Testimony before FCPS, Agenda item: FLE and Caring Culture
by FCTA's Fred Costello, 04/27/2017
I am here tonight because I am concerned about each of you personally. You seem to want to do what is right and good, rather than simply what will get you re-elected. The Board's Goal of "Caring Culture" shows that you care.
Long ago, society lived by the adage "Might makes right". You are in the heady position of "might". Society started improving 2000 years ago when we were taught that might is not always right. The Family Life Education program is a case in point. Your might claims it is right; however, it does not teach how to be a good parent, despite the fact that much child and student misbehavior and criminal activity can be traced to poor parenting -- poor family life. Today, divorce ends 50% of marriages, but the program does nothing to reduce this rate. It says nothing about the lives of the large segments of society that have divorce rates of only 1%. Instead of parenting, the FLE program drills and drills, year after year like no other subject, that family-life education is sex-life education. The students logically tie the name of the program to its content. The program would be more aptly titled Pregnancy-free Sex at Any Age. You appeal to the student's base drives rather than the student's hunger for ideals.
So back to my concern for each of you. When you are dying, or perhaps shortly after death, you will be haunted by the great harm you have done, misleading hundreds of thousands of children about family life. I urge you for your sake to avoid such a dark burden. Take action now, before your dying moments, by making the FLE program teach the skills needed for a happy, married, family life instead of an active sex life. Cultivate a caring culture. Get the divorce rate down to 1%. Make that your measurable goal. Make life better for the students, your teachers, and our society. You have the might, and the responsibility, to effect such a change.