Wrong way, wrong place

There are sound and valid reasons for the Department of Education (DepEd) to suspend the implementation of the classroom based sex education program other than the alleged pressure from the Bishops of the Catholic Church. Even without such pressure, the DepEd would have suspended the program.

Sex education in schools is supposed to promote responsible sexual behavior among the youth. A look at statistics in the United States where the youth receive comprehensive sex education in schools however shows a dramatic increase in the number of teen age pregnancies and sexually transmissible diseases (STDs). There are now over 40 different and 15 million new cases of STDs each year. Teen age child births rose to 800,000 per year. These figures convincingly disprove the idea that sex education leads to the much vaunted "reproductive health" as an aid to population control.

Teaching this subject is not like teaching any other school subjects. It requires a more specialized, thorough and careful study and training on the part of teachers because of the many intangible factors involved. Merely giving lesson guides to high school teachers already handling other subjects, for them to likewise teach their students about sexuality, safe sex, reproductive health or the use of condoms is doomed to fail. America which introduced sex education about three decades ago may have undoubtedly developed expert sex educators. Yet their program is still a monumental failure based on unquestionable statistics. The American experience only goes to show that sex education has no place in the classroom. This is a subject that is too personal and intimate to be imparted in a general and public manner.

That sex education has no place in the school classroom is further explained and elucidated by Ms. Rosie Luistro, the crusading and ever active President of Alliance for the Family Foundation Philippines Inc. (ALFI) a pro family organization that promotes family solidarity and foster and defend the sanctity of life and marriage. In her letter dated June 19, 2006 addressed to DepEd Secretary Fe Hidalgo, Ms. Luistro said:

"Classroom based sex education has no capacity to know about the students’ particular background, readiness and beliefs. The youth are thus exposed to information that he may not be ready or willing to receive at a tender age and sensibility.

Since the lessons are taught in front of both young men and women, this also assaults their natural modesty and inhibitions. After getting through the initial awkwardness among each other, young men and women become foolhardy and brazen about their sexuality, since it has been incorrectly suggested that ‘experimentation is a normal part of adolescent development…. to widen horizons and learn about adult roles and responsibilities’ (page 56 of the Lesson Guides). Sex education programs are not the solutions, but a significant part of the cause of sexual permissiveness because of the new ‘modern’ attitudes on sexuality conveyed in the classroom".

This DepEd sex education program should not only be suspended. It should be scrapped. Adopting such program is usurping the proper role and natural rights of parents in the rearing and education of their children for the development of their moral character which is guaranteed by the Constitution (Article II Section 12). The classroom cannot substitute the home when it comes to teaching the children the moral values about sex founded on love and human dignity.

If statistics do not lie that our population is growing at an alarming rate and that there is a need to check the same if we want our economy to improve, figures also do not lie that the methods being proposed to control population like artificial birth control and lately, the introduction of this classroom based sex education, are more harmful to the physical and spiritual welfare of the individuals that have far reaching repercussions on the Nation itself. The Bishops are not wrong in expressing their stand against this program. They are not violating the principle of Church-State separation. The issue here involves not only the secular well being of Filipinos but also their spiritual welfare. When it comes to the issue of population control, human wisdom and worldly pragmatism no matter how smart and logical, should give way to Faith in the Almighty God speaking magisterially through His pastors on earth.

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