Principles Sexual Education

A holistic sexual education pursues the following goals:

• It accompanies young people during the challenging time of integrating their sexual development into a self-acceptance of their person as a whole.
• It helps young people discover their own identity as a man or as a woman and helps them become conscious of their own dignity. This also means developing a positive attitude toward the other sex, getting to know and value its complimentary aspects.
• It communicates knowledge about sexual development and the building of relationships, and in this way enables young people to make responsible decisions in the area of sexuality. This also helps prevent broken relationships and divorces.
• It enables young people to communicate about sexuality, feelings and relationships and to develop the necessary, appropriate and respectful language needed.
• It gives people a holistic approach to friendship, love and fertility and helps them understand the principles of love and sexuality (polarity of the sexes, unconditional love, a true and stable relationship as a shelter for mutual self-giving, desire for children).
• It facilitates the development of a natural, positive and responsible attitude toward sexuality. This includes the ability not only to feel desire, but also the ability to sublimate desire in the exercising of self-control.
• It helps prevent teen pregnancies and abortions and leads to the appreciation of each human being from conception until natural death.
• It helps prevent sexually transmitted diseases.
• It sensitizes young people to the existence of personal boundaries and the possible violation of those boundaries, thus working to counteract sexual violence and pornography.
• It encourages exposure to various value systems at a time when young people in particular are being increasingly put under pressure in the areas of sexual orientation and behaviour. This also empowers them to be tolerant toward people who have a different sexual orientation.
• By putting these goals into reality, sex education helps young people understand sexuality in its many aspects. This enables them to behave in ways that are beneficial for the person as a whole.
• Such a holistic sex education is in the high interests of society. Besides positive benefits for the individual in his or her personal development, it fosters the formation of a generation that is capable of living responsibly in the larger context of generations preceding and following it. It also promotes general health-fostering behaviours and a family and child friendly society.