I would like to respond to Peggy Olson’s letter from the May 18th Tribune. Although I firmly disagree with her on the topic of sex education in the schools, I did find that we have some common ground to work with.

In my recent letter on this topic, I thought I was clear in stating the harm caused by moral-free and value-free comprehensive sex education. I am not opposed to sex education per se, but I am against it if it weakens or destroys the “safe environment” for children in schools. Everyone should want sex education to be given to children in the right environment, at the right time and by the right people with a moral or value system to help the child control his sexual appetite. In fact, it is necessary for the young to understand and respect the beauty of human sexuality in relation to life for a stable marriage and a happy future family life. But it is another thing for a teacher to impersonally teach the activities involved in sex to the young in a classroom without any moral or value framework.

Comprehensive sex education is a sweeping word, which opens the door to programs that give “complete” knowledge, including all or nearly all elements of sexual activity. This kind of sex education goes far beyond the “knowing of how our bodies work, anatomy and physiology of the human reproductive system.”

Again, I hearken back to what our nation was like before the so called “sexperts” began pushing their radicalized vision of moral and value free sex education upon the schools. Life certainly wasn’t perfect, but it was a much more innocent time. Then came the ’60s and the sexual revolution and the broken and shattered lives it brought with it through the promise of “free love.” Take a really good, hard, honest look around you and you will have to agree that if comprehensive moral- and value-free sex education was the answer, it surely backfired in a monumental way.

Our children deserve better. The only answer to this failure is a proper understanding of the “Theology of the Body,” which I challenge everyone to immerse yourselves in. The site www.tobinstitute.org is a great resource. Be not afraid! 

Scott Bute

Alden