Action | Amendments Regarding Use of Controversial or Sensitive Instructional Materials |
Stage | NOIRA |
Comment Period | Ended on 1/15/2014 |
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I urge defeat of this amendment as unnecessary. It is the classroom teacher who should be the arbiter of determining appropriate and meaningful implementation of "sensitive materials." I see several relative issues couched in this amendment. First is the slippery slope of censorship which should be in no way tolerated. Time and again the culture warrors have attempted to ban educationally valid literature. I encourage you to read Inherit the Wind or Fahrenheit 451 as primers on this subject and to refresh yourselves with the First Amendment to our Constitution. Second is the degradation of the teacher's professionalism. It is he or she who must deliver and accommodate the curriculum in the most effective manner. The teacher is the one who knows the students needs and how to meet them. Bureaucratic meddling which inhibits the teacher's judgement provides poorer education and a decrease in academic rigor, already in decline. Third is the perception of some moralistic agenda which has already produce a divisory and demagogic legislature to the greater detriment of the Commonwealth. I see no reason to implement this amendment.