Editor,
This letter is in response to Johnny L. Wilson's letter published in the Daily Lobo on Thursday.
Wilson, I appreciate your statements, though I do not agree with the position of your organization. I am not writing to criticize those positions but to make sure that readers of your letter do not unfairly distinguish between moral values and factual information, as though they are opposite.
I appreciate your statement that we can "talk about values without imposing yours." So, let us talk about values and their role in sexual education.
I think it needs to be stated that any such education is going to be based on and will present somebody's values. It will never be, as you suggest, "just the facts."
You did well to mention media literacy in your letter. Allow me to remind you that one of the main principles of media literacy, according to experts such as Appalachian State University's David Considine, is: "Media messages contain values and ideologies." The way facts are selected, arranged and presented as information will be determined by the instructional, stylistic, moral and other values of some entity. Either naturally or intentionally, probably both, the values promoted by John Bauer, yourself, me, parents of children or someone else will find their way into the production and use of videos, pamphlets and other educational media to teach children about their bodies and their reproductive characteristics.
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In all fairness, we all want to promote our own values to the next generation of our families and our society, just as many values have been promoted to and adopted by us. For one group to say that it simply promotes facts and information is untruthful and unfair.
I hope you will acknowledge the embodiment of your organization's values in what it presents as information. I also hope that while we differ in some of our views, we can share the value we place on honest representation of our sides on issues.
Mark Smith
UNM student
