School Board adopts core sex ed. curriculum | Eastern North Carolina Now

    The Beaufort County Board of Education heard a report from its staff on the development of a revision in the Health curriculum required by recent state legislation. After the presentation and a short discussion the Board voted 8-1 to adopt the "core" curriculum from the N. C. School Health Training Center at Appalachian State University. That program was selected by a community-based committee composed of parents, teachers, ministers and others who volunteered or were selected to represent various community groups. You will hear a description of the process in the first video.



    In the second video you will hear more about the process in the immediate future and how parents will be afforded the opportunity to review the materials and make a decision on whether their student will participate in part, all or none of the program.



    In the third video you will hear some of the discussion by board members and finally a vote.



    Before all this happened one of the committee members, Jackie Van Essendelft, made a presentation during the public comment section of the agenda. You can hear her presentation here:



    The Board apparently accepted Mrs. Van Essendelft's suggestions that additional work be done on certain parts of the curriculum, with the Superintendent assuring board members that this proposal is "just a starting point" and a subsequent more detailed program will be brought back to the board for final approval.

    Commentary

    We would again commend Dr. Phipps and his staff for the process they used in developing this response to bad state legislation. We note that one of the legislative debates was about community involvement and the legislative committee decided that there should be none required, deleting an earlier provision for a required public hearing. Dr. Phipps very wisely decided to involve the community in this process and we think it is obvious it was a wise decision.

    One of the other wise decisions was to allow parents an opportunity to review the program before it is taught to their child. This affords conscientious parents an opportunity to discuss what the student learns at school. We hope all parents will do just that. It could be the most valuable part of this entire process if parents use it correctly.

    Parents also have a "right" to opt-out of any part or all of the program. It is here that Beaufort County's plan is weakest. Few 7-9 graders are going to take very kindly to being "pulled out" of Health class to go "somewhere" else while their friends remain in class. That's like offering a teenager the opportunity to be mortally embarrassed before their friends. That is not cool. We doubt many will ultimately avail themselves of the "opt-out" option and as time goes by even fewer will. That is what the social engineers who pushed this legislation are counting on. BCS needs to come up with a more realistic procedure that makes it as easy to not participate in this program as it is to do so.

    We think the better approach would be to simply have two Health courses. One with this program built in and another without any of it. Students would simply sign up for one course or the other after the parents were oriented to the differences in the courses.

    And we agree 100% with Mrs. Van Essendelft's assessments and suggestions. We think there is way too much explicit information focused on contraceptive use and way too little focused on teaching responsible decision-making based on solid values.

    It is not that we subscribe to much of the contemporary debate about teaching contraceptive use in schools—whether it is an effective pregnancy prevention model or not—but rather, we think this program and many/most like it, miss the major point. The point is that our schools, parents and churches should do a much better job of teaching the importance of raising children in a family that can give each child the nurturing and training that they need to be well adjusted adults. That includes a family with both a mother and father actively involved in each child's upbringing. We need to teach young people that having a baby—be you the mother or father—is the most serious responsibility a person can have and before anyone has sex they should realize what their responsibility will be for the remainder of their lives if the "unintended consequences" happen. That takes more than a couple of teaching activities.

    Our review of this program is that it is too "now-oriented" and not nearly focused enough on teaching students the future responsibilities of parenting.

    Far too many contemporary "pregnancy prevention" programs, including the one Beaufort County Schools has operated in recent years are focused far too much on teaching students that having a baby is sort of like falling off a log. "It is just something you deal with." It made us sick to see BCS giving "rewards" to girls that had babies, and making them "feel special" as one staff person put it. We need rather to be teaching the enormous responsibility that being a parent (not a baby factory) carries for both the girl and the boy for the remainder of their lives. And a healthy dose is needed of teaching these teenagers what a baby means to the remainder of the family. Far too many teens seem to expect the grandparents to raise their baby. And that is not to even mention an all too prevalent attitude that it is the taxpayer's responsibility to provide for babies that the parents are neither capable of nor willing to adequately provide for. Students need to be taught that it is NOT the responsibility of "the village" to raise their baby.

    And we also found the curriculum insufficient in emphasis on the emotional consequences of "casual" sex. While the program does mention it and does a pretty good job of teaching students how to "say no" it is deficient in emphasis in the areas of the psychological and sociological implications of non-committed sex.

    Finally, a provision should be put into the policy that any deviation whatsoever from the prescribed content must be approved by the principal and supeerintendent.

    BCS has used a commendable process that should be an example to other systems in the state. And the board is wise to consider augmenting the package they have adopted as a "core." We commend them for that and thank Dr. Phipps and his staff for a job well done.

    BCS has used a commendable process that should be an example to other systems in the state. And the board is wise to consider augmenting the package they have adopted as a "core." We commend them for that and thank Dr. Phipps and his staff for a job well done.

    Delma Blinson writes the "Teacher's Desk" column for our friend in the local publishing business: The Beaufort Observer. His concentration is in the area of his expertise - the education of our youth. He is a former teacher, principal, superintendent and university professor.
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