Chalk up another victory in the continuing saga of parents versus professionals about sex education in the public schools. After months of highly-charged controversy, the professionals retreated in disarray before a phalanx of parents armed with a powerful weapon: the actual pages of the sexuality curriculum that was the brainchild of the Pennsylvania state department of education.
The Pennsylvania Health Curriculum Guide, a series of lesson plans on sex, was mailed in 1984 to all the 501 school districts in that state and recommended for use in kindergarten through 12th grade.
Spokesmen for the department defended the Guide as good material to use which was developed by professionals in the field, many of them associated with Pennsylvania State University. Such soothing reassurances folded in the face of the actual pages.
Governor Robert Casey called the sex curriculum “as offensive a thing as I’ve ever seen. I mean, I wouldn’t want my kids exposed to that stuff.”
A resolution for a bipartisan investigation of who foisted this “stuff” on little children, and how it remained unknown to parents for three years, is being co-sponsored by 110 Pennsylvania legislators. The best way to explain why they are upset is to quote verbatim as much as we have space for from the pending legislative resolution.
“Whereas, The Guide, as part of its recommended family health curriculum, promotes the use of student tests which subject students and their families to a gross and fundamentally objectionable invasion of their personal privacy; and
“Whereas, by way of example, one recommended test has students respond affirmatively or negatively to such statements as: ‘you have sexual intercourse frequently’; ‘you have premature ejaculations’; ‘you have heavy, crampy periods’; and ‘you prefer a method with no bother’; and
“Whereas, The Guide, as part of its recommended family health curriculum, suggests the use of a student test, entitled ‘the sexual anxiety inventory,’ which also invades personal privacy and which teaches students that they suffer from sexual anxiety and/or a low intimacy quotient if they share in certain moral values of their parents and their church; and
“Whereas, by way of illustration, the ‘sexual anxiety inventory’ indicates that the following responses contribute towards a finding that a student is free of sexual anxiety: masturbation ‘can be a useful substitute’; extramarital sex ‘is O.K. if everyone agrees’; casual sex ‘is better than no sex at all’; the student would ‘tell a dirty joke if it were funny’; buying a pornographic book ‘wouldn’t bother me’; and
“Whereas, The Guide recommends the book ‘Where Did I Come From: The Facts of Life Without Any Nonsense and With Illustrations’ for use in kindergarten through grade 3, and this book: (1) contains several large cartoon-like pictures of a man and woman with their sex organs prominently exposed; (2) contains a cartoon-like picture of a man and woman engaged in an act of sexual intercourse; (3) describes the sex act in graphic terms and informs young children that intercourse is ‘like scratching an itch but a lot nicer’; and
“Whereas, The Guide advises schools that ‘examples of affirmations from Sondra Ray’s book, I Deserve Love, illustrate some of the many affirmations that people have used to give and receive love and to enhance their sex lives’; and
“Whereas, Sondra Ray’s book recommends the following affirmations to clear what she describes as ‘suppressed incest’: ‘It is okay to make love with my father. It is okay to make love with my mother. Just because it is okay does not mean I actually have to do it’; and ‘I am now willing to experience my incestuous feelings about my mother, father, brothers and sisters, children, etc.’; and
“Whereas, Sondra Ray’s book recommends the following affirmations to deal with jealousy: ‘I have the right to have multiple sex partners’ and ‘My lovers now approve of each other’; and these affirmations conflict with the policy objectives of preventing teenage pregnancy and prevention of the transmission of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) and other venereal diseases; …”
Hundreds of parents converged on the state capitol in Harrisburg on November 10 carrying pages from this curriculum. Nine days later, the Governor asked the education department to remove it and the department sent a letter to all school districts directing them to “dispose of or return” all copies of this Curriculum Guide.
The leader of the parents’ campaign, whose group now numbers 5,000, is Mrs. Peg Luksik, a former grade school teacher. She is the founder of Mom’s House in Johnstown, which provides day care and counseling to young women who have children out of wedlock.
