“Train the young in the way they should go; even when old, they will not swerve from it.” – Proverbs 22:6
Young people are immense treasures—gifts to care for and protect. This is increasingly important in a society that is more focused on material things than on human dignity. If your eyes are open, it’s not hard to see the insidious agenda that is so prevalent in our culture. Look at Planned Parenthood’s sex ed programs. Look at the number of school systems that want to hide children’s gender issues from parents. Look at the blatant disregard for preborn babies, especially among those in politics, and at the lack of knowledge about how a baby grows and develops.
All of these things have one thing in common—a disrespect for the sanctity of human life.
Combating that mentality is one of the many reasons I began working in the pro-life field. I want to make a difference in lives—especially in children’s lives. In addition to being editor of Celebrate Life Magazine, I am director and executive editor of American Life League’s Culture of Life Studies Program—ALL’s pro-life education program for kids in pre-K-12th grade.
CLSP works to bring pro-life values into the classroom—whether that is at school, in the home, or in CCE programs. Through engaging downloadable lessons about pro-life saints, the developing baby, marriage and family, respect and kindness toward others, abortion, euthanasia, and more, students get the foundation they need to develop the moral courage necessary to build a culture of life.
Throughout CLSP lessons, students are educated, motivated, and inspired to live as St. John Paul II calls us to, bearing witness to the beauty and dignity of each and every human being from creation until death. In each lesson, CLSP brings to life the Catholic faith, teaching moral courage and explaining how students can build a culture where all people—regardless of their age, stage of development, or ability—are respected and cherished.
As Judie Brown, president of American Life League, said, “The Culture of Life Studies Program provides the educational tools we need to teach our children to respect all human beings as a gift from God. When children are taught at a young age to understand that every human being’s life is a blessing, they grow up with the strength to defend others.”
Yet CLSP is not the only organization that has set out to make a difference in children’s lives. Through my work at CLM, I have had the privilege of meeting Brooke Stanton, one of the founders of Contend Projects.
Contend Projects is “a secular, nonpartisan, science education nonprofit with the mission to spread accurate information and awareness about the biological science of human embryology and when a human being begins to exist.” Its founders recently released a video outlining a new initiative geared at changing science standards in classrooms.
Knowing there was a deficit in general knowledge and teaching regarding embryology, Brooke Stanton and Christiane West founded Contend Projects in 2015 with the explicit purpose of teaching accurate science. In the video, Stanton explains that “science knows when a human life starts” and that there is a “scientific consensus” among experts, but the problem comes when people who have no background or expertise in embryology attempt to discuss the preborn baby. West concurs, explaining that 36% of young adults—ages 18-28—erroneously believe that human life begins at birth.
Why this knowledge gap, she asks? It’s a “massive education fail.”
And this education fail leads to confusion and ultimately to the furtherance of the culture of death. As West explains, “When people, especially children, are confused about the value and origin of the individual human life, they are naturally susceptible to dominant ideologies that tell them that a child has no rights until after birth.”
Stanton then explains that the goal of Contend Projects is to “close the knowledge gap” and to “help school-aged children understand the real science about when a human life starts and what it means to be a human being.”
Contend Projects hopes to do this by working with states to implement new state-level science education standards because, as Stanton said, future generations must know the “accurate, objective, embryological facts of human development.”
Today, the women are working with state governments across the country to create a “world-class k-12 science curriculum that features the biological science of human embryology and the Carnegie Stages of Human Embryonic Development”—the 23 stages of embryonic development that explain the science behind how a human being grows.
In collaboration with some talented media partners, Contend Projects has created videos and materials for classrooms, including resources for parents and teachers, that explain in age-appropriate ways the origins of human life. These materials have been tested in numerous classrooms across the country, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. One of the reasons for that success is because it “brings that unborn child to life.”
The women who established these programs understand that our children deserve to learn the correct science and to know the truth about human dignity; to stand back and allow incorrect and inaccurate information to seep into their minds is not simply a travesty, it’s an abomination.
Educating children about the development of human beings and about the dignity of all people is something every parent and teacher can and must do. While this education begins first in the home, it is something that must be done repeatedly both in school and in the home as kids grow and can absorb additional facts. This is crucial if we want to create a culture that makes it unthinkable to kill preborn babies and other vulnerable populations. And it is crucial if we ever want to become a society that values all of its members.
This article first appeared in LifeNews at lifenews.com/2024/09/04/we-must-teach-people-an-unborn-child-is-a-baby-whose-life-begins-at-conception.
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