Parental rights and responsibilities.

The author of this book chapter has a professional background in history English sociology and education and works for Concerned Women for America a politically active womens group in the US. The chapter discusses parental rights and responsibilities as indicated in the Bible and US case law. What is taught in the family during the present generation will be the ideology of the next generation. The Bible asserts parents God-given right and responsibility to teach their children the moral precepts and principles to guide their lives. The author identifies about 20 different US legal and international actions that bear on parental rights and responsibilities. For example in 1943 in Prince v. Massachusetts the US Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution has consistently been interpreted as recognizing parents claim to authority over the upbringing of their children. The custody care and nurturance of the child is first the domain of parents. The UN Human Rights Declaration of 1948 identifies parents right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children. Over the past 20 years the rights of parents have shifted. Until the 1970s parents were the primary parties controlling the upbringing and education of their children. In 1972 the rights of parents and minor children were differentiated in the area of reproductive rights. In 1970 the UN emphasized childrens over parents rights. In 1994 and 1995 UN Platforms of Action affirmed the rights of adolescents to privacy confidentiality respect and informed consent. The author argues that parents are not in a partnership with society or men and women as a whole. The partnership between the family and society should follow a continuum that begins with school and is followed by social services parents business community medical community and church. Each entity provides input into decisions about child welfare.