whatyoulookingat

MediaWatch

A SEXUALITY workshop at Anderson Junior College a week ago sparked an uproar after some participants complained about it online and to the school.

The four-hour workshop run by church-based group Family Life Society irked some of its participants when it put down contraceptive sex and rejected abortion and embryonic stem-cell research. The entire second year cohort of the college attended the talk.

A handful of students posted complaints on their blogs, another started a thread in an online forum and one even wrote directly to the organisation. The forum attracted some 120 comments in six days while a posting on blog bulletin Tomorrow.sg was read by nearly 700 people.

One student griped that the workbook they were given seemed to promote the organisation's beliefs rather than present facts.

The student, who declined to be named and goes simply by his online moniker Cygig, started the active thread on the online forum at www.spug.net He said in one posting: 'It seemed like I was being brainwashed.'

His schoolmate, Tay Wei Kiat, said: 'They did not clearly state the source of their opinions and instead attempted to spread their beliefs to everyone attending the workshop by asking everyone, regardless of their individual beliefs or religion, to write down things like 'I must condemn masturbation and in-vitro fertilisation'.'

They admitted that large parts of the programme - which focused on goal-setting and abstinence - were fine. Their beef was with isolated statements.

For example, the programme workbook had this to say about contraception: 'The sterilised sexual act is not much different in its meaning from an act of mutual masturbation whereby the couple seeks to use each other (their bodies) to derive sexual pleasure.'

Another section listed 'adult instead of embryonic stem-cell research' alongside 'absolute respect for life' and 'life is a gift' as things to 'promote, protect and cherish'.

Under Ministry of Education guidelines, schools are expected to provide eight hours of sexuality education to upper secondary students and four hours to tertiary students. However, many schools are going above and beyond the time requirements - often engaging external vendors to do so.

posted by JT @ 9:52 PM