SECTIONS 51755-51756 - California Statutes

EDUCATION CODE

SECTION 51755-51756

51755. The Legislature finds and declares as follows:
(a) The discovery of nuclear power has profound implications for
our lives and society.
(b) Current research has demonstrated that many of our children
today fear the prospect of nuclear war, and it is now recognized that
their frequent lack of motivation, particularly in school, is
substantially influenced by further fears that there will be no
future for themselves, their families, their communities, and their
nation.
(c) Some polls have shown that the majority of high school
students believe that nuclear war in the next decade is inevitable.
(d) If left unchecked, this lack of motivation and the feelings of
helplessness could prove to be as devastating to American society as
war itself.
(e) It is the inherent right of our children to pursue their
educational objectives free from the immobilizing threat of nuclear
war and their own annihilation.

51756. The Legislature further finds and declares as follows:
(a) Through their curricula, our public schools traditionally
provide our children with an understanding and appreciation of
personal values, and a sense of human community.
(b) It is the responsibility of our public educational system, in
conjunction with parents, to intellectually and emotionally prepare
our students to understand and cope with reality, including the facts
of life in the nuclear age, the threat of nuclear war and
annihilation, and the dangers of radiation.
(c) Our public schools provide an appropriate forum for discussion
of the personal, environmental, social, political, and military
aspects of life in the nuclear age. These discussions make a valuable
contribution to students' development into informed, self-assured,
responsible, decisionmaking adults.
(d) It is also the responsibility of our public educational system
to provide students with an understanding of the causes of conflict
among nations and the options for conflict resolution and the
attainment of peace.
(e) Many parents, acting out of concern for their children's
current and future welfare, are already seeking formal and informal
assistance in providing their children with the tools for coping with
life in the nuclear age.
(f) Organizations in many states, including California, are
already collecting information on nuclear age education curricula
designed to meet the needs of students for accurate information on
international relations, nuclear war, the causes of war, and
available options, including conflict resolution, in the nuclear age,
as well as beneficial peacetime uses of nuclear power.
(g) The State Department of Education is best suited to the task
of collecting information from various research and educational
groups across the country, to make objective assessments of the value
of specific components of a curriculum, and to develop a model
nuclear age education curriculum.