12 Comments

David Nickol
December 6th, 2012 | 11:51 am

Greg Forster,

Everyone can watch That’s a Family for themselves.

Would you object to the film if the depictions of gay families were removed? Do you think it is legitimate to “legitimize” single-parent families? Interracial families? Or do you think public schools should just just avoid the topic of what a family is altogether?

If, in elementary school (say, 4th grade) one of the children says he or she has two moms or two dads, what should the teacher say in a public school, and what should the teacher say in a Christian private school?

Ray Ingles
December 6th, 2012 | 12:56 pm

schools where parents are virtually compelled by law to send their kids

Where is homeschooling illegal?

David Nickol
December 6th, 2012 | 2:08 pm

Isn’t that the best of the American way?

Who would have thought that public education in the United States wasn’t “the American way”? What happened to the “melting pot” and shared American ideals?

Jack Perry
December 6th, 2012 | 2:10 pm

If, in elementary school (say, 4th grade) one of the children says he or she has two moms or two dads, what should the teacher say in a public school, and what should the teacher say in a Christian private school?

Let me rephrase your question. Suppose, in elementary school, one of the children says he or she has eight moms. What should the teacher say in a public school, and what should the teacher say in a Christian private school?

Regarding the larger question, given the wide-scale breakdown of Russian family structure and the complete inability of the Russian authorities to reverse the trend, I’m not sure any Russian policy should be held up as an example, regardless of whether I agree with the motivation. Never mind the obvious first amendment implications.

David Nickol
December 6th, 2012 | 2:47 pm

Let me rephrase your question.

Jack Perry,

Why not just answer it?

Mike Melendez
December 6th, 2012 | 3:21 pm

@David,

We’re still awaiting your answer to your own question. Right now, it just looks like you’re playing “Gotcha”.

@Ray,

What is the government of the people teaching what only a minority of the people believe in the first place? The coercion lies in the funding.

David Nickol
December 6th, 2012 | 4:54 pm

We’re still awaiting your answer to your own question. Right now, it just looks like you’re playing “Gotcha”.

Mike Melendez,

Jack Perry took a perfectly legitimate question and “rephrased” it into a ridiculous one. My point in asking the question was to get opinions on how public school teachers and religious school teachers, especially in early grades, should handle the issue of a child in class known to have same-sex parents. Would it actually be different? I don’t think we would want a public school teacher saying the two mommies were in a sinful relationship, but would we want a fourth grade Catholic teacher to say that, either? I remember I was a bit troubled at about that age, or maybe younger, because my father was not Catholic. Was he going to hell? What was I supposed to do? My mother explained that my father had gone through the required instructions in Catholicism, and he found that he did not believe enough to convert. She said he was a good man and God would know that. And she said I was not to try to convert him (as I believe the nuns wanted us children of mixed marriages to do).

True Story
Eighth Grade, 1960, Catholic School, Cincinnati

In geography (or some social science) class, the textbooks said something about cattle breeding and using the male and female with the most desirous characteristics. A fellow student, in all innocence and earnestness, raised his hand, stood up, and asked why they didn’t just start with the one very best animal instead of two. No one dared laugh. Sister Marion, perhaps the best teacher I ever had, answered, “We’ll get to that later.” We didn’t, though.

Justin R
December 6th, 2012 | 5:17 pm

David:

“Would you object to the film if the depictions of gay families were removed?”

No

“Do you think it is legitimate to ‘legitimize’ single-parent families? Interracial families?”

What bearing does this have and how does this relate to same-sex households?

“Or do you think public schools should just just avoid the topic of what a family is altogether?”

When it’s on a topic as controversial as redefining the meaning of marriage and family, then yes.

“If, in elementary school (say, 4th grade) one of the children says he or she has two moms or two dads, what should the teacher say in a public school, and what should the teacher say in a Christian private school?”

The same thing that you would say to a child who has one mom and one dad. “That’s nice, dear, let’s get back to our multiplication tables.”

Pontius Pilate
December 6th, 2012 | 5:30 pm

Jack Perry took a perfectly legitimate question and “rephrased” it into a ridiculous one.

There’s nothing at all ridiculous about it; it’s not even a reductio ad absurdum. Polygamous households exist, and I suspect they’re likely to increase in the not-too-distant future. Besides, my question gives a short summary of a longer, serious answer to yours, which will take me longer to write than it will take you to infer.

While I’m at it, I wonder how teachers answer such questions in a private Muslim school.

I remember I was a bit troubled at about that age, or maybe younger, because my father was not Catholic. Was he going to hell?

I’d be interested in hearing what the nuns’ answer was to that question. I’d also be interested in knowing if the answer was the same from every nun in every school in every country.

Ray Ingles
December 7th, 2012 | 9:24 am

Mike Melendez –


What is the government of the people teaching what only a minority of the people believe in the first place? The coercion lies in the funding.

“Reality is that which, when you stop believing it, doesn’t go away.” – Philip K. Dick

How many people believe something doesn’t make it true, or false. What would you have taught about human ‘races’ and segregation in a public school in the 1950′s? Frankly, if history classes taught what people in general thought about history, rather than what scholarship shows, I’d be appalled.

pentamom
December 8th, 2012 | 9:33 am

Ray, the analogy doesn’t transfer. There is no scientific process that can determine that same sex parents create a family equal in all significant respects to other families, because it isn’t a scientific question. Therefore is a matter of how widely held a belief is, and Mike’s question is valid.

Ray Ingles
December 8th, 2012 | 11:30 pm

Peg – What should we teach about slavery in school, no matter how many people practice it?