Paul Goble
Staunton, Aug. 24 – The Putin regime has replaced sex education courses with classes in family studies, a nod to its traditional values intended to boost the birthrate in the Russian Federation. But not only won’t it do that, Tatyana Chuvilkova says; this change will also lead to more problems in society as a whole.
The Russian psychologist says this change in fact is “bad for many reasons. If a child isn’t learning from normal sources about anatomy, physiology, where children come from, hiw own health, and bodily limits, he will find out about this from god knows where and it will be impossible to control the content of this information” (currenttime.tv/a/semevedenie-vmesto-seksprosveta/33089044.html).
School courses on sex education help correct misconceptions children have from their parents or from other sources. But now without them, she argues, “we will not be able to ensure the adequacy of all parents because there are religious fanatics, others not very healthy in psychological terms, and still others who are simply ignorant.”
Chuvilkova says it is dangerously naïve to think that courses about family life will boost the birthrate. There are too many forces in society working against that and in fact they will continue to drive the birthrate down regardless of what the government may try to do. For better or worse, that is a given of modern life.
Moreover, some of the ideas children will get about gender differences, LGBT people, and personal space from their parents or the media will lead to move conflicts and even violence within families and in the broader society, she suggests.
She also expresses concerns about how teachers will handle the family life courses. If they treat such classes as a place to propagandize traditional values, values that do not correspond with the lives that pupils see about them, that will “only increase frustration among the children.”
And nothing good will come from that.
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