Premier Smith Blinks On Banning Books

 So, late yesterday, Premier Sith Smith blinked on her ban of 2SLGBTQ books from schools.   I have opinions.  This follows on the heels of the Edmonton Public School Board (EPSB) publishing a rather lengthy list of books that would have to be banned based on the province's guidelines. Of course, Premier Smith got upset that not only did the book include 2SLGBTQ titles, but also included Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" (among others).  Clearly, she says, the school boards didn't understand the intent of the Government's guidelines.  

Creeping Fascism in Alberta

My headline today is a little misleading.  There’s nothing “creeping” about the UCP government’s fascism - they’re practically steamrolling the province with it right now.  However, in the last 24 hours I’ve seen two things that really concern me. 

The first of these is a motion that I consider deeply dangerous from a whole bunch of angles - literally it attempts to create a “civilian militia” like structure. 

Let me quote this fully:

Be it resolved that the Legislative Assembly urge the Minister of Justice and Solicitor General to explore options to establish a voluntary civilian corps to assist law enforcement in Alberta.

We’ve had a few groups attempt to do this in the past.  Often with less than desirable results.  Often, it has basically degenerated into a small group of thugs roaming the streets looking for someone to attack in the name of “keeping the peace”.  In the deeper, darker past, these kinds of organizations have a nasty tendency to become political weapons.  Essentially they can become the next “brown shirts”.  

This is a downright terrifying proposition.  We have enough problems with policing right now as it is. Having a government seriously contemplating the formation of what amounts to a civilian militia which has been “deputized” to enforce the law is utterly terrifying.  This can be construed as the UCP government creating its own private army that it can use for its political ends.  

They’ve already experimented with this to some extent.  The “Yellow Vest” and “United We Roll” movements were clearly being encouraged and motivated by political actors.  At their height, they were clearly engaging in intimidation and implied threats to achieve their goals (I’ll point to the role that these groups have been playing in the Co-op Refinery lockout in Regina as a prime example).  

 

This is deeply concerning. 

The second bit I wish to rant about is a change that the UCP is making to our school system:

They want to introduce vocational streaming in elementary school grades.  Think about this for a moment.  That means that the school system as a whole is being re-jigged specifically to set a student’s career direction in primary school grades.  This literally puts parents in the position of having to decide their child’s direction far too early in life.  A child who is struggling to learn how to read, or do basic sums in arithmetic shouldn’t have their career path set for them based on who they are at that point in life. 

This is a very dangerous path for Alberta to walk.  Politically, it creates an environment where the government can suddenly start to restrict the material that is made available to students along socio-economic lines, reinforcing the socio-economic position of their parents as defining what will be available to their children.  

You can start to see the shape of using education to establish a rigid class structure in society.  The wealthy will be able to afford private schools which provide a rich pedagogy and prepares students for advanced study.  In the pseudo-private public system of Charter schools that Kenney is lining up to create, students will be carefully streamed according to the perceived worth of their parents.  Remember, Charter Schools can market themselves to very narrow demographics which will focus who is likely to apply to them.  A public system, such as remains, will be used to provide an absolute bare minimum to those who fall through the filters of wealth and privilege being set up.  Post-secondary opportunities are being tiered based on money, with tuition fees rising rapidly, and students being forced into increasing debt.  It won’t be long before you see a return to the indentured servitude of medieval style “apprenticeships” returning. 

Who benefits from all this?  Strangely enough, it’s Kenney’s corporate owners that benefit the most.  They get a workforce that is specifically tailored to their whims, and one that is cowed by the presence of roaming bands of pseudo law-enforcement that will conveniently be just violent enough that no individual will dare cross them.  If that doesn’t tick off a ton of the boxes that describe fascism, I don’t know what does. 

Bishops and Reality

Seldom do Alberta's Bishops allow reality to interfere with their preconceived ideas.  In fact, where Calgary's Bishop Henry is concerned, the idea of reality seems to exist in another dimension entirely where LGBT rights are concerned.  In his latest tirade, carrying the grandiose title "TOTALITARIANISM IN ALBERTA IV", is so profoundly riddle with ignorance, hyperbole and outright paranoid thoughts that it deserves a more detailed tearing down.  

Despite the differing signage, ranging from “Flush Bill 10” to “Everyone Can Pee,” the issues are not just about bathrooms, plumbing and urination, parental rights, safety of children, how people feel, GSAs and an imperfect Bill 10. What is at stake is the very order of creation. (emphasis added)

Apparently, protecting LGBT youth in Alberta schools is now such a profound threat to the Bishop that it now represents an existential threat to the world itself!  Wow ... I had no idea that LGBT, and in particular Trans, kids were so powerful.

Mr. Eggen's guiding principle for best practices is: “self-identification is the sole measure of an individual’s sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.” This foundational statement is simply assumed to be true and no evidence is offered to substantiate the claim.

Such subjectivity is ever expansive and morally problematic. LGBT has now swelled to LGBTTQQIAAP2S. ... The newest addition is the “2S” which denotes being two-spirited, a term used for one who does not fit into the male/female binary. Some have even added “BDSM” for those into bondage, dominance, sadism and masochism.

Oh yes, the dreaded "slippery slope" argument.  Of course recognizing that human sexuality and expression is far more diverse than the simple male/female missionary model that the Bishop seems so hung up on would collapse - a reality that most of us have figured out the hard way.

However, facts, not ideology, determine reality. On April 6, 2016, the American College of Pediatricians, representing more than a hundred pediatricians, issued an important statement concerning gender ideology ... The College’s statement meshes perfectly with biblical and theological truths.

 Let's look at this for a moment.  "Biblical and theological truths" is a key phrase in here.  Let me be abundantly clear about something.  In spite of the Bishop's protestations, we are not talking about biblical or theological notions of truth here.  Bill 10 and the guidelines that came down earlier this year are not about those issues at all - they are about protecting children and creating a safe environment for them.  For all that the Bishop may wish to blather on about "biblical truth", the fact is that he is miles offside here, because there is clear evidence that providing safe, secure environments that acknowledge the realities of LGBT youth provide better outcomes for their education.  (There's a lot more like this)  From the pulpit, the Bishop is free to spout whatever he wishes, but when it comes to objective realities, the facts contradict everything he is saying.

Pope Francis, “the who am I to judge” Pope, has not minced his words: “the gender ideology is demonic.” He includes gender theory among the fundamental dangers of our era, with the same threatening potential as nuclear weapons and gene manipulation and describes it as an attitude with which man creates a new sin that is directed against God the Creator.

I love this.  The political right wing has started to use the language of "gender ideology" in its attacks on gender minorities.  Seriously?  Lovely attempt at trying to obfuscate the discussion by inventing terminology.  Rather than admitting that they are objecting to equality rights for transgender people (which means you have to admit that you are advocating for discriminatory practices), the Bishop borrows a meaningless piece of verbiage and uses it hoping that we won't notice the sleight of hand.

“Beyond the understandable difficulties which individuals may experience, the young need to be helped to accept their own body as it was created, for thinking that we enjoy absolute power over our own bodies turns, often subtly, into thinking that we enjoy absolute power over creation… Sex education should help young people to accept their own bodies and to avoid the pretension to cancel out sexual differences because one no longer know how to deal with it.”

Really?  I wonder if either the Bishop or the Pope realize that most transgender people experience  significant levels of dysphoria from the outset?  That for some, the only option for a viable life is to transition?  Many spend years trying desperately to "accept" the lot that they have been given, only to find that they are perpetually unable to do so.  It isn't merely "accepting their bodies", most have struggled for years to achieve that, and failed.

Bishop Henry might want to actually get to know the realities that transgender people face, the struggles of their lives and how his hostility to them affects their lives before making grandiose pronouncements about how they should be "treated" in his judgment.  

Harper's War On The Middle Class

Continues apace.

A shortage of skilled workers is the biggest challenge many Canadian businesses face today, Employment Minister Jason Kenney told a skills summit Wednesday, warning it could also jeopardize Canada's economic development in the future. 

The problem would continue to grow as the population ages, Kenney told the one-day conference, which brought together stakeholders to discuss the labour market, employee training and those under-represented in the labour force. 

Currently 30 per cent of the skilled trade workers in Canada are baby boomers, Kenney said, adding that they will soon retire. 

"They are going to take with them a lifetime of knowledge and skill," he said. 

It's necessary that an "informed national discussion" take place about the condition of Canada's labour market, in order to address future skills gaps, Kenney said. 

"We can acknowledge that we have inadequate labour market information and we need to do a fundamentally better job of getting granular information by region and industry," he said.

Coming from a minister of the government that has dismantled the ability of Statistics Canada to even perform an accurate, useful census of Canadians, that's almost funny - if it wasn't so tragic.

Of course, the Harper Conservatives don't like university educated people as a whole.  There's a reason for this:  people with a liberal arts based education don't typically vote conservative.  So, they've been quietly rejigging the funding for federal research grants (which are an important part of university funding) for several years.

Adjusted for inflation, granting council funding has been in serious decline since 2007-08. Funding for SSHRC has fallen by over 10 per cent in real dollars, while core support for NSERC and CIHR are down 6.4 per cent and 7.5 per cent respectively. Support for the indirect costs of research has declined by 7.9 per cent. Overall federal support for the granting councils is down 7.5 per cent in inflation-adjusted dollars since 2007-08. 

There's more.  Not only has the government been quietly reducing the amount of funding it makes available for basic research, they have been changing NSERC's focus to "applied research":

"Collaboration between government, applied researchers and the private sector is vital to building an innovative economy," said Minister Goodyear. "The College and Community Innovation Program supports research collaborations between companies and colleges. It illustrates the importance our government places on creating the conditions for innovation and entrepreneurship to thrive in this country."

What does this have to do with Harper's war on Canada's middle class?  A lot.

First of all, it has fundamentally undermined the core of the concept of University.  If you are taking a degree in disciplines like Engineering, Business or Law, it's great.  You're seeing money poured into your department hand over fist.  If you're interests are in other areas - the social sciences, the liberal arts, not so much.  In fact, the government has been actively discouraging research in these areas and enrolment in those fields of study.  Want to study something that is "politically sensitive" (like gender and sexuality issues for example)? Good luck getting funding.  It isn't going to happen.

The consequence?  First of all, when you hollow out the liberal arts programs, you effectively turn the university into a technical college.  It might be one with the right to confer degrees, but I can guarantee you that the people coming out of those programs are not the well rounded thinkers that should be coming out of universities.  

This suits Harper quite nicely.  He and his "base" have long been critical of "intellectual elites" (you know conservaspeak for people who think about things rather than simply accepting the sound bite du jour).  So turning universities into institutions which turn out highly focused specialists in various domains suits them just fine.  If you don't think too much about any one part of his government, he doesn't seem too bad.  Start to analyze his government in more detail, and the picture rapidly becomes quite horrifying.

Further, by limiting funding to universities, Harper has made the cost of attending so excessive that only the wealthy can really afford it.  So much the better, it reduces the number of people who are likely to be critical of his government (or his ideological successors' governments).

But this is only one facet of Harper's war on Canada's middle class.  Through a series of other actions - mostly by policy fiat - Harper has gone after Canadians even more blatantly.

Front and centre in this has been the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP).  This has been used as a tool to undermine the balance of the Canadian labour economy.  Especially since the government started allowing all and sundry to come in under this program.  Historically, the TFWP existed quite explicitly for importing people with skillsets that are unique, rare and virtually impossible to find locally.  Generally, that meant only a relative handful of specialists came into Canada in any given year, certainly not enough to impact the local labour market.  Then the government started to open it up to general labour.  

Run a restaurant?  Having difficulty "finding qualified help"?  Oh, well now you can solve this problem by bringing in a bunch of labour from another country.  The effect?  Employers could suddenly refuse to pay reasonable wages in areas where there is a labour shortage.  (after all, if you lived in the Phillipines for example, how are you going to know that Calgary's cost of living is high and labour market is tight?)  Further, a foreign worker won't know their rights as a worker in Canada, much less are they going to be willing to "rock the boat" when their employer effectively holds the keys to their continued residence in Canada (especially important if they are considering moving to Canada permanently).  

Although the government has recently announced changes to the program, the damage to Canada's labour market has been done.  Many traditional entry level jobs are no longer available to Canadian youth.  There are many stories out there of youth applying at the local Tim Horton's or other fast food restaurant and being told that they are "overqualified".  Another friend of mine who is a plumber's apprentice has been finding job postings for "entry level" positions demanding 3+ years of experience.  This is a posting which is obviously aimed at a TFW coming into Canada who is looking to get into the same trade in Canada that they were doing previously.  

Businesses are running about wringing their hands about the changes to the TFWP.  Oh goodness, how will they keep their doors open?  Well, the short answer is by offering reasonable wages and working conditions that are somewhat better than slavery.  

Regardless, Harper is working his ass off to create an economic environment where the oligarchy has all the marbles.  (a $600bn "dead money" fund lying around - now tell me why these businesses cannot pay a reasonable wage?)  Make no mistake, there is an active war on Canada's middle class and Harper's government is spearheading it.

Of Just Societies and Aboriginal Affairs

Many years ago, when I was but a small child, Pierre Trudeau spoke of a "Just Society".  It is a noble, if somewhat lofty and abstract goal.

The Just Society will be one in which the rights of minorities will be safe from the whims of intolerant majorities. The Just Society will be one in which those regions and groups which have not fully shared in the country's affluence will be given a better opportunity. The Just Society will be one where such urban problems as housing and pollution will be attacked through the application of new knowledge and new techniques. The Just Society will be one in which our Indian and Inuit populations will be encouraged to assume the full rights of citizenship through policies which will give them both greater responsibility for their own future and more meaningful equality of opportunity. The Just Society will be a united Canada, united because all of its citizens will be actively involved in the development of a country where equality of opportunity is ensured and individuals are permitted to fulfil themselves in the fashion they judge best.

When I read this morning's article on Huffington Post about the broken education system on Canada's reserves, I was appalled.  I have long understood that our reserve system was badly broken on many levels.  When the level of spending on education for students on reserves is half what students elsewhere in Canada receive, there is a serious problem.

There is a wide gulf between how the federal government funds students on reserves and the spending per student in provincial school systems. Some estimates peg the amount of on-reserve funding at just half what other Canadian students receive.

This isn't a failing of one government.  It is a long term failure of Canada's governments - one that likely as not goes all the way back to governments that succeeded Sir John A. Macdonald.    Whether through deliberate action, or simple ignorance, Canada's governments have dropped this ball repeatedly.

It doesn't help that over time, attitudes such as the following expressed in the comments on Huffington Post have taken root:

they have educations handed to them books, lodging ,financial aid just because of their ethnicity way more than non natives have i wish i had all of these options handed to me then i could afford university

Unfortunately, people hear about the funding which is available to aboriginal students in Canada, they presume that everything is handed to them "on a platter".  When we are in a place such that high school students have to live away from their families during a key part of their development as human beings and in their education - a recipe for failure if there ever was one.

The proposed changes to aboriginal education released this fall appear to continue to perpetuate the already broken system:

Under the draft legislation, band councils would be allowed to operate schools directly, as many already do, but also to purchase services from regional or provincial school boards or even from the private sector. First Nations could also form education authorities that would oversee one or more schools in a region. 

But it would be the federal government that would set and enforce standards for schools on reserves. And the minister would retain the power to take over a school or school authority if an inspector finds problems.

The broken system here is patriarchal in form.  Where the "minister has the power to take over a school or school authority", there is an implicit distrust in place.  On one level, it may appear to be a reasonable piece of authority for the crown to wield, but in the broader context of relations with Canada's First Nations, it seems too much akin to the same kind of system that has been built on the assumption that First Nations are not "ready" or "able" to manage these programs themselves.

Given the political relationship between the Federal Government and Canada's First Nations, this is no trivial matter.  Certainly, money is part of the picture, but another part has to be addressing the degree of control that the Federal Government exerts over First Nations.  The Kelowna Accord (nearly a decade ago now) appears to have been an ambitious first step in addressing these issues.

Unfortunately, Harper pitched the whole thing in the trash, and since then has done little on the file.

By any measure, what we have today is far from just where First Nations are concerned.  Much needs to change.

Did Anybody Else See This Turd Coming?

I did. Way back in the 90s when King Ralph took away school boards' right to levy and collect property taxes.

It's taken a while, but sure enough the CBE takes some $10 million in deficit, and some 200 teachers are expected to lose their jobs as a result.

The problem? The provincial government has deliberately hamstrung regional school boards. First of all, the school boards are all funded by the provincial government, and they have no say in the amount of funding that Edmonton hands over.

It's pretty obvious to any thinking person that running the CBE is going to be a little more expensive than running the schools in the Crowsnest pass - at a minimum it costs more to live in Calgary than it does to live in Blairmore, therefore people demand higher salaries.

The second problem is that the province signed an agreement with Alberta's teachers - but it leaves the funding of those agreements in the hands of the school districts. So, on one hand, the government has placed a chokehold on the public school boards by committing them to employment terms and then tightens its grip by refusing to fund the school boards to meet their obligations - obligations which the province signed up to in the first place by signing those agreements.

That isn't just irresponsible governance, it's deliberate malice intended to undermine the public education system so that the privatization program that started with the introduction of so-called "Charter Schools" can be furthered.

Just What Is This?

Students joke about school as a prison, but what idiotic nonsense possesses educators to use prison cells for discipline?.

This is just vile. Whoever instituted those things deserves to be fired from their jobs and run out of town by the local parents. (After spending a day in one of their own little "cells")

Musings On The "Pension Settlement" For Teachers

This has been rattling around for a few days, and I've had a hard time putting my finger on what's wrong with the issue.

Earlier this week, the provincial government announced that it would pay out the $2Bn pension liability in the Alberta teachers' pension fund in exchange for five years of labour "peace".

Superficially, it doesn't sound too bad - the teachers get a few dollars a month back on their paychecks, and modest raises in the coming years in exchange for agreeing not to go on strike for five years.

There is a "but" to all of this - and it's a huge problem. The collective agreement as announced is being imposed from Edmonton. However, the agreements themselves are between ATA locals and the various regional/municipal school boards, not the provincial government. Meanwhile, the provincial government holds the purse strings for education - and can arbitrarily strangle the ability of local school boards to implement the agreement that is being imposed.

For those who have lost track, or are new to Alberta, somewhere in the mid-90s the Klein government stripped local school boards of their ability to levy and collect property taxes to fund education. The power to levy and collect those taxes was absorbed by Edmonton and then they would parcel the money out to school boards.

During the Klein years, that control over the purse strings was used to brutally constrict funding of public education overall, and hamstring the local school boards' ability to respond to local concerns. Arguably, the current "unfunded liability" that the government is now so "generously" proposing to absorb was a direct result of policies imposed from Edmonton during the Klein years.

In other words, the government is agreeing to rebalance the books after sucking the teachers' wallets dry.

The second, and perhaps more important problem here is the fact that the agreement is being imposed on both sides of the equation from Edmonton. This is a direct violation of the very principle of collective bargaining in the first place. If this is to be the case, I argue that the contracts involving the ATA must in fact be contracts with the government in Edmonton specifically, not the local school boards. Anything else simply creates an artificial wall that protects the provincial government from being held responsible for the terms of the agreements.

Lastly, while the intent of the Klein era changes to school funding was to "cure" a perceived imbalance between large urban and rural school boards' ability to levy adequate funds. This latest agreement imposes a 3% increase on teachers across the province. I won't profess to know what the circumstances a teacher in High Prairie finds themselves in, but I do know that 3% in Calgary is less than half the rate of inflation - in other words it doesn't even cover the amount that people's bills have gone up in the last year!

Teachers have a tough decision to make - accept the government's offer to absorb the shortfall in the pension fund or push back and demand both a more realistic bargaining context and pay raises commensurate with the economic environment in which we live. A third option might be to punish the PC's at the next election - even if this deal is ratified.

Abusing "Freedom of Religion"

This is very troubling. A school in Quebec is ordered to shut down to shut down because it doesn't meet provincial standards.

The response? Well, instead of fixing the deficiencies (eg. following basic curriculum standards and having certified teachers), the people whose students attend the school decide to move to another province.

These events are examples of the key problems that I have with any private school that tries to separate itself entirely from the public standards and regulation. I have no problems with schools exceeding that standard, however, not meeting those standards is another thing altogether.

Unfortunately, many people seem to believe that their religious views take precedence over everything else in the secular world. This is demonstrably poor logic, and in the long run impairs the options open to their children.

For example, let us assume that this school chooses to teach a "theologically correct" version of physics (perhaps one that refutes any non-Newtonian mechanics). Up to a point, this might be fine, but for the fact that there is no "theologically correct" physics. When an unexplainable phenomenon is found, specialists in that domain seek an explanation that they can model, they don't simply sit back and say "God made it that way" as a pat explanation.

Now, let's consider a student who has graduated from a school teaching "theological physics", and walks into a first year physics course in college. They will likely be functioning with a significant knowledge deficit because they will have not been exposed to entire significant aspects of the discipline simply because someone decided it wasn't "appropriate" on religious grounds. (Or worse, simply taught badly by well-meaning but untrained educators who would not qualify for certification as teachers)

I'm not saying that these students shouldn't be educated within the context of their faith, but rather that there are compelling reasons that private schools can and should be held accountable to certain basic standards - regardless of ideology.

Let Me Get This Straight...

According to Ron Liepert, Alberta's school boards can't expect any significant funding increases because we might hit a financial wall in the indeterminate future?

We've been dealing with a funding wall in Alberta's cities ever since Klein's bunch of bandits took over the purse strings for property taxes, and started to dole them out in a way that punished the cities. Now, we find ourselves staring at skyrocketing costs for salaries, crumbling schools and a host of other issues in the urban centers and this SOB is worried about some arbitrary future that he thinks might happen???

Our school boards have been hamstrung for over ten years now, and it's offensive to me. The school board has to negotiate and own contracts with its teachers, and yet the government is not obliged to provide adequate funding for those contracts. Hell, the government can't (or won't) even demonstrate that the dollars contributed by Calgary taxpayers are going into the Calgary schools!

So far, I have had little reason to be impressed by Ed Stelmach's government, but this is rapidly moving me from ambivalence to outright hostility towards this bunch of Kleinosaurs.

Waitasec...Just Whose Idea of Xtian Are We Talking About?

On CBC this morning, I heard that the Rocky View School District is starting a "Christian Program" this fall.

Presumably, this is, much like the various linguistic immersion programs, an optional program.

However, there are significant differences between linguistic programs such as French or Spanish Immersion and a religiously centered program.

While the argument over which dialect of French should be taught (Quebecois or Parisienne) can be heated enough (it certainly was when I was in school), religion is another thing altogether.

Just whose particular notion of "Christian" is going to be taught in the proposed program? Christianity is hardly a monolith of consistent belief - it is like any other large faith community significantly fractured in regards to the interpretation and practices surrounding scripture. From Catholicism to the United Church, and an assortment of literalist sects in various areas, there is only a limited degree of commonality in how scripture is interpreted. One has to wonder just whose idea of 'Christian' is going to be taught in this program, and what kind of oversight will be in place?

One could imagine that we have teachers spouting Ken Ham's uniquely broken view of Creation? Or teaching some particularly harsh notion of "Christian Values" (whatever that happens to mean to the individual)

... and if we do, how do we deal with it?

Religious community is naturally exclusive of others. It's not intentional, nor is it necessarily malicious. The fact is that faith communities tend to attract "like-minded" individuals to them, and will push away those who differ too much or challenge the "local orthodoxy". I worry that the program being proposed in Rocky View is essentially saying to non-Christian students "go away, we don't want your 'kind' here".

Yes, I recognize that Alberta has a taxpayer-funded Catholic school system, but there are specific historical reasons unique to the constitution of Alberta as a province that put that in place as recognition for the contribution of the Catholic Church during the early stages of settling the region.

As is pointed out, the other options are private schools which are expensive. These do not bother me particularly - if you want such a specialized education, then that's the price you pay. Calgary has a long tradition of private schools that are focused on specific faith communities, and I do not have a big problem with those schools - the parents are paying the bill for something that is specialized to their particular philosophy of life, and that's fine with me. (I suspect I might express some concern over a neo-Nazi private school, but that's a hypothetical scenario)

However, I object on general principle to the use of taxpayer funds to promote a specific faith. Faith, unlike language, is deeply personal for many, and the creation of a publicly funded "faith-based" program like this is deeply unsettling. The sense of "Otherness" that pervades interactions between students attending our Public/Catholic schools is bad enough, without expanding it further. (In some respects, I wonder at times about dismantling the two school systems and rationalizing them - on that basis alone)

Do I argue that there is no place for religion in our public schools? No. I merely argue that such education should be comparative in nature - exposing the students to the breadth of faiths in the world, rather than narrowly focusing upon a single faith, or a single sect of a faith. Like discipline and morality, I believe firmly that faith is a topic that is a primary responsibility for parents to engage their children in a manner that is suitable.