Say Anything Blog

This is so ridiculous.

BOSTON (Reuters) - A federal judge in Boston has dismissed a suit by two families who wanted to stop a Massachusetts town and its public school system from teaching their children about gay marriage, court documents show.

The families last year filed the suit asserting that the reading of a gay-themed book and handing out to elementary school students of other children’s books that discussed homosexuality without first notifying parents was a violation of their religious rights.

Federal Judge Mark Wolf ruled on Friday that public schools are “entitled to teach anything that is reasonably related to the goals of preparing students to become engaged and productive citizens in our democracy.”

“Diversity is a hallmark of our nation. It is increasingly evident that our diversity includes differences in sexual orientation,” he said.

I don’t disagree with this judge.  I don’t really have a problem with public schools addressing homosexuality and gay marriage.  I have a problem, though, with them addressing it in elementary school.  With eight-, nine- and ten-year-olds.  Many of who may not have had the subject of sex broken to them by their parents yet.

It really is rather presumptuous for these public school teachers to take it upon themselves to broach such a delicate, controversial subject on their own.  And also to assume that, if they didn’t broach it, the parents themselves wouldn’t bring it up.  What happened to the days when school teachers taught math, science, reading, and writing and left the other stuff to parents?  Why do so many people think this sort of curriculum choice belongs in our schools?

Regardless, this is exactly the sort of thing school vouchers would solve.  School crossing the line and teaching your kid about things you find morally offensive?  Or things that should wait until they’re a little older?  Take your kids to a different school.