In a speech to a Planned Parenthood audience, Barack Obama (D-Il) said that teaching sex education in kindergarten is ‘the right thing to do’ as long as it’s ‘age appropriate’.
ABC News‘ Teddy Davis and Lindsey Ellerson Report: Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., told Planned Parenthood Tuesday that sex education for kindergarteners, as long as it is “age-appropriate,” is “the right thing to do.”
“I remember Alan Keyes . . . I remember him using this in his campaign against me,” Obama said in reference to the conservative firebrand who ran against him for the U.S. Senate in 2004. Sex education for kindergarteners had become an issue in his race against Keyes because of Obama’s work on the issue as chairman of the health committee in the Illinois state Senate.
“‘Barack Obama supports teaching sex education to kindergarteners,’” said Obama mimicking Keyes’ distinctive style of speech. “Which — I didn’t know what to tell him (laughter).”
“But it’s the right thing to do,” Obama continued, “to provide age-appropriate sex education, science-based sex education in schools.”
The problem with this, of course, is that Barack Obama and me probably don’t have the same idea about what is ‘age appropriate’. His supporters and those who agree that the State should take over the raising of our nation’s children refer to ‘age appropriate’ as ‘the right way’ or ‘what they need to understand at that age’ or ‘teach them correct facts’.
In other words, their way is ‘the right way’ and if you don’t agree with them, as usual you are wrong. That makes it very simple when right and wrong are outlined for you by ‘The Party’. All the gray areas just disappear.
I strongly support freedom of thought and the freedom of parents to raise their children according to their own values and beliefs without the interference of the State. The only time the State should interfere is in cases of abuse, neglect or abandonment. I know this goes against the beliefs of ‘The Party’ in that it allows much to much freedom for the people to make their own decisions.
I’m fully aware there are very poor parents out there and many who would teach their children things I would consider strange - but that’s been true since the beginning of time. There are parents who don’t even teach their children that there are predators out there and others who teach it so much that they make their children paranoid.
Whatever the case, it’s not the States job to raise children outside the parents abandoning their responsibility. Unlike ‘The Party’, I think we can think and be different.
Our children deserve to have their innocence protected. Most kids in kindergarten think kids of the opposite sex have cooties anyway! Let them learn About sex off the bathroom walls in middle school like the rest of us!
tiara tip: PC Free Zone (for story and photo)
July 20th, 2007 at 11:01 pm
Most still sleep with stuffed animals, believe in Santa Claus and sometimes have accidents - let them be kids. like you said, they’ll eventually learn about sex and know as much as the rest of us who were raised without such “enlightenment,” and turned out just fine.
Barack rubs me the wrong way. I even find him more offensive than Hillary.
July 20th, 2007 at 11:41 pm
Look who he was talking to, Planned Parenthood. They want kids having sex early, that way they start giving abortions earlier and earlier. I almost lost my job working for an attorney who did work for Planned Parenthood. It was an associate I did work for sometimes, mainly I worked for the senior partner and founder of the firm. He told me I didn’t have to do any Planned Parenthood work if I felt strongly that it was wrong. So I didn’t. I traded work for that Associate with another one. Thank God for that senior partner.
July 21st, 2007 at 3:33 pm
“There are some parents who don’t even teach their children that their are predictors out there…”
Predictors?
July 21st, 2007 at 3:34 pm
“There are some parents who don’t even teach their children that their are predictors out there…”
Predictors? I believe the word you are searching for is “predators.”
BSC: Ugh, yeah. I think you are right! lol I’m way too dependent on spell check! Thanks for pointing that out to me.
July 22nd, 2007 at 1:48 pm
The Difference Between Conservatives And Liberals…
One of the really big differences between liberals and conservatives is how the two parties perceive and rely on government intervention in our everyday lives……
July 22nd, 2007 at 11:36 pm
I think we first need to define what Obama thinks “age appropriate” means in this context. I haven’t been able find the definition so far, but I just read Obama’s book “The Audacity of Hope”, and I can’t imagine that he’s in favor of explaining such things as the mechanics of sex and how to put on condoms to 5 year olds, but I suppose I could be wrong.
My definition of age appropriate would be this: teach them about modesty and the proper wearing of clothing. Teach them that members of the opposite sex should respect each other. That’s about all I can think of.
BSC: Agreed. However, a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood was interviewed on Hannity and Colmes shortly after this speech and I can definitely say that her idea of ‘age appropriate’ and mine are not even in the same universe! The problem is how that would be interpreted from one school system to the other, or from one teacher to the other. It seems like a slippery slop to me.
September 10th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
The sexual abuse of children is an epidemic. It is fact that the victims of this abuse are sitting in a classroom today living with their shame. It is time to institute a “DARE” like program to help these children.