Astonishingly, none of these things prompted a defense from the school board. Rather, it was the depictions found in some of the remaining hearts on the poster. The school board was brazen enough to go beyond the obvious attempt to force homosexuality on the impressionable minds of the students within its care and place three stick figures representing two boys and one girl and vice versa standing together within one heart. As might be expected, some parents felt this was an attempt to promote polygamy and at last voiced their concerns. At the time, the Toronto District School Board spokesman Ryan Bird attempted to douse the fires of outrage by indicating that the school board did not support polygamy, yet he went on to issue an equally disconcerting message essentially endorsing bisexuality: “The images in question were meant to support an individual’s right to choose whom they love, regardless of gender. For example, the reason for depicting two women and one man was meant to show that a person can be attracted to more than one gender” (The Toronto Sun, September 25, 2012, “Poster Not About Polygamy: TDSB”).
The “Love has no gender” posters were accompanied by others as part of the district’s “Safe and Positive Spaces Campaign.” Other posters included various messages such as, “Masculine and feminine are labels, not definitions” and “There are no rules for being a boy or a girl.” According to the school board, these were designed to promote “tolerance” of alternative lifestyles. The board reportedly appropriated approximately $8,500 to indoctrinate their students with these messages (The National Post.com, September 26, 2012, “Threesomes on Toronto School Board Posters Not Intended to Promote Polygamy, Spokesman Says”).
Is this what you sent your children to school to learn? Or were you expecting them to learn about math, science, grammar, and the like? Yet such political movements are rampant in the school systems as various interest groups vie for the impressionable minds of tomorrow’s leaders. The prophet Isaiah long ago prophesied to a similar people, “For the leaders of this people cause them to err, and those who are led by them are destroyed” (Isaiah 9:16).
So, what is a concerned parent to do? Some parents choose to homeschool their children, yet that option is becoming increasingly difficult for many. In some countries, it is not even legal. Regardless of whether a child is homeschooled or in public school, it is first and foremost a parent’s responsibility to teach his or her child about morality and true family values as expressed by our loving Creator. God inspired Moses to write, “These words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up” (Deuteronomy 6:6–7). As proclaimed by God, values-based education is first and foremost a parent’s duty.