On Monday, May 9th, 2022, the Canyon ISD SHAC (School Health Advisory Council) conveyed two recommendations to the Canyon Board of Trustees. (aka school board). They recommended adoption of:
Goodheart-Wilcox for High School/Middle School
Quaver Ed for K-5
Texans Wake Up views both of these curriculums as very harmful for children. Both are being considered for adoption in school districts all over Texas. We have already highlighted the harms of the Goodheart-Wilcox high school curriculum in our blog entitled "Canyon ISD Considering Adoption of Harmful Health Curriculum: Goodheart-Wilcox". The focus of this article is to highlight why parents should be concerned about Quaver Ed.
Quaver Ed
Quaver Ed was voted down (or against) for state adoption in November of 2021 by the majority of the Texas SBOE (State Board of Education) members including Jay Johnson. Mr. Johnson is the SBOE representative for all of the Texas Panhandle and lives in Pampa, TX. Shouldn't we listen to the our own SBOE representative? Shouldn't we listen to the majority of the Texas SBOE representatives?
Quaver Ed fails the Comprehensive Sexuality Education Harmful Elements test using the Comprehensive Sexuality Education Harmful Elements tool on the www.StopCSE.org website. The full review (see rubric) can be found here, as well as an executive summary.
The 4 Harmful Elements of Failure (one to many times for each)
SEXUALIZES CHILDREN
PROMOTES PEER-TO-PEER SEX ED OR SEXUAL RIGHTS ADVOCACY
UNDERMINES TRADITIONAL VALUES AND BELIEFS
UNDERMINES PARENTS OR PARENTAL RIGHTS
CURRICULUM NAME | # OF HARMFUL ELEMENTS | PASS/FAIL |
4 out of 15 | FAIL |
It has been reported that Quaver is asking for lengthy contracts in order to access their curriculum.* Parents have reported that Quaver Ed is requesting districts commitment for up to 8 years in their contracts. Again, are SHACs looking at contract length when making recommendations? Did Canyon ISD receive a quote from Quaver Ed which included annual renewal obligations? Why was this not presented along with the SHAC recommendation at the May 2022 Canyon ISD school board meeting?
Several districts are also reporting that Quaver Ed comes with a very high price tag.* Some estimates well over $349,000 for an annual contract. Are SHACs looking at cost when making recommendations? Did Canyon ISD receive a quote from Quaver Ed? Why was cost not presented along with the SHAC recommendation at the May 2022 Canyon ISD school board meeting?
Nobody can predict the future, but there have been multiple calls for health to be removed from K-6th during the next legislative session (currently, it is optional for high school if your board votes accordingly) in order for that precious time to be focused on academics since our state is falling so far behind on the basics such as reading proficiency. If this does occur, the state has no plans to bail out districts that have signed onto lengthy and costly contracts. Potentially, a district could be locked into long-term, expensive, non-required curriculum.
Quaver Ed promotes Eastern Religion foundational elements such as meditation and yoga in at least 11 different places within the text. Not all parents want their children immersed in features of Buddhism/Hinduism.
Quaver Ed is not Pro-Life. In the QuaverEd Health • PE Special Topics My Reproductive System Module inside the "Mythbuster" lesson on babies, the text drives home that babies grow in the uterus, but are not called babies until they are born. This is quite alarming for any Pro-Life parent who does not want their child's world view altered. Christians believe that life begins at conception and that we are knitted together in the womb.
The QuaverEd Health • PE instructional materials are presented in a digital cartoon format that is more appropriate for entertainment rather than for instruction. We
The online format of the QuaverEd Health • PE enables dynamic updates or changes to curriculum materials at any time, without parental knowledge, and perhaps without knowledge of teachers and school administrators. At the Canyon ISD May 2022 meeting, the SHAC representative and Robyn Cramner reported that Quaver said that they will report on any updates. That is fine and dandy, but how can we trust them? During the November 2022 Texas SBOE health curriculums reviews, vendors were changing content as reviewers were logged in. Once it is online, there is no accountability concerning content updates. Also, publishers tend to make updates that are requested. In the past, we have seen curriculums progressively getting worse, not better.
Quaver Ed is performing data mining on children. The Health Tracking system QuaverEd Health • PE includes emoji/emoticons for daily check ins of mental health states, student online journaling, online quizzes, and an online private teacher chat. All of these are a form of surveying your child which is legally not allowed without parental consent. Secondary, it is extremely concerning that an off-site, non-district adult has access to chat with your minor child.
CONCLUSIONS
The Quaver Ed health curriculum is inadequate for the high standards of Texas ISDs and parents everywhere should be alarmed. Our Governor and SBOE have left Texas in a state of confusion with zero acceptable options. SBOE member, Dr. Audrey Young knows this and published a letter to an ISD in her district. She informed them that the district is not required to adopt any of the curriculums reviewed by the SBOE.
Since no other vendors stepped forward with a new text that meets the new health TEKS, suffices education code (including requirements for sexuality instruction), and exclude political indoctrination, school districts are forced into ...
purchasing an independent human sexuality curriculum that is SRA,
writing their own in-house lessons or outsourcing to meet the new health TEKS, & should simply....
vote to no longer require high school health to graduate.
All of these tasks are acceptable, achievable, and legal solutions. No Texas ISD should adopt subpar curriculums. Please note that school boards have full authority to drop high school health as a graduation requirement.
Please email the Canyon ISD School Board and ask them to reject Quaver Ed and Goodheart-Wilcox and drop health as a high school requirement. We must protect children at all costs.
Canyon ISD Board of Trustees:
trustee.blake@canyonisd.net
Regardless of where the vote lands, human sexuality instruction is NOT REQUIRED and thus students may choose to NOT OPT IN. Texans Wake Up recommends that you NOT OPT IN to human sexuality instruction and OPT out of SEL and anything else that disregards your family values. Please see our Children's Bill of Rights for more information.
Please see our related blogs:
* This information was acquired from a parent and citizen in more than one Texas ISD.
* All information in the article is for parents to understand the curriculum being proposed for their children and falls under Fair Use laws.
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