MANDATED SEX EDUCATION
The advocates of mandated sex education seem determined to force their values and courses on minor children in the public school classroom, regardless of how offensive this is to parents and children. The education bureaucracy wants to mandate K-12 sex education, which means Kindergarten through 12th grade.
For an example of what is taking place nationally, let’s look at Tennessee. Legislation adopted in 1985 gave the state a uniform state health curriculum, but left it optional with local school districts as to whether or not they would use it.
Only 41 out of 141 school districts adopted this unit, and the busybody bureaucrats have expressed frustration at this exercise of free choice. To preempt any mandatory action, pro-family leaders recently went before the Tennessee Legislature to speak against any attempt to force sex education unwillingly on the public schools.
They noted that a new study from the Children’s Defense Fund suggests a causal link between academic failure and adolescent pregnancy. They concluded that a solid basic academic education, rather than sexuality courses, is the key to curbing teenage pregnancy.
The Tennessee parents devised a list of twenty questions that citizens can ask their local schools before they implement sexuality curricula. The parents want to know who will teach sex to the students, and what qualifies them to teach this course of study.
If the regular classroom teacher is to be the instructor, will he or she feel overburdened by accepting yet another responsibility that rightly belongs to parents? If the classroom teacher does everything that is required to educate youngsters in the area of academics, is there even time to incorporate sex ed into the curriculum?
What is the aim and purpose of sex education at your schools? Is it to lower venereal disease, illegitimacy, the incidence of promiscuity, perversion and divorce?
Where can we look for success with sex education that can be held up as a beacon to show what is to be accomplished? Sweden is a nation that has had mandatory sex education since 1954 and it has the highest venereal disease rate and the highest suicide rate of any civilized nation.
What will be the policy for notifying parents of the contents and method of sex education and of inviting their comments and/or participation? What visual and audio aids will be used in terms of films, filmstrips, slides, tapes? What books and other literature will be used? What facilities are there for parents to see the literature to be used, hear any audio aids and view any visual aids?
What arrangements are there for parents to withdraw their children from sex education should they so wish?
Does it require instruction and discussion to take place in sex-integrated (co-ed) classes rather than separate classes for boys and girls? Does it require boys and girls to discuss private parts and sexual behavior openly in the classroom with explicit vocabulary, thereby destroying their natural modesty, privacy and psychological defenses against immoral sex? Does it require boys and girls to draw or trace on paper intimate parts of the male and female bodies?
Does it urge boys and girls to seek help from or consult only or primarily public agencies rather than their parents or religious advisors? Does it encourage children not to tell their parents about the sex ed curriculum or about their sexual behavior or problems?
Does it omit mentioning chastity as a method (the only absolute method) of preventing teenage pregnancies and V.D.? Does it present abortion as an acceptable method of birth control? Does it present homosexual behavior as normal and acceptable?
Does it use a vocabulary which disguises immorality? For example, “sexually active” to mean fornication, “sexual partners” to mean sex in or out of marriage, “fetus” to mean baby, “termination of pregnancy” to mean killing a preborn baby. Does it ask unnecessary questions which cause children to doubt their parents’ religious and social values? Can the sex ed curriculum reasonably be described as a “how to” course in sexual acts (instruction which obviously encourages individual experimentation)?
The Tennessee parents ended their lobbying day at the state capitol by presenting each committee member with a box of animal crackers with this note attached: “Sex Education without moral absolutes is animal level sex. Help keep us out of the zoo. Vote NO to Sex Education in Tennessee Schools.
It’s clear that the controversy over sex education is heating up, not cooling down.
