What is going on in Texas?
I was having a conversation with a co-worker at my school today and we were shaking our heads in wonder about the idea of lawmakers in Texas trying to make missing a scheduled parent-teacher conference a criminal charge and $500 fine. What?!? The last time I checked we lived in a democracy that allowed FREEDOM!! People are allowed to express themselves by covering our nations capitol with GRAFFITI but they want to fine someone and give them a criminal record for missing a parent-teacher conference?? What?? I just don't get it and I'm a teacher that has to deal with no-shows!!
That brought my conversation with my co-worker to the topic of making the Gardasil vaccine mandatory for 7th grade girls in Texas. Good ole' Texas again. Once again I am shaking my head. Since when are public schools meant to be the vehicle to control the public at large? I was under the impression the job of schools was to educate children NOT control their parents (even though sometimes as a teacher I would LOVE to control the parents of my students, but that doesn't make it any less wrong!). I think vaccines for diseases that can be spread during the regular activities of a school day are a good idea. In the schools I've been to sexual activity doesn't normally take place on campus...at least not as part of regular school activities.
Now, I know I'm going to step on some toes here because I have a lot of friends that are part of the religious right and I don't agree with their arguement against the vaccine either. If simply giving a young girl a vaccine that will protect her from ONE type of STD is going to make her promiscuous then somebody isn't doing their job. If parents, first and foremost, and churches are instilling biblical values into their children, it's going to take a heck of a lot more than a vaccine to make that young girl do a 180 degree turn from those values.
I do think there is some validity to the arguement that the vaccine is new, and relatively untested in the market.
My major arguement against making this vaccine mandatory, though,is that I don't think we should be using the right of every child to a free and appropriate education to force parents to vaccinate their children against a disease that they shouldn't be getting or spreading in school! I think this is a decision between a parent, a child, and their doctor. I'm all for curing cancer and if this can reduce the rate of death as a result of cancer in this country, I'm all for it...I personally need to see a little more research on the long term effects before I run out and vaccinate my daughters. I have time, they're still young. But I object to the assumption that I'm not intelligent enough to make this decision on my own, with the help of research and my doctor, and must be forced into it by the school system.
I'm going to step off my soapbox now...I welcome your comments...What do you think??
Friday, February 09, 2007
Texas?
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5 comments:
Alright Sally, I'm not good at blogging or clogging. But you brought up a topic that I've really been thinking about lately. That is our idea of Federally funded mandatory public schooling (or equivalent legal substitution for) is a Socialist Government policy and has no right to exist in a Free and Democratic Republic. Public Schools, as we know them, we're founded by outspoken socialists such as Dewey. It was okay with the public as long as the government agenda pushed remained Christian and true to free principles our country was founded on. Problem is, more and more people in power and leadership are trying to turn this country into a Socialist country rather than the Free Market/Private/Independent country. Remember Hillary's push for free health care for every American? It takes a village to raise a child?Pure Socialism. I believe public schools should be Federally Deregulated and put back into the states and parent's hands. Freedom of choice in your "public" school should be given to parents as well as say in the curriculum. (I would like to know what has become of the PTA's that used to be able to stand up against school policies? The ones that dare to take the richer school district to court over same sex ed without parental consent are being told take a hike!) But I doubt deregulation will happen as our tax dollars have made Education one of the richest lobbies in America. I have a real problem with the government telling me to put anything into my kids' bodies. Heck, I haven't even done the chicken pox vaccine! I had an experience here in MD with our Dr. threatening me to try and force me to do an unnecessary test for a lead poisioning blood draw on my 1 year old (even though we live in a house built after the mandatory year). Her excuse was that my child couldn't go to public school without it by state law! AT ONE YEARS OLD they start! I ended up doing the test of my own free will (after literally thumbing my nose at the Dr. because her argument didn't influence me as a homeschooler) because I was concerned about anemia and thought a blood test was in the best interest of my child at that point. When faced with reason, the Dr. actually had to try to justify to herself and to me why a blood test was actually in the best interest of my child. We no longer see this Dr. If you notice there's a push for mandatory federally funded pre-k like other socialist state's in Europe such a Sweden. It's all sugar coated in how it helps the poor dual income family pay less in childcare. But you are right. It's more about the government not only controling the parents, but indoctrinating the children with their belief systems which have gone way awry. They know most parent do not want there children taught about homosexuality or vaccinated in 7th grade for STD's. They just think they know better than us and should teach out these "intolerances" in this generation such as they "untaught" bigotry in the 60's. This brings me to my next question. Where in the constitution or the Bible does it say everyone has a right to free education paid for by other people? Great states such as China provide a free education through college as long as you follow their government's social agenda of only one child. Have an abortion and remain down to just one and they will pay it all. Two kids, sorry only up to high school. 3, only elementary is provided and so on. As far as the vaccine, I have no problem with private schools and colleges mandatorily requiring say tetnus shots or etc. because a person is not mandatorily required to attend. If you don't like the policies of one college, you can apply to another or not go at all. (Remember Biola's applicants increased significantly after they removed their no-dancing-at-all clause.) I'm not saying that the availability of the vaccine is a bad idea in our society. Believe me, the high school I went to was so bad in the 80's the kids indeed were having sex on school premises. But it is vehemently wrong to force any kind of drug into anybody's body. It is not like we have signed our lives and liberties away like my brother-n-laws in the military whom have to take x,y, and z vaccines every time they are deployed despite the ill potential effects because the government owns them. (Some of the effects: the entire family gets sick whom have not been vaccinated or increased sterility, plus many more nasty symptoms.) Wait a minute? What's all that paperwork say that we sign for our kids to attend public schools anyhow? While I believe that God has used and is still using many Godly Christians in the public school system (like my parents, siblings and friends), I am wondering if it is truly the time for Christian children to make a mass exodus from Public Schools. This is what the Southern Baptist have mandated plus a plan to provide private schooling at each of their Baptist Churches. It certainly takes a lot of discernment and prayer to help our children through such a hostile environment to one's liberties. How can a school even teach liberty when at every turn it is taking fundamental liberties away from it's students? I even begin to think it takes even more of a calling to keep the kids in Public School than to homeschool. (And I have met some families here that have felt called to stop homeschooling specifically to send them to a specific public school.) Fortunately for you, Arizona is one of the most Independent minded states in the Union. Maryland is a polar opposite with it's "best schools in the country". One of my first introductions to one of the highest accademically ranked schools in the whole USA (Clarksvale, Md) was driving by and seeing a picket line of teenage girls holding pro-lesbian signs on the front lawn. The next week I read an article written about a copycat Britney Spears/Madonna kiss in the school cafeteria resulting in suspension. (Same school). Our Education policy makers are very happy to turn out students with high GPA's that spurn any traditional morality. This neighborhood had houses starting in the $400's, but mostly in the $800's. These incidents started to cement in my mind why I am homeschooling. (Even though at the time, I had planned to put the girl's in Public School.) I don't envy the public school parent and the hard tasks they have battling for their children's protection and liberties. Here in MD, six schools in Montgomery County plan to introduce the topic of sexual orientation in sex education lessons. This is a pilot program with the intent to teach homosexuality as "natural and morally correct."
If the program goes forward, it would be the first time sexual orientation has been addressed directly in health classes in the county. This is copied from a WBAL radio and the Associated Press report I got just tonight. The key is it is taught directly in a health class. If it is a mandatory class, parent's cannot sign their kids out nor could the school be brought to court on stealth cases. Not that the courts are ruling in the favor of the parent's theses days on the stealth lectures given in CA. The basic court rulings are saying parent's have no right to determine what their children are being taught in a federally funded institution. SOCIALISM!
Wow...not sure I can follow the comment above. I certainly think this is all food for thought. I certainly believe in parental rights (and responsibility). I know though, that many many of the children I work with never have a parent step into a schoolroom. It's sad to think that the government thinks they can control it with a fine...it will not make parents care anymore or parent differently in my opinion.
As for the vaccine...I do not think it should be mandatory. Again, I ask though, will those parents whose children are most likely to get the STDs care for their child medically? Many many children go unseen by anyone in the medical profession...except for getting "school shots".
Am I a socialist? I don't know. I DO think that occasionally, the village has to step in where the parent fails. I think this is a really gray area and really cannot be black and white anymore than it can be considered a Christian vs. nonChristian argument.
Like you, I agree that giving a girl this vaccine should not "make" her permiscuous. I can think of so many young girls in my school that you can almost see the "writing on the wall" and know that one day they will be active and probably at a young age. I hate it that I stereotype sometimes...it's hard not to when you consider environment, upbringing, and apples not falling far from trees.
Interesting post, Sally...I think I'll ask some opinions at school tomorrow.
Blessings,
:-) Susan
Well, to some degree I agree with both of the posts above. I do think we are headed towards a socialist society with the way our government uses public schools (and other public institutions) to control people.
I see the point that Susan makes that some of the poorest, most neglected children don't have involved parents that WILL make good decisions for them.
But here's another thought...at the risk of sounding callus to the plight of America's poor children...Do we not risk making it worse for them by making it "better?" By taking away the consequences of immorality do we not make it easier and easier for these children to become more and more immoral? Everytime the slack of a negligent parent is taken up by the "village," aren't we, at least to some extent, making it easier for that parent to become even more negligent because "someone else will take care of it?"
I don't know the answer because, certainly, the children are the ones who suffer and I would be the first in line to work against that...BUT when we take the care of children out of parent's hands we have, on the one hand, a group of people who will have more and more children because the "state will take care of them" thus pushing them further into poverty, and on the other hand a group of people who could take care of their children but abdicate their authority through ignorance and thinking that they "must."
I don't claim to have the answers. I have been on every side of this engaging debate. I have homeschooled my children, even when we had to use food stamps to be able to do it. I have put my children in public school so that I could go back to work to help support my family. I moved my children to a charter school so I could have more say in the curriculum and KNOW what they are being taught so that, if I have moral objections to it, I can teach my belief system on the topic at home. I have seen instances when my children, and students in my own classroom have had the opportunity to witness to other children in the public school setting. And I have seen the plight of children whose parents do not show up for their scheduled parent-teacher conference and do not help them with homework. I have helped children with the emotional after effects of having an abortion because the extent of parental involvement included giving them money to go to the drive thru for dinner every night.
I don't know the answer, but I don't think the road we are going down as a societ is going to make things better.
Of course, biblically speaking, it's not going to get better, only worse until the coming of our LORD.
I'm sure the debate will continue....
I'm thinking along the same lines, Sally and Tami. It is mind blowing how we as Christians, conservative Christians for that matter, are the majority in this nation, but are represented as the minority. And it's time to stop letting the world push us aside, especially in matters such as these. We are allowing this to happen to our nation, to our children. And that's just it-we have to risk sounding callused, on a soap-box, or worse, "un-Christian," to truly stand up for what is right and what is the truth. I agree, Sally, with your posed question of are we not making it worse by making it better? While it is true that there are people who truly need a helping hand, someone to steep in, during a particularly rough time in their lives, the government system that steps in now is creating a two-fold problem. Generally speaking, of course, it's creating a dependence on "the village" without the motivation to step-up and parent, including providing financial, emotional and physical support. It's also giving permission to be negligent by having more and more children, or by not getting/staying sober, clean, employed, etc., or by putting oneself in a position which one would not be in otherwise. For example, while speaking to a friend yesterday, she confessed to me that she had spent her morning looking at the cost of apartments in the area and which ones would take assistance so that she could leave her husband. She said she knows that the only way she could do it was to get that assistance (and shall I add that it's not the first time in her life she's been there). So, not only has it created a dependency in her but it has also given her the permission to divorce her husband when things get bad because "the village" will take care of her and her children. Now (again with the apologies-why do we have to apologize for taking a stand for truth and taking back what is ours to begin with, freedom?), I'm not saying there aren't situations in which this might absolutely be called for. I firmly believe that at this moment I stand completely forgiven of all my sins- past, present, and future. I also believe that since the Law was fulfilled through Jesus and we are no longer under that law but under the love and grace of God that it is not a "sin" to get divorced, condemning you until you seek forgiveness. There ARE though, major consequences of divorce (I've lived first hand w/the knowledge and consequences of this since I chose to marry a divorced man) that are not profitable to us either (1 Cor. 6:12-17). That said, apologies over, I must ask, is it not our job as the Body of Christ, to be the one to extend the hand to someone who needs it? Are we not to take care of the orphans, the widows, those without (Luke 6:30-38; James 1:19-27)? And do we do this to follow a command? No, but rather to show the world Jesus' love for them, in and through us, and to be blessed ourselves, storing up treasures in heaven (Matt. 19:21; Mark 10:21; Luke 12:33, 18:22). Wouldn't this solve "the village" problem and provide a solid Body of Christ? JMT, requiring more reflection. And yes, the Bible clearly tells us it will get worse (each generation expecting it can't get any worse or seeing the signs in their own), but that doesn't mean we shouldn't give up and spur one another on toward love and good deeds (Heb. 10:24). Thank you for the spurring, ladies=)
In His Love!
Niki,
Thanks for your insightful comment. It is getting harder and harder in America to take a stand for Christ. It will not be long, I think, until our stand may require our very lively hoods, and lives. It becomes increasingly important then to spur on each other to love and good works!!
You are a blessing!
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