In her column titled Birth control good idea for middle schoolers (SN 11/14) Kelly Kane lauds the fact that a public school in Maine has decided to provide free contraceptives for children in grades six to eight.
Since when did public schools become the definitive authority for deciding moral issues for children? When did parents become superseded as the teachers of moral issues?
The role of our nation’s public schools is to prepare students for the transition into society academically and socially. In doing so, morality in schools should be limited exclusively to laws that are on the books. Deviations from this result in ideological indoctrination, a forcing of beliefs, would be a sort of “Brave New World.”
Providing middle-school students with the opportunity to use publicly funded contraceptives is not only erroneous and irresponsible but, more importantly, is an overarching breach of a duty to teach morality that should be left solely to the parents of the individual child. The same holds true for schools that force teachers to read books such as “One Dad, Two Dads, Brown Dad, Blue Dads” to kindergartners and first graders.
From the perspective of school administrators, parents apparently are mindless drones — incapable of distinguishing between what is right and what is wrong.
The day public schools become more capable of deciding what is right on issues of morality is the day I swallow my first Soma pill — apparently Ms. Kane and many others already have.
Matt Cowan
education graduate student
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