Friday 26 October 2007

Sex ed in Catholic schools

After Jackie's (CatholicMomof10) post on a rather obscene Sex Ed programme for Catholic primary schools, I happened to be talking with my daughter and her friend about school. Her friend who is also 13 attends the very good Catholic school I pulled my daughter out of.
Her friend is a lovely girl, quite shy and due to some developmental difficulties she is a little emotionally immature. This does not matter in a class of 30 of course and she has been subjected to sex ed over the last three years to a degree she has found difficult to cope with. She did not tell me what was difficult- and as she was finding telling me at all a struggle I did not pry, but simply let her talk.
She said she had tried not to look at the video and was put off by the teacher who was "blunt" on the subject.
Perhaps what was being taught was overall appropriate for the average 13 year old-but it was NOT appropriate for my daughter's friend. Schools do not or can not take each child's individual development and coping ability into consideration and so she has been subjected to something she found really awful.

My own daughter will get only what I teach her and because we have time to talk I hope I can protect her from bad influences. This has already proved the case when she was targeted by a sleazy young man a couple of years ago.

We need to protect our children. Schools, especially Catholic schools should not be offending the innocence of our children.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes we teach our own children all issues regarding sexuality..we start about age 9 or when we judge the child ready..as i say we have no sex ed in the Primary school & are happy with the careful instruction at secondary level..

Lisa said...

What Jackie said! And I think parents should be specifically informed re sex ed curricula and give written permission for their children to be in these classes in secondary ed. Many of us have it covered at home and prefer it that way!

Anonymous said...

Well we can remove them at secondary level..no problem..

swissmiss said...

The Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis had a dust up about this about three years ago. They wanted to institute "Talking about Touching" in Catholic schools (which the Archbishop approved after much debate, hard feelings and pleas to the contrary) and in CCD programs. Some pastors and schools opted out, in favor of several other far more sensitive and prudent programs, but some schools just accepted it. This is a large part of why I plan to homeschool (even though my parish is quite conservative and opted out of this program from the very beginning.)

Check out http://www.primaryeducators.org/
or
http://www.catholicparents.org/
for more info on the program.

Marie said...

When you can't trust Catholic schools then who DO you trust?

The Bishops need to crack down on rogue elements and REMOVE them from a teaching capacity.

Catholic schools should be a reflection to what the Catholic Church Teaches!

Write your Bishops and protest. Other than than what can a parent do?

As for the 'video' what will they show next 'Debbie does dallas'? Or whatever the heck its called!!!

Good grief this gets me steamed!

Thanks for informing us whitestone..*shakes my head*

Peace to you

Marie