Back in 1996, Hillary Clinton brought forth her book It Takes A Village. The title comes from an African proverb which states that “It takes a village to raise a child.” She was highly criticized for her opinion that parents or even the extended family of grandparents and others weren’t enough to do a proper job of raising their kids. The “village” she envisioned was the federal government.
Fast forward a little more than a quarter of a century. President Biden, speaking to the Council of Chief State School Officers repeated a quote of a former teacher, “There is no such thing as someone else’s child. No such thing as someone else’s child. Our nation’s children are all our children.” And he continued: “They’re all our children. And the reason you’re the teachers of the year is because you recognize that. They’re not somebody else’s children. They’re like yours when they’re in the classroom.”
Tim Scott, Representative from South Carolina and a possible candidate for president, said Biden was “absolutely wrong.” And the group involved with the 1776 Project agreed, saying, “The left believes they own your kids.”
But President Biden is not alone in his beliefs. Remember what caused Terry McAuliffe to lose the election for governor of Virginia, in large part, was because he said, “I’m not going to let parents come into schools and actually take books out and make their own decisions. I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”
And the Democrat Party in Michigan created a bit of a firestorm with a Facebook post that read:
Not sure where this ‘parents-should-control-what-is-taught-in-schools-because-they-are-our-kids’ is originating, but parents do have the option to choose to send their kids to a hand-selected private school at their own expense if this is what they desire. The purpose of a public education in a public school is not to teach kids only what parents want them to be taught. It is to teach them what society needs them to know. The client of the public school is not the parent, but the entire community, the public. (Emphasis mine.)
Vice President Kamala Harris, in an interview with Seth Meyers, can be heard saying, “When you see our kids, and I truly believe that they are our children, they are the children of our country, of our communities, I mean, our future is really bright if we prioritize them, and therefore prioritize the climate crisis.” (Emphasis mine.)
I suggest you check the New York Post article “Democrats believe parents don’t have the right to raise their own kids.” I don’t know (or care, really) if you readers are Democrats or Republicans. If you have children or care about children, this should make you sit up and take notice. You have to make a decision: Are you going to hand your kids over to the government and teachers’ unions, or are you going to claim them as your own and take control?
Next week we’ll look at some of your options and how to implement them.