UNBALANCED APPROACH TO EDUCATION ABOUT HOMSEXUALITY

Attempts to discourage bullying and abuse in schools are important if not essential but stigmatizing dislike of homosexuality as bullying is surely not. If homosexuality is to be discussed at all, teachers need to acknowledge that many normal people find it disgusting or immoral and that dislike of it or its practitioners is NOT bullying or ipso facto abusive

"Using a young readers' novel called "The Misfits" as its centerpiece, middle schools nationwide will participate in a "No Name-Calling Week" initiative starting Monday. The program, now in its second year, has the backing of groups from the Girl Scouts to Amnesty International but has also drawn complaints that it overemphasizes harassment of gay youths. The initiative was developed by the New York-based Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network, which seeks to ensure that schools safely accommodate students of all sexual orientations. GLSEN worked with James Howe, the openly gay author of "The Misfits" and many other popular children's books. "Gay students aren't the only kids targeted — this isn't about special rights for them," Howe said. "But the fact is that 'faggot' is probably the most common insult at schools." ... "The Misfits" deals with four much-taunted middle schoolers — one of them gay — who run for the student council on a platform advocating an end to nasty name-calling.

GLSEN is unsure how many schools will participate in this week's event, but says 5,100 educators from 36 states have registered, up from 4,000 last year. Participation in a related writing-music-art contest rose from 100 students last year to 1,600 this year; the winning poem was written by Sue Anna Yeh, a 13-year-old from Sugar Land, Texas. "No Name-calling Week" takes aim at insults of all kinds — whether based on a child's appearance, background or behavior.

But a handful of conservative critics have zeroed in on the references to harassment based on sexual orientation. "I hope schools will realize it's less an exercise in tolerance than a platform for liberal groups to promote their pan-sexual agenda," said Robert Knight, director of Concerned Women for America's Culture and Family Institute. "Schools should be steering kids away from identifying as gay," Knight said. "You can teach civility to kids and tell them every child is valued without conveying the message that failure to accept homosexuality as normal is a sign of bigotry." In Iowa, complaints by scores of parents about the gay themes in "The Misfits" prompted the Pleasant Valley School Board to rule that teachers could no longer read it aloud to elementary school classes, although it could remain in school libraries....

One of GLSEN's most persistent critics is Warren Throckmorton, director of counseling at Grove City College, a Christian school outside Pittsburgh. His skeptical comments about "No Name-Calling Week" have been widely circulated this month on conservative Web sites. "There's no question middle school can be a difficult place — I'm not advocating that any group gets mistreated," Throckmorton said in a telephone interview. "But it will definitely make traditionally oriented teachers and parents and kids feel very uncomfortable, if they happen to object to homosexuality on moral grounds," he said of GLSEN's program. "If you disagree, you're hateful, you're bigoted, you're a homophobe. They're using name-calling to combat name-calling." "

More here. For more on "homophobia", see here.





BRITAIN ATTEMPTS TO RESTORE EDUCATIONAL STANDARDS

A LEVELS and GCSEs would remain the gold standard in education, Ruth Kelly said yesterday, dealing a blow to the most ambitious education reforms to secondary schooling in 60 years. Days before the Government officially responds to the proposals, the Education Secretary clearly indicated that the exams would not only remain in place but would be built upon to stretch the most able pupils.

In her first policy announcement, Ms Kelly also pledged to stamp out low-level classroom disruption with a new zero-tolerance policy. Ms Kelly said: "We have got to build on GCSEs and A levels, which after all are recognised as very important and good exams out there by the general public and by employers. So, yes, as we go forward and, as we widen opportunities and bring in a range of vocational options for students as well as academic options, we really do need to make sure that we have GCSEs and A levels remaining in place and build upon that."

In October Sir Mike Tomlinson, the former chief inspector of England's schools, proposed a ten-year programme of reform that envisaged a four-level diploma with literacy, numeracy and information technology at its core, to replace GCSEs and A levels by 2014. An extended personal project would replace existing coursework and a programme of "main learning" would allow students to follow both vocational and academic courses. Last night Sir Mike said he agreed that A levels and GCSEs should be the building blocks of any future educational framework. "I always envisaged they would remain in content and assembly, and would look, if not exactly the same, similar to what we have now," he said, adding that he did ultimately see the end of the exams in their current form.

John Dunford, general secretary of the Secondary Heads Association, insisted that the comments did not indicate the end of the radical reforms. He said: "The question remains open as to when the names disappear, as they assuredly will do eventually, but she is correct to say they are a proven system and must form a large part of the building block of the new system."

Ms Kelly also made it clear that after two months in office she had put improving classroom discipline at the top of her agenda. She said: "I would like to see the teacher being able to remove disruptive children from the classroom completely and have either alternative provision within the school or indeed off the school, and may be working together with other schools in a particular area to provide that."

More here

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For greatest efficiency, lowest cost and maximum choice, ALL schools should be privately owned and run -- with government-paid vouchers for the poor and minimal regulation.

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