No they don’t have a right to choose what their children are taught, and I’m sick of people acting like they do. You choosing not to teach your child crucial life skills or fundamental truths because you don’t want to, because it’s not what you believe, harms your child. It’s child abuse and should be treated as such.
No, choosing how to raise your child, even if it deviates from the dominant positions, is a fundamental human right. Child abuse is an extreme situation and does not remotely apply to this.
I disagree with your claim that it’s a right. And would you look at that? So does the UN.
I would agree that gaiting information from a child isn’t abusive, but like many things it’s not without nuance.
- Santa? Sure, whatever.
- Went out for drinks, but act like you were working late? Not great, but that’s your perogative.
- Refuse to let the school teach about traffic lights, because you don’t like cars, and don’t drive? Uh. That’s gunna cause some issues down the road. (Pun very much intended)
Generally I think it just comes down to under preparing them for life. It’s not abusive, but intense cases of it could start approaching neglect. The Wikipedia page for child neglect does mention this:
Educational/developmental neglect is the failure to provide a child with experiences for necessary growth and development, such as not sending a child to school or educating them.
Cold abuse directly applies to this. You can raise your child in a way that is abusive, and that protection from abuse is more important than your “fundamental human right”.
I mean if I decide the way I raise my kid is by locking him in a box for 24 hours as my form of discipline, that would be my right? I mean that’s how I chose to raise him. But according to you, that wouldn’t have anything to do with child abuse…
Yes, child abuse does exist and to some extent the state has a say in how parents raise their children. But parents get to choose what ideologies, religions, and morals they teach their children, among other things. The state should have very little say other than extreme cases of abuse. Same way you don’t tell a random man in Russia how to raise his child, you don’t tell your neighbor how to raise his child. Just mind your own business and stop pretending to have the moral high ground.
