Here’s is a story from Provincetown, Massachusetts, which has morphed from Puritan stronghold to premier gay resort of the East Coast. It seems that the local school district, in obedience to the libidinous culture in which it swims was faced with the problem that, for some mysterious reason, it’s elementary school children were getting sexualized at increasingly early ages. What to do? What to do?
Solution: have the schools hand out condoms to elementary school kids without consulting parents.
Significantly…
When the school board in Provincetown, Mass., voted unanimously on June 8 to provide free condoms to all students in the district without parental notification, no one in the audience objected.
In fact, no one thought much about it.
That’s the real story here. No one thought much about it. The local community was so deeply inside the Bubble that it never even occurred to anyone that this might be problematic.
Surely, the responsible parents of enlightened P Town must have had some sort of vague sense that all was not well?
No one objected. In fact, no one thought much of it, says Beth Singer, the school superintendent.
Even after passage, she said, she had only one phone call—from a parent who wanted to know when it would go into effect so she could talk to her kids about it.
One wants to be a fly on the wall when it comes time for discipline in that house. “Honey, I know you feel that you and your other friends in second grade are old enough to smoke, so I just want to encourage you to come and ask me any questions you might have! Most of all be sure to practice safe smoking by using filtered cigarettes the nurse provides. No need to check with me. Just do whatever feels right. The pleasure of tobacco is a beautiful, natural thing that God created and you don’t need to feel ashamed at all as you take your first step into this more adult way of living. Yes, there are health risks, but so long as you do it in moderation, lots of adults live rich, full lives with tobacco as a very important part of the pleasure! You deserve that pleasure! Love you, honey!”
Eventually the story hit the national media and normal people from outside the Bubble began to react. School officials are “shell-shocked”. P-Town parents who hadn’t hear about this mad scheme began to revolt. It turns out lots of people aren’t nearly as enlightened as P-Town school social engineer and actually think there may be some other way of dealing with the problem than encouraging pre-adolescent to get jiggy. All sorts of barbarisms are being proposed, such as “parental notification” and “not giving condoms to kindergartners”. If this keeps up we might even see some wahoo suggesting that sexualizing elementary school kids is a bad thing, not a thing to be facilitated by bureaucratic dunces.
That’s what happens when you start placing the rights of parents above the brilliance of technicians and specialists and “respected studies”. Next thing you know, we’ll be hearing that chastity is a virtue. Very out of step with P-Town culture.
Meanwhile, in other news from the world of educational specialists:
ncreasingly, some educators and other professionals who work with children are asking a question that might surprise their parents: Should a child really have a best friend?
Specialists and technicians are worried that having a best friend could be exclusive and elitist. What we need to do is create a society where all is homogenous—because such societies make it easier for specialists and technicians to shovel human beings around like concrete and mold them into the structures that specialists and technicians know we need to build in order to create a society that properly obeys specialists and technicians. We, as parents, naturally owe it to our Savior Specialists to sacrifice the normal healthy and happy desires of our children on the the edifice of progress in order to achieve this. As our Lord more or less says, Man was made for educational theory, not educational theory for man.
Comments
Post a Comment
Pardon me, but aren’t there legitimate concerns about cliques and exclusion? Aren’t there concerns about social misfits lashing out in the most harmful ways?
Brian,
To suggest that such ‘lashing out’ of ‘social misfits’ is due to their having best friends is like suggesting that I slapped you due to the fact that I had a hand. Should we then wonder if it’s really the best thing for us men to have hands?
Friendship, like hands and all other natural goods, can be perverted and suffer privation. The question should be one about the proper forming of the consciences of the people who have friends and hands. Of course, there may arise danger in the extreme isolation of a few ‘outcasts’. But how in the world would reducing that few down to one decrease isolation? Loneliness will drive men to ignorance, despair, and ‘lashing out’ just as well. And the handless man, if he was the slapping sort before, may just as well kick you.
Condoms for elementary school kids?! REALLY? What do they think those kids are DOING anyway? From what I can recall, back in elementary school I thought boys were icky and boys showed their affection by throwing clods of dirt at girls. You don’t need condoms to throw dirt!
As for the “best friends” issue…if they really think they can make everybody get along, then they clearly haven’t been to a public high school.
Great article! A friend of mine is a teacher at a local Catholic grade school and he had to be involved in a chastity prgram for the middle schoolers. The majority of 6th graders at the school are sexually active, wear bracelets to identify what sex acts they’ll do, and the boys all have lists of which girls are “easy.” It’s a rather depraved world we live in. Many parenta simply aren’t willing to discipline their children and some even promote this kind of activity. No doubt the high divorce rate, which more often than not results in children having to watch their parents date (and have sleepovers) is causing this problem in large part.
Good use of sarcasm! Could have used just a little more justifiable “bile and vitriol.” I loved the article.
My wife and I discussed this “best friends” issue when the story first came out a week or so ago. My wife feels more strongly than I do (she’s NOT in favor of best friends) but basically we decided that we have to make sure our children are charitable and kind to all of their friends, and not go about changing “best friends” like you change your socks. I remember my younger sisters when I was a kid, they seemed to have a new best friend every week, and the previous best friend was now “hated!” Lots of room for hurt there, depending on how its handled and where the “hated” friend stands emotionally. Anyway, if the kids have a best friend, they should also have a strong sense of commitment to that friend, and to all their friends, and they should always be kind, supportive and charitable to all their friends, and even those who are not their friends.
These “professionals” don’t have enough to do. They need real jobs. Go pick tar balls off of beaches…
When I read the comment from the school superintendent, “Even after passage, she said, she had only one phone call—from a parent who wanted to know when it would go into effect so she could talk to her kids about it,” I was reminded of a handful of experiences we had with our children in public school. I wonder if it is a common tactic in other public schools too, to greet parent concerns with what I might characterize as a “divide and quell” tactic: “You are the only one” objecting (or complaining or questioning). When the intimidated parent fails to return to reiterate the complaint, I wonder if such an objection is reported then as a non-complaint, or not logged at all, hence “only one phone call,” or no phone calls. I do believe that that kind of a administrator comment, whether true or not, can have a most intimidating effect on parents, who will back off their objections, if they believe that their complaint is an isolated one. Unfortunately seeking safety in numbers may be, in part, our own undoing.
But do you vote in your school board elections?
No. We had a strange setup, where we were charged tax dollars on our real estate bill for our school district, which only had an elementary school. Our children, for purposes of high school education, were assigned to the adjoining district which had a high school as well as an elementary school. At the high school level, we were not permitted to vote on school or town issues (since we were rural), nor were we allowed to run for the board. I always found it maddening that I couldn’t have a say in educational issues that pertained to our very own children, especially since they took our tax dollars. Taxation without representation. Does this happen elsewhere in America?
Our HS shows a flm staring Dana Delaney regarding the life of Margaret Sanger depicting her as a hero of the womens movement and giver of the gift of birth control to modern women. The history classes see this film and report on it as part of their womens studies. They do not learn the truth about what MS really stood for and her real actions that lead to eugenics in other parts of the world and in our own deep south. After one individual went tothe school board a group of about thiry attended and were treated as religious zealots with little real knowledge even though many of us nurses, doctors, PhDs had as much or more education than those on the board.
First of all, I appreciate Peter’s respectful response. As for someone else’s comment, The rumors about bracelets signaling sexual activity is, at least at this point, entirely that—rumors.
http://www.snopes.com/risque/school/bracelet.asp
Good Article Mark. I think its high time for you to write another trilogy about something, don’t really care about what, it’ll be good. I really enjoyed your “Mother of the Son” series, they were awesome. Keep up the good work.
God Bless.
Post a Comment
By submitting this form, you give The National Catholic Register permission to publish this comment. Comments will be published at our discretion, and may be edited for clarity and length. For best formatting, please limit your response to one paragraph and don't hit "enter" to force line breaks.