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The story of a Florida charter school principal who apparently lost her job during a sixth grade class while viewing Michelangelo’s statue of David is the stuff late-night monologues and sarcastic social media posts are made of. Indeed, the story once again shows how disconnected our so-called elites are with the real America.
In case you missed it, Hope Carrasquilla, principal of the Tallahassee Classical School, failed to notify parents that an image of the statue would be shown to a sixth grader as part of a segment on Renaissance art. Carrasquilla may have had some past scrapes with the school board – that part isn’t entirely clear – but the lack of parental notice about David was apparently the last straw. She was told to quit or be fired, so she quit.
You can see the talk show hosts observing the foolish, downtrodden people in Tallahassee who have some sort of problem with letting their kids see great art. Why, they can’t tell the difference between a masterpiece and a piece of pornography! What undeveloped countries!
Carrasquilla will quickly become the target of roaring laughter from the studio audience, who will naturally agree with the host’s position that parents who won’t let their children see a 500-year-old statue are too stupid for words.
Not so fast.
Florida president forced to resign after student ‘David’ statue shown
The law of the land is that communities decide for themselves what is appropriate and what is not. School board that requested Carrasquilla’s resignation would choose what sixth graders see, not late-night talk show hosts or left-wing Twitter users who laugh at conservative parents.
You may agree with the school board that parents are entitled to notice whether children of 11 years of age will see a finely sculpted representation of the male human figure, including the genitals. Maybe you don’t. But that’s exactly the point.
In our federal society, communities make their own decisions, especially regarding matters affecting children. This is basic American freedom. Parents should send their children to charter schools so that they have a greater say in what goes on in the classroom. This is a basic American freedom, too.
This is not a discussion of whether the statue is pornographic or obscene. not like that. If you want to be precise, pornography is derived from two ancient Greek words – boernmeaning prostitute, and grapheneMeaning of writing. Strictly speaking, pornography is writing about sexuality that is essentially bought and paid for.
Obscenities also come from ancient Greek. Op is the meaning of the prefix , and skins mean stage. Anything you don’t put on stage for the audience to see is obscene.
Obviously, David is not. It is one of the most important works of art in Western culture, a statue that has been admired and celebrated for more than 500 years.
So the issue is not whether the backwards-facing school board in Tallahassee is unable to recognize great art when they see it. Of course they can.
The issue is whether parents should set their own standards for what their children see and when they see it without our cultural elites making fun of them.
Liberal news outlets, of course I linked the story to Florida Governor and potential presidential candidate Ron DeSantis and a law he passed to limit classroom discussions about gender identity. These include, among other things, CBS News, the Miami Herald and even the British newspaper The Guardian. Of course, one thing has nothing to do with the other, but no opportunity to ruin DeSantis can’t be ignored.
Elites have every right to sneer, because that’s what they do best, and that’s pretty much all they do. Meanwhile, out here in the real world, conservative parents struggle with the challenge of raising children in a veritable sewer of inappropriate online images, cyberbullying, and a host of other issues that never seem to bother our so-called elite.
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Michelangelo (Bunarotti) 1475-1564 / sculptor, painter, master builder, poet: Works of the statue “David” (1501/04) for Piazza della Signoria in Florence. Current location: Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence – Height: 4.43m / Marble Image: 1995 ((Photo by Bauer/Olstein Bild via Getty Images))
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Describing David as “pornographic” trivializes the real issue — that not every parent wants his or her sixth-grade child to look at male genitalia in class, no matter how prestigious. If you want to teach Renaissance art, you can find literally thousands of pictures that wouldn’t be embarrassing, confusing, or inappropriate for 11-year-olds.
And if you don’t like the school board’s decision, you have the right to remove your children from that school and send them somewhere else.
people who find it Easier to laugh at parents They are the people who have no idea how difficult it is to raise emotionally healthy children in today’s turbulent world. Parents on the left may remember that not everyone has to agree with the coolest or the coolest opinions.
America means freedom to choose what’s best for our children, and no clever late-night talk show host or Twitter troll telling us how we should live our lives.
Click here to read more from MICHAEL LEVIN