Are our schools too liberal?

According to some parents the schools around here are too liberal and thus they either home school them or send them to a charter school.  This made me wonder what are they really referring to when they say the schools are too liberal?  As I don’t have any school-aged kids I don’t have any first hand experience with the local school system.

Growing up I attended public schools and just assumed my kids would too.

I wonder if these parents would say the same thing about the high school I attended.  I was part of JSA (debate team) in high school and the hot topic at the time was legalizing (Medicinal) Marijuana and Euthanasia. Thus we debated it on an intellectual level and the best of them could debate either side and win. But just because we could prove on an intellectual level that Marijuana should be legalized that didn’t mean any of us consumed it.  We were all taught values at home and those are what we stuck to, not what the school taught us. 

Many parents are concerned about their being a gay/lesbian out reach program in the school and this lifestyle being taught in our schools.  Maybe things are different now, but no one really discussed their sexual orientation in school, actually sex wasn’t talked about much between my friends and I.  I felt no pressure to have sex in school.  I recall there being 1 openly gay guy in my high school. He was part of our lunch group, but if I recall correctly we never talked about sexual orientation.  I really don’t think anyone cared.

A recall a couple of my friends tried smoking in high school. My guess is they must have offered one to me as it would be rude not to share, but I never felt pressured.  I was a bit shocked when I saw them light up the first time as I had no idea they smoked, but as fast as it started it quickly faded.

I do recall chatting with this guy in one of my classes, he was going to party that weekend where there would be drinking and he said that I wasn’t invited, as it wasn’t good for me. So, as you can see I was far from pressured to drink. 

Drugs were available at my school too. I was friendly with a couple of the dealers. One of them told funny stories of close encounters with the authorities or how they got away.  The other I met my freshman year. He was in my study skills class. I don’t recall the exact circumstances, but I do recall him dumping out the contents of his backpack out and telling us what everything was used for (mirror, hand cuffs, etc.)  It was quite educational, but that was that. He didn’t offer us drugs.

If this is as liberal as the schools are here then I can work with this.  My feeling is you engrain into your kids values at home then it’s up to them to make their own choices. On the other hand if my kids come home crying from school every day and the curriculum isn’t working for them then maybe I will investigate other possibilities.  In addition there is really no point for me to be worrying about schools. Since I don’t’ have any kids right now that gives me at least 5 years before my first will start kindergarten and at least 14 years before my first with go to high school. A lot can change in that time.  I may move, the curriculum will probably change, the current students will be gone and so will some of the teachers.