Townhall.com | Rebecca Hagelin | July 6, 2007
Quick question: Who thinks there isn’t enough frank sexual information forced on today’s kids? Is the bar for acceptable sexual behavior still too high? You would think so when reading a recent Washington Post article titled “A More Candid Approach to Sex-Ed.”
As many parents know, most sex-ed classes are already candid enough, thank you very much. The last thing we need is for anyone to spice them up or further complicate what should be a pretty simple subject. But that’s what schools in Montgomery County, Maryland plan to do by introducing lessons on homosexuality to 8th and 10th graders — lessons that serve to further the radical homosexual activist agenda.
Those in 8th grade, for example, may be asked to ponder their “gender identity.” Is this the same thing as your actual gender, which should be, ummm, obvious by this time? No. Students are told that it’s “your identification of yourself as a man or a woman, based on the gender you feel to be inside.” You could be a boy trapped in a girl’s body, or vice versa. Or something in between, it seems. Since when did knowing one’s gender get so … difficult? My goodness, isn’t there enough out there to confuse our children without asking them to question whether they are really a boy or truly a girl? Have we gone mad?
Whatever your true identity, though, you can bet it is “innate,” the 8th graders are told. To be certain they understand, the curriculum defines “innate” as “determined by factors present in an individual from birth.” In short, gays are born, not made, so “straights” can’t say homosexuality or bisexuality is wrong. (Does that apply to those who prefer bestiality or pedophilia? Just wondering …) What’s needed, then, is “tolerance,” which the curriculum says is “the ability to accept others’ differences and allow them to be who they are without expressing disapproval.” Does the same logic apply to other abnormal or harmful behaviors? Do we say, “Oh, so you’re an alcoholic — good for you!” Or, “Tendencies toward kleptomania? Well, don’t let me stand in your way!”? I think not.
. . . more
Just makes me sad.
What makes you sad Dean? Teaching homosexuality?
Our society is surely and steadily spinning towards chaos and corruption. The further and further we move from The Truth (from Christ and God) the more insane and demented man becomes and the more outrageous things will become. We were warned about this absolute truth and reality by Christ in the Gospels. Cut off our relationship and communion with God and we separate ourselves from absolute reason and the only source of life and sanity. We will “surely die”, but also go mad way before we expire.
Well, what are we to do about this?
Parents have to find an alternative to public education, either a private school where they will actually have input or home schooling. My wife and I home schooled our son. It was difficult. It put strains on our relationships and finances, but my son is worth it. He came out without too many scars and a much healthier view of life and a stronger character than he would have had he gone to public school.
The only corrective for the public school system is to abolish it. The only thing that will come close to doing that is a tax revolt by enough folks at once so that the powers that be will have to listen if the want to continue to get paid.
The good teachers out there have to buck the system to educate children and for a Christian teacher or student to even wear a cross is an act of defiance in some systems.
Ultimately, parents will have to be parents and “raise up their children in the way that they should go and they will not depart from it”.
Unfortunately, I fully expect that my son will meet a violent death at a relatively young age because on a more general level, law has lost its meaning and its power. The corruption in government has reached such a level that simple participation will do nothing. It takes massive organized protest to achieve anything–or massively funded hired guns. We are fast approaching government by mob. The ruling oligarchy will do all it can to control the mobs for their own gain but that will only go so far. That is why Dean S.’s governmental fantasies are so sad.
There is no will to govern, no political philosophy, no integrity in any of the political parties and few of the individual politicians. The collapse of our Republic is upon us. Our politicians offer only Bread (see Dean’s proposals) and Circus’s (political campaigns, sports, porn, etc). And public education indoctrinates our children into accepting such a life. We don’t even have the lonely voice of a Cicero to look to in the political arena as only the rapacious, the unprincipled and the brain dead need apply.
I fear for Hispanics, Arabs and other ethnic people because if the government continues in its unwillingness to act in defense of the country and the citizens it is sworn to protect, people will begin to act themselves and violence will result. Since my son is utterly committed to protecting innocent people he will try to stop it and suffer the consequences.
We can commit to public action on a concerted and large scale while arming ourselves physically or we can work harder at acquiring the Holy Spirit—preparing our own souls and the souls of our children.
Have a good day!
Now that you’ve all been “treated” to the apocalyptic flip side of Dean’s Global Warming hysteria, what do we do? I really don’t have any faith in the public school system to be responsive to parents who want to raise their children with values and virtue.
Opting out of the public school system is the only reasonable course. That is not easy but it can be done by almost everyone. (I know a woman who as divorced mother of 6 while attempting to get back into the job market for the first time in 20 years managed it by home schooling). Unfortunately, the “Home School Movement” is dominated by Christians who frankly don’t like the Orthodox (I’ve experienced that first hand). There is also the tendency to re-create the public school mythos complete with proms and yearbooks. Nevertheless there are a tremendous variety of really good resources to assist parents who want to home school including the Home School Legal Defense Association, which is a must in most states. There are even Orthodox home school resources, but they are thin. There are curricula from every imaginable religious, philosophical and educational point of view (except Orthodox) ranging from Calvinist to New Age; rigorously structured to the unschool approach. There are even Classical based programs that teach Greek and Roman civilization (but not Byzantine) including the languages K-12. A growing and sophisticated number of on-line academies and prep courses that include the Advanced Placement Program are there for those who are interested. The more children one has the easier it becomes.
Hey, 60’s revisited: Tune in (to the Church), Turn on (to Christ) and drop out (of the world—in it but not of it). Or as Fr. Stephen Freeman put it on his blog today: “Flee from the modernists, for they know not what they do.” Such a course will, IMO, increasingly mean finding alternatives to a whole host of structures and activities that the world has going or at the very least just not participating.
Dean wrote:
Do about what Dean? That schools are teaching homosexuality to children or that people believe it’s wrong to teach homosexuality to children?
About the brainwashing of the youth.
Michael, would it be reasonable to think that forming small “academies” from Church communities would be a good and more effective alternative to each family homeschooling their own children. That one family, perhaps, would have the children one week and each family would rotate, to ease the burden on teh individual parents? I am sorry if what I am suggesting is not clear.
#8
Dean a form of this is already done in homeschooling. Many families have created co-operatives that help reduce costs and expand the educational opportunities.
The burdens on homeschooling families is not placed upon the parents. Many do it willingly and see it as a responsibility. The burdens placed upon homeschoolers is the bureaucratic red tape by school administrators and state governments.
I was reading this article with interest and was looking at everyone’s responses. I can understand if people feel that they wish to opt out of the Public School system. My only concern is that such persons will be able to provide the same, if not better education to their children. After all, why go through all the trouble if homeschooling would only work as well as the public system?
As for our Republic nearing a collapse, don’t hold your breath. However, I think a revitilization of a community spirit as well as some ethical training would do wonders for the public school system. How many HS graduates do you know that have been taught ethics or even how to balance a checkbook?
But I think that saying that the public school system ‘brainwashes’ students is a bit unfair. First its unfair to the educational curricula (are they ‘really’ that good when you’re lucky if 50% of people graduate?), and secondly its unfair to individual student, whose voices should be heard before passing summary judgment on them.
Being brought up in the Public School system, I can tell you that apathy and ignorance are more of a threat than brainwashing. Someone has to be willing to learn to be brainwashed.
However, despite these problems, the Public School system was one of the best ideas implemented in this country. It has given many who could not otherwise afford an education an equal footing with those of greater means. To abolish public education would be an incalculable loss to the people at large and a decisive victory to those who believe that those with power and privilege are more worthy of advancement than those who are of lesser means.
Jonathan,
In my post I said indoctrinated, someone else translated that as brainwashed. They are not the same thing. The indoctrination comes from the fact that the children are fed stuff like the homosexual agenda, the environmentalist agenda, philosophical naturalism, etc, etc as if they were the only way to go about things. There are few courses on how to think, only what to think. Most governments, including ours, really do not want the citizenry thinking. The public school systems are governement schools.
What my son got out of his schooling was how to write, how to calculate, how to read, how to think plus an orientation toward God in the Church. You can see a little proof of the fruits of his education Here. The Christian Warrior
Also every time the test scores on nationally normed tests are tabulated for homeschoolers and public shoolers, the homeschoolers as a group come out significantly higher. Believe me, homeschoolers don’t “teach to the tests” either.
And it is important to make the sacrifice for our children that homeschooling requires even if we don’t homeschool because that is what we are supposed to do as parents. Education is not just about learning “things” it is about forming as a person, a human being, being mentored by loving adults. See this post
Obviously, many young people come through the public school system relatively intact and are fine people. But even the best of them have been told countless times in countless ways to have sex any time you want, the God is not important and if they think so to keep it to themselves (violating the 1st Amendment to the Constitution).
IMO any serious, genuine attempt by parents to educate their children with by themselves or in co-ops will produce a quality of education that surpasses the public school.
Michael, thank you for your response. I have no problem with parents choosing a homeschooling option for their kids – its their right as parents. My only concern is that the education provided will be beneficial. If its a viable alternative, then fine. The only reason I would disagree with it is if homeschooling is used solely as a means to isolate a child from a the public school system simply for political, cultural or religious reasons alone, regardless of the educational benefit. In short, whether or not one agrees or disagrees with the values of the public school system is secondary to the degree of education provided. Children shouldn’t grow up uneducated simply because they are forbidden from enter a different environment. However, let me say that I don’t think you fit this category, I’m just explaining where the boundaries of the Homeschooling movement should be.
That said, if you can homeschool your child and still provide them with the same if not better quality education, teach him/her your values and also provide a replacement for the social networking that is done in the public school system among kids, then I do think you have a viable alternative, and congratulations to you, if you do.
That said, I’d still never say gutting the public system would be good, though it does need better reforms. I think that ‘No Child Left Behind’ has led to unintended results, and our inner city schools are the worst off. That said, better teachers, incentives and resources are definitely needed. While not perfect, our nation’s brain drain will exponentially, rather than gradually get worse without our public schools.
Additionally, students themselves have to take some responsibility for learning. I’ve seen all to many times through my experience in the public school system that it was fellow students, rather than teachers, that would discourage their classmates from learning out of jealousy, fear, or peer pressure.
I do not know if you all read this earlier article
Didn’t work. Trying again.
Guess I am dumb :(. It is the Dorothy Sayers article earlier last month. Check it out.
Jonathan,
I don’t disagree with much of what you say, especially your last paragraph. To me however, that starts with the parents. My father grew up on the high plains of New Mexico. His father homesteaded there in 1907 (sod hut, the whole works). The closest high school was 50 miles away in Roswell (before the aliens or automobiles 50 miles was a long way). Despite the fact that my grandad really needed my father and his year older brother on the homestead for economic reasons, he drove them into Roswell and arranged for their lodging with the high school principal so that they would get an education.
Because of the obvious sacrifice my grandfather made, education became a high priority for both my dad and my uncle.
Whether parents formally homeschool or not, education has to be a priority for their children or the children won’t place it as a priority, especially in the inner city.
My father was public health officer in our community for over 20 years. One of his pet projects which he could never get anybody to support was having the public health nurses who were already in contact with many inner city families teach literacy and supply books to homes that had none so that parents could read to and with their children. Just having books in the home as well.
TV, computers, iPods–real literacy(being able to read and correlate what is read with other material) is difficult to come by.
My level of literacy is way below what I would like it to be, I don’t know Greek. I would love to be able to read the Holy Scriptures and the Fathers in Greek. That would add so much to my understanding and my ability to communicate.
About half way through my son’s schooling, we moved to a small rural town (even less support). Education is not thought of highly. At best the high schools seem to be rowdy social clubs full of sex and drugs. Anybody of any intelligence and sensitivity is ostracised. Many of the kids come out OK anyway, but its like they have this govenor on their brain as if all of the imagination has been leached out of them.
The way the school system is set up now IMAO, it is designed to communicate politically correct thought and allow people to function as minimally productive employees. That is not education.
BTW, whether you know it or not your comments about homeschooling are cliches with little basis in reality for most homeschooled children. Just about every homeschooled child I know or have met is active, normally gregarious and socially adept. The primary reason is because they have been socialized by loving adults rather than an ignorant peer group.
Enough for tonight. I hope to talk with you more.
Dean, I read the Dorothy Sayers article on the other side of OrthodoxyToday. She is really good. I love her mystery novels too. The Lost Tools of Learning
In time homosexuality will be accepted by the Orthodox as it is — normal. It’s just a matter of understanding the theology. Go read http://www.jn1034.blogspot.com. All this “reparative therapy” and “ex-gay” stuff is dangerous and science debunks the myths.
Vladimyr: The Orthodox Church already recognizes that homosexual behavior is “normal” She has always done so. The Church has always taught that sinful, degrading, self-destructive, passions are the norm. It is what to expect from unrepentant human beings living in a fallen state.
I can only pray that some day you will see the idea that our fallen state is our “natural” state is false. That you will reject the illusion that such a state is all there is. The pinched, truncated understanding of humanity from which you are operating is sad.
Human beings are created in the image and likeness of God. We are created to be in communion with our Creator. Through the grace of that communion, we are created to move from Glory to Glory in eternal growth and deepening of that communion. Our eternal journey starts here and now and is effected by every choice we make to dwell in our falleness or to stretch for something more.
Michael: Never has the Orthodox Church taught the heresy you profess: “our fallen state is our ‘natural’ state.” Humanity’s natural state, its sacred ontology, is sacred and holy. To claim as if you know that “degrading, self-destructive, passions are the norm” is not only panheresy according to Orthodox theology and its Holy Tradition, but subject to anathema and excommunication. In addition, such teaching is morally criminal to impose upon people, especially children. But one has not doubt about your position as a degrading, self-destructive human. For the rest of us Orthodox, we are filled with grace and mercy, we have been redeemed and recreated, and we partake in the divine Mystery of the Holy Trinity, right now, in the present, and for ever.
Vladimyr: Don’t take to heart what he says. He is simply projecting onto you: “The pinched, truncated understanding of humanity from which you are operating is sad.” He has issues, psychological and social and religious, to say you are “unrepentant.” That is not his to decide. God alone knows the human heart. This guy can’t be Orthodox; sounds like an extremist fundamental evangelical.
Простиньте ему. Он будет идиотом, и дьяволом. Он не знает бога. Он не имеет никакую влюбленность.
Sophia 🙂
Vladimyr
What science debunks so-called myths?
Note 20. Sophia, read Michael’s post again. You got it backwards. Michael wrote: “I can only pray that some day you will see the idea that our fallen state is our “natural” state is false.”
Clarifying it a bit: I can only pray that someday you will see that our fallen state is not our “natural” state.
Now, that second paragraph is rather rash. Care to take it back?
“The Church has always taught that sinful, degrading, self-destructive, passions are the norm.” Read this? When has Orthodoxy ever taught this? Can’t take back what is meant.
Note 23. Well, you are shifting it a bit since this is not the sentence you quoted in your objection. Nevertheless, I’ll let Michael speak for himself. I’ve been reading him for quite a while and I don’t think he means what you think he means.
Sophia, please forgive me. My convoluted syntax led you to understand the opposite of what I meant and apparently fomented anger in your heart as well.
Please grant me the mercy to try again:
Our fallen state is not our natural state, it is unnatural. It is the result of sin. Homosexuality is a sin; therefore a normal part of our fallen state.
Sin is only to be expected as long as we remain unrepentant. It is the norm, therefore normal. All sin is degrading, self-destructive and stems from the passions.
I have no idea if Vladimyr is unrepentant about anything in particular and I did not mean to imply that he was, but all of us are to some degree unrepentant. Even the saints testify to their own unrepentance.
Do you agree that sin, all sin, is self-destructive, degrading and stems from the passions?
Do you agree that sin is rampant in our world and that it separates us from God?
Do you agree that homosexuality is a sin?
Do you agree that the Church has always taught that the way to heal sin is through repentance?
Do you agree that to accept our sinful state as both natural (Vlaimyr’s use of the term normal) and as something that cannot be transcended by God’s grace is in violation of the Church’s teaching about man?
To posit an anthropology that sin is the natural state of man (something all apologists for homosexual behavior have in common) is to posit an anthropology that is pinched and truncated. Do you agree?
Is there anything in my questions that you do not feel is Orthdox? If there is, what is it and what are your reasons for saying so?
I said,
Is this not sacred ontology?
I am extreme: I acutally believe that only through Jesus Christ can we come to the Father.
I am fundamental: Only by striving to understand and live the fundamental reality revealed by the Incarnation of our Lord God and Savior can we be saved.
I am evangelical because I really try to share the good news of our salvation through obedience to our Lord, Jesus Christ. That includes living a life of repentance, prayer, almsgiving, fasting and attendance on the sacraments.
I am also a poor, sinner constantly in need of repentance who is totally unworthy of God’s grace.
No one person in the Church has the authority to proclaim anyone else heretic. Only the Church herself has that authority. Even she does not do so with joy but always in sadness and only after calling for repentance. It is not an epithet to be hurled at someone simply on the basis of a few careless words. If you feel I am lying about being Orthodox or am under the sway of heresy, OK. Please read through my posts on this blog and explain to me where you believe that my thought departs drastically from the teaching of the Church. I will gladly reply to you. If you still feel I am not Orthodox and suffering from heretical infection, I invite you to submit your belief and your evidence to my bishop. I will willingly abide by any correction he feels is proper for me including no longer posting here.
Alternatively, you can choose to accept exisiting judgement my bishop and parish priest who admit me to communion and administer the sacraments to me. My home parish is St. George Orthodox Christian Cathedral in Wichita, Ks. You have my permission to validate my standing and if you really feel as you said you do, you should, that is if you are yourself Orthodox.