NPR Promotes Starting Sex Education As Young As Kindergarten, “It Is Absolutely Not” Controversial ⋆ Elizabeth Johnston

A group promoting so-called “comprehensive sexuality education” (CSE) was recently quoted in an NPR article touting the benefits of sex ed beginning as young as kindergarten.

This comes at a time when sex ed in schools has become one of the top political issues of the current election season and several states have moved to either restrict or expand sexuality instruction in increasingly younger grades.

NPR, a partially taxpayer-funded outlet, featured opinions from Nora Gelperin, the director of sex education and training for the non-profit group Advocates for Youth, in an article titled “Why sex education should start in kindergarten.”

As The Blaze reported, Advocates for Youth has faced scrutiny for their controversial curricula in the past.

The NPR article explained that CSE is “defined by sex ed advocates as a science-based, culturally and age-appropriate set of lessons that start in early grades and go through the end of high school. It covers sexuality, human development, sexual orientation and gender, bodily autonomy and consent, as well as relationship skills and media literacy.”

Although this definition alone would raise many an eyebrow, Gelperin insisted to NPR that “Even though it may seem like sex education is controversial, it absolutely is not” and that it is “always in the best interest of young people.”

This ought to begin, she told the outlet, with lessons on consent for kindergarteners.

“When we’re talking about consent with kindergartners, that means getting permission before you touch someone else; asking if it’s OK if you borrow somebody’s toy or pencil or game, so that kids start to learn about personal boundaries and consent in really age- and developmentally appropriate ways,” she explained.

“If someone is touching you inside your boundary in a way that makes you uncomfortable, it’s OK to say no and talk to a trusted adult,” she says she tells the students.

Of course, many might argue that respecting personal boundaries and property is hardly a lesson that anyone would object giving to kindergartens and if there is not already a baked-in lesson plan towards teaching young children these commonsense values as they are taught and raised up to be respectful members of their families, schools, and communities.

As children progress in a CSE curriculum, they are introduced to more than just boundaries and consent, however, and NPR describes an approach that appears to extend to values far beyond simply sexuality education. So again one wonders why it is not already a given that children are being taught, for example, how to have healthy relationships and respond to bullying.

“Sometimes there’s teasing and bullying that’s going on in those grade levels. So you want to talk about how to interrupt teasing and bullying and how to stand up for others that may be getting teased or bullied,” Gelperin explained.

“There should also be a focus on respecting others’ differences, including different family makeups, cultural backgrounds and faith traditions,” she also says.

By middle school, children are introduced to the birds and the bees — “including biological terms and why some people menstruate while others create sperm,” as NPR notes, betraying the decidedly ideological worldview on which this curriculum is based.

“That for me is a real hallmark of middle school sex education, is kind of really starting to understand how those parts and systems work together for reproduction,” Gelperin says.

The “absolutely not” controversial curriculum, NPR explains, introduces middle schoolers to “gender expression and sexual orientation, as well as gender stereotypes.”

“One Advocates for Youth lesson includes a scavenger hunt homework assignment where students look for gender stereotypes in the world around them, like a sports ad that only features men or an ad for cleaning supplies that only features women,” they note.

These include ideas the outlet appears to believe would be considered perfectly innocent to its readers but, in reality, form a good portion of the basis for heated objections posed by parents to sexuality education.

The article proceeds to present a view on sexuality education that has all the hallmarks of a distinctly progressive viewpoint on not only sex, but society in general, giving a telling indication as to why much of the parental rights movement has taken aim at both sexuality education and ideology often referred to as “critical race theory,” that is, ideas that fall within the bounds of postmodern cultural theory and dubbed by adherents as “social justice theory.”

Another woman quoted by NPR told them that “Keeping sex ed inclusive and culturally reflective means teaching about systemic oppression, discrimination and the history and impacts of racism on certain communities,” such as, for example, “a lesson on reproductive health might discuss historical examples of forced sterilization of Indigenous women or Black women, or the criminal justice system as it connects to family relationships.”

CSE appears to address a great many issues that caring adults would be concerned about for children; protecting them from abuse, mistreatment, and dangerous sexual behavior. However, it has become abundantly clear that the issue is not simply introducing children to very grownup ideas about sex at too young of an age; the big picture is that these lessons are taught from a very radical worldview that has shown up quite overtly in the mainstream in the last decade yet is not shared by millions of Americans.

This is why parents will likely continue to fight sexuality education in schools. We have the right to introduce our children to such sensitive and adult topics, and to do so from our own convictions.

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