Thoughts about a school project?

My friend's 11 year old daughter is in 5th grade in a Catholic school. For a project, she was asked to write a letter to her Senator explaining why abortion is wrong. My friend contacted the school to let them know that she thinks this is an inappropriate project for children that age and her daughter will not be doing it. Many parents had no objection.

Am I just old and naive? Do 11 year olds know enough about abortion to do this? 11 just seems so.......young.

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Wow! Yeah, I'd say 11 is just too young to write a letter like that. That's really kind of appalling.

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Sorry I just had to pick my jaw up off the floor!!
I am absolutely shocked that they would give this to an 11 year old!!

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I think it's completely wrong. I understand they have their agenda & are trying to instill their beliefs (which afterall is why someone would send them to a Catholic school) but not age appropriate.

The lesson should be something along the lines of writing your senator for support on a topic that is covered by religious teachings & have the student come up with their own.

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I guess free thought is not a valued commodity at the school. That's just awful and disturbing, particularly for such a young age-group.

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Catholic school or not, that just seems like an odd project for an 11 year old.

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I would also be calling the school telling them my child would NOT be doing that project. I think that is highly inappropriate for a 5th grade project.

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I agree that 11 is kinda young for that project. However having gone to Catholic school myself this does not surprise me. Anti-Abortion is HUGE to the Catholic church and teaching young poeple is standard. Im sure we did similair projects at that age, and by 7th grade were watching disturbing videos on abortion (anyone also forced to watch the silent scream?) We were also encouraged to participate in rallys ect... While it sounds exteme I *personally* value those lessons and morals and it certainly scared me into safe sex practices. My DH also had a similar experience in catholic school, my DDs are in public school but I kinda wish they had some exposure to some of these lessons.......

Also wanted to add this is just my experience and opinion and I can see the other side of it, since 11 is still young and naive

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I do think 11 is too young for this subject matter. Maybe it would be ok for a 7th or 8th grader, but not a 5th grader.

However, re: free thought-- it IS a Catholic school. They're allowed to promote the Catholic agenda, and if you don't like it, then you don't enroll your child there. I am a product of Catholic school, so this doesn't surprise me at all, but we'll be sending our kids to public school because DH's head would explode if one of our kids ever came home with an assignment like that

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I think its SO wrong, and completely not age appropriate. I would have called the school too.

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There is nothing wrong with a Catholic school preaching against abortion. However, 5th grade seems too young for that lesson and that project.

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Ok. I am going to state that I think 5th grade may be too young.

But I'm going to step back here and give my opinion on probably what was asked, and I could be way off base, in which case I find it more highly disturbing.

I am a product of Catholic schools. My kids go to one now. I would guess the intent of the teacher asking the students to write the letter is probably more on a "Respect Life" aspect more so than abortion is wrong. In all my years of schooling, abortion was never a topic. It was always geared that we should respect all life, from conception on.

I also know that each year, the Diocese has writing contests for Pro-Life etc.

Who knows. I just read this and found it really hard to believe they would ask a grade so young to write an anti-abortion letter. Then again, like I said, maybe I am wrong.

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Wow, that's a lot for a child.

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I have no problem with it. The Catholic Church is Pro Life and is pushing that belief on its students. I attended Catholic School.

In 5th grade I got the period talk and got to bring home my free gift of Kotex of course no tampons.

I didn't get my period until high school but am I correct to believe that most girls are now getting it in junior high which is pretty close the age of 5th grader.

I knew what an abortion was at that age. Heck one almost killed Penny in Dirty Dancing. I sure as heck asked my Mom what is was.

I remember during Pro- Life month they actually had small plastic fetus's in the church after mass to show how much of a baby an aborted fetus would look like. I picked one up and made it my baby and cradled it. My Mom nearly died on the car ride home when she turned around and she saw what I was doing and then had to explain what was wrong/right about what I was doing. My Mom probably wanted to die having that talk with me.

But you know what... I'm a 31 year old Anti Abortion Catholic never dealt with any VD, had one sexual partner whom I'm married too and have two children when I was old enough to support themselves...

Main reason why... My Catholic School Education. I knew if I got pregnant before I was married my parents wouldn't help (looking back they would have, but they never let me know that) I also knew I never could have an abortion so I didn't have sex.

No need to quote. I already know my grammar sucks.

Long story short. Don't send your kid to Catholic School if you don't want to deal with this issue.

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At 11??

Completely inappropriate, not because it's anti or pro-abortion, but because abortions in general should not be a subject matter in the 5th grade classroom!

But perhaps I am old-fashion and naive as well...

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Having taught in Catholic schools, I think 5th grade is a little young for this topic. I never "taught" about abortion in my 10 years as a Catholic School teacher. I taught about respecting life and respecting yourself. I think those teachings are more important then anything.

That being said, I do think that 11 yr olds are much "older" or at least much more knowledgeable then they were 10 years ago. Sometimes I am amazed at what young children know!

At my current ps (high school), I had the pleasure of offering testing for sexually transmitted diseases! Oh, that was a lot of fun and very uncomfortable! But I did it because I know that these teens are having sex and many of them with God knows who! I much rather have my students informed then develop PID because they didn't get tested!