Parents or Teachers? Who directs a Child's Education?

 

Virginia’s final gubernatorial debate between Glenn Youngkin and Terry McAuliffe on September 28, 2021 found Mr. McAuliffe stating: “I’m not gonna let parents come into schools and actually take books out and make their own decisions.”

Mr. McAuliffe was likely referencing the situation in Virginia’s Fairfax County Public Schools, which were forced to pull two books, “Gender Queer” and “Lawn Boy,” after explicit material was revealed during a School Board meeting by a mother of a Fairfax High School student. 

As S. Ernie Walton writes in the American Spectator this morning, “When pressed the next day whether he meant what he said, McAuliffe doubled down: 'Listen, we have a Board of Education working with the local school boards to determine the curriculum for our schools. You don’t want parents coming in every different school jurisdiction saying this is what should be taught here, and this is what should be taught there.'  McAuliffe’s comments should terrify all Virginia voters. In short, his statements embody two fundamental tenets of totalitarianism: that children belong to the state, not parents, and that public education is not actually about educating children, but indoctrinating and molding them into uniform, standardized citizens that will serve the state’s ends. From time immemorial, totalitarian states have understood that the best means to attain complete control of society was to control the education system. When parents are free to direct their children’s upbringing and education, whether directly through home education or indirectly through delegation to a third party of their choice, totalitarian governments are rendered impotent to implement their ideology. Totalitarian regimes know this, and for this reason one of the first things every totalitarian state has done after seizing power is take complete control of the educational system.”

You can also read the full story by Regent Law’s Assistant Dean Walton at https://spectator.org/mcauliffe-echoes-totalitarians-in-debate-comments-and-virginia-voters-should-be-terrified/.  This piece was so significant it was also picked up by real clear politics.  Dean Walton has written more extensively on this subject, and has accepted an offer for publication of his fuller article entitled, Gender Identity Ideology: The Totalitarian, Unconstitutional Take Over of America’s Public Schools, with the Regent University Law Review.

According to the United States Constitution and the Supreme Court of the United States, parents, not teachers, have the right to direct the upbringing and education of their children.  This is a foundation of family restoration.