jfrancis

According to TheBostonChannel.com, reported April 28, a parent was arrested over gay content in children's school book. David Parker, 42, refused to leave his son's elementary school Wednesday after the boy brought home a book from the school featuring gay characters. Mr. Parker was arrested for trespassing at Estabrook Elementary School and he spent one night in jail. The book his son brought home was titled, "Who's In The Family?" which introduces children to different types of families, including a family with two fathers. After finding this book, Mr. Parker became highly upset. According to the report, the father said that he was told by the school that he had no right to control whether his child is taught about gay marriages. Mr. Parker, was undecided if his son was going to return to the school.

This man's son found this book at school, and brought it back home. If the child had any questions about the book, he could have asked his father. It is the father's right to teach his child about gay marriages, however, the father should not pass his views on the topic to the child. Teaching them about something, and making them have the same view as you do, is two completely different things. I do not think that the man should have been arrested for his actions, but then again, maybe he should have made his statement and his opinion a little different when confronting the school.

I wonder what the school board had to say about the book. Did they find any problems with a book that talks about gay unions? Is it wrong for our children to understand what gay unions are?

Rev.

I totally understand what you are saying here, but you have to understand how impossible it is to NOT pass on your views about things to your kids. It is the nature of kids to want to be JUST LIKE the grown-ups around them. It's part of the process of learning who they are. Kids try on all kinds of different ideas...some of them are hand-me-downs from their parents. In the teen years, kids throw away every idea that has parent fingerprints on it, and then slowly put ideas back on. Sometimes (a parent hopes) they reclaim an idea their parent taught them...but they own the idea this time. And sometimes (much to a parent's chagrin) they completely reject a parents teaching.

I do have to laugh at your comment about parents MAKING kids have the same idea. If I've learned anything from my seven kids, it's that you can't REALLY make them do anything!

Probably arresting him was a wise idea. With the latest school shooting, they had to be afraid of exactly how angry the man was. Better safe than sorry!

Thank you for posting about this! It's a good topic for discussion!

__________________
Rev.

God doesn't send anyone to hell. We go to hell over His dead body.

ShamMol

For once Rev, I agree completely with you. Great explanation and discussion.

I especially agree with being safer than sorry because of the litigious age we live in. If the shcool had not removed him and he had caused harm, that would have been a serious suit against them.

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Rev.

Thanks!

I just got e-mailed an article about theis issue from a conservative friend of mine (who is always trying to raise awareness in me, her liberal friend) which had a completely different spin on things.

© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com

A father who protested a pro-homosexual book his 6-year-old son had been given in school spent a night in jail after being arrested by police.

David Parker, 42, confronted officials at Joseph Estabrook School in Lexington, Mass., Wednesday after his son brought home a copy of "Who's in a Family,'' a storybook that includes characters who are homosexual parents, the Boston Herald reported.


According to the report, Parker refused to leave a meeting after Lexington Superintendent Bill Hurley rejected his request that he be notified when his son is exposed to any discussion about same-sex households as part of classroom instruction.

Police arrested Parker for trespassing and he spent a night in jail before posting a $1,000 personal surety, Boston's WCVB-TV reported.

"Our parental requests for our own child were flat-out denied,'' Parker said in a statement.

Parker said school officials have continued to tell him he has no right to control whether or not his child is taught about same-sex marriage.

"What I am saying is, because of the same-sex marriage law, people are treating it as a mandate to teach the youngest of children. It is not a mandate to teach the youngest of children, particularly if parents say, 'Hold on, I want to be the gatekeeper of the information. It is not that I don't want my child to ever learn it, it is I want to control the timing and manner,'" Parker told the TV station.

Brian Camenker, director of the traditional-values organization Article 8 Alliance, told the Herald Parker also asked that his son be pulled from discussions involving homosexuality that arise spontaneously.

According to the Lexington Minuteman, Parker spoke at a school committee meeting Tuesday and complained that schools have "unfettered ... access to children's psyches."

So there is the question for debate: who decides what children are taught and when?

Montalban

So a boy raised by lesbians wants to become a lesbian?

However schooling is a socialising process. When I did sociology, I came upon the theory of Symbolic Interactionism, the theory that the capacity for human thought is shaped by social interaction; that, in social interaction people learn the meanings and the symbols that allow them to exercise the human capacity for thought. Meaning stems not from solitary mental processes, but from interaction.

Montalban

What about the question "Should this form of social engineering be taught in the first place?"

However in answer to your question the parents have responsibility and perhaps the father should have either removed the child from that class, or the school altogether.

Perhaps the parent could request that during such attempts to social engineer that his child be excused.

GetVictd

It won't be long before those who can will pull their children out of public schools.

I've recently heard as long as a child keeps up with grade curriculum they can be home schooled in the state of New Jersey and New York.

With computer software programs teaching Math, Language Arts, History, etc. The time may come when stay at home parents will choose to teach at home. Then we can all say goodbye to teachers who molest children and have babies with or from them, students who bring guns/weapons and the like to school harming those who just want an education, teen pregnancies, free condoms, no prayer in school, junk food, the curve (lol)...the list could go on.

Rev.

The Future is here. Homeschholing has grown to the point that public schools are being jepordized by it. Since schools receive tax dollars per enrolled student, and enrollments have shrunk due to homeschooling, schools may no longer get enough money to operate. And with exhorbant special ed budgets and the educational requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act...

If Schools had just stuck to reading and writing and 'rithmatic...maybe I wouldn't be homeschooling my kids.