Sex Ed for your kids - the revised edition

Fully Alive is the Family Life Education program sponsored by the Assembly of Catholic Bishops of Ontario (ACBO). Unfortunately, this program, in particular the sections on sexuality, fail to pass along an authentic Catholic view of this topic.

For those of you interested in an excellent summary of the problems with Fully Alive, I invite you to read the following "Brief on Fully Alive" written by the Family Association for Catholic Education.

In the spring of 2006, the ACBO decided to proceed with the development of a 2nd edition of Fully Alive. By the end of 2010, the revised editions of grades one to seven were published, and the family editions (there are also student and teacher editions) were made available on the ACBO website (http://acbo.on.ca/englishweb/fullyalive.htm). Grade 8 of the revised program is to be published this summer.

Give the recent battles over the government's Equity Strategy, I was curious to see how the recently revised grade 6 section approached homosexuality. Grade 6 is the first time this topic is addressed in the program. The following is the relevant excerpt:

It is also normal during adolescence for both males and females to have very strong feelings for people of the same sex. This might be an older student or a teacher whom they admire. Young people may be concerned that this means they are homosexual, but this is not something that they are likely to talk about with anyone. It is helpful if parents have talked about homosexuality, and mentioned the concerns that young people sometimes have and how normal adolescent “crushes” are.

The Catholic Church teaches that same-sex attractions are disordered. Why do they want to tell kids that same-sex attractions are normal? Why not tell them something that reflects the Church's teaching on homosexuality? Why not give our kids real food like this quote from Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz:

Those who experience same-sex attractions must “resist that inclination,” he said. “There are people who are inclined to start fires, or to kill people, or to rob or something, and they can’t give into their inclinations. They have to struggle against them and restrain them.”

Will we ever see something like that in the Fully Alive program? Not with the people that are writing this stuff right now. Parents, do your duty and make sure your kids are removed from these classes. Bishops, stop abdicating your responsibility and revise this program to reflect the faith you have vowed to defend and teach.