Evaluation of the Concept of Sexuality in the “Life Skills General Programme” from the Perspective of Catholic Church Teaching

Abstract

The compulsory Life Skills General Program (LSGP) started this September in Lithuanian general education schools. The authors of the LSGP state that the new program has only a small part of integrated sexuality education in it. However, evaluating the program from a worldview point of view, it is clear that the program is dominated by a post-modern worldview (not only in the segments on sexuality education). Postmodernism treats human beings as “products of a socially constructed reality.” For the first time since the restoration of Lithuania's independence, the compulsory curriculum of general education schools in Lithuania introduces a concept of the human person and sexuality that contradicts the intrinsic values of the human person and the teaching of the Catholic Church. The teaching of the Catholic Church is the background for Catholic religious education.

Methodology used in the work. The assessment of the concept of sexuality in the LSGP was carried out using a qualitative content analysis method. The evaluation process consisted of several stages: 1) theoretical structural analysis of the concept of sexuality according to the teachings of the Catholic Church and the identification of the evaluation categories; 2) examination of the LSGP and the selection of the concept of sexuality and its contexts in the text of the LSGP following the identified categories; 3) discussion of the evaluation data obtained.

The results of the evaluation. An assessment of the concept of sexuality in the Life Skills program in light of the teaching of the Catholic Church reveals that the concept of sexuality in the LSGP does not correspond to any of the four purified categories of sexuality: 1) Sexuality as a different but equally valuable way of being a human being: as being a woman and a man. 2) Sexuality is inseparable from the capacity of men and women to self-giving in love; 3) Chastity education is essential for the capacity of a person to self-giving in love; 4) The two dimensions of sexuality: love and procreation are inseparable. According to the results of the evaluation, it must be stated that the LSG program is not based on a binary sex system; the topics of sexuality are included in the program's area of “Safe and Healthy Individuals,” which deals with situations that are dangerous to human health. On this basis, it can be argued that the program presents sexuality as a dangerous phenomenon for human health. In summary, it must be stated that the LSGP concept of sexuality is fundamentally inconsistent with the TCC’s conception of sexuality and its principles of education, as well as contradicting the conception of sexuality and the human person in Catholic religious education. LSGP therefore raises very serious concerns about the possible violation of the constitutional right of Catholic parents to educate their children according to their own beliefs