The Montgomery County Education Board in southern Maryland recently made significant progress in shaping its new sexual-education curriculum. The updated curriculum will allow students to learn the importance of accepting different sexual orientations.
Of course, some parents and pro-abstinence groups are doing their best to put up a fight. Many people are still socially and morally uncomfortable talking about any kind of sexuality or teaching students about different sexual orientations.
Montgomery County is, as it should be, more interested in making every student aware of the health risks that can arise from any kind of sexual behavior. The curriculum also emphasizes acceptance of your own sexual preference, as well as that of others.
The idea of teaching tolerance of everyone and defining words such as prejudice is progressive and stands in striking contrast to North Carolina's out-of-date abstinence-based curriculum.
Teaching eighth-graders about homosexuality, like in Montgomery County, might seem too early or inappropriate to some people, but neglecting to teach 10th-graders other options for staying safe besides abstaining might seem equally inappropriate and questionable.
Let's face it, teenagers do have sex, and they do experiment. All that educators can do is give them the information they need to make smart choices.
In addition, being a teenager is confusing enough without having to be judged on your sexual preferences or lack thereof. It will be comforting for students, whether they consider themselves gay, straight, both or something else, that it's not wrong to embrace who they really are.
Many people seem to be in favor of the new curriculum, hoping that it will better educate students about contraceptives and different lifestyles.
For anyone who thinks the new curriculum might be taking things too far with an instructional video on condoms or the discussion of sexual orientations, they can opt not to participate, as with all sexual-education classes.
There is one legitimate issue we have a problem with - the lessons state that homosexuality is innate. The idea behind teaching this is to ensure individuals do not get blamed for being homosexual.
While it sounds nice, science has not proven this true one way or the other. Factual uncertainties should be avoided, regardless of how just the goal of teaching them seems.
If teenagers knew all sides of the story, they would understand that sexuality isn't black and white, and that it's OK to have fears and questions about themselves. In life we are bound to run across people who will judge us and not accept us in ways we would hope.
Any program the helps avoid hate crimes like the death of Matthew Shepard should be applauded.
