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Home Front: Culture Wars

Kindergartners get sex ed classes

2006-10-22

CLEVELAND - City schools will expand sex education curriculum to include age-appropriate lessons that begin as early as kindergarten, officials said.

Ohfergawdsake.

The initiative comes as Cleveland's teen birth rates are high but dropping - about 40 of every 1,000 girls ages 15-19 become pregnant every year, according to state data - and rates of some sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV, are rising.

Among kindergartners?

Cases of chlamydia, the most common STD, rose 30 percent over the past five years while HIV, rarely diagnosed in adolescents, turned up in 19 Cuyahoga County teens. "One-third of all the HIV/AIDS cases in Ohio are in Cleveland," said Lita Townsend, responsible sexual behavior coordinator for the district. "Really, the best weapon we have right now is education."

"Education" for kiddygartners consists of tracing their letters. At that age they can't even pronounce "chlamydia."

Cleveland schools already offer sex education to many of their middle- and high-school students. The schools also are required to teach HIV prevention.

Even though the world we live in often doesn't make any sense, HIV prevention for preschoolers doesn't seem like it should take an awful lot of time away from the ABCs, recess, or nap time. Seems like we could at least wait until they start losing their baby teeth.

The new classes, which begin soon, will address self-esteem and peer pressure as well as biology.

Oh, boy. More self-esteem.

Children in grades K-3 will learn about how viruses work and appropriate and inappropriate touching. Grades 4-6 will start learning about menstruation and other aspects of reproductive health. In grades 7-12, the discussion shifts to interpersonal relationships, HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, teen pregnancy and respect for sexual orientation.

That'd be gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgendered-hermaphroditic, but not for the asexual, which is what most kids are until they discover puberty.

Abortion will be explained and defined but not promoted, said Townsend, adding that she's unaware of other programs in the state that target every grade level.

We're sure that abortion won't be demoted, either.

Posted by:Fred

#11 Well, as long as they are not playing tag or flag football, they won't be falling down and hurting themselves.

Posted by: Almost Anonymous5839 2006-10-22 18:33

#10 Remember the popular version of the Barney song:

I love you,
You love me,
That's how we got
H-I-V

Posted by: Eric Jablow 2006-10-22 17:10

#9 Mike - that is the exact arguments the WEA (Washington [state] Education Association aka Teachers Union) said in a recent initiative to have charter schools.

Instead they advocated 'smaller class sizes' (i.e. hire more teachers - who must then give to the WEA and its politics in order to work). They had 40 years of 'smaller class sizes' and it hasn't helped yet.

Unfortunately they convinced the public and the initiative lost.

Oh and, by law, a public school district cannot be audited -- unless they consent to be audited (and how likely is that).

Posted by: CrazyFool 2006-10-22 15:46

#8 Progress and liberal civilization, what a mix.

Posted by: Lancasters Over Dresden 2006-10-22 15:28

#7 "It is possible to teach a child to believe anything, absolutely anything, if you only start soon enough, repeat it constantly, and provide "power figures" who act like it's normal.

The puppies in 'Animal Farm'?

Posted by: no mo uro 2006-10-22 11:52

#6 Meanwhile in Mass. they're banning playing tag at the schoolyard.

Posted by: regular joe 2006-10-22 10:45

#5 I was at one of these "community forum" events where they squared off Barbara Byrd-Bennett (then Cleveland City Schools superintendent) against an advocate of vouchers and charter schools. Byrd-Brain had two talking points, which she repeated over and over again:

-- The state should get rid of its mandatory proficiency testing system because when the test scores come out, it makes the public schools look bad, and that's not fair.

-- There should be no vouchers or charter schools (or even private schools) anywhere because they draw re$ource$ away from the vital work of the public schools.

This only reinforced my belief that my kids will not go to public schools.

Posted by: Mike 2006-10-22 10:27

#4 ...Having been born/raised/resided in Mistake-On-The-Lake, let me assure you that there are many, many wonderful things about Cleveland. The school system ain't one of them. Even a decade ago, the Cleveland Public Schools housed only those students whose parents were simply unable to move or pay for private schools, and those beknighted souls had a graduation rate in the low forty percentile range. Mind you, the schools were never good, but almost two decades of one-man rule by a Federal judge turned them into what is arguably the worst major urban school system in the country. The teacher's union is the most politically powerful labor organization in the city, and at one point, the city was paying for five, count 'em, FIVE superintendents who had been hired then quit or were fired after having had the good sense to get play-or-pay contracts. Bottom line - as long as the teacher's union keeps supporting wildly liberal city council and school board members (a couple of whom make Cynthia McKinney look like Rush Limbaugh), the Cleveland schools will be nothing more than a holding pen full of experimental critters.
Who will have NO hope of anything resembling an education.

Mike

Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2006-10-22 09:02

#3 It is possible to teach a child to believe anything, absolutely anything, if you only start soon enough, repeat it constantly, and provide "power figures" who act like it's normal.

No matter what lame liberal idiocy they use to justify it, this is not simply insane, it is an attempt to be first to indoctrinate the children in the secular progressive social model, to plant their seed - for later manipulation.

Lita Townsend is one of the domestic enemies.

Posted by: .com 2006-10-22 05:50

#2 Outrageous. I'm a strong advocate of sex education but this is entirely beyond the pale.

The new classes, which begin soon, will address self-esteem and peer pressure as well as biology.

One day, I hope that I'm able to give proper credit to whomever said the following:

NEVER HAS THERE BEEN A GENERATION SO FULL OF SELF-ESTEEM ... FOR SO LITTLE REASON

This shit is simply ridiculous. It represents agenda-oriented individuals using whatever vehicle is available to convey their particular brand of politically correct tripe. Fuck them to death with a ball peen hammer.

Posted by: Zenster 2006-10-22 04:15

#1 Since the Cleveland school district dropped time-wasters like reading, writing, and math - there's more time for these innovative programs.

Posted by: DMFD 2006-10-22 00:46

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