I am 9 years old and this is my mom; her name is Betty, and this is my other mom; her name is Kim.”\nThis statement, uttered by a girl featured in a New Jersey public school system diversity education video, while it seems harmless enough, has been part of a major controversy. New Jersey law mandates teaching fourth grade students a diversity education curriculum, which includes the half-hour video, \n“That’s a Family!” \nThis video presents the different types of familial living situations that are common or are quickly becoming prevalent in today’s society, from traditional two-parent households to multiracial families to single-parent and bilingual families. Of course, no one is threatened that these types of families are depicted in the video; it is solely the segment dealing with gay and lesbian parent households that has drawn fire.\nParents are making too much of a video that makes no judgments. It does not preach to these schoolchildren, but rather exposes them to the conditions that they will encounter in their lives. By doing so, educators may avert the type of bigotry that Breauna, whose parents are gay, mentions in the video. “I wish more people understood about being gay and weren’t afraid of gay people,” she says. “Then they wouldn’t say mean things about them.” Another featured boy named Josh often faces the same dilemma, and he says he wishes that people “knew that it was okay to be different.”\nWithin the course of the film, the children represented define their specific living situations. For example, one girl explains that divorce is, “when your parents aren’t married anymore ... and they move to a different house.” In the same manner, one girl featured in the video explains “My dads are gay and gay means where two men or two women love each other. It’s sort of just like having a mom and dad who love each other, but it’s a man and a man or a woman and a woman.” By no means does she advocate gay relationships over traditional heterosexual ones; all she does is make her peers aware that they exist. Where is the threat in that?
DISSENT: I disagree with my colleagues for a variety of reasons, none of which have anything to do with any prejudice against same-sex couples – I’m all for them. But it’s not our school systems’ place to indoctrinate students with values, especially when they conflict with the moral standards of many parents. Concepts like tolerance and diversity can’t be forced on people anyway, and when they are, it only makes problems worse. We need to unite based on similarities, not differences. And we definitely don’t need the government telling us how to live. Let public schools focus on reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic, and save the preaching for Sunday.\n –Chase Cooper
