The article is unquestionably biased. But it makes ONE extremely valid point. In all too many situations, parents who did not want their children exposed to some of the more "extreme" or "explicit" information around sexuality, they had NO RECOURSE (other than putting kids in private school.)
It's been a long time since I was in high school, so I have no idea what they teach today. But some of these snippets bothered me.
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http://www.insightmag.com/main.cfm/include/detail/storyid/160271.htmlIt's 1984 in Massachusetts – And Big Brother Is Gay
Posted Dec. 17, 2001
By John Haskins
When Clossey enrolled her son in Newton North High School's reading program little did she know that the teacher had bragged in the Boston Globe (July 8, 2001) of quietly introducing homosexual and transsexual subjects into his classes. The teacher, Michael Kozuch, handed out The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky with instructions to write an essay on it. What literary "treats" did Kozuch consider mandatory for other people's children? Sex between a boy and a dog, man-boy sex, anal sex between boys, male masturbation and female masturbation with a hot dog. By chance Clossey opened the book her son brought home. But what came after that shock was worse: She encountered public officials who saw protective parents as obstacles.
...Freshmen learn about masturbation and sodomy in a required course that uses street language...
... In nearby Brookline a transsexual told first-graders how his penis was cut off and he became a woman. ...
...As reported widely in Massachusetts in 1992, at a required assembly in Chelmsford, an instructor used four-letter words describing the joys of anal and oral sex. The children then licked condoms. ... In Lexington, a parent discovered that her 13-year-old could borrow a book telling how gay men at the opera can socialize with "the backs of their trousers discreetly parted so they could experience a little extra pleasure while viewing the spectacle on stage." Her school purchased it with health funds.
...• Silver Lake's freshman health text says: "Testing your ability to function sexually and give pleasure to another person may be less threatening in the early teens with people of your own sex." And, "You may come to the conclusion that growing up means rejecting the values of your parents." Pupils were ordered to keep the book at school and never take it home.
• Needham High School violated the parents'-rights law by concealing from parents a schoolwide assembly in which a girl described her first lesbian kiss and rhapsodized about lesbianism. Teachers continued the discussion in homeroom. They also broke the law by failing to tell pupils of their right not to attend. Later, the gay club's faculty adviser announced, in poor English, that parents' decisions to remove their children next year would not be honored, as the "assembly (taught no) moral or religious beliefs."
Clossey got a letter from the district attorney informing her that Massachusetts schools, libraries and museums are immune from laws against exposing children to pornography.
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I like to think of myself as a pretty liberal person. But I don't think you tell 1st graders about surgically removing your penis, and I think you should let high schoolers discover the mechanics of sex on their own. I certainly don't think they should be licking condoms in class assembly, and I'm horrified to hear that parents aren't notified, or WORSE STILL, parents' wishes aren't honored.
I see this as a state matter, and hopefully, Massachusetts has "addressed" it. But I wouldn't be surprised to find this lovely piece circulated widely enough to scare a LOT of conservative parents out of voting for Kerry.
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