SPRINGFIELD – Should parents be made aware if their kids are being taught at school from materials considered "sexually explicit"? Would you as a parent want to know?
Those are questions being tossed around in the Virginia state legislature. The legislature said yes, parents should be notified, but Monday, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe vetoed the measure that landed on his desk, saying educators rejected the idea. Educators are concerned that “sexually explicit” could be applied to a work based on one scene, without further context.
“Numerous educators, librarians, students, and others involved in the teaching process have expressed their concerns about the real-life consequences of this legislation’s requirements,” the statement said.
The issue was raised when a Fairfax County student said in 2013 that the book “Beloved,” written by author Toni Morrison, gave him night terrors and was “gross.” The novel is about a former slave who kills her 2-year-old daughter rather than return her to slavery, the Virginia Pilot reported.
The bill's sponsor, Viriginia Delegate Steve Landes, said the idea was common sense.
“Parents make decisions every day about what video games kids play, what movies they watch, and what material they consume online. They should have the same opportunity within the classroom,” Landes said in a statement.
During debate on the bill in the Senate, Sen. Tom Garrett, R-Buckingham County, read from another of Morrison’s novels, called “The Bluest Eye.” The nature of the reading prompted other senators to ask him to stop, and Sen. John Cosgrove of Chesapeake said it was “one of the worst” speeches he’d heard in the Senate. “I’m ashamed,” he said.
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Communist trash!
[From “The Naked Communist,” by Cleon Skousen]
CURRENT COMMUNIST GOALS
1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.
2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.
3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament [by] the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.
4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.
5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.
6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.
7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.
8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev’s promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.
9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.
10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.
11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)
12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.
13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.
14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.
15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.
16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers’ associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
How about keeping track of what your kids are reading or assigned in school? Why do we need laws to do the jobs parents should be doing?
Of course educators are going to reject the idea that parents should know whether or not their kids are reading “sexually explicit” books. They’d prefer to hide the fact that they’re having the kids read trash instead of classics, but hey, what do rube parents know?
Put another way: If there is nothing wrong with the assigned readings, why the secrecy? Why do they feel the need to keep the parents in the dark, if everything is above board? Honestly, it reminds me of the line used pervs when they corrupt kids: “Don’t tell anyone – it’ll be our little secret, m’kay?”
This is really absurd. What responsible parents don’t wanna know what bad things their kids are doing so we as parents can guide them? What are parent’s for if not showing their children the right path? Once I happened to find my teenage son viewing explicit contents on the web. I talked to him about it and I made him understand that these are bad and shouldn’t be followed but then I also got a parental control solution by the name of Familoop Safeguard so that I can monitor his online activity. And, yeah that’s what responsible parent’s do.
well, he has got a point there.. Kids privacy shouldn’t be hindered by the parents. But as a single parent I always feel protective toward my child. and I think it’s my duty to see what he is upto. Am i wrong? I don’t know. but that’s what i feel is right