Almost all children fall victim to their parents’ philosophies. I rarely encounter people my age who fail to mostly, if not entirely, accept their parents’ political, economic, and moral beliefs.

For the few who do decide to take a different outlook on the world, they deeply understand the reasoning behind their parents’ beliefs. Even though they might disagree, they give validity in this other stance, simply because they have raw, first hand exposure to the beliefs.

While it is understandable that children easily accept their parents’ political, economic, and moral philosophies, it is important that they are given the chance to discover and explore different philosophies as well.

Parker tries to offer its students multiple perspectives on both historical and present issues– to an extent. For example, in my United States History Class, we read from left-wing textbooks but also explore documents written by liberals, conservatives, radicals, socialists, and many in between.  However, simply handing students conservative documents along with liberal ones does not provide an adequate opportunity for students to truly understand and accept, on some level, philosophies different from the ones they have grown up accepting.

It is inherently difficult to empathize with an opinion you’ve previously learned to be wrong, and similarly challenging to critique a viewpoint you have learned as the truth.  Consequently, in an institution mostly filled with Democrats, liberal views can easily go unchallenged.

For the most part, Parker teachers do not try to force a class to agree or disagree with a document or political outlook. Nonetheless, the culture of a class extends beyond the curriculum, to teachers’ and students’ attitudes. With nothing more than documents, and maybe a student or two, in defense of an opinion differing from the Democratic view, it is easy for other students to effectually refuse to empathize with that opinion.  I believe, our school has reinforced the refusal to empathize, instead of challenging it.

From faculty and students alike I have heard this argument: Parents know that they are sending their kids to a liberal school. But does that mean that Parker should sacrifice its students’ education for the desires of parents? It is no victory to convince someone to accept what you believe if your only argument is blocking deep exposure to other beliefs.

As a progressive school which aims to create engaged, democratic citizens, Parker should instead try to make more of an effort to create a culture in which students are critical yet understanding of all beliefs, including the ones that they have grown up with.