The Waldorf School of Garden City in Long Island is facing a backlash from parents who say it is using a controversial book to teach fifth graders about oral and anal sex and masturbation.
Some parents, who pay $30,000 a year to send a student to the elite institution, are even threatening to pull their children out.
‘It made me physically nauseous,’ one mother .
‘There’s a whole page on contraception and vaginal and anal sex and more about how it’s perfectly normal.This is clearly agenda-pushing and it’s so outrageous.’
The Waldorf school is based on the teachings of Rudolf Steiner, the 19th-century Austrian philosopher and teacher, who believed more in experiential and gentle teachings rather than strict diktats.
The new sex education curriculum was announced to parents in March.
The progressive school, however, insisted to the DailyMail.com that ‘the book in question is an optional, collegeteenporno.com supplementary resource for parents that has never been used in the classroom.’
The class, called Our Whole Lives (OWL), references the controversial book ‘It’s Perfectly Normal’ by Robie H.Harris and Michael Emberley.
Parents have raised concerns over the book
Parents claim the book’s content was originally made for older children and is not appropriate for fifth graders.
One mother spoke to The Post on condition of anonymity because, she claimed, parents have been ‘intimidated’ and threatened with being labelled as ‘against diversity’ for raising concerns.
Another said she feared retaliation from the school where parents sign contracts every February for their children’s enrollment for the following year.
‘This school is the one place where they have always let children be children and they used to try to keep them away from social media and television,’ one said.
‘But now this ideology is becoming the forefront of the school’s focus.I’m all for diversity and inclusion but it takes on a whole new tone when your little kids come home lecturing you about pronouns and asking about oral sex.’
One page on homosexual intercourse reads: ‘Another kind of sexual intercourse happens when the sexual parts of two people who have female bodies touch or when the sexual parts of two people who have male bodies touch.
‘This kind of touching can make the whole body feel good – feel sexy.’
Another page on masturbation reads: ‘When people masturbate, they usually rub their sex organs with their hands or with something soft, like a pillow.
‘Girls often rub their clitoris; boy often rub their penis.’
The Waldorf schools are based on the teachings of Rudolf Steiner, the 19th-century Austrian philosopher and teacher
One page tells children that ‘sex is also about the desire to be physically close to someone, as close as you can be’
Another page tells children that ‘sex is also about the desire to be physically close to someone, as close as you can be.’
Anxious parents requested a town hall at the school last month.
‘My concern is that when ideas are brought up in class repeatedly… it has a certain significance for the child and it’s now being inserted into the consciousness of the child,’ one mother said during the school’s two-hour meeting.
The mother claimed that being forced to learn about masturbation is changing the way her 10-year-old thinks.
‘By bringing it up in class, wow, my teacher is talking about this, I better pay attention,’ the mother said.
‘(Her) play has changed, (her) thoughts have changed, its changed who (she) was as a person, as a 10 year old.When our children bring us something, it’s the time to introduce it, but if you’re forcing it… I don’t want my 10 year old, her play, her thoughts to be different from who she is right now.’
‘This school is the one place where they have always let children be children,’ one mother said
In a statement shared with DailyMail.com, Kelly O’Halogan, faculty chair of The Waldorf School of Garden City said: ‘The book in question is an optional, supplementary resource for parents that has never been used in the classroom.
‘All of our curriculum is thoughtfully selected, and we welcome collaboration with parents to continue delivering an inclusive and age-appropriate education for our students.
‘We are a school that teaches our students to value the differences in individuals, and we recognize that there is strength and wisdom in our diversity.’
The book has caused controversy before with some parents in a Maine school district from use.
However, the school board voted 10-1 against removing the book.