Cheating Our Children

Laurie Abraham's long article, Teaching Good Sex, in the Nov 20th New York Times Sunday magazine is a powerful reminder of what we have lost to the right wing's pro-ignorance agenda.  Read the article and try to imagine if it described a typical American school.  Imagine the tangible results of fewer abortions, less sexually transmitted disease, and fewer teen pregnancies.  And, then think of the intangible results of a happier, confident, plain spoken, and less neurotic young men and women.

Instead, we have let conservative crazies have their way for years.

Reality -- for nearly everyone -- is sickeningly far from Friends Central School's normalcy.  Start with the obvious.  An openly gay teacher is a red flag to right wing America; and one who teaches human sexuality to teenagers would bring out the torches and pitchforks.  Principals would be forced to resign and school superintendents would recite profound apologies.  Then, there's the reality of Friends Central having small discussion classes led by a highly respected teacher when the rest of the country's schools endure increasing class sizes, narrowing curricula, and teacher union bashing.

Enough.  True education places critical thinking and intellectual rigor above all else.  To hell with worse-than-mediocre bland substitute that is given our children.  To hell with the sieves formed by standardized tests.  To hell with morons who rank religion above biology.  Creationism ain't science no matter how much lipstick you smear on a bible.  To hell with all censors and book burners.  If Twain's Huck Finn says, "Nigger," then nigger it be.