Open letter to Bellevue School District

Hello. I am Josh Foreman, Justin Foreman’s dad. You sent out a letter informing me that my 5th grader will be instructed on HIV/AIDS and human sexuality. The letter noted that, “We want our students to realize that we consider you to be the most important source of information for these topics…” As my son’s father I would like to be the ONLY source of information about sexuality for him. Can we please set up a time to meet so I can jump through the bureaucratic hoops in order to be a parent to my child regarding one of the most sensitive issues in a person’s life? I find it appalling that any government institution finds it appropriate to be the mechanism by which a child should learn about sexuality. So I would appreciate it if I was informed before any other similar information is presented to my son. I understand the public school system’s desire to fill a responsibility that has been abdicated by some parents. However I am not one of those parents. As you know, children develop emotionally and physically at different rates. I believe it is immoral to subject an entire group to the same information by those who can not evaluate when each child is ready for that information. Such evaluation can only be adequately performed by a parent. I understand that you are not responsible for the school district’s policy on this matter, I’m just letting you know how I feel about the policy for the record. It is abhorrent and obscene. Not because human sexuality is obscene. But because when it is presented – as it must be in this public forum – as divorced from it’s psychological and spiritual components it is reduced to mere animal abstractions. It teaches “facts” without being true, just as teaching only the brain’s chemical reactions to love would reduce love’s significance, meaning, ramifications, and truth. Sexuality is not merely a series of facts that are placed in the empty receptacle of children’s heads. It includes facts that are important to impart to children when they are at the appropriate stage of development. Please allow me, as the parent to make that call.

Sincerely,

Josh Foreman

Comments

Anonymous said…
yi yi yi
good letter
10:32 AM
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