Bethpage-Tribune_1974-06-20

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BETHB^E
ISLAND TREES
OLD BETHPAGE
also serving
PLAINVIEW PLAINEDGE SEAFORD
VOL. 8 No. 31 Thursday, June 20, 1974 10 cents per copy
A Report to the Nine Regents Cancelled
Community
by Betty Regan
by Shari Miller
On May 23rd at our regular
meeting, I presented the Board of
Education and Dr. Larsen,
material regarding family life-sex
education and urged each
board member to study it
thoroughly. As you can well see
from the material, family life and
sex education are synonymous.
The New York State Education
Department has used only the
S.I.E.C.U.S. approach to family
life .and sex education.
S.I.E.C.U.S., (Sex Information
and Education Council of the
United States), establishes itself
as a voluntary health
organization. All their materials
can come into a school district
through Titles I, II. HI, or Strand
III under Health Curriculum of
New York- StateSSPIPWP^SW
Strand III incorporates family
life, human sexuality and per­sonality
development, areas
which I deem to be of a personal,
moral and religious nature. I am
also aware of the new philosophy
in education called "affective
teaching", which proposes to
teach the whole person. I submit
that these areas are not within
the realm -of public school
education, and in fact are being
challenged through appeals and
court actions in many areas.
It is well to take note that Dr.,
Lester Kirkendall. a Professor at
Oregon University, was a founder
and a board member of
S.I.E.C.U.S. In addition, he has
been a director of the American
Humanist Association and has
written for the Humanist
magazine. (The humanist
philosophy is pro man and anti
God.) In 1961, the U.S. Supreme
Court recognized Humanism as a
religion.
It is my position that such
programs in the public schools
constitute an invasion of privacy,
and a violation of religious
liberty, preempting the natural
right of parents to direct the
upbringing and education of their
children in matters of familial
privacy, and invading the very
privacy of the child with regard
to his sexuality and family life.
Family life and sex education
programs, which which also
incorporate psychological
techniques (sensitivity training,
etc.) have been condemned by
medical doctors, psychologists,
and religious leaders throughout
the country. In our pluralistic
society, it is imperative that
public institutions avoid areas
which would favor a particular
group, religion or philosophy
over another. To attempt to teach
family life and sex education
from a so-called-'neutral" point
of view, is instead to teach it Irom
an irreligious, amoral, or
atheistic point of view; in tact
favoring the religious philosophy
of the Secular Humanist.
At this time, I would like to
present the Board of Education
with more updated information
which I feel is vital to any
decision regarding family
sex education.
Strong Opposition
The Sex Information and
Education Council of Physicians,
whose membership includes
physicians and psychiatrists
from all over the United States,
has been organized to combat the
permissive and destructive.type
of sex education promoted by
S.I.E.C.U.S.
The National Association of
American Physicians and
Surgeons (AAFS).is.an record in
>fett*o»e^»pposition to courses' in
family life and sex education m
the schools. Each board htember
will be presented with a separate
copy- , „."'•'.
The Medical Society ot the
State of North Carolina', having
originally endorsed the Family
Life program, reversed itself,
releasing a resolution rejecting
the Family Life program,
stating: "It "has now become
quite clear that the Family Life
program encompasses many
subjects which are undesirable...
Furthermore, our Medical
Society condemns the further use
of sex education in our schools at
any grade level. We take the
position that there can be no
proper sex education which is not
• heavily influenced and tempered
in morality.
In Nebraska, the State Board of
Education in 1969 passed a
resolution citing that sex
education is a family respon­sibility
which should be handled
by parents in the home and the
church, and resolving that any
such proposed course of study or
program shall not be established
in any public school in Nebraska.
Charles E. Rice, Professor of
Law Notre Dame University,
states..."It is not the ordinary
course in hygiene or biology with
which we are familiar. The
program of sex education in­volved
the presentation of fully
detailed information concerning
the clinical, social and behavioral
aspects of such things as in­tercourse,
reproduction, veneral
d i s e a s e , m a s t u r b a t i o n,
homosexuality and birth control,
including abortion and con­traception.
Its primary purpose
is the imparting of information to
children in a group... you just
can't take children and treat
them as if they're all alike. You
can't take 30 or 40 children at the
formative ages, put them-in a
group and indiscriminately
expose them to this sort of
material.."".. Are you trying to
prevent veneral disease? I don t
(Continued on Page 3)
As a result of the theft of
the answer-keys and
possibly the questions to a
number of Regents
examinations, confusion
and uncertainty were
ife- rampant among students
this past week. A total of
nine exams were cancelled
following the report of a
Long Island mother who
had spent $100 for four
answer-keys. By Tuesday
there were rumors that
Regents question booklets-were
also being sold.
The State Education
Departm ent originally
cancelled the ninth-ryear
mathematics, *:pidiogy,
comprehensive English,
a n d 1 1 t h - y e a r
mathematics exams after
numerous persons from all
areas of the state had
consistently provided the
correct answers to the
exam questions in phone
calls to the State Board of
Regents, local school
Officials, and local police.
Tenth-year mathematics
was the next to be drop­ped,
quickly followed by
the llth-year history and
Hebrew examinations.
The chemistry and physics
Regents, which had both
originally been postponed,
were eventually cancelled
also.
The four originally
circulating answer-keys
were obtained in a break-in
last week at Solomon
Schecter ;High School in
Brooklyn. Brooklyn
District Attorney Gold has
subsequently announced
that two more Brooklyn
schools had been broken
into, although he refused
to name them. No arrests
are planned in connection
with the burglaries; in­vestigators
gave im­munity
to four students
involved in exchange for
information before the
investigators were aware
that those students were in
fact the burglars.
In reference to the
possible arrest of sellers
Brooklyn DA Gold said,
"There are thousands of
students involved. If you
arrest one, you'd have to
arrest them all." He said
that the schools and
parents of involved
students have been
notified, and "we're
hopeful that disciplinary
action by parents and
schools will have a
beneficial effect."
The question of the need
for and worth of Regents
exams, with the high-pressure
atmosphere they
evoke, has been debated
for years. This reporter
contactedsuperintendents
of four Long , Island
districts to' bbtairi their
reactions to the current
scandal.
Dr. Roper Larsen,
Superintendent of the
Bethpage Schools, said,
"We have tried to schedule
local exams in as many
subjects as possible to
especially help those
youngsters who needed
their Regents grades to
pass. Of course no one will
be penalized for this
situation."
E x p r e s s i n g his
generalized perspective of
the particular event
witnessed by NY State
schools, Dr. Robert Savitt,
Superintendent of the
Plainview-Old Bethpage
Schools, said, "I have
never been an advocate of
Regents. This situation
points up the difficulty
when you have a cen-t
r a l i z e d t e s t i ng
arrangement ... It seems
to me that such a system is
archaic when a local high
school can be very well
prepared to establish its
own testing programs.
Maybe something good
will come out of this with
an analysis of the whole
question,"
In a more traditional
v§in, ;-Pfe Bliatik,
Superintendent of Schools
hi the jrtaihedgfey&cfiiKW
district, said, "We will try
to make this affect our
district as little as possible
by not penalizing students
for a situation over which
they had no control." Dr.
Blank said he was working .
giving students the
on „ „
opportunity to take
Regents exams in August
or January if they wished
to raise their grades. Dr.
Blank said his district is
going along with the State
Department of Education
in granting Regents credit
to students who have
m a i n t a i n e d passing
grades throughout the
year in Regents courses.
(Continued on Page 3)
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