By Ari Howorth
Staff Writer
In an effort to control material taught to children, parents nationwide have begun making an effort to change schools’ curriculum. They have gathered public support using petitions to eventually pass laws. What started as a localized complaint has become a dangerous movement of parents.
This inconsistent concept of altering curriculum directly stunts the education of students. This idea should not permeate the nation, as it would undermine the coverage of various subjects in American public schools.
One parent’s objection to the method in which historical religious figures were being portrayed in New Hampshire gained support and evolved into a movement and a political issue. After a parent objected, the school board of that district altered the curriculum to remove the controversial material.
This spurred even more controversy when the New Hampshire legislature passed a law that specifically allows parents to request that curriculum be removed from the school’s curriculum.
This law is detrimental to the structure of American public schooling. It eliminates the uniformity of education and gives parents too much control in their children’s learning. Those that opt out of certain subjects are supposed to be given an alternative plan to meet any state requirements on the topic. However, this will most likely not be as effective and will give these students an unfair advantage as their learning will inevitably suffer.
By entrusting the public school system with their children’s education, parents turn over educational responsibility to the state. Parents cannot be allowed to censor their children’s learning. Doing so not only puts an unfair burden on school districts to develop an infinite number of different curriculums, but it also cripples the learning of their children.
If this is applied on a national scale, the multitude of different curricula is unprecedented. Students will have varying levels of knowledge on different subjects, namely religion and sex education. This lack of conformity almost defeats the need for a curriculum at all, if it can be changed by a simple objection.
In regards to Mira Costa, this method would have highly unfavorable effects. The reformation of classes, such as health, would likely come into effect. Mira Costa’s curriculum is currently a strong system with beneficial college preparation. Although minute, changes from this type of system would be costly and detrimental to the students’ education.
This idea of modifying the curriculum to the liking of the parents is extremely harmful to the educational system and the affected students. It goes against the diversity promoted by the current public schooling.
This movement should be quelled so the uniformity of the American school system can be preserved.
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