Maryland Schools Are Being Asked to Do Everything — Even Potty Training

By MDBayNews Staff

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Anne Arundel County Public Schools is expanding support for young students who arrive at school not fully toilet trained — at the same time, the district is revising policies governing gender identity, names, pronouns, bathrooms, and parental involvement.

Taken separately, those are two very different issues.

Taken together, they raise a much bigger question about what Maryland now expects public schools to be.

Schools were once primarily responsible for teaching children to read, write, do math, and understand history and science. Increasingly, they are being asked to take on responsibilities that traditionally belonged much more heavily to families — from basic developmental milestones to deeply personal questions involving identity.

There are legitimate reasons some children may need toileting assistance, particularly students with disabilities or developmental needs. No child should be humiliated because they need help.

But when schools begin planning broadly for kindergarten-age children who simply have not been potty trained, it is fair to ask whether expectations for parents have shifted too far.

The gender-policy debate raises a similar concern from another direction. Parents understandably want to know what schools are telling their children about names, pronouns, bathrooms and identity — particularly when those decisions can involve very young students.

The issue is not whether teachers care about children. Most do.

The issue is whether we are steadily transforming teachers and schools into surrogate parents, social workers, counselors and caregivers, while still expecting them to somehow raise academic performance.

Maryland keeps adding responsibilities to the classroom.

At some point, somebody should ask what responsibilities still belong at home.

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