SEX ED FOR AMERICA
The Mark Foley case continues to smolder in the press, inspiring office jokes, sermons, distrust with Congress, confusion and outrage. Recently, from inside his self-imposed cloister at a drug and alcohol treatment facility, Mr. Foley announced that he knew the priest who had abused him 40 years ago. His behavior and the response it provokes in society is symptomatic of just how little we have progressed in understanding, educating and reporting about sexuality. In a time of remarkable advances in scientific knowledge and technological wizardry, where we have come to know the make-up of our own DNA and can transplant organs, send toy robots to Mars and telescopes into space so that we can understand the universe, its mysterious and troubling that in a country that prides itself on the use of reason, advanced education, scientific inquiry that we choose to remain in ignorance about human sexuality and how to educate people about it.
Many conservatives would say that it’s not about education; it’s about morality and personal responsibility. And they are right, but how do we attempt to blend educating young people—or, for that matter, adults--on how the mind and the body function in the arena of desire and sexual function? We don’t. We believe beleaguered parents or ill-prepared teachers should be doing this job, even while we know our own parents and teachers were terrified and uneducated about this and did little to nothing to prepare us. Or, we think our clergy should do this, when they themselves, too, are uneducated or simply operating in some kind of time warp where biology and psychology are apparently not necessary components of seminary study. Or, we just think Oprah can take care of us all with a few of her expert guests sandwiched between celebrities who are bred and groomed to perpetuate various myths and messages about our bodies and their sexual inner lives.
From left to right, from republican to democrat, from male to female, from gay and straight, from religious to secular, across every race and ethnicity, this country needs “the talk about the birds and the bees” about the relationship between health and human sexuality. It needs it on an on-going basis, in elementary school, junior high, high school, and persistently throughout adult life. Why would we possibly believe that children only need a smattering of watered down texts about human sexuality here and there throughout their education while they are drilled for 13 years on math, science, English and history? We have children who have no concept that diet makes a difference, or have any understanding of how their emotional life depends on their diet and the world around them, they are completely at a loss—as most adults are as well—to explain how their bodies function or how sexuality works. They are innocent and ill-prepared for the onslaught of the millions of messages they will receive via the media and the materialism that drives much of popular culture.
What is truly irresponsible to me is that everyday we let the disaster and abuse continue, perpetuating deep psychological wounds that are never understood or healed and invariably come back to haunt people, families and communities later in life. The tragedy in the Amish community is just one example in a daily assault on children that stems from such deep denial by our society that sexual health is a shared responsibility for our entire society just as public health is. But all we get is moralizing, task forces, prayers for the wounded, a little counseling, threats of punishment, vilification by the press to sell TV ads and papers, and elaborate and expensive schemes to punish and control those we demonize in hopes that they will go away, as if sent here from Mars or created by some other God than our own.
The human body is sacred and it’s time we learn to spend the time, the money, and the will re-educating ourselves so that our children don’t have to live in a world of such ignorance and suffering.
Many conservatives would say that it’s not about education; it’s about morality and personal responsibility. And they are right, but how do we attempt to blend educating young people—or, for that matter, adults--on how the mind and the body function in the arena of desire and sexual function? We don’t. We believe beleaguered parents or ill-prepared teachers should be doing this job, even while we know our own parents and teachers were terrified and uneducated about this and did little to nothing to prepare us. Or, we think our clergy should do this, when they themselves, too, are uneducated or simply operating in some kind of time warp where biology and psychology are apparently not necessary components of seminary study. Or, we just think Oprah can take care of us all with a few of her expert guests sandwiched between celebrities who are bred and groomed to perpetuate various myths and messages about our bodies and their sexual inner lives.
From left to right, from republican to democrat, from male to female, from gay and straight, from religious to secular, across every race and ethnicity, this country needs “the talk about the birds and the bees” about the relationship between health and human sexuality. It needs it on an on-going basis, in elementary school, junior high, high school, and persistently throughout adult life. Why would we possibly believe that children only need a smattering of watered down texts about human sexuality here and there throughout their education while they are drilled for 13 years on math, science, English and history? We have children who have no concept that diet makes a difference, or have any understanding of how their emotional life depends on their diet and the world around them, they are completely at a loss—as most adults are as well—to explain how their bodies function or how sexuality works. They are innocent and ill-prepared for the onslaught of the millions of messages they will receive via the media and the materialism that drives much of popular culture.
What is truly irresponsible to me is that everyday we let the disaster and abuse continue, perpetuating deep psychological wounds that are never understood or healed and invariably come back to haunt people, families and communities later in life. The tragedy in the Amish community is just one example in a daily assault on children that stems from such deep denial by our society that sexual health is a shared responsibility for our entire society just as public health is. But all we get is moralizing, task forces, prayers for the wounded, a little counseling, threats of punishment, vilification by the press to sell TV ads and papers, and elaborate and expensive schemes to punish and control those we demonize in hopes that they will go away, as if sent here from Mars or created by some other God than our own.
The human body is sacred and it’s time we learn to spend the time, the money, and the will re-educating ourselves so that our children don’t have to live in a world of such ignorance and suffering.
posted by Unknown at 9:54 AM
