Netherlands to include same-sex couples in textbooks-26/08/2010

26/08/2010

Netherlands to include same-sex couples in textbooks

(I THINK MAKING A LAW IN THEIR FAVOUR IS ONE THING BUT INCLUDING IT IN TEXTBOOKS AS AN EXAMPLE IS A WRONG PRECEDENT...THOUGH THIS NEWS IS ABOUT ANOTHER COUNTRY AND WE NEED NOT INTERFERE,BUT JUST IN THIS CONTEXT,I NEED TO SAY THAT I HAVE WRITTEN A WRITEUP(AND NOT A "CUT N PASTE") ON 7/2/10,IN THIS BLOG ON "REPEELING OF IPC 377,A VICTORY OF GAY COMMUNITY'".. AND IN ANOTHER WRITEUP WITH HEADING '"ABOUT SHRI KAPIL SIBBAL KI DUURDRISHTI ON 13/7/09"' MENTIONING SEX EDUCATION IN SCHOOL COURSES'!!

...ONCE AGAIN I AM TAKING RISK AND REPEATING IT THAT INSTEAD OF CREATING IT AS A NEW SUBJECTS, IT CAN BE ADDED IN OUR EXISTING TEXT BOOK COURSES AS NEW CHAPTERS IN IT!!...AS REPRODUCTION SYSTEM AND EVOLUTION OF HUMAN BEING ARE ALREADY A CHAPTER OF BIOLOGY...WHY CAN'T WE TELL ABOUT IT 'AS LGBT'...ARE BIT BIOLOGICALLY DIFFERENT FROM MALE AND FEMALE...SPECIALLY ABOUT 'TRANSGENDERS'...SO THAT SUCH PEOPLE CAN UNDERSTAND CHANGE IN SELF ON TIME AND GO FOR MEDICATIONS OR OTHER TREATNENT ON TIME, AND AT THE SAME TIME THEY LIVE NORMALLY IN EXISTING SYSTEM WITHOUT COMPLEXES AND HURTING EACH OTHER...IT WILL HELP PEOPLE IN RECOGNIZING THE '"SEXUAL HARRASSMENT OFFENCES'" ALSO, AND TREAT SUCH PEOPLE WITH SENSTIVITY!!!...NOW I DON'T WANT TO WRITE IN DETAIL ONCE AGAIN!!!...VIBHA)

Amsterdam: The Netherlands was the first country in the world to grant same-sex marriages and allow gay and lesbian couples to adopt children. Now the Dutch are taking the next logical step and are introducing same-sex couples into the nation's schoolbooks. However, not everyone in the country approves.



Two fathers go out to buy a guinea pig that costs 17.95 euros in the pet shop. The shop owner gives them a discount of 20 percent. How much must Jan's fathers pay?

In the near future, math books could be posing this question, or one like it, to school kids in the Netherlands. Soon the country's geography and foreign language textbooks will no longer be able to ignore the reality of same-sex parenting in Holland.



Eberhard van der Laan says the country's school system must treat same-sex couples as a normal part of daily life. The 55-year-old father of five children is mayor of Amsterdam, which has been marketing itself as a destination for gay travellers. Now his call has been heard by Holland's largest school book publisher.

"At the moment schoolbooks do not reflect life here," says Frans Grijzenhout, director of the Noordhof Uitgeverij publishing house.

"When a textbook deals with a family going on holiday, for example, the accompanying drawing will show a father, a mother and children. But there are other types of families."



In future, Noordhof's books will reflect the existence of same-sex parents in Holland. The country's schoolbooks already deal with Holland's multicultural society with depictions of Muslim girls wearing headscarves, says Grijzenhout. "In the same way we intend to bring homosexuality to children's attention."

Holland's association for the Integration of homosexuals has welcomed the move. It says the "hetero-normality in schoolbooks" should have done been away with long ago. For a long time the association has been observing a "decline in tolerance towards homosexuals" in Holland.

Homosexuality has a high profile in Holland but the number of attacks on gay men and women is on the rise. Even in Amsterdam homosexual couples have reported they feel less safe than in the past.



Many of the attackers are young men with Muslim immigrant backgrounds. The association for the Integration of Homosexuals says that makes it all the more important for schoolbooks to "show male couples and female couples as completely normal."

However, the Netherlands' Calvinist community, as well as the country's conservative Catholics, has rejected the prospect of same-sex couples in school textbooks.



"Schools should not be forced to accept homosexual emancipation," says the newspaper the Reformatorisch Dagblad, the most important orthodox Protestant publication in Holland.

The Association for Christian Reformed Education has also made it clear no "homo-schoolbooks" will be distributed in its schools.

The idea of making children familiar with same-sex couples is not a new one. Ten years ago the Dutch author Linda de Haan created a stir with the publication of her children's book "King and King".



In the book a gay crown prince refuses to marry a princess but still wants to become king. In the end there is a fairytale wedding between two princes who live happily ever after.

The book was a bestseller in Holland which is known for its tolerant attitudes. But in the US the book's publication was followed by litigation in courts. Some parents called for the book to be banned or at least removed from library shelves. The litigation came to an end in 2007 when a federal judge decided "diversity is a trademark of our nation

Source: www.ians.in

(SOME LETTERS....!!!)

Friday, 27 August 2010 06:20:50

I think Netherland Govt's Decision to allow same sex marriage is Good and appriciable but include this in the text book is not Good at all. I think Netherland's Govt. should think again to include this in the Text Book. It will give wrong indication to kids so it should not be included. Sugan Bairwa, Export Manager


Friday, 27 August 2010 00:56:36

Hey, come on law makers, don't make the society sick. Let's build healthier environment atleast from our kids. How would the parents accept these kind of crap is been thought in text books. Please avoid this, anywhere in the world. Allow gays and les get marry or live as they would like to, that is their own freedom, but don't make them as an examples in school text book. One worst day, no kids will be there for adoption and rate of birth will decrease and it's dangerous for world...)