Middle township school district will be including the new “comprehensive health and physical education standards” in their curriculum. They are following The Great Body Shop health curriculum.
In the 2nd grade, Middle township will be covering the following NJ standards using this program:
the correct terminology of genitalia
“Reproduction”
You can go to the Great Body Shop website, it seems innocent enough, however it does not give a a clue how they will cover controversial topics. How will they handle explaining to your 7 year-old how to procreate and define penis and vagina?
I don’t any parent who is adamantly against their kindergartner- 2nd grader knowing the correct name of their body parts, that’s why parents teach this topic themselves during bath time. So you need to ask yourself, why does the state need do do this? It seems they are establishing that they can force teachers to discuss sensitive topics with young children, in front of their peers, but away from parents and extend opportunity for confidential conversations in the future. This desensitizes kids to dialogue with nonparental adult authorities on topics that aren’t their business to be talking about in the first place. If you can teach your own kid in a minute what a penis and vagina is, why then why are you not skeptical of the government demanding this is their job now, and why are we spending months of time and expense on this? Keep in mind, the government doesn’t insist its their job to teach kids to wipe properly for hygiene and safety, that’s still a parent’s job, for now.
Why, with academic performance in the toilet, is the school focused on prepubescent kids learning sex? Why are schools appointing themselves authorities on mental and physical health, values, and nutrition? The school is presenting like the wolf in Grandma’s bed in little red riding hood, you need to start paying attention to what big teeth they have.
You don’t know how the school is going to handle this topic of genitals, they certainly won’t be teaching it during bath time. The details are left out from the Great Body Shop. You cannot see the lesson plans. It seems these programs insist on avoiding the details on controversial topics. Its suspicious. If you are going to teach a sensitive topic in school, the schools CANNOT avoid telling parents how it will be handled.
If parents trusted their schools then this would never be an issue, but parents have lost a lot of trust in their schools since 2020. Its time for the schools to be completely transparent. Parents can no longer blindly turn over their kids to the school especially when they avoid providing details. Maybe if the details were provided then parents would realize that they didn’t need to opt-out?
Thanks to the mom who helped me write this !
Sex Education for 2nd grade
I would ask, as a parent, the chain of teaching if they could provide a copy or a time for you to view the material that will be taught. Chain of teaching: teacher, principal, district superintendent. Nothing is stopping you from gaining this information (photos, video/audio recording [NJ has one-party consent recording law]) and then publishing this information here for parents to view! I'd help with this info gathering in my town but my children are not in elementary schools currently.
This is what I told frank and his cohort Tobacco.. we are opting out to send a message to Trenton.. my school also uses the body shop. I have no issue with the curriculum but without big opt out numbers who knows what they will push through next time? Like Jersey Republicans they just hanged up on me in the post