Indoctrination in Your State & District

Germantown Friends sounds like Friends of Nazi Germany

Pennsylvania

Submitted: 2021-06-27

Story:

Our son attended Germantown Friends School (in Philadelphia) from kindergarten through seventh grade. At the first “Fun Day” fall fair and fundraiser our family attended (I believe in 2002, as this event may not have been held in 2001), a student group had a booth in which they were holding a hanging-in-effigy of President Bush. I believe you could buy tickets to throw things at it or release the noose to make the effigy drop. The minute we saw it, my husband went to complain to the headmaster and it was taken down. However, we never learned whether the event organizers did not know what the group had planned for the booth or if they had actually approved it.

During the Bush/Kerry election in 2004 our son was in third grade and his teacher had the class hold a mock presidential election. That evening he told the family about it. While the children were completing their “ballots,” the teacher strolled the room. When she noticed my son had “voted” for President Bush she stopped at his desk and said, “I don’t think you meant to vote for Bush do you?” He replied, “Yes, I do!” It may come as no surprise that the election results revealed that his was the only vote for President Bush. The next day, adhering to the school’s procedure for voicing concerns, my husband and I met with the principal to express our disappointment that during a lesson about the American democratic process, the teacher denied our son the right to keep his vote private and attempted to influence his vote. We never learned if anything was said to the teacher and believe nothing was done.

At some point during elementary school -- I believe third grade but am no longer sure -- there was a school communication to parents about changes being made to the health curriculum to promote tolerance for differing sexual orientations and preferences. Shortly thereafter our son, eight-years-old at the time, brought home a health textbook that contained explicit drawings of homosexual sex. Nothing in the school’s communication had prepared me or my husband for what we saw in the book. To the best of my recollection, nothing in the communication indicated that the topic of human sexuality would be introduced graphically in third grade. While engendering tolerance for diversity of sexual orientation can be an admirable intention, this curriculum was not age-appropriate for eight- and nine-year-old's. Personally, I find that forcing children to learn about things they are not yet intellectually, emotionally, or socially ready to receive is potentially damaging.