That slippery sex ed slope
Last year, my daughter had her first exposure to sex ed, and I have to say I thought the school district approached it perfectly, focusing on the biology of sex. About half the kids in the class were just hitting puberty, and they had lots of questions, which the course answered with sensible science. At a meeting for parents before the course started, we learned that the class would be abstinence only, and that all values questions would be politely referred back to the parents. Listening to my daughter over the next two weeks, I learned that the school kept its promise about teaching basic human physiology, with an emphasis on abstinence.
I mention all this because John McCain’s campaign took a lot of heat in the last few days for allegedly lying about Obama’s sex ed legislation in Illinois. McCain’s ad noted that the legislation required heavy-duty sex ed in Kindergarten. As Byron York points out, this is absolutely true.
While Obama may now be blathering on about appropriate and inappropriate touching, the bill’s language makes entirely clear that even 5 year olds would be required to have comprehensive lessons in sexually transmitted diseases — lessons that can’t happen unless the 5 year olds are also taught a whole lot about sex. I suspect that, when legislative theory was put into educational practice, wiser heads ensured that the 5 year olds didn’t get any of these lessons, but that’s not the point. The point is that Obama had no problem signing off on legislation that, if read as written, would mandate such lessons.
Although I get squeamish reading about what Obama was willing (either intentionally or carelessly and stupidly) to inflict on Illinois’ 5 year olds, it could have been worse, a lot worse. In England, where common sense, human decency and childhood are vanishing concepts, a high powered “think tank” came up with a somewhat different curriculum for 5 year olds, and tried to sneak it into the schools:
Children as young as five should be taught to understand the pleasures of gay sex, according to leaders of a taxpayer-funded education project.
Heads of the project have set themselves a goal of ‘creating primary classrooms where queer sexualities are affirmed and celebrated’.
The ambition was revealed in documents prepared for the No Outsiders project run by researchers from universities and backed with £600,000 of public money provided by the Economic and Social Research Council.
The stated purpose of the project – which is operating in 14 primary schools – is to stop bullying and prejudice aimed at homosexuals.
However, at a seminar at Exeter University tomorrow, supporters of the group will go beyond the anti-bullying agenda and discuss ‘pleasure and desire in educational contexts’.
A document prepared for the seminar and couched in convoluted academic jargon says: ‘The team is concerned to interrogate the desexualisation of children’s bodies, the negation of pleasure and desire in educational contexts, and the tendency to shy away from discussion of (sexual) bodily activity in No Outsiders project work.
‘The danger of accusations of the corruption of innocent children has led team members to make repeated claims that this project is not about sex or desire – and that it is therefore not about bodies.
‘Yet, at a very significant level, that is exactly what it is about and to deny this may have significant negative implications for children and young people.’
You can read more about the proposed curriculum here.
