Help! Benzinger Family LIfe

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AnnieTrux

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Our parish school notified parents on Friday that they are starting Benziger “Family Life” (euphemism for sex-ed) on Monday. After hours of searching, I have found little positive information on this series. Even the First Grade cirriculum has glaring omissions.

Has anyone had a positive experience with this series?

The Sacramento Diocese has only approved Benzinger and a series by Harcourt Brace, I don’t know the title. They are leaving no options for parents: if you opt out, your child sits in the office and the recieves an incomplete for their religion course.

Even with its omissions, the First Grade cirriculum is bland and seems fairly harmless, however it leads down a slippery slope.

What do I do next year?

Frankly, I feel betrayed by the school administration and diocese. I’m frustrated that only a small handful of parents are even questioning this decision.

What is my recourse short of homeschooling?
 
I am a bit curious about your dissatisfaction with Benziger. I just had a brief look at their website. What don’t you like about it?

What are the glaring omissions?
 
IBenziger doesn’t exactly say anything wrong (yet), but it omits some very important things.

For example, the first grade book presents different types of families to the children, but there is no mention of marriage in a family context. Nor is the teacher ecouraged to talk about marriage in the teacher’s manual.

One chapter talks about taking care of your body because it is a gift from God. There is no further discussion on the body as the temple of the Holy Spirit or how are bodies truly belong to God. No mention of the soul. They talk about cleaning and feeding the body, but not of clothing it appropriately.

Another chapter requires the chldren to put in sequence a dating couple, a promise, waiting for baby, baby arrives. Again, there is no mention of marriage, only a “promise”. The teacher is told to talk about “special feelings” between a boy and girl and then draw the line that results in a baby…NOT a place where 6 and 7 year old minds need to go.

The most frightening is the training of children throughout the program (K-8) to “trust” their feelings. And, to share feelings with teachers and peers, rather than parents. In the end feelings are the last thing that can be trusted. There is nothing said about right and wrong, what offends God and what pleases God.
 
I think when catechetical materials were reviewed by bishops recently, many were not approved because of how much they left out.

Are you in a position to help teach religious ed at your church? That way you could supplement w/ additional materials when the book fell short.

You might also go to the website of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and see what the US bishops in general have said about various materials.

www.nccbuscc.org

Perhaps you could eventually recommend another series.

—KCT

–KCT
 
I had posted something on this a few years ago before the hacker did a job on the site and we lost a lot of posts after the restoration.

I have concerns about the program as well, but not as much as the prior program (I believe it was called Fully Alive and was produced in Canada) which I talked our school into getting rid of since it wasn’t even on the list of approved programs.

Fortunately, last year they were so busy with the rest of the school curriculum, that they didn’t get to Family Life at all. Yesterday we got notified that they would begin the Family Life instruction in my son’s 4th grade class today. Not as timely as I’d like, obviously.

The Mother’s Watch group comes across as extreme to me, but they still have an old 1995 review of the program that may be helpful to look at. I’m not sure the group is updating anything since it seems that the most current thing on the site is over six years old.

I telephoned in to Dr. Colleen on Catholic Radio and expressed my concerns and mentioned I had read The Pontifical Council For the Family’s The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality and she reported that she had participated in that council. She was very clear that she did not believe “Family Life” belonged in the school and that it was not compliant with the council’s instruction.

Our school has been somewhat helpful in providing me the materials for all of the grades, including teacher guides, back when they made the switch. They have also given us the option of having our child removed from class.

I’ve got to get busy reading in the next day or two so that my wife and I can decide what we’ll do in the next few weeks ahead.
 
Unfortunately, our school and our diocese approve Benziger whole-heartedly. Yes, we had the “opt-out” option, but felt that would make little difference since the kids would be discussing the material on the playground anyway.

Because of some additional factors, we decided to homeschool our kids instead of sending them to the parochial school. So far its working out very nicely!
 
I find it unlikely that Bishop Weigand has given it a strong personal endorsement. It just doesn’t sound like something he’d do. Have you written him? I imagine it would probably get pushed off to someone else to address, though.

The school yard discussions will take place with or without such a program and I don’t know that it increases this sort of discussion. My son has come home with some odd-ball comments when they didn’t even cover the program last year.

At least our school’s 4th grade class does separate the boys from the girls during certain sessions. I’m thinking we may still have our son removed during certain sessions but I need to go through the materials first. I did already talk to the teacher about it a while back.

I spoke to a principal in the Stockton Diocese a few years ago. She said she was once criticized for not having a Family Life program in her school but she said the pastor, parents, and school board had decided against it since there was nothing available that was suitable. She asked if the diocese could suggest something that was really suitable and the matter was dropped. I think someone has pushed this “Family Life” curriculum across the U.S. without bishops really knowing what is involved. I think about 90% of what’s in the materials is probably good to have covered but then they go into areas that is best left to the parents. The problem, though, is that many parents would rather have the school do their job for them.
 
puzzleannie said:
old thread alert
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What value does your post add??? Since you’ve posted to five threads in the past 7 minutes, you might not have time to look to see if the discussion is appropriate or not.

This is a current issue, which frequently comes up this time of year. It’s better to continue discussion in the same thread than have multiple threads on the same topic.
 
harveyc said:
What value does your post add??? Since you’ve posted to five threads in the past 7 minutes, you might not have time to look to see if the discussion is appropriate or not.

This is a current issue, which frequently comes up this time of year. It’s better to continue discussion in the same thread than have multiple threads on the same topic.
Click to expand...
It’s **NOT **a current issue. It’s a 2 year old thread.

And, people will start replying to the Original Poster-- who is NOT on this thread and hasn’t posted anything SINCE this thread.

If you want to discuss a subject start a NEW thread. It’s really poor “forum etiquette” to post onto old threads which then ends up wasting peoples’ time posting to a poster who no longer has a question or an interest in this thread.
 
1ke, so what? It’s still a current issue that has not gone away. I have some of the same questions as the original poster and would like more feedback. Starting a new thread has the disadvantage of forum members not having the benefit of reading other perspectives that have been previously posted. It also makes searching archives for discussion on the topic less efficient.

Also, you are mistaken. The original poster replied to my post, so they obvioiusly have some interest in this subject.

I’m quite familiar with forum etiquitte, being active in about 20 forums or groups and the owner or moderator in some of them. I’ve never heard of such a criticism on a topic that is still a current issue. I am familiar with the etiquitte rule of not “shouting” (i.e., NOT), which you might want to familiarize yourself with. I checked the forum rules and there is nothing that I find that supports your view.

I find it somewhat surprising that you would bother to read the thread when you have nothing to add to it.

I tried to write the write the moderator to ask for their opinion, but they’ve exceeded their inbox limit.
 
I agree with PA and Ike. Just start a new thread instead of resurrecting old ones.
 
The last I checked, this was not a poll.

I can’t believe the people that want to play moderator and waste time posting to a thread for which they have no relevant (name removed by moderator)ut.

The biggest abuse I see in the forums is posting off-topic comments and the three of you have done exactly that. None of you have given any just cause as to why the reasons I’ve given for using the same thread are wrong.

If you don’t have something useful to post to this topic, please ignore it. I’ve already tried to contact a moderator but was unable to but that doesn’t give you the right to make up your own rules and play moderator.

I’m sorry if this comes across as uncharitable but this reminds me of people that don’t pay any income taxes who complain that they don’t get a big enough rebate check. None of those complaining appear to be forum supporters. Why not? Even though I don’t post here often, I find it a valuable resource to come to look for answers like I tried to get by posting to this thread and have been happy to be a supporter. I encourage everyone to help Cahtolic Answers out and provide some pledge of support.
 
Thank you to all who have participated. This thread is now closed. Please feel free to start a new thread for a current discussion.
 
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