Wednesday, August 04, 2004
Catholics R Us
Hrmph. What was I saying about having opinions? Here's the situation: I am teaching my wonderful, lively Advanced class and we are having a discussion/debate about what topics they believe are hypothetically suitable/necessary for inclusion in secondary school education. The students are mostly about 14-20 years old, so I was frankly aghast at some of their seemingly uniformly held views:
*Homosexuality should not be discussed in schools because the church does not accept it. One student asked me if I 'accepted' homosexuality. I found that question rather quaint - it's not really up to me, is it, love?
*The concept of Birth Control should be taught as abstinence only. As one boy, bless him, put it: "Men should think of all women as like their mothers, and their mothers didn't have sex with other men before they married their fathers, and so men shouldn't then wish to disgrace other women, who will one day be mothers too".
*Everyone should be a virgin when they get married because then they will have better families.
*Reigion should be taught in all schools. God is their hero, and they would like to learn more about Him. One student said that she had just been confirmed, and believes that every school everywhere should teach Catholicism.
I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when I fully realised: wow, these kids are CATHOLIC. It's not like that's a hidden secret, hell, this country is alledgedly over 90% Catholic... what I mean to say is that even these teens have very, very stereotypically Catholic opinions. It's not that they aren't valid opinions, I just wasn't prepared for the blanket uniformity of them. I know that they are just repeating what they have been told many times at school and church; the concepts that form the foundation of their beliefs. But kids, give your head a shake!
*Homosexuality should not be discussed in schools because the church does not accept it. One student asked me if I 'accepted' homosexuality. I found that question rather quaint - it's not really up to me, is it, love?
*The concept of Birth Control should be taught as abstinence only. As one boy, bless him, put it: "Men should think of all women as like their mothers, and their mothers didn't have sex with other men before they married their fathers, and so men shouldn't then wish to disgrace other women, who will one day be mothers too".
*Everyone should be a virgin when they get married because then they will have better families.
*Reigion should be taught in all schools. God is their hero, and they would like to learn more about Him. One student said that she had just been confirmed, and believes that every school everywhere should teach Catholicism.
I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when I fully realised: wow, these kids are CATHOLIC. It's not like that's a hidden secret, hell, this country is alledgedly over 90% Catholic... what I mean to say is that even these teens have very, very stereotypically Catholic opinions. It's not that they aren't valid opinions, I just wasn't prepared for the blanket uniformity of them. I know that they are just repeating what they have been told many times at school and church; the concepts that form the foundation of their beliefs. But kids, give your head a shake!
