Presentation to Board of Education, 11/9/04

 

Presentation by David Fishback, Chair, Citizens Advisory Committee on Family Life and Human Sexuality, to the Montgomery County Board of Education, November 9, 2004

I am pleased to present the CACFLHD 2003-2004 Annual Report.

1. We have received the results of the piloting of the Condom Demonstration Video you approved in March, and now recommend that it be used system-wide.

2. We present to you our recommended 8th and 10 Grade Health Education curriculum revisions pursuant to your November 2002 instruction to include information on sexual variation.

The emotional and physical health of our children is the highest priority of everyone in our community. That is why we have health education classes, in which we seek to help our children grow into healthy, happy, responsible adults. That is why the Board made the wise decision two years ago to include matters regarding sexual orientation in the 8th and 10th grade health education curriculum.

More than 30 years ago every mainstream American medical and mental health organization concluded that homosexuality is not a disease, and that people who happen to be homosexual can live healthy and happy lives without denying who they are. In the mainstream scientific and medical community, this is not a point of dispute.

Yet, children who happen to be gay (or think they might be gay) have been left in limbo, in a system in which they feel they must hide to be accepted, in which they may fear that they are somehow diseased. And other children, receiving signals that everyone must be heterosexual to be accepted, too often act cruelly to those who are or appear to be different.

The Staff and the Committee acted very carefully in revising the proposed curriculum in line with the Board's instruction. At the outset, we closely examined all the literature and consulted with professionals in the field; the Committee itself includes a number of health care professionals. Then we were careful to revise the curriculum to simply add pertinent material that we had learned. There are a lot of misconceptions floating around, and we wanted to make certain that we got things right. The additions to the existing curriculum are minor -- there is no separate "gay" unit.

I would like to highlight the key elements, which are based upon the mainstream medical and scientific learning.

First, the curriculum notes that sexual orientation is the "persistent pattern" of attraction. In other words, just because someone has an occasional attraction to a person of the same sex does not mean that he or she is gay. This is an important fact, and one which children need to learn, so that they do not get confused. Children are exposed to all sorts of media and all sorts of misconceptions on the playground and elsewhere. The Health Education Curriculum is designed, in part, to correct such misconceptions.

Much as many of us might like to shield our children from all thoughts of sex until they find the person with whom they will build a family, we also know that that is not the way the world is. So we need to provide them basic information. A person's sexual orientation is not changed by hearing such information.

Second, the curriculum states what the medical science has learned: That homosexuality is not a mental disorder, that "[m]ost experts . . . have concluded that sexual orientation is not a choice; it's a natural response." This is important because in the past, and indeed today, children in late adolescence and the teen years who happen to be homosexual go through horrible trauma fearing that they are diseased and can never be happy. Years ago, the mental health profession came to understand that a large amount of substance abuse, reckless self- destructive behavior, and suicide resulted from the agony afflicting gay youth believing they were defective and would never be accepted in society. It is wise to learn from this experience, and to act to help ALL of our children become happy, productive citizens.

This is also important because there are children growing up in same sex families, with parents who are fine, upstanding members of their communities. Sexual orientation that is not heterosexual is a part of life. Thus, it is an appropriate and necessary part of the health curriculum dealing with human sexuality. The Board has recognized this, and the Staff and the Committee, I believe, have developed revisions that will responsibly enable all of our children to become healthy and responsible adults.

Of course, parents have the choice of having their children opt-out of the human sexuality portion of the health education class. I strongly believe, however, that parents who may have concerns will find those concerns satisfied when they examine the curriculum. The curriculum speaks of respect and caring -- and recognizes that different religious traditions have differing views on sexual behaviors. Of course, the curriculum does not make theological judgments on such matters. But what it does do, and has always done, is to stress the need for people to treat each other with respect. That is the Golden Rule, which is followed by all religious and secular traditions in this country.

I know that you have examined the proposed curriculum changes, so I will not take up your time going through each of them now.

3. I have one comment on the proposal to permit schools to offer the High School Health Class in 9th Grade. The Committee's disagreement with this proposal was based principally on our view that education in this area should not end in the first year in high school. Students have a very good unit in 8th grade. If they then immediately take the High School course, and never have it again, they may well be missing guidance later when they most need it. In essence, we view the High School course as, in part, a booster shot for the education provided in middle school. We do not want the booster shot to come too early, when it likely will be needed later.

Thank you.