A federal judge has ordered a Maryland school district to revise its sex education curriculum after he said it seemed to favor religions that take a p
* A federal judge has ordered a Maryland school district to revise its sex education curriculum after he said it seemed to favor religions that take a positive view of homosexuality. Montgomery County Public Schools superintendent Jerry Weast said he would shelve the program after some parents convinced U.S. District Court judge Alexander Williams that it unfairly singled out fundamentalists and Baptists. The judge said the program, which was scheduled for eighth--and tenth-graders, "presents only one view of the subject--that homosexuality is a natural and morally correct lifestyle--to the exclusion of other perspectives." The judge said the program "paints certain Christian sects, notably Baptists, which are opposed to homosexuality, as unenlightened and biblically misguided," according to the Washington Post.
COPYRIGHT 2005 The Christian Century FoundationCOPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group
posted by KC @ 2:15 PM
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1 Comments:
Sex education classes are a tricky subject matter to teach students of various denominations because each religious beleif/faith generally comes with exclusionary criteria regarding morals and values of persons. Thus, a sexual education must be formalated so as to stay away from placing judgement on religous idelogies of right and wrong and stick to the content. In addition, issues where topics may go against teachings of a particular student's family faith should be delat with on an individual and family level. The point of educating students and adolescents in particular is to inform them and empower them to make informed decisions when their is no one watching over them. Furthermore, topics such as homosexuality and other hot topics must be discussed because sooner or later they will relize that students are diverse in their sexuality and discussing homosexuality without judgement is an excellent forum to gauge student's understanding and view point. This will allow teachers and other influential adults in adolescents life to help them think on a higher level and this may also allow students a place to explore, gain understanding, ask questions, and have discussions with other repsected persons about sex and human sexuality. Moreover, we need a sexual education that does not place value judgements on sexual preference and links it to religousity. It is beleived that when topics of this nature are introduced without a value judment students are more freely inclined to open up, question what they have learned with what they know, and think deeper about the context and content of topics. Thereby, eventually reaching a higher level of understanding that is ecclectic in nature and not biased toward one side or the other---lets face it life is not always black and white or dichotomous. The final decision will of course be up to the parents as to whether they want their children in sex ed class or not provided the curriculum and syllabus topics provided by the instructor in advance.
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