RE: Odds and Ends — 22 April 2025

The Supreme Court Looks Poised to Give Religious Parents a Veto Over All Public Education

I don't know... that headline may be misleading. I think the Mahmoud v. Taylor should not be lumped in with the Oklahoma case. In the first case, parents are seeking to keep what they consider to be religiously objectionable material from their young children. In the Oklahoma case, parties are seeking to force funding for religious beliefs (by paying for religious education out of public funds).

I think parents have a right to protect (as they see protection) their children from an ideological perspective they consider inimical to their religious and social values. Young children are very vulnerable to what the teacher presents as acceptable in the classroom, even if that material falls counter to the religious beliefs of a family.

The objections of the parents are not to historically or scientifically factual material (ex: slavery did exist and was a human tragedy) but to a cultural norm, one that has significant religious implications for many people.

Our society is in flux, has been for a long time. Rendering a gay or GBTQ+ lifestyle as acceptable is an effort to change culture. Parents have a right to protect their values, their culture. If parents are not ready to have their children inculcated with a new cultural norm, they have a right, I believe to resist that change in the classroom.

That's not a veto over all public education. That's a veto over acculturating their children in a belief system/ideology that is at odds with the child's family's values.

OK, a long answer. Just wanted to be sure that I am clear. No objection on my part to introducing children to the existence of a diverse culture. But I think parents have a right to weigh in on these issues and to insulate young children until they discover these issues on their own. It will happen, inevitably.