{"id":2297,"date":"2010-07-18T03:03:27","date_gmt":"2010-07-18T10:03:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=2297"},"modified":"2010-07-18T03:03:27","modified_gmt":"2010-07-18T10:03:27","slug":"republicans-go-ballistic-over-school-curriculum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2010\/07\/18\/republicans-go-ballistic-over-school-curriculum\/","title":{"rendered":"Republicans Go Ballistic Over School Curriculum"},"content":{"rendered":"

God forbid that children should be taught that hatred is wrong.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\"Fox_News_Nazi\"<\/a> Over 500 Helena, MT residents gathered<\/a> at the Helena School District\u2019s school board meeting Tuesday night to weigh in on a new K-12 health education plan released last week. The 62-page proposal<\/a>, developed by community members and health officials over two years<\/a>, promotes a broad health and nutrition education program for each grade. However, there is a small section<\/a> dealing with sex education that has ignited a firestorm of backlash among conservatives, both locally and nationally. <\/p>\n

The curriculum<\/a> would teach first graders \u201cthat human beings can love people of the same gender;\u201d second graders \u201cnot to make fun of people by calling them \u2018gay\u2019 or \u2018queer;\u2019\u201d and fifth and sixth graders that \u201cthere are several types of intercourse.\u201d These ideas spurred right-wing pundits Sean Hannity (and guest Fox News contributor Todd Starnes), Bill O\u2019Reilly, and Laura Ingraham into a tail-spin on their shows this week over the curriculum as a weapon to promote the homosexual agenda: <\/p>\n

\u2013 HANNITY: What right does a school district that can\u2019t even teach kids to read and write \u2014 and this is, generally speaking, around the country \u2014 have to impose their values on the kids?<\/span> [7\/13\/10] [Faux Noise delinked]<\/p>\n

\u2013 STARNES: Sean, this is the report right here. Sixty-two pages. I have read every single word. And I\u2019ve got to tell you something, Jack and Jill go up the hill, and they do some really inappropriate things once they get up there.<\/span> […] Rub a dub dub, three men in a tub.<\/span> [7\/13\/10][Faux Noise delinked]<\/p>\n

\u2013 O\u2019REILLY: This stuff comes from the school boards and the superintendent. They want to indoctrinate the children.<\/span> The reason is they don\u2019t want bullying. They want tolerance across the board. So you take a 5-year-old who just wants to play and, all of a sudden, it\u2019s Heather has two mommies or Gary has 18 daddies. I don\u2019t know what it is.<\/span> [7\/14\/10][Faux Noise delinked]<\/p>\n

\u2013 INGRAHAM: Children will learn that sexual relationships could happen between two men or two women. Why stop there? Why are they stopping at two?<\/span> I mean that\u2019s very exclusionary, don\u2019t you think? No plant life invoked.<\/span> [7\/15\/10][Faux Noise delinked]<\/p>\n

Watch it:<\/p>\n

 <\/param><\/param><\/param><\/embed><\/object><\/span><\/p>\n

Hannity, O\u2019Reilly, Ingraham, and many right-wing<\/a> conservatives<\/a> actually have no problem imposing values onto students \u2014 as long as they\u2019re the values they champion, as found in programs like abstinence-only education. Medical experts have concluded that not only do abstinence-only programs not curb teen pregnancy, but \u201cthere is evidence to suggest that some of these programs are even harmful and have negative consequences<\/a> by not providing adequate information for those teens who do become sexually active.\u201d Despite clear evidence<\/a> and increasing recognition of their inefficacy, such programs continue to receive millions in federal funding. <\/p>\n

When it comes to curriculum content, the right-wing watchdogs are clear on what values are acceptable. Hannity slammed an Arizona school district for \u201crefusing to end its Mexican-American studies program,\u201d citing a Chicano civil rights textbook as evidence that the class radicalizes students to overthrow the government\u2026 [emphasis original<\/span>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <Think Progress<\/a>><\/p>\n

People can love people of the same gender<\/strong>.  They object to that.  Those religious right hate-mongers had better start preaching in their pulpits that Jesus loves only the women in the congregation.<\/font><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t make fun of people by calling them gay or queer<\/strong>.  When I was a second grader, we insulted people by calling then fags and queers.  We had no idea what it meant, but we saw the big kids doing it, so we thought it was cool.  I regret that now, because I was inviting children to experience self-loathing as they grew up and discovered they were attracted to the same gender.  The Republicans object to teaching that this hatred is wrong.<\/font><\/p>\n

There are several types of intercourse<\/strong>.  By the time I was in fifth grade, I already knew that oral sex existed and also knew of at least half a dozen positions.  I knew that homosexuality existed and had already been preconditioned by social intolerance to be disgusted by the idea.  We\u2019re talking 1959 here, and half a century later, kids know a lot more than we did.  My point is that we won\u2019t be teaching these kids anything they don\u2019t already know.  The Republican objection to the teaching of this is the absence of hate in the presentation.<\/font><\/p>\n

These Republicans are hypocrites.  They have no objection to teaching values, as long as they are their values.<\/font><\/p>\n

Jesus would have no problems with this curriculum.  He hung out with social outcasts of all flavors, and accepted them.  He would object to the legalism and bigotry of the Pharisees and Sadducees of today, the Republican religious right.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

God forbid that children should be taught that hatred is wrong. Over 500 Helena, MT residents gathered at the Helena School District\u2019s school board meeting Tuesday night to weigh in on a new K-12 health education plan released last week. The 62-page proposal, developed by community members and health officials over two years, promotes a […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-religion","category-5-id","category-47-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2297\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}