Orthodox Metropolitan says sex education book defiles children
But Alena Tsikhanava, a staff with the Minsk eparchy, told the European Radio for Belarus, what exactly caused Metropolitan’s concern.
“I have this book in front of me and I am looking for everything that has been marked. Let’s take for example the chapter that deals with safe forms of sexual relations. It says that masturbation, massage, rubs, hugs and touching the genitals are safe. Hazardous forms of sexual relations include anal sex, vaginal sex…”, she commented.
Filaret was also worried that this book was approved by the Ministry of Education of Belarus. However, Georgi Butrym, the chief of department at the ministry, does not confirm that.
“This book was published by UNISEF ten years ago. It has never been recommended. The new Ministry of Education’s sustainable development program, approved in January, does not use notions like “sexual” development. We stick to the notions like “gender culture”, “gender education” and “morality”, he told our radio.
Textbook author Ludmila Durejka too confirmed to the European Radio for Belarus that the Ministry of Education did not approve her book for school. Yet, the book should not be described as a bad one, she thinks.
“This textbook came out in a small circulation. We would quarrel with the church about it as far as ten years back. There is nothing wrong in this book. It tells about friendship between boys and girls and what methods and forms should be used for their relationship.
In other words, it is a totally positive book. Personally, I would publish it in a new edition. Simply, I would perhaps change the name and remove the last chapter which caused concerns from the Orthodox Church,” the author said.
The book was distributed among schools immediately after release. Some schools used the other literature. Nelly Ksianevich, a teacher at School No 2 in Zhodzina told our radio she developed a Family Relations course herself.
“I developed it myself, taking use of the books by the other authors that wrote on this topic. So I did what I thought was necessary. Sex education is a very important part of schooling. There are some extremes ranging from children being taught how to put condoms on to poor anatomy classes when kids do not get a proper knowledge of human sexual behavior.
This should be done delicately. It is of course easier to shut your eyes to the existence of this problem. Look how many abortions are reported afterwards. I respect Filaret greatly, but they should propose a variant that would satisfy all,” she said.
Uladzislau Zavalniuk, a Catholic priest at the Red Cathedral in Minsk, proposes the following:
“Live words from parents are the most important in this regard”.
While parents are looking for the right words, the authors of the textbooks have already found and published them.
Photo by jurfix.ykt.ru
