May 2006 Newsletter
Back to Main Newsletters PageI want to share with you the progress we have been making on our 10th grade Life Principles Primer for high schools.
Last month I told you about our work to build a series that will allow teachers (K-12) to implement Life Principles learning in the classroom on their own. We are now in the writing stage for the 10th grade module, which we expect to test in the Fall.
The urgency and importance of this project cannot be overstated. Good teachers are desperate for this kind of curriculum, as their students struggle against the culture of death. Let me tell you a true story about a recent experience of one of our board members, Dirk Bartram (who is also a Life Principles speaker), during his recent talk at a high school.
I spoke with Dirk following his debate against a woman from Planned Parenthood at a public high school. He told me that the young people were extremely confused, and many of them are living in very dark places in their minds.
For example, he shared a heartbreaking story about a student who was dressed in black with blacked-dyed hair. After the debate, she told Dirk, "I think my mother should have had the right to abort me, because I've stressed her out so much."
She confided that her mother had aborted five of her siblings, and that she, herself, was the product of a failed abortion attempt. She and the other students shot out question after question during the Q & A session. Remarkably, nearly three-quarters of the questions from the audience were for Dirk rather than for his opponent from Planned Parenthood.
But there was something else remarkable. The questions weren't hostile. They were authentic, and even probing. This is a trend that all of our speakers have observed over the last several years. When I began professional pro-life work nearly 15 years ago, many students were angry, hostile, and sometimes even violent in their exchanges with us. Today, their responses are much more inquisitive and even respectful.
I believe this is because we are now experiencing a culture in which most of the students we speak to have been wounded by abortion in some way. They are broken and disillusioned, and they are dying inside for someone to help get them out of the darkness that our culture has prepared for them.
After the presentation, the young woman I spoke about approached Dirk. He told her that he was glad she was born, and she thanked him for his presentation and told him he did a great job.
These students need to know that life is good, that love is real, and that they have immeasurable worth. Many of them already sense this truth, but there are no voices to help them embrace it.
The student who organized the debate was a senior. He told Dirk that during his entire high school tenure he had never seen a presentation of the pro-life position at the high school, and that many of the teachers made their pro-choice position known to students. He said that this had had a chilling effect on pro-life students who wished to express their opinions but feared retribution.
If you listen to what these students are telling us, you have to marvel at the grace that God is working in their hearts. Against all odds - against parents who are aborting their siblings, against a culture that is encouraging them to self-destruct, against teachers who are so terribly misled - these students know that something is not right with abortion.
It is urgent, my friends, that we respond to these students' openness of heart with materials and resources that are accessible to them. The Life Principles curriculum has been an incredibly powerful tool for answering their questions with truth and love, and enticing them toward goodness with zeal and excitement. The work we are doing to build the Life Principles into classroom materials for K-12 grade students is essential.
Please partner with us to continue providing excellent materials. We need your financial contribution to fund the work we are doing.
The 10th grade Life Principles module we are currently building will include a student workbook and teacher's guide on the four levels of happiness; the intrinsic dignity of the human person; the relationship between freedom, love and suffering; the definition of personhood; and the doctrine of inalienable rights. The booklet will guide students to a philosophical understanding of why abortion is wrong and how it undermines the very fabric of a civilized society and a progressive culture. It will also encourage students to "think outside the abortion and euthanasia box" and find solutions to human problems that are truly dignified, loving, and compassionate.
Any generous gift you share with us, whether it's $10, $25, $50, $100, $1,000 or more, is gratefully and responsibly accepted by our team. And you are always welcome to call us and request more information about any project we are working on. Remember that your financial gift is entirely tax deductible, as Healing the Culture is a 501(c)(3), nonprofit organization.
Thank you so much for sharing your gifts with us, and for being a part of our team. We look forward to hearing back from you, and we promise to keep you in our prayers.
God bless you,
Camille E. De Blasi, President
Just What is a Person Anyway?
In her May 23, 2006 presentation to a philosophy class at a community college, Lisa-Ann Oliver will explain the philosophy behind the prolife movement. This fast-paced, engaging discourse uses the Life Principles to expand students' understanding of how we define personhood, of the difference between inalienable and extrinsic rights, of what true qualilty of life is, and how those issues are key to understanding the abortion and euthanasia debate in our society.
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