This letter is in response to “Books help teach tolerance, acceptance” in the Nov 2-8 issue, a very well-written letter but the premise “does not compute.”
The author of the letter writes, President Ford passed a law: the Education of All Handicapped Children Act. It encompassed many ways they would have equal benefits of public school education. One of those was the inclusion of books that included such students for their libraries.
It is in the fourth paragraph of this letter that the main point is given. A comparison of students with disabilities to those who identify as gay or transgender and the argument that school libraries should not ban books that include them.
The letter makes its second point that in the case of the disabled students, no one was concerned that these books would “indoctrinate” students. That is actually ironic because Gov. Phil Murphy signed a bill that schools must use a program for sex education outlined by the state or face losing funding from the state, which is our property tax dollars.
I called my local schools, for grades 1-6 and 7-12, and asked about this. They said that in order to get the funding from the state,, they had to follow the new sex-ed guidelines but they had been able to come up with their own plan. They still had to follow the general format of the state.
I typed in New Jersey’s new sex-ed laws put forth by Governor Murphy and found a cartoon that you might like to see for your edification. However, I cannot find it now.
The school officials said that the program began in first grade instead of kindergarten and thankfully they were not using the cartoon.
Do parents really want the state to take over and do so for 12 years? Indoctrination? It seems possible to me.
I believe parents can opt out of this new and intrusive program.
Darlene Scarince
Newton