ShareThisAccording to the California Teachers Association and the California School Boards Association, the Proposition 8 marriage initiative has nothing to do with what is taught in California's public schools. The "Yes on 8" campaign claims that if homosexual marriage stays legal in California, kids will learn in public schools that this kind of "marriage" is normal and legitimate.Proposition 8 is the ballot initiative in California that, if passed in November, will amend California's constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman. The initiative follows a decision by the California Supreme Court last May that legalized homosexual marriage.In a recent ad run by "No on 8", California State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Jack O'Connell, says "Proposition 8 has nothing to do with schools or kids .... our schools aren't required to teach anything about marriage."To call this misleading would be the understatement of the 2008 campaign season.The California Department of Education makes a comprehensive sex education curriculum available to every school district, but specifies that it's voluntary.A poll done by the Public Policy Institute of California in 2006 showed that 78 percent of California's adults want comprehensive sex education in the public schools. According to the "Yes on 8" campaign, 96 percent of the school districts currently provide it.If a school district does provide sex education, it must follow the guidelines of the California Department of Education. According to these guidelines, as they appear on the CDE website, the schools "shall teach respect for marriage and committed relationships."It doesn't take much to conclude that just about every kid in California's public school system gets some kind of instruction about marriage at some time. Should homosexual marriage remain a legal institution in California, there is little doubt that children graduating from California's public schools will see homosexuality and homosexual marriage as normal and legitimate as proverbial American apple pie.If Proposition 8 has "nothing to do with schools or kids,'' then why has the California Teachers Association, the union of California's teachers and public school employees, contributed well over $1 million to the "No on 8" campaign? The teachers union opposes school choice and vouchers, claiming on its Web site that vouchers "hurt students and schools by draining scarce resources away from public education." Yet the union somehow sees it helping education to write a check for a million dollars to keep homosexual marriage legal.This same California teachers union weighed in earlier this year to support a California appeals court decision, subsequently reversed, which would have effectively shut down home schooling in the State of California.It should concern everyone that the idea of parents having the freedom to choose where and how to educate their child is abhorrent to our public school establishment. And that this same public school establishment is obsessed with peddling left wing moral relativism to our kids.Who is hurt the most? Our most vulnerable kids.According to a report released earlier this year by Colin Powell's organization America's Promise, about 70 percent of kids who enter public school in our nation's 50 largest school districts graduate.In Los Angeles, the second largest school district in the country, 45 percent of kids graduate. These are overwhelmingly Latino and black kids from largely troubled or broken families.The greatest influence on how a child performs in school is the home from which that child comes. Take kids from already troubled homes and put them in schools where traditional values are at best taught as a footnote to a large menu of possible lifestyles, and the result is children and communities that have no future.Maintaining the integrity marriage and family in California, the nation's largest state, is critical for children not just in California, but also in the whole country. Let's hope that Californians vote in November to save traditional marriage and help pull our nation back from moral oblivion. (Star Parker is a speaker and author of three books. She can be reached at star.parker.dc(at)gmail.com)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)
Traditional marriage is vital to kids and education
Submitted by SHNS on Fri, 10/24/2008 - 14:42
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Yes on 8
Yes on 8
No on Prop 8. Equality for
No on Prop 8. Equality for All.
Apparently, you don't seem
Apparently, you don't seem to care about the well-being of all children, specifically the gay children who are harassed and beaten because of the attitudes of people like you.
Also it seems apparent that you are not looking out the best interests of gay children.
If you want to "save" marriage and "save" traditional families, you would be an advocate for making divorce and adultery illegal. But apparently, you seem just fine thinking yourself righteous while practicing bigotry.
The Yes on 8 campaign
The Yes on 8 campaign absolutely cares about the well-being of ALL children. Harassing children for ANY reason should be punishable. It is never ok to beat a child no matter what the reason.
I am an advocate for eliminating divorce and adultery. Both of these things destroy families and hurt children. The degradation of the family was made worse - if didn't start- with divorce being made easier early in the 20th century. Unfortunately, once these things happen it is nearly impossible to reverse them - which is why passing Proposition 8 is so critical. We won't be able to go back once gay marriage is finally legitimized.
The proposition is obviously
The proposition is obviously a passionate issue on both sides. I, as a Yes supporter, have an agenda to promote traditional families that I believe have proven over history to be the ideal environment for both children and society to prosper. Any other way, (non-traditional families), has proven either less effective, detrimental, or is just completely untested (and I don't believe in social experiments on children). I realize the other side has an agenda to promote what they feel are their rights to also have their unions be titled "marriage." Unfortunately, I believe their agenda also includes making their lifestyle choice acceptable to those of us who feel otherwise. Activists both here in CA and elsewhere have gone to any expense or legal action to impose their beliefs on those who feel so strongly otherwise. I am so grateful that "we the people" can make the decision of what we will accept to be taught to our children rather than it being imposed upon us. As a member of society and a community, I aim (both now and in the future) to do whatever I can to help teach, love, and nurture children who come from non-traditional families(of any variety), but I do not want it being taught to my children that these types of families are ideal, acceptable environments for them to choose to raise their own families some day. As a future grandparent someday, I will love them no matter what type of family they end of being part of or creating, but I want what I feel is best for them and will do whatever I can to help foster that teaching for both them and others in society.
NO on 8 - it's the only right thing to do
Wow, reading this and the response titled "obviously" just shows that people are still falling for these false claims and not educating themselves on our education system. As pointed out the line "respect for marriage and committed relationships" is already in the education code to be taught as part of the "California Comprehensive Sexual Health and HIV/AIDS Prevention Education Act". Additionally every parent has the right to pull their children out of class during this portion of their schooling. My son is about to graduate from High School and has NEVER been taught "marriage" in the school. Schools know they would be losing children left and right if they started teaching kids who they should love and marry, so they don't go there. They are taught safe sex and since our education code also says teachers are required to not discriminate at all, they would be treading on dangerous zone to teach straight marriage. Leave your moral teachings on marriage to your church and leave the schools out of it, they already have.
But if you also believe that laws should segregate individuals and start defining words based on religious stand points, then you are also backwards. Read the constitution, this should not be in the laws at all. If you feel that Marriage should be defined as only between a man and a woman than the only right thing under our constitution would be to remove all reference to marriage from our laws. Call all unions under the law "civil unions" straight or gay couples, call it a "marriage" for you church goers. Schools with then teach marriage based on your definition and the dictionary and teach civil unions as what all couples have a right too for financial dependence between each other.
On a final note please stop referring to "them" and "their agenda" as the gay community. There are plenty of straight individuals including myself that know that it's wrong to discriminate under the law. No one is telling you that you have to accept it, but you shouldn't be allowed to tell others that they can't either. I am looking forward to the day that our nation finally truly treats everyone equally under the laws.
Yes on 8.
It seems that you have conveniently left out the fact that the California Department of Education has a list of approved books for K-12. One of those books is "Molly's Family" which introduces children to non-traditional families, and teaches them that this is the norm and acceptable. We have to account for teachers who (outside of the California Comprehensive Sexual Health and HIV/AIDS Prevention Education Act) decides to read this APPROVED book to an unsuspecting second grade class. The fact is that I and many other Californians don't want the acceptance of non-traditional families taught to our children. For me personally, this has nothing to do with hate, or discrimination. I have plenty of gay friends and family members that I love dearly. However, I do not approve of their lifstyle, just like I do not approve of an adultrous husband or wife. Voting against proposition 8 WILL open the door for these things to happen, and consequently infringe on many families rights to decide whats best for their children.
the right side of history
I'm part of a straight couple who has been together thirteen years, plans on having children soon, and plans on being together the rest of our lives. What we do not plan to do is get married, or at least not until gay couples can marry everywhere in the country. I would rather not sound high-and-mighty or holier-than-thou, but as recently as forty-one years ago there were fourteen states in which it was illegal for a black person to marry a white person, and I believe that in forty more years it will seem just as incredible and appalling that at one time the law prohibited gay people from marrying one another. I am hoping that voters in California will get on the right side of history.
I feel sorry for people with
I feel sorry for people with gender issues, they are people with challenges, like people with special needs...but same sex couples, do not a marriage make. Civil union, yes, give them rights... but marriage is a man and woman.
Star Parker - Professional Conservative Spokesperson
Renee,
They do "get it." What you need to know is that Star Parker seems to have a listing in Wikipedia.
Tell me where I'm wrong, but it appears from Wikipedia that Star Parker may be a professional spin doctor.
Therefore, don't be too concerned that Star Parker is spreading the ridiculous line about schools and kids; That's the only weak straw available for grasping at this point.
Grasping at straws looks to be Star's job -- and she does it well. So, enjoy her editorial for a laugh, and then vote "No on 8" along with the majority who are not fooled by this nonsense, either.