Introduction
According to NBC Boston, the lawmakers of Massachusetts have found it necessary to update their schools’ curriculum regarding sex education. The last time that sex education was updated in Massachusetts was 1999, and now, suddenly, Massachusetts has decided that it is time to have things change in 2023, and years to come. It raises the questions, “Why?” and “What was wrong with the curriculum in 1999?”
NBC BOSTON ARTICLE
One afternoon, I sat down and read an article from NBC Boston titled, “Massachusetts updates sex and health education guidelines for first time in decades.” I had no idea this article existed until my mentor sent it to me to read. She was right when she assumed I would be interested in the topic. Not only do I live near Massachusetts, but I want to know what is impacting my generation and the ones to come. If I’m going to have children of my own, I should care about what is happening in the school’s system, right?
Despite hearing it for the past few years, I was mind-boggled that a state would go so far as to impact a child’s innocence in hopes of making LGBTQ+ members feel more included. I have always believed that one of the concerns of America and her states should be human health. However, after reading this article and being swarmed with changes in society, I have become more than worried that the sex educators of America value indoctrination rather than health. Here’s what I learned from the article.
MY THOUGHTS
In September of 2023, it officially became mandated that Massachusetts students would “receive sex and health education that is intended to be more inclusive of the LGBTQ+ community.” Wait a minute. I thought the point of sex and health education was to make humans healthier, not teach them to be accepting of a community they shouldn’t have to accept.
I mean, sex and health education is flawed to begin with. Schools should be promoting abstinence, not how to perform “safer sex.” In the words of Dr. Miriam Grossman, a child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist and author of You're Teaching My Child What?, “Two uninfected people who are sexually active only with each other will never become infected with an STI. End of story.” It’s that simple. Practicing abstinence is 100% infection-free. However, although practicing abstinence is the safest sex out there, abstinence is also not desirable for most, and therefore, is not an option in sex and health education. Then again, that’s a topic for another time.
The article goes on to say that students will also learn “about bodily autonomy, mental and emotional health, dating safety, nutrition, sexually transmitted infections and consent.” I’ll give Massachusetts credit for that. They are still caring about human “health”… in a way, but their motivation is still to make the LGBTQ+ community as welcome as possible. This means that they will go so far as to set these new guidelines for not just teenagers but children as young as pre-K. The article says pre-K through 12th grade, to be exact. There was a reason that sex and health education was reserved for older grades. Children are too young. Here is a section from an essay I wrote:
The answer to why children are being taught these things, why Planned Parenthood believes that by the age of five, children should know how a baby gets in and out of a woman’s body, and about HIV/AIDS, is clear (30). These people—these sex educators—claim their goals are to enhance and nurture health, but that is simply untrue. Rather than caring about an individual's health, their primary value is indoctrinating the next generation (8). Children are precious and delicate. They should have a childhood full of innocence and good old-fashioned fun, not the graphic details of how they came into this world or the responsibility and confusion of deciding their gender. Telling children about the details of birth and dumping upon them the responsibility of choosing a gender, or as they say, “helping them develop a healthy sexuality” is dangerous, and not healthy, because it will confuse children. It will “exasperate” them and “cause them to be discouraged.” Children are not mature enough to absorb this information. “A young child’s ability to think logically is limited,” Dr. Grossman informs, “His understanding of the world is magical and egocentric.” Sex educators do not realize how damaging their teachings can be. They refuse to accept that children can not and will not grasp this concept, no matter how deliberate and detailed the explanation is (30). Their goal in life, to teach children about these concepts, is destructive, and later on comes to wreak havoc in the life of a teenager.
I know that I said in the paragraph before last that sex and health education should be reserved for older grades, but it really shouldn’t. Not anymore, at least. With sex education now striving to include the LGBTQ+ community, teenagers, not just children, should be excluded from the teachings as well. Here’s another piece from my essay:
While sex education is poisoning the minds of children, it is also intoxicating the minds of teenagers. A teenager—also known as the adolescent—is as fragile and possibly more unstable than a child. The stage of adolescence plays a vital role in the development of a human being because this time is when an individual is transitioning to adulthood, which means he is not yet an adult, and like children, can not handle what sex educators are teaching him. “[Sex educator’s] mission is to mold each student into what is considered “a sexually healthy” adult[,]” Dr. Grossman writes (8). However, sex educators value sexual “freedom” over health. They toss teenagers into the deep end rather than warning them of the dangers of sexual “freedom.” But teenagers are not tiny adults, and they can not handle the responsibilities, let alone the consequences of what ends up being sexual promiscuity. The prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that does all the judging, reasoning, decision-making, self-evaluation, planning, suppression of impulses, and weighing the consequences of one’s decisions, is the last to develop, and this process is not completed until a person is in his mid-twenties (Grossman 72). And yet, sex educators are forcing sexual freedom onto teenagers like it is mandatory for well-rounded survival. In the eyes of sex educators, “a sexually healthy” person is someone who practices safer sex, is unashamed and open about his sexuality, and accepts diverse lifestyles (Grossman 8). Practicing safer sex, teenagers are told, involves using birth control and condoms, but what teenagers are not told about is the grave consequences of having multiple partners. Sex educators assure that condoms provide ninety-eight percent of protection (Grossman 84), but what they do not communicate is that with condoms, teenagers are still being put at risk, “for some to dozen different bacteria, viruses, parasites, and fungi” (Grossman 9). Another thing sex educators do not communicate is that the human body is sensitive to touch. Humans are made for long-lasting attachments, and not a lifestyle with multiple partners (Grossman 52). Simply the scent of a man can affect a woman’s reproductive hormones, causing her to feel a sense of connection, safety, and dependency on her sexual partner. Sex is not merely a gratifying sexual act; it is a whole-person interaction (Grossman 42). By attempting to normalize sexual interaction, sex educators are preparing the human body for not just physical, but physiological, psychological, and emotional harm as well.
TAKEAWAY
I could go on and on, but I’ll stop here. In the end, my personal belief is that children should not be taught anything sex related. If teenagers must be taught anything sex related, they should be taught abstinence. Abstinence is the healthiest and smartest option when it comes to safer sex. Or maybe, sex education should be left to the parents, not the schools. Normal sex aside, I believe that when it comes to accepting the members of the LBGTQ+ community, no one should be forced to accept their agendas or beliefs. Please feel free to skim the article I used in this post and let me know your thoughts, or if you agree or disagree with any of mine. Thank you for taking a glimpse into this madness with me and I hope to chat with you in the comments.
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