In addition to cowardice, one of the reasons that conservatives fail to oppose the myriad ways “progressives” exploit public schools to transform other people’s children into their social and political image is that we dismiss each new effort of theirs as insignificant. Such dismissiveness is proving costly.

In an effort to paint a more accurate (and therefore darker portrait) of public schools, this week I’ll  look at some recent events pertaining to public schools of which IFI subscribers may be unaware. Our hope is that these exposés will help parents (and others) understand why they must start taking a stand against the use of government schools/our taxes to affirm homosexuality and gender confusion. And one of the easiest ways to take a stand is to keep your children home from school on the Day of Silence, which is the homosexuality-affirming event sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) on Friday April 19, 2013.

Many IFI subscribers are well aware of the troubling anti-conservative hatred of the Southern Poverty Law Center which has led to its pernicious “hate groups” list that includes the Family Research Council, American Family Association, and IFI.

In keeping with the Left’s obsession with imposing their moral and political views on other people’s children, the SPLC created an “educational” arm called Teaching Tolerance. In a recent email to its subscribers, inluding countless public school teachers and administrators, they recommend that schools adopt a number of presumptuous Leftwing policies creepily called “nurturing practices.”

These are the “nurturing practices” they urge administrators, counselors, and teachers to adopt:

• “Enforce dress codes among all students equally.  A school cannot Constitutionally (sic) forbid male students to wear dresses, for instance, if other students are allowed to wear dresses….Check your dress code today. Are there rules that apply only to some students? If so, take immediate steps to remove them from your student handbook.”
•  “Help students whose gender is incorrectly listed on paperwork to correct the situation and ensure school staff and students address them using their preferred pronouns.”
• “Allow each transgender or intersex student to use the restroom in which that student is most comfortable, whether it’s the gender-neutral restroom or the restroom that corresponds with the student’s self-identified gender.”
• “Evaluate your administrative forms and communications. Do they use gender-neutral language or provide an opportunity for students to communicate their gender identity? If not, make the needed updates.”
•  “Educate event organizers about students’ First Amendment right to attend events with a same-sex date and to wear clothing of their choice.”
•  “Never reveal a student’s sexual orientation or gender identity without the student’s permission—even to the student’s family.”
• “Conversion Therapy, [a]lso known as reparative or sexual reorientation therapy, this pseudo-scientific “therapy” has been denounced by all major medical and psychological associations and may cause a student great psychological harm. Educate school staff about myths perpetrated by those who conduct conversion therapy. It is impossible to “turn” an individual from gay to straight.”
• “Prepare counselors and teachers to support students who are coping with the emotional side effects of conversion therapy.”
• “Our article, ‘Therapy of Lies,’ http://www.tolerance.org/toolkit/toolkit-therapy-lies is a great resource for educating school staff about conversion therapy.”
• “Religion can be a hot topic when discussing LGBT issues. All students are entitled to their religious viewpoints, but those viewpoints may not intrude on the rights of others.”
• “Include language specifically prohibiting harassment based on nonconformity to gender norms, gender identity and gender expression. Give examples of harassment based on actual or perceived sexual orientation.”
• Conduct student and teacher training once a year that discusses “The importance of diversity (including nonconformity with gender norms) in the student body.”

According to Teaching Tolerance, here are the practices that student members of homosexuality-affirming clubs (i.e., “gay-straight alliances or GSA’s) should adopt:

• They should communicate their homosexuality-affirming views during daily announcements or school assemblies or by hanging posters on the wall.
• They should “Publicly praise staff members who actively promote an inclusive environment.”
• “At end-of-the-year award ceremonies,” they should “present special ‘Diversity Leader’ certificates to educators who actively promoted an inclusive school environment throughout the year.”

Some thoughts on these “nurturing practices”:

• I will have to add “nurturing” to my growing list of words the Left is cunningly redefining. What they’re “nurturing” is compulsory affirmation of Leftwing beliefs about the nature and morality of homosexuality and cross-dressing. That’s not nurturing. That’s indoctrinating.
• Someone should teach the dogmatists at Teaching Tolerance that “equality” does not mean sameness, and that treating different things differently does not constitute inequality.
• No bullying prevention curriculum or policy specifically mentions or treats affirmatively every condition for which students may be bullied, so why should bullying prevention curricula or policies specifically mention or treat affirmatively homosexuality and gender-confusion? It’s as possible to work to eradicate bullying of homosexual students without affirming homosexuality as it is to work to eradicate bullying of promiscuous students without affirming promiscuity.
• Teaching Tolerance expects us to believe that there are so many homosexual high school students who are homosexual and who have undergone reparative therapy and been harmed by it that public schools should spend valuable time and limited resources teaching teachers about Leftwing views of reparative therapy.
• Can you imagine an outside organization encouraging students, teachers, and administrators to affirm conservative beliefs about heterosexuality and homosexuality in public schools? And can you imagine any conservative teacher using public resources (i.e., their jobs and curricula) to promote their views that volitional homosexual acts are harmful to those who engage in them and that widespread cultural affirmation of homosexuality will harm children, families, religious liberty, speech rights, and parental rights?

Please take a principled stand against the continued exploitation of public schools to propagandize your children with your money. Email your children’s teachers—particularly English, social studies, world language, and theater teachers—and ask them if they present any resources on issues related to homosexuality or gender confusion or if they initiate discussions on those topics. If so, ask them if they spend equal time having students study the best resources from both sides of the debate—which rarely if ever happens. Most “progressive” teachers in their infinite ignorance of all things conservative, won’t even know who the best conservative scholars, blogs, or websites are. Depending on their responses, you may want to either change teachers or opt your child out of any pro-homosexuality classroom activities.  

And finally, if your school is allowing students to refuse to speak during instructional time (that is, during classes) on Friday, April 19, 2013, keep your child home.  Read more about the Day of Silence Walkout here .

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