Reframe Sex Education into Morality Training

How about we retool sex education into morality training?

As I sit and write, I wonder what the reactions to this might be. On one side, there would be those who ask just who I think I am, that I should thrust my values on others. Another segment of them would be on the verge of disapproval, but would want to know a little more what I had in mind before opting against the idea.

Then, there would be those who say morality training is what we already have. They would say it is already being done right. I hope they are right, but fear sex ed isn't always geared as much toward high morals as I would like.

Somewhere along the line, someone would agree with me. If we are to teach sex education at all, the emphasis should not be on what sex is all about, but what morality is all about. Rather than sex being the main topic, and morality fitting in here and there, I would like morality to be the chief topic, with the how-to of sex being discussed only within the framework of how it is done in a moral way.

Discuss everything you like -- contraceptives, same-sex relationships, etc. -- but teach them only as how they fit into a moral lifestyle. Teach love and respect for all people, and allow students to have their own views, but teach morals.

Next year will mark the 100th anniversary of sex education being taught in a major American city, Chicago having introduced it in 1913. (I don't know whether it was taught in smaller cities at all before that.)

Why not mark the anniversary with a sweeping shift towards morality?

This is important, to me. I cherish that a nation should teach itself values, that it should strive for them, and teach its children them, and practice them as adults. I wonder if we, rather, at times only teach what sex is, if in some of our classes we teach too much of the how-to and not enough of the when-to.

Let us turn it around. As we mark the 100th anniversary of sex education in public schools, let us reframe sex education into morality training. This would be significant, a worthy matter, an endeavor helping the people of our state become, as a whole, a better people.