cities about the need for a greater focus on "cultural education".
>Project Baltimore combed through the scores at all 150 City Schools where the state math test was given.
>Project Baltimore found, in 23 Baltimore City schools, there were zero students who tested proficient in math. Not a single student.
>Among the list of 23 schools, there are 10 high schools, eight elementary schools, three Middle/High schools and two Elementary/Middle schools.
>Exactly 2,000 students, in total, took the state math test at these schools. Not one could do math at grade level.
23 of 150 schools, 2000 students. Not a single student in any school proficient in math! Over $17,000 a student! A large number of the other districts had only 1 or 2 students proficient in the entire school. The highest grade-level proficiency in the entire city was 38%. If a city receives more than $17,000 per student, and turns out dozens of schools where not a single student is proficient, then that city has failed utterly in its educational mission. Suggesting that the problem is that they are "underfunded" (which is the en vogue political position of apologists for the educational system) is absolutely absurd. The failure of our public schools, and the widespread defense of that failure, is a microcosm of our societal failure at large.
New York State is now officially lowered its "proficiency standards" for testing, conceding that kids just aren't as literate or educated as they were in the past, and that standards must be lowered so that it can appear that our failed educational system is functioning.
But you can be sure that going forward, New York State officials will be comparing the "proficiency rates" of next year (with the lowered standards) with the kids from previous years, and pretending that kids are just as educated as before (if not touting their 'improvements'!)
It is one thing to argue for lower standards, less literacy and a generally less-educated population in lieu of an agenda of social and cultural indoctrination. It is an entirely other thing to pretend that our failed educational system is actually teaching our children to read, write and perform arithmetic at the levels it has done historically for over a century. We are going to suffers severe consequences as a nation raising a generation of children who cannot read, write, do basic arithmetic or think critically.
>I'm still waiting to hear about what to do when a parent says the round Earth is against their beliefs and they have the right for their child to never be exposed to such absurd, extreme, and unnatural ideology.
They can send their kid to a private school run my lunatics just like the parents who think there are 57 genders. Public school should be for sane, reasonable people who just want their kids to learn how to read and write and not be indoctrinated with any fringe madness.
Which do you think had a greater impact on our schools: books which have potentially gay characters, or the COVID pandemic?
When you see massively falling test scores after school districts got massively interrupted for a couple of years from a pandemic, do you think it's the pandemic response that caused it or acknowledging gay people exist?
Note, I made a point to mention aptitude pre-pandemic for a reason. I imagine 40 years ago you could have also found tons of entire schools where every student was below grade level. I do agree we need to improve schools. I don't think pulling books from the library because they might touch on a topic like gay families exist is doing anything meaningful to address it.
> not be indoctrinated with any fringe madness.
Fringe madness like the round earth right? I guess you're the arbiter of what is and is not fringe madness? Whatever happened to the parents being able to choose, suddenly when it's something you believe in it's just basic fact?
For the record, I'm not a flat earther. But at the same time when I hear people saying any nutjob should have the absolute right to dictate what the curriculum or books are in the school, you'll have to deal with this. Some parent wants to not have their kids exposed to gay or trans ideas or concepts. Some parents don't want their kids exposed to the theory of gravity. Empowering one of these groups to ban the books is also empowering the other.
So we agree that banning books on the topic of diversity is part of the problem, right? Because the bans don't add anything to the time and skills needed to teach reading or maths.
The only people who are concerned about it are the ones trying to take them away. The books in the library didnt tank literacy rates. Do you even hear how dumb that sounds? "Literacy is falling, so we should take books out of the library"
