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But apparently four parents were offended by the fact that McDaniel used the word “vagina” in class when talking about the female reproductive system. Let’s reiterate that this was a tenth-grade biology class.
I remember learning about the reproductive system in fifth grade when I was in school and that wasn’t offensive. Because science! And I also wasn’t offended when I had to dissect a cat in ninth-grade. It’s part of learning!
Now, I get that the reproductive section is awkward to learn about when you’re sitting next to your crush or something, but seriously this teacher didn’t do anything wrong! He even said, “I give every student the option not to attend this class when I teach on the reproductive system if they don’t feel comfortable with the material.”
McDaniel said he’s also being investigated for using his classroom to promote a political candidate. He showed Al Gore’s documentary on climate change, “An Inconvenient Truth,” and asked students to write a response about their own thoughts on the topic.
A Facebook group called “SAVE THE SCIENCE TEACHER!!” has been created in support of McDaniel, and he’s hoping that his supporters will write to the state commission to defend his teaching.
I want to know if the same parents were offended if McDaniel said “penis” or “ovaries” or “sperm.” Why are they so offended over vagina? It’s a body part. It’s not like he was throwing out slang words.
And were the students actually offended or did the parents overhear students talking about the class and freak out? Do they think their fifteen-year-olds aren’t old enough to hear the word “vagina?” When I was in high school, I was hearing worse in the gym locker room.
I have to wonder what these parents are going to do when they have to have the sex talk!
Would you be offended by hearing a teacher use the word vagina during a science class? What about other scientific terms to explain the human body? Would you be offended to be in a class on reproduction? Tell me in the comments!
McDaniel seems like a cool teacher, unlike this one
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Just another minority of people trying to make the word Vagina shameful to say.
As far as Al Gore’s ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ – well its good that the kids were educated and able to consider their own thoughts on the video. I think that’s really respectful of the teacher to do, to give the kids a chance to develop their own opinion rather than saying ‘This is how it is’. They were able to develop their own opinion.
Teachers these days are standing in front of a class where a fifteen year old girl sitting in the back row is pregnant, and they’re still not allowed to discuss sex, or what that entails because it’s wrong to discuss or it’s not in the curriculum.
Aside from your typical reproductive talks, not once did I personally ever get a run down from a teacher of the emotional consequences of sex or anything like that. I learnt more from Gurl.com (Thanks gURL!) in 5 minutes than I ever did in a whole year from the ‘education system’.
I think parents don’t want their kids to grow up and be exposed to discussions or ‘words’ like Vagina. I think they want to bubble wrap them and pretend that sex aside from reproduction never happens. I think they don’t want them to know about the emotional consequences or anything regarding sex other than the facts.
They want to keep them sheltered. But the thing is, their children are going to grow up, their children are going to fall in love, their children are going to have sex (maybe not in that order) but it’s going to happen, whether they want it to or not.
This is probably caused by the parents of ‘those kids’ who used to cover their ears in the year 7 puberty talk. I mean WTH? I’ve heard way worse during those talks
this is so stupid!!! Girls have vaginas its no big surprise. we learned all about in 5th grade. what is so bad about saying the word vagina!!! its like saying legs or any other body part. I am completely positive that everyone of those students knew what a vagina was before the teacher said it to them. i think these parents are over reacting. i think these certain parents might be targeting this teacher for something because when the elections were going on back in November we had to watch an episode of NBC news where Romney was talking about his point of views and we had to write our own opinion on them. this teacher is doing nothing wrong he is doing exactly what any normal tacker does when he has to teach a class.