In “Free Fall,” a novel by William Golding of “Lord of the Flies” fame, the narrator searches through his past to try to learn when he lost control of his life. I think about that relatively obscure novel, an odd addition to a college course reading list, frequently, but not in relation to my own life (which has either always been out of control or, depending on how you look at it, entirely within my control). I think about in relations to topics like what Here’s Johnny is writing about in his Comment of the Day.
When did teaching professionals lose control of their common sense, professional ethics and respect for parents? It isn’t just them, of course: politicians, lawyers, judges, academics, doctors, journalists, prosecutors, corporate executives and more have all jumped the metaphorical rails during the Great Stupid, and even before. What did it? What was the tipping point?
That’s a topic for another day, I suppose. Right now, this Comment of the Day is a concise, clear statement of what was once an uncontroversial truth. But what the hell happened???
With his Comment of the Day on the post, “I Don’t Feel I Can Trust The Teachers,” Says A Colorado Parent. Gee, Lady, What Was Your First Clue?,” Heeeeere’s Here’s Johnny!….
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I taught high school students for 20 years, a second career for me, and up through the time I retired from that 14 years ago, I never encountered this kind of thinking, that parents must be kept in the dark when it comes to a dramatic life-changing situation for their child. As OB asks [I paraphrase], ‘What the hell is it with gender ID anyway?’
It was true when I was teaching and it is true now that teachers have a special role in helping kids through those many difficult years of growing up. Are there things a kid might tell a teacher that they wouldn’t tell their parents? Yes, of course. Are there parents who would react in a way not in the best interests of the child? Yes, or course. And, responsible teachers have to know the difference, when to tell the kid that, ‘This is something I cannot keep in confidence; I have to discuss it with your parent(s)’, or, alternatively, “This is something that you will have to think about very seriously, maybe do some reading, maybe talk to a guidance counselor, maybe meet with the school psychologist’, and so on.
Wise teachers will set out some boundaries even before they tell the kids that ‘You can always come to me, and I will try to be helpful’. There are times when the dividing line is blurry. But, for me, at least, when it comes to a strong desire to undergo a gender change, it is crystal clear that the parent(s) must be involved. To intentionally keep them out of the picture is a betrayal of everything public education stands for.
There is much more to teaching than readin’, writin’ and ‘rithmetic, but keeping parents in the dark is just flat out wrong.
Ethics Alarms 
Thank you, Jack.
Year after year for decades, I was told that teachers are worn ragged, buying materials with their own money, grading papers from home, not trained for the kinds of trials and tribulations associated with [insert current year problem here]. If you listened to the teachers unions, this traded off for top issue with wages.
And then all of a sudden… Teachers were volunteering to be psychiatrists and gender affirmation specialists. Suddenly, teachers were volunteering to bring LGBTQ+ material into the classroom. Not only were they volunteering to do this and donating material to their classroom, but if parents wanted them to constrain themselves to the act of teaching, the parents had to be separated from the process, and now the union is actively trying to enable teachers taking free work upon themselves.
If we determine that children need a place to go that isn’t their parents because there’s a general concern of abuse or a fear of rejections, how did this become the job of teachers? Not only is every teacher not going to be in on this, but without any kind of training, why is anyone even pretending that these teachers are competent within the context of their own volunteerism? There are no professional standards for doing this work that they are not being paid to do.
Don’t get me wrong: Teachers often donate time to their students. I believe that there are great swathes of teachers that actually care about them. This feels different. The co-opting of the parent relationship is weird. The fervor with which the narratives are being pursued is weird. The support of the union is weird. This feels artificial. I think the idea was to get kids hooked early, not necessarily for sexual grooming (although that happens), and not necessarily for recruitment into the LGBTQ ranks (although I think that there’s an element of social contagion in play), but to get them hooked on progressive narratives. To shape the terms of the discussion and put the frame of the Overton window in place long before they have the awareness to question the authority of adults.
An excellent dissection, HT.