It's Still Children

Campus Report ^ | December 4, 2007 | Bethany Stotts

[bs9021]

It’s Still Children

By: Bethany Stotts

It’s Still Elementary (ISE), a retrospective documentary featuring the motivations behind and public’s response to the controversial 1996 It's Elementary (IE) film on homosexuality, premiered November 28th at none other than the National Education Association’s (NEA) Washington, D.C. facility.

......... Chen denies that teachers are overstepping their grounds by discussing gay issues with young, impressionable children in grades as early as kindergarten. “All teachers have the right, and the responsibility, to weave respectful, age-appropriate messages about LGBT people and issues into their lessons and classrooms,” Chen said.

The “New Call to Action” handout issued by the Respect for All Project further asserts that “Educators should not need to seek approval or have parental consent to discuss LGBT people and issues in the classroom in age-appropriate ways, unless the discussion involves actual sexual practices.” Groundspark leaders suggested at the meeting that the 1996 IE documentary and LGBT tolerance-promoting curriculum be incorporated throughout America’s K-12 public school classrooms. Attorney Ruth Borenstein, a Groundspark Board Member, boasted at the event that the IE curriculum is already used in 25 U.S. States, “many of them Red States” and encourages donors to help “spread the word across the country.”

......

ISE commentators found little problem with teachers unilaterally choosing to incorporate LGBT discussions in their elementary classrooms. Safe Schools Coalition Chair Beth Reis said during the ISE film that teachers don’t need permission to inject LGBT-friendly material into the curriculum because “it’s in their mission statement” to foster safe schools. The SSC, an “international public-private partnership in support of [LGBT] youth,” was launched following the distribution of IE in order to “help schools...become safe places where every family can belong, where every educator can teach, and where every child can learn, regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation.”

[metmom]

I agree. Even if a parent can’t be convinced that the school is bad, perhaps seeing what groups like this plan to (mis)use schools for would make a difference.

[ican'tbelieveit]

Oh my gosh, what a good question. And we don’t know the answer.

I suppose they could increase the amount paid to the school based on ADA. Probably accounts for why the schools need thousands to educate each child when homeschoolers can do it for fractions of the cost.

[poindexter]

Please remove me from this list. TIA,

Poindexter

[bs9021]

Sorry, Poindexter, but you’ll have to contact whoever pinged you to get off their list. All I did was post the article.

[MEGoody]

“All teachers have the right, and the responsibility, to weave respectful, age-appropriate messages about LGBT people and issues into their lessons and classrooms,” Chen said.

Another good reason for home/private schooling.

[MEGoody]

The funds are rolled back into the school’s general fund, but if the excess kept up, I’m sure the politicos would find a way to get their hands on it for a renovation of their offices or something.

[Sergio]

Thank you all for your replies. It’s good to know that the funds are at least making it back into the school’s general fund and not the states general fund.