| Some public schools try to turn children against their | | | | disturbing anti-parent campaign by many public |
| parents with scary classroom stories or lessons about | | | | schools across the country: |
| child abuse. Public school authorities have increasingly | | | | "I first became aware of the protective behaviors |
| decided that they are children's first line of defense | | | | curriculum when a mother called me to tell me of an |
| against child abuse. This new attitude falls under what | | | | experience she had with her daughter. Her child, an |
| is now known as "protective behavior curriculum." | | | | elementary schoolgirl, had come home in tears. When |
| The assumptions behind this curriculum are that | | | | she saw that her mother was home and waiting for |
| every child needs to be warned about and prepared | | | | her, she rushed to her in relief. AI wasn't sure you'd |
| for possible dangers of verbal, physical, and sexual | | | | be here, she told her mother. Her mother reassured |
| abuse because allegedly every child is a potential | | | | her that she would always be there for her. In school |
| victim, not only of strangers but of his or her own | | | | that day, her daughter told her, her class had |
| family. | | | | discussed "bad" touching including spanking. |
| Increasingly, school authorities instruct teachers to | | | | "In the course of the discussion, children had been |
| ask children questions about their parents' behavior | | | | encouraged to share with the teachers and |
| and actions toward them at home. The questions | | | | classmates whether they had ever been touched in |
| amount to asking kids to spy on their parents and | | | | that way and the girl had said that her mother had |
| report incidents that make them feel "uncomfortable." | | | | spanked her. The children were also told that people |
| Some school authorities use such tales by children to | | | | who engaged in bad touching would be taken away |
| investigate or file charges of child abuse against | | | | and put in jail. For the rest of the school day the girl |
| parents who often did no more than yell at their | | | | was terrified that her mother who had spanked her |
| children or spank them lightly. | | | | would now be taken away and locked up for her bad |
| In effect, to allegedly protect children, some school | | | | touching." |
| authorities now consider all parents as potential | | | | Parents, it might be wise to periodically ask your |
| abusers, use children to invade parents' privacy, or | | | | children if their teachers ask them personal questions |
| make kids afraid of their parents. Often, children are | | | | about your family or how you discipline your children. |
| disturbed and emotionally traumatized by the | | | | Turning children into spies against their parents or |
| insinuations school authorities put into their heads. | | | | making them afraid of their parents is not what |
| The following incident described by Charles J. Sykes, | | | | parents pay school taxes for. |
| in his book "Dumbing Down Our Kids," illustrates this | | | | |