Angry Parents at the progressive Waldorf School of Garden City, Long Island, New York City in the US, have threatened to pull their kids out of school because of new mandatory sex education for fifth graders that teaches, among other things, oral and anal sex and masturbation with graphic illustrations.
Part of the new sex ed curriculum was just formally announced to Waldorf parents in March by the school.
But parents didn’t know it includes a controversial book called ‘It’s Perfectly Normal’ which they thought was meant for older kids, only to realize it is being used to teach their fifth graders.
‘It made me physically nauseous,’ one mother told The New York Post.
‘There’s a whole page on contraception and vaginal and anal sex and more about how it’s perfectly normal. This is clearly agenda-pushing and it’s so outrageous.’
The Waldorf schools are based on the teachings of Rudolf Steiner, the 19th century Austrian philosopher and teacher, who believed more in experiential and gentle teachings rather than disciplined pedagogy.
At the Waldorf School, fifth graders, whose fees are $30,350 a year, learn when reading ‘It’s Perfectly Normal,’ among other things, that ‘the ancient Greeks thought that love between two men was the highest form of love.’
There is also a section in the book on how children, both of the same gender or of different genders, ‘may even look at and even touch each other’s bodies’.
This is a normal kind of exploring and does not necessarily have anything to do with whether someone is or will be straight, gay, lesbian or bisexual.’
According to the NY Post, a mother got upset when speaking on the phone, saying she feared retaliation from the school where parents sign contracts every February for their children’s enrollment for the following year.
‘This school is the one place where they have always let children be children and they used to try to keep them away from social media and television,’ another mother said.
‘But now this ideology is becoming the forefront of the school’s focus. I’m all for diversity and inclusion but it takes on a whole new tone when your little kids come home lecturing you about pronouns and asking about oral sex.’
One of the many exercises in the OWL curriculum involve explaining to kids how they are incorrect in thinking certain things are solely for one gender.
Teachers distribute ‘Gender Variation Cards’ and kids are encouraged to imagine they woke up one day ‘with a body and gender identity different’ from before.
‘My concern is that when ideas are brought up in class repeatedly… it has a certain significance for the child and its now being inserted into the consciousness of the child,’ one mother said during the school’s two-hour town hall meeting last month.
The mum said her 10-year-old is being forced to learn about masturbation after not hearing about it before and it’s having an impact on how she thinks.
‘By bringing it up in class, wow, my teacher is talking about this, I better pay attention,’ the mother said.
‘(Her) play has changed, (her) thoughts have changed, its changed who (she) was as a person, as a 10 year old. When our children bring us something, it’s the time to introduce it, but if you’re forcing it… I don’t want my 10 year old, her play, her thoughts to be different from who she is right now.’
The school defended its curriculum in a statement.
‘It’s about values deconstruction. They’re told at a young age they have a right to sexual pleasure and sexual knowledge and it often turns kids against their parents’ views and values on sex and sexuality.
‘The school administrators don’t worry about backlash because they know they have the backing of the Biden Administration.’
