CONTACT US
For additional information or to learn how to become involved in the efforts of Cedarburg Parents for Responsible HG&D Education, please send an email to: ResponsibleHGD@gmail.com or click on the "Contact Us" flag at the side of any of the website pages.
For more timely updates, visit us on Facebook by searching "Support Responsible HG&D Education for Cedarburg" or by clicking on the Facebook button below.
Contact the Cedarburg School District:
If you would like to review the Leader Guides for Choosing the Best, please contact the Cedarburg School District office at 262-376-6100.
In January 2012, a Cedarburg School District committee of teachers and administrators reviewed the updated version of the Glencoe curriculum (the curriculum the Cedarburg School District has used for many years) and the Choosing the Best materials. The evaluations of these materials prepared by this district committee can be viewed here for Glencoe and Choosing the Best. (The links open slowly; please be patient). These "Instructional Materials Evaluation Forms" were made available to the public at a Curriculum Committee meeting in February 2012. As you will see, the district committee gave Glencoe consistently high marks, ranking it well above Choosing the Best. The district committee also noted serious concerns regarding Choosing the Best. These concerns were overlooked (ignored?) by the Curriculum Committee and the School Board in their decision-making process: throughout the public meetings of the Curriculum Committee and the School Board, the two curricula were presented as equal in strengths and weaknesses. We hope you find it helpful to read the district committee's comments.
Useful Links
Below you will find useful links about Cedarburg Parents for Responsible HG&D Education as well as about current findings about human growth and development education generally.
- Letter to the Editor by Dr. Boyd Miller, Cedarburg pediatrician and HG&D advisory board member, on the problems with Choosing the Best and similar curricula.
- "Cedarburg School District's Medical Advisor, Some Parents, Want Alternative Sex Ed Program," WTMJ-4, September 25, 2012. Channel 4's Nick Monte interviews Dr. Daniel Hagerman, Cedarburg pediatrician and HG&D advisory board member.
- Erin Richards and Jim McLaughlin, "Cedarburg Sex Ed Program Debated," Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, September 23, 2012. The original print version of this story quoted Cedarburg School Board Vice President Rick Leach as stating that Cedarburg Parents for Responsible HG&D Education "asked for its off-site alternative class to be eligible for academic credit from the school district." Leach has made this same misstatement a number of times, in school board meetings and to the press. Cedarburg Parents for Responsible HG&D Education never made such a request. We appreciate that the Journal Sentinel has corrected Leach's misstatment in the online version of the story.
To be clear: the HG&D component of the middle school and high school curriculum is not credit-earning nor does it affect the students' ability to earn credit for the larger course within which HG&D is embedded. (It is taught as a component of different courses in 7th, 8th, and 9th grades). Recently, the Cedarburg School Board made it mandatory for all parents to either opt their children in to the HG&D curriculum or to opt their children out. If parents have the right to opt their children out of a particular component of the curriculum, these children cannot be penalized in terms of course credit
Lisa Curtis, "Alternative Human Growth Curriculum Proposed," Ozaukee County News Graphic, August 28, 2012.
- On April 11, shortly after the Centers for Disease Control released the most recent report on teen births (now at historic lows, particularly in Wisconsin) and the Wisconsin Legislature revised the HG&D statute to no longer require comprehensive sexuality education, Kathleen Dunn of Wisconsin Public Radio, interviewed Elizabeth Schroeder, Executive Director for Answer, a national organization based at Rutgers University that provides and promotes comprehensive sexuality education to young people and the adults who teach them. They discuss best-practices for teaching young people about sex. Click here to listen to the excellent 50 minute interview.
- "Comprehensive Approach Best One for Sex Education," Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, April 14, 2012.
- The Wisconsin Legislature changed the HG&D statute in March 2012. This chart, prepared by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, compares the new statue to the previous statute. The Wisconsin DPI also prepared this sheet of FAQs.
- "Abstinence-Only Education Does Not Lead to Abstinent Behavior, UGA Researchers Find," UGA Today, November 29, 2011.
- SIECUS review of Choosing the Best materials.
- Amendments made to the Choosing the Best materials by the Cedarburg School District during summer 2012, in response to parent and teacher objections/recommendations.