Washington Post Letters: 3/27/07 and 4/3/07

 

Flawed Sex Education

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

I object to the pilot curriculum being rolled out at several Montgomery County public schools ["The Wide Spectrum of Sex- Ed Courses," Metro, March 18] for the following reasons:eing rolled out at several Montgomery County public schools ["The Wide Spectrum of Sex- Ed Courses," Metro, March 18] for the following reasons:

· The recommendations for changes in the curriculum made by the advisory committee to the Board of Education were largely ignored.

· The new curriculum was not written by health-care professionals.

· There was no parental input in the writing of the curriculum.

· Children whose parents opt out of this curriculum are being discriminated against for not participating. Students are sent to media centers to complete independent projects, with little guidance or specifics. In other words, students who opt out are not given the same level of instruction as children who remain in the sex-ed setting.

· And the curriculum states that homosexuality is "innate" but fails to include a citation to support this statement.

JEANETTE M. POLLARD

Wheaton

washingtonpost.com  > Opinions

» FOLLOW OPINIONS ON:     

Creating a Sex Education Curriculum

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

As a pediatrician, I want to correct misinformation in the March 27 letter "Flawed Sex Education," about additions to the health education curriculum being piloted at several Montgomery County schools.

The recommendations of the Citizens Advisory Committee to the Board of Education were not ignored. Eighty-five percent of the recommendations were accepted and incorporated into the final curriculum proposal. The principal proposals not included dealt with inclusion of materials stating that homosexuality is not a disease and other statements from the American Psychological Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association.

The new curriculum was written by the superintendent's office with the direct assistance of pediatricians from Children's Hospital. The Citizens Advisory Committee is composed of representatives of various organizations and at-large representatives, all volunteers. It has 15 members, two of whom are students and 10 of whom are parents of current and former students in the Montgomery schools.

The curriculum is opt-in. For a student to take part, a parent or guardian must sign a consent form. Children whose parents do not choose to do so receive other assignments.

The statement in the curriculum that homosexuality is innate is supported by a citation included in the overall materials. Nothing was included in the curriculum that was not substantiated in the literature.

We will review teachers' comments after the pilot is complete and make modifications to the curriculum as needed.

CAROL PLOTSKY

Chair; Citizens Advisory Committee

on Family Life and Human Development

Montgomery County Board of Education

Rockville