I have no problem with parents deciding for themselves – and for their families – what they consider morally and ethically correct, appropriate and normative. That’s their job. My wife and I have our own standards, which are not shared by all of our friends, but all of us respect each other’s different points of view and do our best to accommodate them, in the interests of getting along.
Sadly, this is exactly the opposite approach to that taken by progressive leftist extremists, who appear determined to foist their perspective upon children from every walk of life – whether or not their parents approve. The Federalist reports that a new initiative seeks to radically revise school sex-education syllabi according to politically correct thought.
Last year, three leftist nonprofits created the National Sex Education Standards, a blueprint for the “sex education” of K-12 children. In practice, the standards serve as an indoctrination camp in extremist sexual ethics designed to destroy children’s innocence and undermine their attachment to the traditional, Judeo-Christian understanding of sex and marriage.
About 40 percent of school districts had adopted the earlier, less extreme 2011 version of the National Sexuality Education Standards, according to the Centers of Disease Control in a 2016 report. The new standards are radically more extreme.
The 2020 standards unequivocally endorse abortion at any time, teach the topic starting in sixth grade, and even force teachers to provide information on local abortion clinics to students in ninth grade. The standards also insist that children must be allowed to choose their own gender and false pronouns must “be respected by the adults in their lives.”
Kindergartners learn about gender identity, and third graders learn that gender is on a spectrum, about “the role of hormone blockers” for transgender youth, and how to “explain” masturbation. Sixth graders — ages eleven and twelve — must define oral, anal, and vaginal sex as well as the benefits of withdrawing one’s penis before ejaculation during intercourse and how to use dental dams during oral sex.
There’s more at the link. It’s hardly comfortable reading, but it’s essential to understand the threat to our children’s upbringing.
Of course, books and literature are being co-opted as weapons in the culture wars. In Virginia, an organization called Toxic Schools is campaigning against the use of pornographic and otherwise inappropriate materials in schools. They point out:
At a recent Fairfax County School Board meeting, a concerned citizen showed a graphic novel aimed at teen readers that she found in the high school library. Turns out it was also available in many other Virginia high schools. It contained images that were pornographic. She was shut down by the school board.
Fairfax County Public Schools set up committees to review the books and decide whether to continue to stock those books. Here’s what they are not doing:
- They aren’t examining how these books made it into the libraries in the first place.
- They aren’t holding anyone responsible for making the decision to make these books available.
- They aren’t reviewing the schools for similar, inappropriate books and materials.
What else is going wrong in public schools?
An attempt by Toxic Schools to run a 30-second advertisement, showing exactly what sort of pornography was being foisted upon children in Virginia, was blocked by local TV stations, who would only show a “blurred” version of it, omitting the offensive material. The organization has made the uncensored version available on its Web site. I urge you to click over there and take a look, so that you’re fully informed of what’s being done to our kids by the powers that be.
I suggest that, as writers, we should not allow ourselves to be conscripted into this culture war. Instead, let’s be proactive by volunteering. Let’s produce books that incorporate a more wholesome approach, one that isn’t (and can’t be) used as a propaganda club with which to beat others over the head. Let’s accentuate the positive and, not ignore the negative, but relegate it to the trash heap of human consciousness that it deserves. Let’s also encourage our kids to read that sort of material, and discuss the politically correct claptrap with them so that they’re able to recognize how it’s trying to manipulate them. Forewarned is forearmed – and not foreplay!
That’s my thought, anyway. What say you?
Mad Genius Club 
50 responses to “Defending our kids against moral and ethical filth”
Somewhat concur.
Though, I am so much a proponent of homeschooling, that my current position on public schools is “why should we not criminally prosecute them?”
Bob, you’re making sense again. I must need more coffee. 😡
When Bob starts making sense, the situation is dire.
Bob, you have been making altogether too much sense lately….. *Wry G*
Amen.
I probably just worded my position too reasonably.
You, me, Phantom, and Foxfier are all long term pretty firmly on on the ‘public school skeptic’ side of the spectrum. You and Foxfier because of the wonderfully pleasant people you experienced there. I think Phantom largely because the schools have not been serving his younger relatives well.
Anyway, I’ve had a /LOT/ of trouble with depression lately. Much sadness and anger. Been working on it more for a bit over a week. (Had gotten bad enough that I should have been intervening more aggressively, earlier. Weird ‘measurement’ oversight, and didn’t realize how bad things were.)
So, society is very full of crazy people, who are so careless that they’ve made my positions look relatively good, /and/ there’s a chance that I could improve my health and move closer to objective sanity for that reason.
If you need something with magic and action to cheer up, may I recc’ The Thousand Faces of Dunjia?
It takes about 3 of their “chapters” for all the pieces to start coming together, but I found it a lot of fun and upbeat.
(Mind, I was in a Mood for action violence, so.)
I say you are completely right, sir. I couldn’t agree more.
Two words: Home Schooling. Otherwise your kid is stuck being taught by unionized public employees, with all that entails.
Unfortunately our taxes are being siphoned off to promote dangerous perversions. The Left moved on from “if it feels good do it” and plain vanilla promiscuity. Sex “education” these days is promoting things that are physically bad for the human body, leaving any moral judgement aside.
Therefore along with protecting your own kids with home schooling, there’s a social component we all need to engage in as well. Call it Sad Puppies for public schools. Find out who all the Wokeies in your local school board are and crash their nomination meetings.
They no longer want “permitted”, they’re demanding “supported.” The next step will be “mandatory.”
They’re already up to complaining that you aren’t allowed to refuse sexual intercourse that’s transphobic.
I’m loving the “Trans Vs. TERFs” battle. Two groups of utter lunatics locked in a death match, one side the former darlings who can’t even -believe- that anyone would dare object to them, the other side riding the wave of the virtue spiral for all its worth.
My popcorn bowl overfloweth. ~:D
Back when I was in school, it had gone from “if it feels good, do it” to “if it doesn’t feel good, you need to do it more, you’re not doing it right.”
There was no right to say ‘no,’ not really.
I am writing a sweet romance that would be appropriate for any teenager and no one can stop me.
On a more serious note – I have a serious suspicion that a lot of Progressive thought is merely an excuse to unleash all the worse aspects of human nature and they’re doing it on purpose.
Being a decent person is hard enough as it is. That so-called adults would deliberately sabotage that makes me see red.
Hie thee to Youtube and watch Yuri Bezmenov’s several lectures and interviews that explain the KGB’s program of demoralization of American culture, using drugs and “free love” as infective agents.
The only difference is that now instead of a foreign power using demoralization to weaken America, enemies within are using demoralization because they’ve come to believe in it as their new religion, and the rest of us are either heathens to be converted or heretics to be destroyed.
And there you have the hazard and endpoint of allowing hostile elements to infiltrate a culture.
Will keep in mind for when I’m in a better headspace. ATM the black dog needs no encouragement.
This is where I’m at with it this week. The black dog can f- off, I’ve got stuff to do.
All these dark stories in the media are coming from -both- sides of the political spectrum. From the Left we get CRT, Trumpocalypse, and climate-geddon. From the Right we get “ohmyghod the gubmint is coming for our chiiiiillllldrun!!! (or cars, or houses, or grandparents, or guns, or…)” and Bidenpocalypse. (Let’s Go Brandon!)
Taking a step back to look at the whole thing, that is a whole lot of people all trying to do the same thing: scare me and make me run. Two flavors of “It’s The End Of The World” trying to make me believe that it’s the end of the freakin’ world.
Except I’ve already seen the end of the world. The world ended in March 2020. That’s the month they all managed to convince me that Covid-19 was a Bubonic Plague Two, Electric Boogaloo.
Fast forward past us all finding out how AMAZINGLY we’ve been lied to from all directions about a literal life-and-death subject, and witnessed the AMAZING willingness of pretty much everybody in government and media to politicize said life-and-death subject for their own advantage and a short term advantage at that. This week the new End Of The World is the supply chain crumbling or the housing crisis or the Meth Epidemic or the Republicans hanging teh gays, depending on which set of screamers you listen to. One thing remains the same among them all. We’re all gonna die. Again.
So this week, finally, I decided that the whole freaking world-wide media industry’s only purpose is to wind me up. Left, Right, muddled middle, I’m not learning anything actionable from any of it. I can’t draw useful conclusions or make useful plans from any of it. All bullshit, all the time. @$$holes trying to make me run.
Not going to run, boys. You scared me that one time, and now its over.
Now all we need is a Graboid infestation, and everything will be perfect….
But we’ve gotta be DOOOOMMEED!! (TM)
Why else would I be antsy and having trouble focusing?
What’s that, maybe I should take one of the walks around the neighborhood that I’ve not been taking? Impossible, has to be some outside factor, beyond my control, and it has to be super important.
Maybe the flying saucers are going to be exploding because of mineral traces in the Thorium from Tau Ceti.
All seriousness, I may have simply hit the point at which I cannot progress further. If I haven’t, I’m managing something badly and need to fix it.
I have a feeling that I could come up with a fancier theoretical model of what is going on, and if I had loads to spare would probably have a lot of fun diving into the weeds of said theory. a) I’m pretty sure that the most charitable sound theory of whatever it is would predict that now will have a lot of noise that simply ought to be filtered out. b) Phantom’s model is good enough for just about any work that needs doing.
Later all.
Hang in there Bob. We need you to stop making sense again.
[You know, that doesn’t sound right, even if it is correct. Oh well.]
I’ve about figured out a fancy theoretical model for why that is correct, etc. 🙂
Not the time for even the tl;dr of it. XD
Little bit improved, walking helped.
This is where I’m at. If I’m not scared of COVID, I’m supposed to be scared of the vaccines. If I’m not scared of the vaccines, I’m supposed to be scared of COVID.
How about not being scared in general? Maybe we could try that.
It was an interesting feeling to read a review of a work of mine and have its suitability for teens be discussed, though I am pleased it passed muster.
> blocked by local TV stations, who would only show a “blurred” version of it, omitting the offensive material.
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A lot of people have snarked on that, but the TV stations answer to the FCC, which has its own definitions of what “pornographic” might be, and they will yank the license of broadcasters that show it.
Toxic Schools could have then proclaimed “what they’re showing our children is so dirty it can’t even been shown on TV!”, but chose to claim censorship instead.
A lot of the folks they’re trying to reach would respond to that with “how dare the FCC block educational material.”
I’ve certainly seen that point raised. “If It can’t be shown on broadcast TV, should our kids really be reading it?” I don’t know if it was the original group or not, but someone has definitely noticed the odd dichotomy.
Really “interesting” is when parents go in to ask to see the material– and the school won’t let them.
That does require really dedicated parents, though, since schools pulling a fast one tend to say “sure, come in between [very limited hours]” and will give only a small portion of the material, with no list of “additional resources” (generally the objectionable videos) and no “permission” to take notes or pictures, much less copies, especially when it’s with “learning partners.” (Planned Parenthood was most common in our area when I was a kid, no idea now.)
When one contrasts this with things like how the Cattlemen’s Association does their outreach– you can download everything they’ll bring from their websites, unless it’s the snacks that a lot of the Cow Belles like to bring for “illustration” of byproducts, it’s pretty startling.
I noticed the contrast when PETA got mad about people releasing their educational materials, vs the Cattlemen or other ag groups, or Constitution clubs, or even the county Weed Board practically chasing down anybody who showed a faint interest to give them boxes of hand-outs.
An example of the “wait, wait, you’re interested? HERE! Have a book! Have six!” materials:
https://www.nwcb.wa.gov/publications
Yeah. If you’re upset when people want to see your educational materials, don’t be surprised when people start suspecting the worst.
Seriously, the cover-up is always worse than the crime.
I generally agree with what I think your meaning is, but we should be clear:
the cover-up in this case includes literal criminal conspiracy to cover up child rape, and moving the rapist to a location where he repeated the crime against another child under their authority, and it’s coming out that they have covered up forcible child sexual assault, since it’s unclear if those meet the state’s standards for rape, especially if they were previously successful in preventing the victim from going to the hospital and getting a rape kit.
The cover-up is a pretty big area of bad and I’m not sure how much of it can be divorced from the crimes.
What is their rush?
Why are they so determined to ‘teach’ children about certain…unusual sexual practices when they are so young? What would be lost by waiting a few years? Children do grow up, you know.
Of course, most children go through phases, and then get over them. Those left-wing extremists wouldn’t stoop to catching children briefly confused by certain biological and emotional changes and pressure them into making hasty, irrevocable decisions, would they? Or would they?
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Erik: “It’s reassuring to find that the world is crazier than you are.”
Why are they so determined to ‘teach’ children about certain…unusual sexual practices when they are so young? What would be lost by waiting a few years? Children do grow up, you know.
It’s been repeatedly noted in research that expression of sexual desire is strongly influenced by expression during formative years, from slightly before puberty to about 20.
This is actually very important information, because it is needed to help survivors of child sex abuse.
…guess what I think of trying to hijack what should be teaching kids about their bodies, and using it for grooming behavior, even if I didn’t have kids.
I’m going to guess it involves tar and feathers and possibly ropes and lamp posts.
I read too many books, elaborate stuff like that backfires.
It is very final, though.
Can confirm. Have seen things I can never unsee. I wish brain bleach existed.
Bad enough when it’s lousy not-right-in-head family members. That teachers would deliberately expose kids to stuff that defines sick and twisted… rope. Lamppost.
I should note that informing eleven and twelve year olds that oral and anal sex exist is probably a good idea, in order to A. avoid them thinking that sticking a penis into said orifices isn’t actually sex and B. help them avoid being exploited.
That having been said, telling young teenagers about how to have sex is kind of sick and wrong, and makes me wonder what would happen if we managed to get a look at the hard drives of the people writing this stuff. I would not be surprised if there were felony charges.
The “body fluids transmit diseases” level talk would cover the exploitation, and actual-body-parts-you-have separated groups explaining basic biological functions would cover sexual activity along with giving useful information like “hi, you have hormone cycles, this is what is somewhat normal, this is unusual but not a thing to worry about, this is something where you need medical help Really Dang Fast Now. (K, that last one is mostly a girl thing, although some of the male Intimate Issues are pretty freaking scary, too.)
Could be done in a single day, WITH parental approval of everything but the questions-and-answers.
Much lower probability of being abused/exploited by the supposed educators.
Just like with drug education, there have been observed increases in ‘experimentation’ when too much detail has been given, because kids have very bad risk evaluation skills.
For better or worse, I don’t have the skill to write sex scenes. I probably lose some readers because of it, but the ones I gain tend to be very vocal about why- I get lots of, “I loved reading something I could share with my kids/MIL/grandma without blushing!” type of comments.
The current WIP is heavier on the sex, violence, and swearing, so I won’t be advertising it as kid/teen safe, unlike the rest of my stuff, but it’s also my little rebellion against the unhealthy relationships that are so prevalent in fiction. The main characters have an instant, strong connection, and want a romantic and sexual relationship with each other, but consciously choose to wait because they have legal and moral obligations that preclude a relationship, or because they recognize that the other is going through a traumatic experience and isn’t emotionally stable enough to make decisions of that magnitude.They get their happy ending eventually, but the feeling of ‘I want it, but I know it wouldn’t be a healthy relationship right now, and I love this person so much that I don’t want to see them in an unhealthy relationship, even if it is with me’ is what creates drama and drives that particular plot line.
So I end up with a better story in the end, and it might even count as ‘edgy’ because it goes against the grain of most current fiction. It boggles the mind, that conservative, ethical, and religious people are the ‘rebels’ of today, but that’s the world we live in.
I tend to be with you. It’s not that my characters don’t have sex, it’s that I have no interest of writing out the details. I expect my readers to be smart enough that if, for example, two characters are kissing at the end of one chapter, and then the next chapter opens with one of them searching his bed in order to find the other, they can figure out what must have happened in the middle without me needing to give an anatomically detailed description of what part went where.
Not to mention that one person’s turn-on can be another’s turn-off. I still have a certain level of trauma about the romance novel I was reading where the phrase “he kissed her eyeball” came up in an erotic scene.
I prefer the “fade to black . . . Next morning, when they awoke . . .” method, personally. I can write sex scenes. I don’t like it, and I tend to laugh at all the wrong moments as I write. That’s probably not a good sign.
I can’t write the sex scenes either. I tried, they came out dumb. Very dumb. They will never leave my hard drive.
On the whole I pretty much skip sex scenes anyway. The story isn’t moving forward while A and B are doing it. The before and after parts can move the story. The middle, actually doing it part? Maybe if it was two different kinds of aliens trying to figure out how to do it. Otherwise, probably not.
seriously? when i was in high school, they wouldnt even put the SI swimsuit issue out…
I still remember doing a public reading contest back when I was in middleschool. The section I wanted to read was a character set about one of the characters being set up in a new comfortable home on the southern continent. (From one of Dragon Riders of Pern books)
The passage the teacher wanted me to read was about about hanging a puppy to get back at his dad. Apparently it was from some award winning young adult novel. I was rather horrified, and asked to do a different one.
And this was almost 30 years ago. It seemed like every single book the AP lit teachers wanted us to read was just horrific or depressing or both. Even the one I eventually did end up reading was about this youth gang, who mostly ended up in it because they had terrible home lives, no sense of right or wrong outside their tribe, and the whole arc is the main character realizing that life kind of sucks.
Did these people just live their lives in a gray haze of unyielding depression or something? Because that felt like that was all they wanted to read about.
I’m just somehow reminded of that one side quest in Neverwinter Nights 2. You’re in the rich district, and someone’s asked you to find their daughter.
Turns she was hanging out with some rich goth kids, who as, it turned out, had gotten themselves turned into thrawls of a vampire, and are, apparently, going to either eat her, or turn her into a vampire, or something.
I just remember the whole quest thinking. “You idiot teenagers. You *idiot* teenages. You f’ing idiot teenages! What did you think was going to happen raving with vampires?!”
Sorry. I had this wonderful mental image of a vampire suffering the effects of draining someone who sampled “recreational pharmaceuticals – too new to be illegal!” at a rave. Not your point, but very, very amusing.
Teens go for emotion. So yeah, alas, if their parents never sat them down with “here’s what vampires really do – and it’s not just your blood they’re after,” well . . . Terminal problems ensue.
Nah, the real trick is to convince them that garlic cigarettes are the latest cool thing.
But, yeah. The teenage years are not known for emotional self restraint, and if you’re wealthy enough to not have to do anything, it’s easy to get sucked into some very stupid stuff.
Which reminds me of Spike from Buffy, something to the effect of “Yeah, I was at Woodstock. Ate a hippie, spent the next six hours just watching my hands move.”
that particular topic (first para) has been done in probably 75% of the White Wolf VTM campaigns ever run.
The passage the teacher wanted me to read was about about hanging a puppy to get back at his dad. Apparently it was from some award winning young adult novel.
Don’t think I’ve every read that miserable piece of “literature,” but I certainly know the type. This is what we give our children to read. And then we’re shocked that they prefer to watch TV and play video games.
In fairness, degrees tend to involve much more doing of stuff than you would do on your own, on impulse.
So? Literary degrees? Might tend to make people screwed up in the head when it comes to enjoying what everyone else wants to read.
If you are super super jaded, and have read more than you want to of stuff that isn’t horrific, the horrific stuff will be different.
Compare the anecdotes about focus group testing of army field rations. If the army has had x flavors of ration meals available recently, and the focus group is very familiar with all x, any meal that is not in that x will score very highly because of novelty. Thus, adding meals to the rotation that maybe, objectively, are not any better than what is leaving and perhaps worse.
I’ve had some weird experiences with depression and taste for stuff I want to read. So, if I find a really stupid Japanese Light Novel, I’m in the mood, and the budget stars are aligned, I may read one volume. If I’m not in the mood, I don’t go for that title. This means that my memories are a bit more charitable than the folks who read five, ten or twenty volumes at a time, and get really tired of this or that bit of nonsense.
“Did these people just live their lives in a gray haze of unyielding depression or something? Because that felt like that was all they wanted to read about.”
That, and this weird notion that kids need to be informed that some people lead lives that are massive grungefests. Newsflash: kids already know that, they don’t need to be told that.
Plenty of kids with a front-row seat for that kind of thing.
[…] revolted, and generally put off … not the least by having it thrust upon them incessantly. As a commenter on this thread remarked: “The passage the teacher wanted me to read was about hanging a puppy to get back at his […]