May 2008
Monthly Archive
Keeping Modesty in the Public School Sex Ed Classroom
Monthly Archive
Posted by mom on 27 May 2008 | Tagged as: Education Minister
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If any of you are so inclined, I’m including the contact information for the Honorable Dave Hancock, Minister of Education, Alberta.
You might consider asking for the following information:
1) The legal references and guidelines supporting Alberta Ed’s current policies that define the Human Sexuality outcomes. Most importantly, request the legislated reference that mandates schools to offer Sex Ed as any part of Alberta Education’s programs of study
2) The legal references and guidelines supporting Alberta Ed’s current policies that define appropriate use of community resources, including public health resources and undergraduate/student nursing programs
3) A list of approved teaching materials and resource list for teaching Human Sexuality
These are just ideas. What’s most important is your taking the time to write at all. Writing a letter is such a simple thing. All it takes is time. Please take the time to intervene on behalf of your children/grandchildren. You’ll feel good about it.
Honorable Dave Hancock, Minister of Education
Legislature Office
#224 Legislature Building
10800 - 97 Avenue
Edmonton, Alberta
Canada T5K 2B6
Phone: 780-427-5010
Fax: 780-427-5018
Constituency Office
#203, 596 Riverbend Square
Edmonton, Alberta
Canada T6R 2E3
Phone: 780-413-5970
Fax: 780-413-5971
edmonton.whitemud@assembly.ab.ca
Posted by mom on 21 May 2008 | Tagged as: Lesson Plan
Feel free to download the lesson plan that was prepared by an outside community source, given to me by my school’s health teacher and made available only one day before the class was scheduled to take place. The outcomes covered are 8.3 and 8.12.
No parent or student was informed of the contents nor was there an opportunity made available to either for students to opt out of the classroom.
I contacted the community source personally to request to see the PowerPoint presentation used in the classroom and was told that they don’t give it out to anyone - the only way to see it is for them to come out to the school to present it to a group.
In other words, school staff would have to arrange an on-site meeting with this group to inform parents of its existence, its contents, and confirm approval for individual student attendance. Obviously, no such arrangements were made.
I encourage you to pay particular attention to the brainstorming session and welcome your comments on the overall impact it had on you, especially as it pertains to any educational value for the above outcomes.
Posted by mom on 14 May 2008 | Tagged as: PETITION
PLEASE REVIEW AND SIGN THIS PETITION
To Keep Parents Informed About Sex Ed Lesson Content, and
To Preserve The Modesty of Our Children in the Sex Ed Classroom
(Leave A Comment of, “I Agree”)
To: The public school powers-that-be
From: The parents of children attending public school
Alberta Education is without definitive guidelines on classroom content when it comes to human sexuality programs of study. This leaves the door wide open for teachers (or invited community guests) to discuss oral sex, anal sex, same sex, masturbation, where to purchase contraceptives, and all other related subject(s) …at their personal discretion.
Alberta Education also acknowledges that the human sexuality outcomes are considered “controversial” and have issued directives to this effect. They also concede that there is a wide range (up to three years) in the development of students in any one classroom, yet there are no legislative commitments to prevent inappropriate material from being introduced into classrooms of such a diverse age/maturity spread.
Knowing this and knowing our children, we feel compelled to exercise our parental responsibility of insisting that parents AND STUDENTS be presented with timely information and related options, in order to know whether or not our children will participate in the optional human sexuality outcomes.
We are also compelled to preserve our children’s modesty by ensuring that the family values they are taught at home, remain uncompromised as long as possible and, if necessary, to exercise our mandated right to remove them from any awkward and inappropriate environments that the controversial human sexuality outcomes can easily create.
Make no mistake…
The morals and values that belong to our children are ours to cultivate – not a teacher’s…or a principal’s…or a trustee’s…or a student nurse…or heaven forbid, the government. No, our child’s morals and modesty will be shaped by our parental influences.
So when one of your schools decides to introduce explicitly promiscuous material to my child’s co-ed classroom led by adult strangers where the students are caught off-guard and embarrassed, and parents are totally oblivious as to what our children are about to partake in, know that you’ve just violated an entire community of students and their parents, and have subsequently destroyed any semblance of trust that you previously took for granted.
Do you think we don’t notice..? That we don’t care..? That you have our permission to indiscriminately plant graphic pictures and promiscuous concepts into our children’s psyche..?
Many of our young children (some of them pre-teens) are so disinterested in the subject of sex that asking them to intentionally make it a part of their relationship-building and decision-making skill sets is highly pre-mature and inappropriate. As their parents, we know this to be true; as their professional educators, why don’t you?
More importantly, why aren’t you asking us what is appropriate for our children?
Don’t presume that our children are yours to influence!
On the contrary, the only influence that we will allow you to have over our children is in the capacity of assigning certified professionals to teach core subjects and approved options. And until we learn that teachers are certified in the field of human sexuality and are mandated to teach our children their personal preferences, we will not allow you to bring controversially explicit material into our children’s classroom — especially without our permission.
So if you want to continue to boast a mutually trusting relationship between the parent communities and yourselves, you’re going to have to work for it.
We want you to:
Remember, it takes a village to raise a child — not a liberal-minded teacher given free reign to test the limits of their authority by an apathetic administrator and unwitting parents.
We also accept that school trustees take an oath of office upon their collective appointments and are mandated to provide for our children’s welfare through the policies they make. We appeal to your sense of empathy and hold you accountable to that oath.
Appease our concerns and you’ll find that you can restore our trust and respect.
Leave A Comment of, “I Agree” to support this petition.
Feel free to leave longer comments here.
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Posted by mom on 14 May 2008 | Tagged as: PETITION Soapbox
This is your space to comment beyond “I Agree” … or other less productive sentiments. Play nice.