An odd and controversial book that our daughter has to read for 11th grade English...

[Ms. Toad]

81. I've read it a number of times

Last edited Wed Nov 13, 2013, 11:00 AM - Edit history (1)

"you have the legal right in all states to determine the content of your child's learning; . . .
so I'm sure about your legal and parental rights regarding your child's curriculum.

I've shown you that is not true, because when you make a blanket statement, a single case disproves it. (And it is, by and large, not true - but I'm not going to track down the law in all 50 states to prove it to you.) As a general rule, an individual parent has limited control over the content of their child's learning - in the limited realm of sex education and occasionally in courses where an assigned reading is particularly controversial.

I actually do happen to be a teacher and a lawyer currently (I am on the faculty at the law school I graduated from), but what I said was I am currently a lawyer and I was a secondary teacher for 11 years. I didn't mention my current teaching role because my current dual role is not related to secondary education, which is governed by very different laws than post-graduate education.

I didn't put down your advice. I corrected your statement of the law, because it is not correct and unfortunately when someone asserts they have expertise and are "sure about your legal and parental rights" people occasionally believe them. If I happen to know that the assertion is not correct, I correct it.

Laws governing parental control over curriculum vary from state to state. No assertion about parental legal rights to control the curriculum is true in all states. I don't know what is true in the particular state the poster is from, and you don't either. That parent would need to research the state and local laws to find that out.

ETA: As for my knowledge of school law - I both took the course as a law student, and did the primary research for subsequent courses, on the law of school accommodation (which, from a legal perspective, has to do with disability, not parental control over the content of learning), and attending a seminar on school law is on my schedule this morning.