It's a 'problem' when 'parents think they have the right to control teaching and learning because their children are the ones being educated': op-ed writer

A teacher and novelist made a rather eye-opening claim in an op-ed for NBC News — that it's a "problem" when "parents think they have the right to control teaching and learning because their children are the ones being educated."

What are the details?

Christina Wyman — author of the upcoming middle-school novel "Jawbreaker" — decried parents and politicians who've been "interfering with the curricula that public schools use to teach students" in her piece.

"State legislatures are passing laws to keep critical race theory out of schools, literary classics like Toni Morrison's 'The Bluest Eye' are banned for sexual content, and school libraries are coming under attack for containing books about gender," Wyman added. "There are even parents who are trying to shield students from learning about mental health and suicide — as though helping children build emotional fortitude is a bad thing."

Then she observed the following: "Part of the problem is that parents think they have the right to control teaching and learning because their children are the ones being educated. But it actually (gasp!) doesn't work that way. It's sort of like entering a surgical unit thinking you can interfere with an operation simply because the patient is your child."

Wyman wasn't through, adding that "unless they're licensed and certified, parents aren't qualified to make decisions about curricula" and that when parents weigh in "with their personal opinions, ideologies and biases," they "hinder" teaching.

'Parents ... who aren't qualified to teach should keep their noses out of school curricula'

She went on to say that the latest moves by parents and politicians to control the content of curriculum "should be ignored."

"These distractions are nothing more than theater, and school boards and administrators should be protecting their teachers — and students — from it rather than bowing to it," Wyman added in her op-ed.

Interestingly, she conceded that parents should speak out when "they feel emotional harm results from the curriculum or student-teacher interactions," but that's as far as Wyman seemed to go, adding that "short of that, parents, community members, and politicians who aren't qualified to teach should keep their noses out of school curricula."

You can read Wyman's full op-ed here.