Op/Ed: If the state continues to attack our teachers, it will become even harder to recruit new teachers and already overworked teacher will have to fill in the gaps.
Recent disclosures in the state legislature have raised the temperature of my blood to boiling. Sen. Jim Tomes, R-District 49, has revealed that there are people in our state who are sharing"harmful material" with underage children. Specifically, they are exposing our children to"really, really, really bad books," including"raw pornography." Some of these"disgusting works" deal with sex education, drug use, violence, sexual abuse, and gender identity.
As if our underpaid, overworked teachers do not suffer enough under the misinformed efforts of the state legislature to control what is best left to competent educators. Wake up people! Do you not live in the modern world? Look around you. The state is awash with drugs. Sexual predators exist in every community. Young women are being led into lives of outright sexual slavery through interactions on their cell phones and computers with"really, really, really" bad people.
Tomes does not want teachers exposing children to"disgusting works" dealing with sex education, drug use, violence, sexual abuse and gender identity, the very works that might well prevent young people from falling into a bad situation that can destroy their lives. Far from harming children, education in these sordid matters along with parental guidance and religious teaching are the only ways we have of protecting our children.
The Tomes bill comes at a time when the state is desperately looking to fill open teaching positions and when the respect for teachers among parents and society in general is at a low ebb and falling. The people who will pay the cost of this are our young people. If the state continues to attack our teachers, it will become even harder to recruit new teachers and already overworked teacher will have to fill in the gaps. Many will leave instead.
Jim Curry is professor emeritus of biology at Franklin College and a former president of the Indiana Academy of Science and is the author of two books:"Dragonflies of Indiana," and"Children of God, Children of Earth."
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