Officials in Basel [Switzerland] have agreed to rename the “sex box” after receiving some 3,000 letters of protest from parents angered by the controversial trove ofwooden penises and fabric vaginas set to be used in a new sex education programme for playschool and primary school kids.
Christoph Eymann, Basel education minister and member of the liberal democrat party (LDP), responded to parent’s protests in an interview with SonntagsBlick.
“It was no doubt stupid to call it a ’sex box’ – we will change that. But we will stick to our goal: to get across to children that sexuality is something natural. Without forcing anything upon them or taking anything away from their parents,“ he said.
Many parents say they do not understand why sex education needs to be taught to children as young as four.I can see the point of educating teens about sex, but four year olds?
Eymann said he understood that one line in the programme, “touching can be enjoyed heartily”, could be misconstrued, but insisted: “It is not about ‘touch me, feel me’. We want to tell the children that there is contact that they may find pleasurable, but some that they should say ’no’ to. Kids can unfortunately can become victims of sexual violence already at playschool age."
Eymann said he would prefer if sex education was taught to children at home but argued that education officials needed to respond to the realities of today.
“We currently live in an oversexualised society. There is uncontrolled distribution of pornographic material that can reach young children. Some primary school children know the TV schedule until 2am. We would like to offer these children firm support, which is often not available in the family. The box is only an aid. I trust the teachers to approach the material with care.”Yes, we do live in an oversexualized society. However, making it further oversexualized is not the solution. And, this is perhaps the worst part:
Some parents have called for their children to be exempted from sex education. Eymann says he is strictly against exemptions, although he is aware this will not make him many friends:
“Primary school may be the only big audience that our society has. The shared values that it teaches are very important. I would definitely like to keep this. The explanatory lesson can be portrayed in a way that doesn’t offend“, he said.This is one of those things that would make me check the date if it weren't August (in case it were April 1st). Still, I have a difficult time thinking any sane person would actually think this is the solution to anything. While I am opposed to government intervention into the actions of people in private (as long as they are not causing harm to anyone), it is clear to me that children, especially children this young, are not rational, and cannot understand sex and what its significance is. Sex is a natural thing, but, it has the capability of causing problems when it is not understood rationally. I would prefer to live in a society where sex is not out in the open, where it is private.
In addition, it is totally unacceptable for parents not to be able to pull their children out of this program.
NOTE: I almost titled this post "Mental Porn for Pedophiles" but I decided not to.