Originally posted by shaber
What if the government decide to impress something really awful upon them as they might well do and is more likely? At least the parents are more likely to have the right motives for the children.
That is one thing, telling kids they should be accepting of others is another.
This is something I've actually had experience with; at my high school last year we organized a Day of Silence, where participants didn't speak all day long; the point was to promote tolerance of homosexuality. This was entirely student-run and organized. However, once some parents found out about, they kicked up a huge fit saying that the teachers were promoting homosexuality and allowing us to disrupt classes, and basically were trying to make it so that there wouldn't be another Day of Silence at my school again. As far as I know, there'll be another one this year.
But see, my point is, why is promoting tolerance seen as a bad thing and as pushing a certain viewpoint on people? I don't get it. Being tolerant and accepting of homosexuals doesn't mean YOU'LL become gay.
(and I live in the US where currently Bush is trying VERY hard to outlaw gay marriages)
I think what Bush is doing is wrong... but then again I always think what Bush is doing is wrong... 😬
Originally posted by Silver Stardust
What if the parents decide they know better by teaching their children to not be accepting of others who may be different?
If that's the case then I personally think that the parents are narrow minded pricks but there's nothing we can do... teach kids about tolerance and acceptance and the parents that don't agree complain... don't teach them and other people complain... consent is one of the best forms of compromise in this situation I can think of.
Originally posted by Fire
ah ok my bad, still I doubt that in the UK the government could get away with it. (altho I'm not a big fan of a two-party system and all) I think UK opposition would be quite hard on its own government as well
The major parties are all the same - composed of control freaks.
At that age they are TOO impressionable, any right minded person would wait until they are a little older, I'm all for equal rights and everything, but teaching about homosexual relationships at the same time as trying to portray the idea of hetrosexual relationships is too much for little kids. Think what that has done to their development really.
i think its good to teach them that at a young age because they will better understand it rather than older kids who's brains have already made up their minds about whether they think it is acceptable or not. of course they should've told the parents about it and gotten their permission. i know if it was my kid i would be furious because i would want them to learn these things from me. pulling him out of school is a little extreme dont u think?..u could've explained to him what you thought about it. it's normal for kids to be curious and ask questions so i think you should let him explore the topic on his own and let him kno where u stand.
Kids don't even get taught about marraige anyway. Why should gays get special treatment? That's not equality. It's a subject that doesn't lie within a schools responsibilty, in my opinion. When my primary school did sexual education, I had to get a consent form signed by my parents. The same thing should have been done here. That's sloppy and arrogant to ignore it and assume it's all fine.
Kids at that age don't care. Most boys think girls have diseases until puberty anyway, and vice versa. My mind boggles to think how teaching kids at such a young age about homosexuality is a good idea. It's so counter productive too.
Why are kids being taught about homosexuality anyway? Is it to educate them and therefore try and prevent under age pregnancy like conventional sex education? How? Since same sex relationships mean there is no pregnancy risk involved - whats the danger? Sure, HIV and AIDs is a problem - but it's the same risk that hetero relationships face.
Gays, bisexuals and heterosexual issues should be discussed at the same time, under one big umbrella. Segregating them into little clubs like this and educating gay relationship stuff one day, then about hetero stuff another day, does nothing to unify people, it just keeps them in their own little bubbles. Doing something like having a "gay day" like this school in question went about EVERYTHING totally backwards. It just makes the kids in question view homosexuality as a little club you can join - when in actual fact there should be no "clubs", Schools should be educating tolerance at an early age, not sexuality.
Just as children learn to crawl before they walk - kids should not be told about this stuff until they have the base layers of "tolerance" to first understand it and take it on board. The fact that your kid came home asking awkward questions proves how much of a failure it really was. I just think it's very wrong, at that age. It won't achieve anything apart from making many parents severely embarrassed, and angry. What a stupid thing to do. This is PC gone mad - this world is a joke.
I can't remember ever not knowing about homosexuality... But that's probably because I have a gay uncle and my parents had to explain it to me at a pretty young age. If a kid asks, you should tell them as simply as possible, but that's kinda creepy that they brought in a gay couple and were telling them about it.