Mid-Testing Update

Things seems quiet right now, but there's a lot going on in Montgomery County. The schools are in the middle of pilot testing the new health classes, with the Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum trying as hard as they can to disrupt it. They have sent letters to the families at the schools, telling them not to sign the permission slips. They have been robo-calling people at home with messages trying to undermine the school district. At one school -- I don't know about others -- they stood out front with signs, until school staff kicked them out. Three people, out in the cold, holding yellow signs with irrelevant messages on them ("No Unisex Bathrooms!"), doing what they can to make it harder for the schools to test their new materials.

The first school to start testing was Argyle Middle School, and it does sound like they were stealthy about it. They caught the CRC off guard, and started testing before these fine taxpayers, who only want the best for our kids, could interfere. Of three reports I've heard, two people said that nobody opted out at Argyle, and one report said there was one. So, between zero and one students' parents refused to sign the permission slip, when there was no pressure from the CRC, who stand for morality and goodness.

Rumor has it that nine students opted out at Julius West, and nine at Watkins Mill. Plus, a lot of Watkins Mill students forgot to bring in their permission slips, which is different. Well, it's a high school, and the others are middle schools. High school kids are not too good about showing their parents what's in their backpacks, at least in my experience.

So I imagine the letters and phone calls are having their effect. Nine kids, that's a lot for one school. If there are two classes, that might even be fifteen percent, fifteen times higher than usual. That would be solid evidence that scary, misleading letters and phone calls can work. It doesn't say anything about the curriculum, though.

The CRC thinks the best thing for our community would be if people boycott the testing, so the school district won't be able to assess whether the new sex-ed program is going to work or not, and so they can't tell if there is anything that could be improved in it. I don't know if this will work for them or not. What is that like, do you think, having people writing you letters and calling you on the phone, telling you scary things about the new classes? I know how I'd react. Call me dumb, or stubborn, I get it from my old man.

I really think it's rotten for them to use the PTA directories to call people. Last time around, the Montgomery County Council of PTAs met and drafted a resolution telling the CRC not to use the school directories for their stupid letter-writing campaigns. Plus, every directory has a message on it, saying that it is not to be used for that sort of thing. Somehow everybody else figures out how to play by the rules, but of course the CRC's mission is so important that it transcends silly stuff like rules.

This year it wasn't just letters (which it sounds like they have sent a lot of). This time they're also calling people at home. The whole point is to wreck the pilot testing, because they care so much about our community.

To me, this is a kind of test of the effectiveness of the PTA, both at the school level and at the county and state levels. If they want to just sell cookies to buy band uniforms, well, fine, schools still need that. But if they are really going to provide meaningful support for the parents, teachers, staff, and students, then they have to show us right now that they can move into action. Oh, they can meet and pass resolutions, we've seen what that gets you. I don't mean that.

And so the CRC keeps pushing it. This little band of whiners -- I mean, parents and citizens who know better than the rest of us -- is working as hard as they can to cause confusion while the school district is trying to develop and implement a new curriculum. Their hatred for homosexuality overrides everything else, and they don't care what they have to do to ensure that students are denied a fair and objective lesson on the subject.