Michael Gilchrist, editor of the National Civic Council’s AD2000, has this to say about two Catholic sex education booklets written by Carol Phillips, Western Australian coordinator for Babette Francis’s ‘Endeavour Forum’:

These booklets [one for boys and one for girls] make the task [of sex education] much easier, while keeping the sensitive subject within the bounds of a child’s latency period …

‘Latency period’? I’ve been very interested in my sexuality since before I can remember. I was having huge crushes on schoolmates when I was seven and so were half my friends. I thought the very idea of a latency period went out with the ark.

The purpose of [the booklets] is to teach about marriage and procreation within a Catholic context and to preserve the innocence of the child as much as possible … Just enough is said to give an accurate idea of what is involved, along with a couple of simple sketches, without confronting the young reader with excessive details or potentially disturbing information.

For ‘innocence’, read ‘ignorance’. When I was 12, my mother gave me a book like this that had done the rounds at school in grade 3. You should have seen what we were passing around by grade 5! ‘Potentially disturbing information’, my foot. Every word and picture is necessary.

In the booklets’ short space, Mrs Phillips covers a surprising amount of ground, including problems children are likely to encounter in the schoolyard or on TV such as swearing or the crude treatment of sexuality and marriage.

‘Likely to encounter’!? I’ll say! Do people who write books and reviews like these live on the moon?

Areas like divorce and contraception are touched upon delicately, while the virtues of purity and modesty are emphasised. (’Dear Son, Dear Daughter: God’s Plan for Catholic Marriage and the Family’ (review), Endeavour Forum Inc. Newsletter, Oct. 2006, 14)

About the same time I was reading this, I noticed Maureen Matthews weekly column (’About Last Night‘) in the Sunday Age ‘M‘ magazine (8 Oct. 2006), great bathroom reading for the whole family:

Q. My partner wants to experiment with tying me up and other ‘bondage’ activities. I am quite excited by the idea but am afraid that it might be dangerous. Am I being silly?

A. ‘Restraint games’ are just that - games … Like most fantasies, this game can be a ‘holiday’ from reality … Only ever play with someone you trust … As part of the fantasy, you might want to play dress-ups … etc. etc.

By my calculations, about 500 adolescents (or younger) will read this column for every one who gets stuck with Carol Phillips’ booklets. For which thank the Zeitgeist and common sense.

Filed in: Catholicism, Sexuality