Remember the “good old days”? It was 1998, when we had to start explaining forms of sex to our middle-schoolers because of verified White House events involving cigars and a blue dress.
However, today you can now find text and illustrations in children’s books that cannot be published in this newspaper because they’re too explicit. Appallingly, such books are being recommended by the California Department of Education (CDE) for elementary school children. Middle and high school, too.
If you’re concerned about the public schools’ “sex education”for your family’s young children, take note. I advise you to look up the organization “Informed Parents of California” and get involved. Start with the video, “The War on Children.” (http://bit.ly/SexCurriculum)
The sexualization of children is not simply a California issue. It’s evidently a worldwide effort to promote sexual expression and activity as a basic human right to be experienced by all, beginning at a very young age. (www.comprehensivesexualityeducation.org)
Unsurprisingly, California is right on the front lines! In the CDE’s draft curriculum for girls, grades 4 through 6, “What’s Happening to My Body,” by Lynda Madaras, seems innocuous enough, until you get to pictures of content that cannot be explained in detail here considering this is a family-friendly newspaper. Same stuff in the boys’ version.
This is encouragement, not just information.
The book “It’s Perfectly Normal” by Robie Harris is recommended for 10-year-olds. Again, the actual content is being omitted here due to its adult content complete with graphic pictures and detailed language and directions.
One Amazon reviewer, a self-described pro-choice female, wrote, “Let me start by saying I would have voted for Bernie, and this book made me want to be a Republican. Do you think it’s appropriate for a 10-year-old to be told ‘changing your mind’ is a fine reason for an abortion?”
After much protest, state education officials removed this book from their curriculum materials. Protests can work!
California’s sex education guidelines fall under the umbrella of the “California Healthy Youth Act,” signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown in 2015.
Sounds wholesome, yes?
The CDE explains its desire “to promote understanding of sexuality as a normal part of human development,” among other objectives. Beware: this means teaching and vividly illustrating to our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, sexual methods, fantasies, etc., while avoiding the inconveniences of committed relationships, unwanted pregnancies and STDs.
Expectedly, the CDE’s website contains a smorgasbord of teaching techniques. Assignments can include sending students to the drugstore to buy a condom complete with script to provide an explanation to inquisitive pharmacy clerks (there’s no age restriction for purchase).
In some classrooms, teachers are engaging young students in condom relay races, complete with models of male genitalia. Students may learn about dental dams (take a guess), and about acquiring “morning-after” pills, which can be purchased without a prescription at any age. Information for the curricula comes from such organizations as Planned Parenthood, Equality California, Human Rights Campaign, Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network and others.
Under the guise of preventing STDs and teen pregnancy, it appears California is now instructing students to have a robust sex life.
In fairness, the state says parents can review the materials and opt out of sex ed.
Conversely parents CANNOT opt out of “gender identity” lessons. In that sphere, you’re unlikely to be notified about such curricula, and even if you DO get wind of it, you wouldn’t want to be politically incorrect or insensitive, would you?
California’s framework suggests that teachers use gender-neutral and LGBTQ-inclusive language during health instruction at every grade level. The guidelines state, “some children in kindergarten and even younger have identified as transgender or understand they have a gender identity that is different from their sex assigned at birth.”
Honestly? These are 5-year-olds!
A book suggested for children as young as 3, “Who Are You: The Kid’s Guide to Gender Identity,” provides the following language, colorfully illustrated:
“When babies are born, people ask, ‘Is it a boy or a girl?’
“Babies can’t talk, so grownups make a guess by looking at their bodies.”
“This is the sex assigned to you at birth, male or female.”
Yes! Teaching materials now inform preschoolers that their parents made a “guess” about their being a boy or a girl.
What do YOU think of that?
You’ll find the April 2019 draft version of the California “framework” at https://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/he/cf/. The final version is due out this fall.
Patricia Suzanne is a professional writer, retired small business owner and conservative Republican activist. She lives in a modest Newhall home, where the money required for annual property taxes could pay a full year’s rent on a two-bedroom house in Arkansas.
