Sexual education in schools is a “hot” issue in society, currently. There are some which agree to sexual education in schools, and there are some which don’t approve this.
Another topic is homosexuality.
I want to have a look at these two issues, based on a previous article – Paradoxuri È™i încadrări în ortodoxie.
I think it matters a lot on how you frame an issue.
- For sexual education, you can frame it in two major ways:
- Sexual education in schools is good, as we have a large percentage of mothers who are below 20 years of age (I think it’s 12.3%, the highest percentage in Europe), so sexual education could help reduce this number. Also, it might help with abortions rate: “Romania has a high prevalence of abortion: in a 2007 survey 50% of women said they had undergone an abortion during their lifetime” (via »)
- Sexual education is bad, as it will corrupt the minds of teenagers, who should learn about sexuality from family, not from the State. Also, it’s not OK to teach teenagers about some sexual habits.
- For homosexuality, there are two perspectives, people generally focus on one of these:
- Anyone is free to do whatever they please in their own private life, so it’s fine.
- It’s considered a sin in Christianity, thus homosexuality is bad.
The thing is, if you look at the two examples above, people talk about different things – if you look at the pros/cons of each issue, it seems that people talk on different issues altogether.
My view on the matters? I have no opinion I wish to express on sexual education in schools. I need to do some research on the matter, which I haven’t done. I’m not a parent, I have better things to do than research this issue. There are better-informed people who have opinions on this matter. What I do see, though, it’s people arguing on the topic ignoring the opposite side’s arguments (I see this a lot).
For homosexuality, I consider it a sin, other than that it’s not an interest to me. But people, when they talk about homosexuality, mix the overall views – it’s one thing to talk about homosexuality from a Christian perspective, and it’s another thing to ask if I am bothered about what two people consent to do in their private life.
I think both issues are very sensitive, there are some things which are clear to me (homosexuality being a sin), some which have a lot of white, black, and grey shades (How does sexual education impact abortion rate, adolescent pregnancy rate, personal education), and pretty much all of them require more debate than a simple blog post. I can have a view on anything, but if I’m not based on research and smarter people’s opinions, I prefer not to. But I can try and imagine what’s it like for a parent to give his children to State education and having sexual education courses imposed, on a person of another sexual orientation than the majority and speaking about this in public, with everything that comes after it, with the education a child in a poor family receives, with the urges and temptations of adolescent life. It’s not a simple matter, at all.
