Letters to the Editor: How will the ability to opt out of LGBTQ+ lessons help educate our kids?

To the editor: I’ve heard some absurd school policies in my time, but this one is up there with the very worst (“Parents can now opt kids out of LGBTQ+ lessons. How schools are bracing for the change,” Sept. 4). Parents can withdraw their children from lessons that conflict with their religious views (but the kids can’t opt out themselves).

Isn’t it among the goals of education that we become wiser, more broad-minded and enlightened? This ruling enables parents to keep their children in the dark about the realities of life, possibly even shielding them from science, as Yale Law School professor Justin Driver points out. Could parents opt their children out of science class where they learn the origins of the universe, the age of our planet — that our planet is a sphere?

And the reality is that 9.3% of the U.S. population identifies as LGBTQ+. Shouldn’t children know what that means, and know that human beings are a very diverse species and are allowed to live as they see fit here in America?

David Tempest, Mar Vista

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To the editor: I can see it now: a handful of children leaving the classroom so that they don’t have to be exposed to topics their parents object to. Most of these will have to do with sexuality and LGBTQ+ issues. Has anyone thought of the concept of forbidden fruit? Tell a child something is forbidden and that only increases their desire to know about it.

So tell me please, what child isn’t going to leave that classroom and immediately start asking questions and speculating about the topic? Oh, the chatter on the playground. I clearly remember some of the “secret” things I learned there. Perhaps these kids would be better off hearing these issues discussed with trained teachers rather than in the playground speculation of other children.

Barbara Rosen, Fullerton