Love, Sex, and Marriage Go Together and Must Be Taught in Our Schools
By E. Jeffrey Ludwig
March 17, 2017
Are moral issues still relevant for education?
Our teenagers (and younger) are being pounded with a life ethic totally at odds with Judeo-Christian morality. The Ten Commandments are being eroded. In fact, they cannot even be displayed in schools without disclaimers about the secular or educational purpose of the display, whereas lengthy passages from the Qu'ran, the Bhagvad Gita, Hammurabi’s Code, and the Zend Avesta can be posted with impunity on school bulletin boards. The traditional family is increasingly perceived as merely an obstacle to the self-determinism of the LGBTQ community. Private enterprise and free markets are increasingly portrayed as neither private nor free, but as networks of exploitation based on sexism and racism as white, heterosexual, chauvinistic males seek to justify their power over the exploited majority that is outside their powerful cabal. Cultural Marxism is no longer a hypothetical advanced in college classrooms, but a reality fighting for control over our minds and institutions. These developments define the context in which sex is taught in too many of our educational institutions.
In a high school where this writer taught, many classes ran the gamut from unruly to almost riotous. Hundreds of “at risk” students wanted to do almost anything except learn. Curses often filled the air. Desks would be overturned in impulsive expressions of rage. And, yes, blood would be spilled during classes as verbal quarrels broke into physical conflict. Yet, sometimes one would pass a classroom that was totally quiet and attentive. This would be the case during films discussing the “Sacred Subject” -- human sexuality and reproduction.
Are you surprised? Amused? Although modern society has been told ad nauseum that teens are “sexually active,” teenage vulnerability in this area and longing for understanding and direction has not been given sufficient attention. What has sex education done for society? STDs are at a ten-year high, and young people age 16-24 are disproportionally affected. Teenage birth rates have shown a recent decline, but 50 years ago, only 15% of teenage moms were unmarried, whereas now the percentage is 89%. Teenage pregnancies (ages 15-19) have been on the decline, but abortions, while down since the 1980s, were still around 30% of all pregnancies in 2010. Pornography sites on the Internet have millions of hits, and the destructive impact of this obsession is catalogued beautifully in Ben Shapiro’s book, Porn Generation: How Social Liberalism Is Corrupting Our Future.
In one textbook used in high school sex education classes, the student-reader is exhorted to be tolerant of those other students (presumably an outdated minority) who still believe that one should wait until marriage to have sex. We have to be tolerant of other, minority points of view. Further, all students were told to expunge the idea that the size of the male sex organ was important for sexual satisfaction. This certainly is a fact that every adolescent needs to be informed about!
“Kids will be kids” and “glands will be glands” is the prevailing philosophy.
Debunking of traditional Judeo-Christian morality and family values is politically correct. Those values have been replaced by post-Freudian views of freedom from guilt and repression. The youth, along with everyone else, must be freed, and not restrained. Self-control is no longer a desideratum as a trait of good character, although it is still valued regarding our food choices. Instead of self-control, the bogey man of repression is to be avoided. Otherwise, it is [falsely] believed, neurosis and depression will overtake the individual, male or female. If someone is “horny” can mental disease be far behind? This is the pro-Freudian assumption that motivates today’s secular humanist educators.
Sex has been reduced to protection from disease, the structure of the reproductive/pleasure-giving organs, and in short, how to get the most pleasure with the least pain (to oneself and others). Many high schools have offices for the distribution of condoms, and offer referrals to clinics by in-house personnel for everything from birth control pills to abortions.
Reflecting wider social trends, sexuality has become increasingly divorced from family life, and the commitment that uniquely belongs to marriage and fidelity. Love, sex, and marriage are no longer mainstream for so many of our society’s secondary school institutions. Too often, any attempt to restore the connection between family, love, commitment, and sex is deemed to be an attempt to induce neurotic guilt into the hot bodies and minds of our youth.
Purity and innocence, even among the young, is deemed laughable by many. One former colleague of mine who has a Ph.D. in microbiology came into my office to complain about the use of the word “sinful” (as in “sick and sinful society”) that I had used in an article. “Nothing is sinful,” he affirmed. “What about the rape and murder of a four-year-old?” I asked. “Well, it’s a crime,” he said, “but it’s not sinful.” “What about sexual relations with animals?” I in turn asked. He looked at me with a glance of condescending merriment and said, “Well, different strokes for different folks.”
Do the views of my colleague represent the views of a majority of Americans or even citizens of New York City? Whether they do or not, it seems clear that an educational institution should be upholding a higher moral standard than society. There is a unique, almost categorical, imperative that the youth be encouraged to succeed even in areas where others, we adults, may have failed. Are today’s secular-minded educators even aware that Holy Scripture, both Old and New Testaments, is filled with warnings about lascivious and immoral behavior. Are they aware of the many teachings in the Book of Proverbs warning young men of the moral as well as physical dangers of seductions? Do they not know that in the New Testament Paul told those experiencing their passions and lusts that it is better to marry than burn?
One sex education teacher was explaining to us proudly in the cafeteria her sense of purpose and fulfillment from teaching students how to put on a condom using a demonstration, in class, of unrolling the condom onto a banana or cucumber. To her, this was the sine qua non of bringing today’s teens a realistic and health-oriented education. Her values were expressive of the new post-moral morality. Traditional morality for her was antiquated, out of date. It was not true morality, but only a mindset to be rejected in favor of updated, scientific, and people sensitive values.
However, there are some steps that can be taken to restore right thinking and right behavior.
1. Schools should gather information about the negative effects of Internet pornography, and distribute that information to the students on a regular basis.
2. Schools should regularly celebrate Mothers’ Day and Fathers’ Day in May and June of each year, with speakers and assemblies glorifying the value and virtues of family life.
3. Schools should gather information about abstinence-based curricula which emphasize love, commitment, and family as the context for fulfilling sexuality.
What parent would say to his or her child “if it feels good, do it [as long as you protect yourself from possible disease]?” A principle that emphasizes feeling rather than reason is automatically defective – just consider the history of philosophy to understand this. Further, how does such a principle build and sustain virtue, essential for the sociability of the human race and of our relationship with the Almighty? Therefore, educators can do no less than advocate the upholding of God-given moral law.
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