New York State Has It Wrong

So, there I sat last night listening to our Elementary School Counselor/Health Teacher as he explained the fourth grade health curriculum. The big topic this year is AIDS/HIV. Why? Not sure why a nine or ten year old needs to know about this disease, but New York State has decided our children will start hearing about it at this age.

So, he showed a video. First of all the video has a copyright date of 1988. Has there been no update to an AIDS video since then? Anyway, they are doing a pretty good job explaining AIDS in the movie using different benign analogies and then it happens. The two children in the video ask the adult, "How do you get AIDS?" The adult, sort of matter of factly, looks them in the eye and says, "Well, there are two ways, sexual contact............."

I didn't hear anything after that. That's all I had to hear. The hair (what little there is at this age) on the back of my neck stood up, a buzzing started in my ears and all I heard in my head was the phrase "opt out".

Sexual contact? OK, so after the video the Health Educator mentions that particular spot in the video and says, yes, we mention sex, but we're not going to talk about it.

What?

You're not going to talk about it?

We're going to tell the kids that it's not a subject we will discuss and then we'll move on.

Wait a minute, sir. You're going to mention sex to a bunch of giggling 9 and 10 year olds and then tell them you're not going to talk about it? OK. So, I guess you've never heard of Google? Think a kid can't do a simple internet search? Think they won't?

So another dad pipes in, "We can opt out of this, right?"

Yes.

Then a bunch of other parents start peppering him with questions. Why is it necessary to talk about this at this age? Why do you have to mention sex? My child is not ready for this. I don't want my child hearing about this.

He retreated to the excuse that it was mandated by the state. Ahhhhh. That's it. I'm just following orders! This was approved at the district level by parents and teachers. Really? The state does not know better than me what my child should be taught. She's my responsibility, not Governor Patterson's.

My child will not be sexualized in any way shape or form, especially by New York State.

And why does AIDS have to be covered three years? They get it in 4th, 5th and 6th grades. Why? What other communicable diseases are covered over a series of years. The answer? Exactly, NONE. Why is that? Is AIDS still the epidemic is once was? No. We don't live in Africa or Haiti or some other third world country where AIDS is rampant. Why shove this down the throats of innocent children? Why do they have to know this at such a young age?

My child will be opting out of this lesson. She won't see the video. There will be other children that will not see the video either. Of the few parents that were there, I think many of them are opting out of that lesson. However, the vast majority of the parents were not there last night. I hope they go on Wednesday to see the second and last presentation of this material. I think reasonable parents will opt out of this video.

Our children are our responsibility. It doesn't take a village to raise them, just dedicated parents or caretakers that care about them and take that responsibility seriously. The village isn't going to raise my child. God allowed my wife and I the privilege of having her and we're going to do whatever we can to protect her from the world as long as we can.

I spoke to her about it. She's OK with my decision because she knows that I love her and only want to protect her.

It's time we change things in this state. We need to change this curriculum to be more age appropriate. New York is so broken, I wonder if that's possible.