In May, the Fairfax County School Board agreed to solicit feedback from parents on proposed Family Life Education (FLE) sex-ed initiatives that would significantly affect the innocence of children in Fairfax public elementary schools and advance a blurring of all distinctions between male and female biological sex. The parental input will take place this fall.
One proposal is a recommendation from the Family Life Education Curriculum Advisory Committee that FLE sex-ed classes for grades four through eight no longer be separated into groups of boys and girls, but rather be combined. According to the Advisory Committee report, this change is necessary because “when students are separated by boys and girls, it affirms a rigid binary based on anatomy.”
Why should fourth graders be subjected to descriptions of anatomy, or fifth graders subjected to discussions of sexual activity, uncomfortably surrounded by students of the opposite sex?
The purpose behind keeping students segregated by sex for these discussions is not to make the students ashamed of their bodies, as some would assert. Rather, it is the opposite: to develop a knowledge and respect for the dignity of the human body, and to preserve their natural inclination toward modesty.
But this proposed change is only the beginning. The Advisory Committee wants the board’s approval to explore the addition of “gender identity” instruction to the elementary school FLE sex-ed curriculum, including instruction on “the gender spectrum.” (The grade at which this would begin has yet to be determined). With only 38 percent of Virginia’s fourth graders being proficient in reading, it would seem that the Fairfax schools should focus on teaching their students the basics, rather than promoting gender ideology.
Fairfax County is the largest school system in Virginia. While parental input on these proposals will not be solicited until the fall, Fairfax parents can always weigh in with their respective school board member by going to “Contact the School Board” at fcps.edu/school-board/school-board-members.
Muskett, an attorney, is president of Pro-Family Women.
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