And because
Just to underline my last post a bit, here some excerpts from the Guiding Principles for sex-ed and Personal Relationships lessons as proposed by the Diocese of Lancaster Education Service for Catholic Faith schools. This is from a current (2011) revision of them.
I'll reiterate: these schools often are unavoidable unless you want to cart your kid half way across the town, their set of students can be articifially selected (which often results in selection against certain ethnic and class markers) and practically all of these schools receive taxpayer funding, so it is really not as if they financed their curious agenda out of their own monies exclusively.
Here we go...
2. Human Sexuality
Human sexuality is a holy mystery. It is part of the identity of each person as man or as woman. Human sexuality is an expression of the physical and spiritual difference between a man and a woman, and that they are complementary. This is part of God’s plan for human love and marriage. Our sexual nature is good. It is in marriage that our sexuality finds the environment for its fullest expression.
3. Marriage
Marriage is rooted in the covenant which a man and a woman make when they give themselves in love to each other for the whole of their lives. This is a lasting relationship which is described by the Church as a ‘marriage covenant of conjugal love’. In this covenant of love the two people give mutual help and service to each other through an intimate union of their persons and actions. Loving self-giving expressed through sexual intimacy is designed to allow married couples to share by procreation in the creative work of God.
It gets better...
1. The ethos of a Catholic School requires that:
...
(e) The sacramental nature of Christian marriage is recognised and taught in the school.
(f) The Church’s teaching about the dignity and purpose of marriage is recognised and taught in the school. Therefore, the school teaches that marriage is the proper and only context for sexual union and raising children. The purpose of sex within marriage is to express the mutual love and affection of the couple and for procreation.
(g) As part of the school’s striving to promote virtuous living chastity is recognised and encouraged as an aspect of self-awareness and self-control that contribute to growth into full human maturity. Chastity involves continence for those who are single, whether unmarried, separated, divorced, widowed or committed to celibacy, and faithful monogamy for the married.
...
(i) The governors and senior leadership of the school recognise that some aspects of sexuality are best treated on an individual basis for each child and ideally as part of an ongoing parental relationship of friendship and trust.
...
2. Accordingly, the ethos of a Catholic school promotes:
(a) An approach to human life which promotes joy and wonder at the birth of a baby seeking to offer support and assistance, and does not regard the birth of a child as a threat.
...
(c) A moral system which affirms the objective reality of good and evil, and rejects such systems which emphasise absolute personal autonomy, individual conscience, relativism or the pursuit of pleasure.
(d) The positive presentation and encouragement to live modestly by respecting the dignity of oneself and others, especially with regard to our sexuality, and chastely, by guiding our sexuality through personal choices which are life-long, responsible, mature and recognise that sexual intimacy is for the purpose of love and new life within marriage.
...
(f) Marriage as the equal union of a man and a woman, who love each other and commit to each other before God and the community. Marriage is the place for the sexual expression of loving intimacy open to life. Christian marriage expresses the truth about married love and can serve as a prophecy which proclaims a human being’s real needs: that a man and a woman are called upon from the beginning to live in a communion of life and love, and that this communion leads to a strengthening of the dignity of the spouses, the good of the children and of society itself.
(g) The sanctity of human life, and rejects the condoning of abortion and all acts which end innocent human life.
(h) An approach to human sexuality which confers on the sexual expression of loving intimacy its proper dignity and understanding as a profound sign of the covenant of love between a man and a woman. This positive approach excludes anything which risks reducing the understanding of sex to the level of a mere bodily function or biological process.
Unfortunately this doesn't mean we are done with citing some of the worst...
3. Aims of the Education for Personal Relationships programme
The programme aims:
...
(a) Chastity: Education in Personal Relationships in the school will uphold a positive approach to chastity and help young people to understand their right to choose a different way of conducting their relationships to the pervading secular culture to which they are exposed
(b) Modesty: Modesty enables a person to preserve their dignity and sense of self-worth.Modesty is about protecting something which is precious: our sexuality, which is something not to be flaunted or cheapened on the one hand nor denied or rejected on the
other. Modesty is about looking at others with the dignity that everyone deserves. It offers respect for others and oneself and decency in the best sense of these words. Any presentation of inappropriate material that contradicts this principle, even for the purpose of demonstration or criticism, is excluded.
...
And I saved the real whopper for the end:
The purpose of a Catholic school is to create for the whole school community an atmosphere animated by the Gospel spirit of charity and freedom, in which students are nurtured as they grow and mature. The vision of the Catholic Church is based on the teachings of Jesus Christ and the Gospels. In the spirit of these teachings which promote life, love and family, we will reject teaching about:
There's much more, this nice epistle has some dozen or so pages, but these excerpts should be quite sufficient to raise hackles.
And just to make this clear, in case the flowery language managed to fool you: pupils at these schools are NOT taught anything about contraception, how to avoid getting STDs, how to deal with the opposite gender (other than say no) or that the same one can also be an option, how sex works on a biological and practical level, how to deal with an unwanted pregnancy (btw even if it is the result of rape!), that sex is fun even outside of marriage, that marriage is not the end-all of anyone's existence or even necessary for sex or procreation, yada yada yada... NOT.
If you also have a look at the rather important number of such schools (more than a third) you cease to be astonished that there are 18 year old virgins entering college thinking that doing it standing up won't cause pregnancy or that you don't get HIV from first intercourse. You also don't wonder about the exorbitantly high numbers of teen pregnancies or the ridiculous amount of women who believe they have to stay celibate until marriage and indeed marry to be proper Christians. And I guess I have to stress it again, every British taxpayer supports these schools with his or her money, willing or not.
In light of this stuff, wank about fictional characters' alleged sexism pales, palls and apalls.
I'll reiterate: these schools often are unavoidable unless you want to cart your kid half way across the town, their set of students can be articifially selected (which often results in selection against certain ethnic and class markers) and practically all of these schools receive taxpayer funding, so it is really not as if they financed their curious agenda out of their own monies exclusively.
Here we go...
2. Human Sexuality
Human sexuality is a holy mystery. It is part of the identity of each person as man or as woman. Human sexuality is an expression of the physical and spiritual difference between a man and a woman, and that they are complementary. This is part of God’s plan for human love and marriage. Our sexual nature is good. It is in marriage that our sexuality finds the environment for its fullest expression.
3. Marriage
Marriage is rooted in the covenant which a man and a woman make when they give themselves in love to each other for the whole of their lives. This is a lasting relationship which is described by the Church as a ‘marriage covenant of conjugal love’. In this covenant of love the two people give mutual help and service to each other through an intimate union of their persons and actions. Loving self-giving expressed through sexual intimacy is designed to allow married couples to share by procreation in the creative work of God.
It gets better...
1. The ethos of a Catholic School requires that:
...
(e) The sacramental nature of Christian marriage is recognised and taught in the school.
(f) The Church’s teaching about the dignity and purpose of marriage is recognised and taught in the school. Therefore, the school teaches that marriage is the proper and only context for sexual union and raising children. The purpose of sex within marriage is to express the mutual love and affection of the couple and for procreation.
(g) As part of the school’s striving to promote virtuous living chastity is recognised and encouraged as an aspect of self-awareness and self-control that contribute to growth into full human maturity. Chastity involves continence for those who are single, whether unmarried, separated, divorced, widowed or committed to celibacy, and faithful monogamy for the married.
...
(i) The governors and senior leadership of the school recognise that some aspects of sexuality are best treated on an individual basis for each child and ideally as part of an ongoing parental relationship of friendship and trust.
...
2. Accordingly, the ethos of a Catholic school promotes:
(a) An approach to human life which promotes joy and wonder at the birth of a baby seeking to offer support and assistance, and does not regard the birth of a child as a threat.
...
(c) A moral system which affirms the objective reality of good and evil, and rejects such systems which emphasise absolute personal autonomy, individual conscience, relativism or the pursuit of pleasure.
(d) The positive presentation and encouragement to live modestly by respecting the dignity of oneself and others, especially with regard to our sexuality, and chastely, by guiding our sexuality through personal choices which are life-long, responsible, mature and recognise that sexual intimacy is for the purpose of love and new life within marriage.
...
(f) Marriage as the equal union of a man and a woman, who love each other and commit to each other before God and the community. Marriage is the place for the sexual expression of loving intimacy open to life. Christian marriage expresses the truth about married love and can serve as a prophecy which proclaims a human being’s real needs: that a man and a woman are called upon from the beginning to live in a communion of life and love, and that this communion leads to a strengthening of the dignity of the spouses, the good of the children and of society itself.
(g) The sanctity of human life, and rejects the condoning of abortion and all acts which end innocent human life.
(h) An approach to human sexuality which confers on the sexual expression of loving intimacy its proper dignity and understanding as a profound sign of the covenant of love between a man and a woman. This positive approach excludes anything which risks reducing the understanding of sex to the level of a mere bodily function or biological process.
Unfortunately this doesn't mean we are done with citing some of the worst...
3. Aims of the Education for Personal Relationships programme
The programme aims:
- ...
- to understand the value of chastity;
- to enable children to realise the positive outcomes of commitment, self-denial,perseverance and other virtues in family relationships;
- ...
- to enable the children to recognise and appreciate the importance of marriage;
- ...
...
(a) Chastity: Education in Personal Relationships in the school will uphold a positive approach to chastity and help young people to understand their right to choose a different way of conducting their relationships to the pervading secular culture to which they are exposed
(b) Modesty: Modesty enables a person to preserve their dignity and sense of self-worth.Modesty is about protecting something which is precious: our sexuality, which is something not to be flaunted or cheapened on the one hand nor denied or rejected on the
other. Modesty is about looking at others with the dignity that everyone deserves. It offers respect for others and oneself and decency in the best sense of these words. Any presentation of inappropriate material that contradicts this principle, even for the purpose of demonstration or criticism, is excluded.
...
And I saved the real whopper for the end:
The purpose of a Catholic school is to create for the whole school community an atmosphere animated by the Gospel spirit of charity and freedom, in which students are nurtured as they grow and mature. The vision of the Catholic Church is based on the teachings of Jesus Christ and the Gospels. In the spirit of these teachings which promote life, love and family, we will reject teaching about:
- Anti-Christian and anti-life approaches: secularism or a “values-free” approach to teaching about human sexuality will not be used. Abortion will not be promoted, provided, facilitated or condoned. Information or services for obtaining such a measure will not be provided, promoted, permitted or condoned.
- Extra-marital sexual activity and promiscuity: artificial contraception and post-coital birth control will not be promoted, provided, facilitated or condoned. Information about services for obtaining and using such measures will not be provided, promoted, permitted or condoned.
- Cultural practices contrary to Catholic teaching: While we recognise and celebrate different cultural traditions and practices, where these are contrary to the ethos of the Catholic school or are raised for any reason, we will teach, without condemning individuals, that these are wrong. This will be done in a sensitive, respectful and compassionate way, with consideration of individual circumstances.
There's much more, this nice epistle has some dozen or so pages, but these excerpts should be quite sufficient to raise hackles.
And just to make this clear, in case the flowery language managed to fool you: pupils at these schools are NOT taught anything about contraception, how to avoid getting STDs, how to deal with the opposite gender (other than say no) or that the same one can also be an option, how sex works on a biological and practical level, how to deal with an unwanted pregnancy (btw even if it is the result of rape!), that sex is fun even outside of marriage, that marriage is not the end-all of anyone's existence or even necessary for sex or procreation, yada yada yada... NOT.
If you also have a look at the rather important number of such schools (more than a third) you cease to be astonished that there are 18 year old virgins entering college thinking that doing it standing up won't cause pregnancy or that you don't get HIV from first intercourse. You also don't wonder about the exorbitantly high numbers of teen pregnancies or the ridiculous amount of women who believe they have to stay celibate until marriage and indeed marry to be proper Christians. And I guess I have to stress it again, every British taxpayer supports these schools with his or her money, willing or not.
In light of this stuff, wank about fictional characters' alleged sexism pales, palls and apalls.