I have a reader who has been having some struggles with her parish religious education program over the past couple of months. She had run some of their materials by me a while back, and they are problematic. The issue is sexuality education for middle and high school students.  It was an abstinence-only program, but the program was from a non-Catholic perpsective, did nothing to enforce Catholic teachings on sexuality, anthropology or sacramentality, and was going to take up 20% of the parish religious ed time, with the sexes together for the programs, was somewhat explicit, with no information for the parents on opting out, etc.

Today, she writes:

I was told that I simply did not understand the problems of young people today because my oldest is only 13. (I guess my 20 years of teaching, my masters in education, and my work with a company that addresses the needs of at-risk students have kept me in the dark!) I was also told that other schools and parishes are using this program. When I pointed out how her implementation of the program violated certain principles in the outlines for sex education established in the Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, she scoffed, saying that the document is 10 years old.

I would like to know if or how other parishes around the country are presenting the Church’s teachings on human sexuality to middle and high school students. I have searched the internet, but haven’t come up with much. Would you be willing to post something on your blog to get some feedback from your readers? I am going to meet with my Bishop (my pastor wouldn’t respond to the letter I wrote) and would like to have some response if I am told that this is simply the way things are done now.

I’d rather that comments on this post try to be as specific as possible, and not veer off into generalities.  My perspective is that when it comes to parish religious education, with its limited resources and time, not to speak of its dependence on volunteer catechists with varying amounts of training, that if a parish wants to do something specific for sexuality education, the best thing to do is to provide good, solid workshops for parents. Maybe even a workshop/retreat day, for both parents and their children. But definitely put the emphasis on parents.