Public Schools Should Stick to their Educational Mission

What does it mean to be informed? At bottom, it means to respectfully listen to a diversity of opinions. To have viewpoint diversity.  In my view, viewpoint diversity is by far the most important type of diversity.  I make it a habit to reach out to people with whom I disagree.  That is my personal mission and that is the mission of Heterodox Academy. 

Many public schools are straying from their core educational mission and this has ramifications for families back home. This core mission of education is to teach traditional subjects.  It means taking each child as he or she is and teaching those subjects. This mission does not include diagnosing, evaluating or attempting to change a child's "gender," much less cheering on a child to change his or her "gender."  The core mission of schools never allows a school to hide important information about a child from the child's parents.

I think it is important to consider much more than the driving narratives of the left-leaning legacy media on these issues, where you will never read anything like the following. I am writing these words as someone who is left-leaning on many issues.  I don't agree with every position taken by PEC, but it's important that we listen to people who are hurting as well as people who are exuberantly riding the modern wave of transgenderism.  Truth is a mosaic.

The following excerpts are from Partners or Ethical Care, an first-hand account by a mother titled "As Mother's Day 2021 Approaches."

Here’s how I am this week, as Mother’s Day approaches again.

I’m exhausted, and frustrated, and scared.

I pulled all of my kids from public school after one announced a transgender identity, and all the teachers, administrators, and counselors began lying to me, using my child’s made-up name and fake pronouns behind my back, and undermining my husband and me to our child with words like “unsupportive” and “inappropriate.”

That child desisted and came back to reality after we cut off all the trans juice flowing from the school and the GSA club and social media and woke neighbors. So I know pulling my kids from public school and homeschooling them was the right decision.

. . .

I’m angry. I want someone to answer for what they’ve put our family through.

I want this to end.

But I’m the mom, and I love my kids, and this is what I have to do, for as long as it takes. I cry more than I should have to. I’ve given up my own life to save my children’s.

But the culture says I’m abusive and hateful and bigoted.

This is how Mother’s Day finds me this year.

Maybe next year will be better.

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The Fifth Column Features Math Teacher Paul Rossi and Discussion of the Modern Racial Retrogression

"The Fifth Column" is one of my new favorite podcasts. It features interviews and commentary by hosts Matt Welch, Kmele Foster and Michael Moynihan.

The current episode (#200) does a deep dive into the Woke culture that drove math teacher Paul Rossi from his long-time job at a $57,000/year private school in Manhattan. I recently commented on Rossi's rejection of the school's curriculum because it was harming children.

Highly recommended. Here is a list of all prior episodes.

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Nuclear Power Needs to Be a Significant Part of our Energy Production

National Geographic's article is titled "The controversial future of nuclear power in the U.S. As the climate crisis worsens, the discussion intensifies over what role nuclear power should play in fighting it." Here's an excerpt:

The status of existing [nuclear] plants has big implications: Including Indian Point, seven gigawatts of nuclear power are in danger of going offline before 2026 due to depressed electricity prices.

“Taking out nuclear power plants completely destroys gains with renewables,” Buongiorno says. When the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, which produced about 8 percent of California’s electricity, closed in 2013, the local cost of electricity increased, and carbon dioxide emissions in California increased by 9.2 million tons the following year.

The MIT report found that in the next decade, the most cost-efficient, reliable grid comes from an energy mix. “Our analysis shows a big share of nuclear, a big share of renewables, and some storage is the best mix that is low-carbon, reliable, and at the lowest cost,” Buongiorno says."

For a related recent post discussing the views of Mike Shellenberger, see here.

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