Not so long ago, after the Parental Bill of Rights was narrowly defeated in the legislature, I suggested that instead of trying to use politics to change a failed system, parents should just pull their kids out of the public schools.
If you’re still not convinced that this is the right thing to do, consider the recent ruling by Hillsborough Superior Court Judge Amy Messer, who says that you don’t have the right, as a parent, to say what pronouns your child will use in school.
I’m not saying that pronouns are all that important in the grand scheme of things. Someday we’ll look back on statements like ‘My pronouns are e/em/eir’ the way we now look back at clothing from the 1970s — with a mixture of amazement and embarrassment.
I am saying that if schools are going to court to defend the power to remove parents from this kind of decision, one has to wonder what other kinds of decisions they are making without the knowledge, let alone the consent, of parents.
You can fight this one battle at a time, in an arena where the rules can change at any moment because words don’t really mean anything, and if you do, you can expect the kinds of results that the plaintiff got in this suit.
Or you can just do what you should be doing anyway, which is taking responsibility for the upbringing of your kids — teaching them your values, taking advantage of the ocean of low-cost, high-quality educational opportunities that now surround us, integrating them into society instead of isolating them from society, and so on.
Trying to get your child an education by reforming the whole public school system is like trying to cover the world in leather to avoid stepping on stones. It’s simpler to wear shoes.
Every year, there are new and better options for working families who realize that for their own children, public schools are less likely to provide an opportunity than they are to impose an opportunity cost. Get to know some homeschooling parents in your area, and find out what you’re missing.
I guarantee that you’ll be amazed.
