Thomas Nelson Publishing is looking for bloggers who would be willling to receive free copies of certain books in exchange for a review (minimum 200 words) on your blog and on Amazon.  You can write a positive or negative review.  If interested, visit their website for more details and to fill out an application.  There were five books on the list I was interested in but I finally narrowed it down to Reflections of God’s Holy Land.

Also, the Carnival of Homeschooling is posted over at Why Homeschool.

Last but not least, some of you may have noticed that there was no Home School Talk on Monday and I removed the button from my sidebar.  I don’t know exactly why, but last week’s sound issues were sort of the last straw for me.  I haven’t exactly canceled the show, but am deciding how I want to proceed.  I really enjoy doing the interviews, and may see if I can put together a recording a month.

Hat Tip: A Dad First (actually via his “tweets.”)

What’s the matter with kids today?  Well, Chris Erskine of the LA Times shares some thoughts, anyway.  I think we are supposed to relate…hopefully you don’t, really, but I did struggle to not spew forth my mouthful of Assam over Erskine’s observation that perhaps there might be a better way.

“Maybe we should home-school him,” I tell Posh after the first week.

“Spl-WHATTTTT?!!!” Posh says, doing a spit-take with her first mimosa of the day.

And that was hilarious.  For those of you who are new here, or have perhaps forgotten, I’ll share my favorite homeschool criticism of all time.

You people don’t know like you know how to have fun. How sad? No mamoosas with the other moms while the kids are out at school.  Structure and Learning in the Homeschool Environment (comment #27)

‘Cause moms just wanna have fun.  And you can’t do that without a Mimosa or two, I guess.  Maybe that is why Crimson Wife went ahead and made us one.

And for those of you who seriously are looking for a “better way,” I’ll be interviewing Kelly Curtis about her book Empowering Youth today on Home School Talk.  Tune in a 1PM CST, or listen to the archive which will be available shortly after the broadcast from the same link.

kids teenager parenting education homeschool youth empowerment

Some things are just a little difficult to talk about with children. But some of these things can be deadly if not taken seriously. This post and the links associated contain very adult themes, but unfortunately discuss behaviors of children.

At least 82 youths have died from the so-called “choking game,” according to the first government count of fatalities from the tragic fad. CBS News

What is the “choking game?” Essentially, a game in which adolescents strangle themselves to experience the resulting giddiness associated with the sudden return of blood flow. Eighty two deaths may not sound like that many over the course of the year, but statistics on this activity are difficult to compile. Some studies suggest that the practice is a little more common than we might like to admit.

As many as 20 percent of teens and preteens play the game, sometimes in groups, according to some estimates based on a few local studies. But nearly all the deaths were youths who played alone, according to the count complied by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Ibid.

A danger of the public schools? Too much socialization? MomLogic received a response to the reporting of this topic that hits a little closer to home.

Thank you so much for posting this and informing parents. December 11th marked three years since the death of our 16-year-old son from this “game.” We homeschool our children and you’d think our son would have been somewhat sheltered from knowing about this, but he still found out, “played” and died. His two younger brothers found him, which has been a difficult time of healing for them. Talk to your kids about this just as you would drugs, sex, strangers, etc. It’s my daily prayer that my son’s death will help save other kids’ lives. MomLogic

I can’t imagine. A little digging uncovered Loni’s blog, and the story of her son Matthew. His story is not any more tragic because he came from a loving family, a homeschooling family, a Christian family than it would be if he came from any other kind of family. But it makes it seem more threatening, at least to me. This story brings with it evidence that there is no full-proof way to protect our children from the evils of the world.

And there are some things we just do not talk about.

When I first heard of the “choking game,” I actually thought it was referring to something else. Something I first heard about while working with children who were wards of the state. Something that I am even more reluctant to discuss in detail, but it is mentioned in the CBS article which gives some inaccurate information.

Autoerotic asphyxiation does not involve predominantly adult males. Consider the following:

• AEA is most commonly seen in males, ages 13-20.
• Adolescent victims are usually well-adjusted, non-depressed high achievers.
• AEA deaths may account for as many as 6.5% of all teenage suicide, and at least 31% of all adolescent hangings.

From: When Self-Pleasuring Becomes Self-Destruction (pdf)

Well-adjusted, teenage boys. It is a frightening thought, one that I as an adult cannot quite come to terms with. Just how do you breech such a topic with a child? Unfortunately, it may be all too necessary to figure out how…especially since silence may be deadly.

More information: GASP, Games Adolescents Shouldn’t Play, Still Loving My Gabriel.

_____

For something a little more upbeat, see how to show children love with a lump of coal.

Or visit the Carnival of Libertarians hosted at Consent of the Governed.

[tags]homeschooling, parenting, choking game[/tags]

As the primaries move forward and we think more and more about who our next president will be, Michel Smith of the Home School Legal Defense Association appears to be trying to re-invigorate support for the Parental Rights Amendment which would amend the US Constitution to explicitly protect the rights of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children.

It’s possible that in the near future, the United States may significantly weaken the rights of parents to raise their children. Crucial decisions that parents are accustomed to making, such as what our children read, who they associate with, what kind of discipline is used, whether we take them to church, or whether we home-school, all become decisions for the state if the United States ratifies the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). Washington Times

The UNCRC was signed by President Clinton, but has never come before the Senate for ratification. Particularly if Hillary Clinton wins the election, it is feared that the treaty will finally be ratified, becoming the law of the land. The solution, at least according to Michael Smith, is to sign the petition offered by ParentalRights.org. Coincidentally presided over by Michael Farris, the Chairman of HSLDA.

This issue is a difficult one for me, because I find within myself two opposing view points. I am leery of amendments. Regardless of their wording and intended purpose.

The original intent of the Constitution of the United States was to limit the power of the central government. The rights of the people were considered God-given and unalienable. We have drifted far from that vision, and some of our founders saw this inevitable slide even in the arguments for the inclusion of the Bill of Rights. The entirety of Federalist Number 84 by Alexander Hamilton makes for excellent reading on the topic, but the core of the concern is this:

I go further, and affirm that bills of rights, in the sense and in the extent in which they are contended for, are not only unnecessary in the proposed constitution, but would even be dangerous. They would contain various exceptions to powers which are not granted; and on this very account, would afford a colourable pretext to claim more than were generated. For why declare that things shall not be done which there is no power to do? Why for instance, should it be said, that the liberty of the press shall not be restrained, when no power is given by which restrictions may be imposed? I will not contend that such a provision would confer a regulating power; but it is evident that it would furnish, to men disposed to usurp, a plausible pretence for claiming that power. Federalist 84

The Parental Rights Amendment acts as an exception to a power not given to the government to preside over. The central problem that the amendment attempts to redress is not a problem with the Constitution, but a problem with how we have come to view government.

A number of cases are cited by the organization which paint a pretty dire picture for the status of parental rights, at least at the hands of some judges. I do not know any details other than what is presented in the article on the website, but it seems to me that the core issue is not that parental rights are not spelled out clearly enough. It is that the judiciary has begun to stray from the basic concept of the Constitution as an inherently limiting document.

That will not be solved through an amendment. Look at what a New Jersey Superior Court did with the New Jersey homeschooling law. Thankfully, they had no power to mandate anything in their odd opinion, but it clearly demonstrates that law alone will not guarantee that judges rule according to it.

Then there is the issue brought up by Smith in his article: the UNCRC. I’ve talked about it before…before I even had any readers, it looks like. And my opinion is still pretty much the same, strengthened perhaps by the fact that a UN special rappateur recommended that Germany allow homeschooling under the supervision of the state.

But doesn’t it make more sense that to protect ourselves from this treaty, we should simply not sign it? If we can garner enough support in the House and Senate to pass an amendment to the Constitution, shouldn’t we be able to also stop the treaty?

But then, there is the pragmatic side of me. The side that realizes that our judiciary is what it is. And that it is probably difficult for a senator to vote against “the rights of children,” regardless of what the document actually contains. An amendment may not offer much protection, but it offers something.

____

A Woman on Purpose shares some more thoughts on the possibility of a parental rights amendment.   And I have a rare follow-up post, possibly to be ready tonight (1/22/08).

[tags]homeschool, homeschooling, CRC, UNCRC, UN, parental rights[/tags]

Last week, the Cates at Why Homeschool introduced me to the meanest mom on the planet. She put an ad in the paper that says it all:

OLDS 1999 Intrigue. Totally uncool parents who obviously don’t love teenage son, selling his car. Only driven for three weeks before snoopy mom who needs to get a life found booze under front seat. $3,700/offer. Call meanest mom on the planet. AP

But now she is the coolest. Not only did a bunch of bloggers find her parenting style refreshing and inspiring. So did a local DJ, and collection of callers, and some television studios.

Sold! Hambleton, a radio DJ in Fort Dodge, Iowa, received some 70 calls from buyers. And other parents. And emergency room workers. And school counselors. And scores of others wanting to congratulate her for being so Dirty Harry awesome. Washington Post

Dirty Harry awesome about sums it up. Who would have thought that alcohol under your seat would score you a spot on Good Morning America? And invitations to Today, Oprah and Ellen’s show? All wanting exclusivity, so while they sort it out, we can revel in the nation’s appreciation for a mom who sticks by the rules she laid out for her son. I agree with Washington Post staff writer Monica Hesse on this one:

All of which proved one thing [referring to the the tv bookings]: America needed this. Oh boy, did we need this kind of tough love, the kind that says, “I am not your friend. I am your mother. Eat your peas. Now.”

The kind that says, “I don’t care what the other mothers are doing. I am not buying a pony keg for your party, even if I take away the keys to make sure your friends don’t drive home plastered.” Ibid.

So, mean mom, you are cool. And I am happy your son has recognized that you are not the only mom on the planet who thinks so.

Question: Barb from Barb the Evil Genius asks an important question:

While not disagreeing that Mean Moms are good, most of the commenters on the blog where I first read about this ad agreed that Mom was a little out of bounds literally publishing the son’s transgression to the world. What do you think?

Reading this ad published in several papers and shared on several blogs, we are somewhat removed from the situation. We do not know this young man nor his mother, but those in his community do. I know some people are very public about their children’s misbehavior, posting it to blogs, forums and discussing it with friends. Others keep that private.

What do you think, either in relation to this case or in general?

[tags]parenting, meanest mom[/tags]

On September 2, 1903, on the 25th anniversary of the Boys Own Magazine, Sir Frederick Treves advised the young boys of England,

Don’t worry about genius and don’t worry about not being clever. Trust rather to hard work, perseverance, and determination. The best motto for a long march is “Don’t grumble. Plug on.”

You hold your future in your own hands. Never waver in this belief. Don’t swagger. The boy who swaggers–like the man who swaggers–has little else that he can do. e is a cheap-Jack crying his own paltry wares. It is the empty tin that rattles most. Be honest. Be loyal. Be kind. Remember that the hardest thing to acquire is the faculty of being unselfish. As a quality it is one of the finest attributes of manliness.

Love the sea, the ringing beach and the open downs.

Keep clean, body and mind. (Quoted from The Dangerous Book for Boys, By Conn and Hal Iggulden, p. v)

This began as yet another review/recommendation for The Dangerous Book for Boys. But as I thought about what I wanted to say, I realized that more interesting than the book itself was its uncanny popularity. For a book that is no more than a compendium of card games, coin tricks, small projects, stories of battles and biographical sketches to hit the top of bookselling lists in two countries (outsold only by Harry Potter in its first week here in the US!) is an amazing feat for any book.

It is well written. It is full of useful information. Most of all, however, it struck the heart of a need that has long been ignored in English-speaking literature. What do we have that encourages boys to grow up to be young men? We have, in some instances, been so interested in encouraging our girls that they could grow up to do anything and be anything that we have forgotten about our young men in the process. As a child, I remember singing along with a little girl in an animated sketch as she taunted her older brother,

Anything you can do, I can do better.

Anything I can do is better than you.

And I dare say that this mentality is not unique to whatever program it was that I was watching. I do not watch much television, not receiving any actual channels, but when I do I am often surprised at the incessant characterization of men as bumbling fools in need of their wives/girlfriends to keep order in their lives.

What have we given our young men to aspire to?

And in case you just have to hear that song again, here it is.

[tags]parenting, boys, Dangerous Book for Boys[/tags]

School is well underway for most of us, and we are far enough into the year to begin feeling behind. Stressed, we begin looking over the fence at the Jones’, where the grass is always greener and the children never whine. Meeting with other homeschoolers brings a mixture of encouragement and feelings of inadequacy as we begin to second guess those plans which looked so good on paper. If this describes you, you are off to a great start. After all, there is nothing mankind desires more or works harder for than misery. A brief survey of world literature reveals our fascination with sin, danger and tragedy. If we cannot experience it personally, we do so vicariously through what have become the classics. Even the quest for happiness robs our happiness in the end as Paul Watzlawick so aptly noted in his book, Anleitung zum Unglücklichsein (Guide to Unhappiness). To help you along the way to maximizing your unhappiness, I have written the following guide. Some of these steps may come naturally to you; others may require practice. With diligence, however, anyone can achieve the unhappiness they so earnestly desire.

1. Copy the public schools.

Buy desks, set them up in neat rows facing the front of the room and invest in a pointer. Even if you have only one child, make him raise his hand to answer questions. Schedule restroom breaks. Let the clock dictate your every move. Giving a toddler a megaphone is a good stand in for a disruptive PA system.

2. Choose your curriculum based on what everyone in your homeschool group is using.

Better yet, find a stranger online and ask her. Don’t consider your temperament or your child’s interests. After all, these other people have way more experience than you. Remind yourself of that continually when things are not going well.

3. Contact every curriculum publisher.

Make sure they have your correct address and get on as many mailing lists as possible. When you first get those glossy catalogs, you will think that this is having the opposite effect than what is intended here. The texture, the smell and all the neat stuff! But then you realize just how much stuff is out there. And how much stuff you do not have. There is always one more book and one more manipulative set to squeeze out of any budget. After all, you only have one chance to educate your children properly. Never let yourself become content with what you already have.

4. Make a clear distinction between school and life.

Do not consider the educational value of trips to the zoo, visits with grandparents and vacations. The more narrowly you define education, the more likely you are to avoid spontaneous “experiences” in favor of “the book.” This also helps maximize the stress of wondering if you are doing enough.

5. Take everything personally.

Everyone has a bad day now and again. Even children. Use this to its fullest potential by taking these opportunities to question your parenting. When your child says, “This is boring,” consider it a direct reflection on your character and personality. Think what it will be like when they talk to their bosses that way. Wonder what your homeschooling friends would say. Most importantly, try to isolate where you have gone wrong as a parent and fret over the permanent damage you must have caused.

This is intended only as a cursory introduction to maintaining general unhappiness in your homeschool. There are many other proven techniques for making yourself miserable and they all progress rather naturally to making those around you unhappy as well. For those of you who are more seasoned, or have just caught on quickly to the art of creating unhappiness, please feel free to add your own suggestions. I will add links to anyone who shares a proven technique for increasing the level of unhappiness in our homes. Even if it is not specific to homeschooling.

Misery loves company.

Two bloggers are so on top of things, they wrote their posts before me:

Yvonne of Grow Your Writing Business shares insight into how to kill your blog. (I’ll be adding my own thoughts to the meme this weekend.)

Denise of Freelancing Journey lets you in on the secrets of failing at business.

homeschooling, humor

Since I was able to find the brochure Kö rper, Liebe, Doktorspiele (Body, Love, Playing Doctor) (pdf, in German, free download), I wanted to revisit the topic and provide some more information. Some general observations:

This brochure is a forty page document with the goal of describing the psycho-sexual development of children and assisting the parent in taking an active role in the sexual development of their children. Much of it is simply a rather conversational handling of the normal stages children go through and is not much different from what you will find in most books about infant development. It offers some vague references to research which has nothing to do with sexual development but to the importance of touch to healthy development. The research is not cited, however. Nothing in it is particularly shocking. Or at least it shouldn’t be. (edited for clarity…I make this point further down, but it is not shocking because it has been going on for awhile and similar things are advocated here as well).

How troubling you will find the document as a whole depends on how you respond to the analogy presented in the introduction (my translation):

In areas dealing with sexuality, it is continually shown that parents are unsure and therefore react awkwardly. It may be observed, for example, that through routine care, arms, nose, toes, mouth, etc. are named and often playfully caressed but that this conspicuously does not occur with the genitals, especially not with those of daughters: these parts are left out of the naming and caressing. This unconscious act has consequences, however: The child not only notices that his arm is his arm, but also that he has a nameless area, at least one, that is not accepted and petted as intensively or as joyfully as other regions of the body. (page 6)

Just as you speak to your child, tickle his tummy and count his precious toes, you should attend regularly, physically and playfully with his genitalia so that he develops a healthy self-image and his sexuality is not repressed. In fact, there is an underlying current throughout the text that implies that the child will be harmed by setting boundaries on such normal activities as self-stimulation and “playing doctor.” Strictly raised children, it tells us, will become fixated on the forbidden. Not to mention the fact that they will not be able to satisfactorily enjoy this aspect of their bodies when they are older. No research is offered, and exactly what is determined as “strict” is vague. In fact, it even points out that there is very little research in this area. While it emphasizes that you should not touch your child or allow yourself to be touched in such a way that makes you uncomfortable, there is the constant suggestion that if you are uncomfortable with this form of touch, there is something wrong with you, ie., you were raised in an overly strict home or were molested yourself.

The goal of this text is decidedly different from most similar texts I have encountered in the United States, and this would lend to the shock many have upon reading about it. Here, when we talk about sexual education, most of us are talking about where babies come from and how to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. That alone raises enough controversy in American public life. As a preK teacher, I got to oversee a bit of sex ed with four year olds. It involved the counselor coming to my room, reading “Sammy the No-No Seal” to the kids and telling them that no one should touch the areas of their bodies normally covered by a swim suit. While I contend we have a pretty sad state of affairs when the state has to discuss such issues with children, there was nothing controversial about anything in the lesson.

It did not involve songs like that quoted in Lifesite’s article. The song actually gets more graphic after the part they cut off, but I cannot quite bring myself to post it here. Basically, it emphasizes how good it feels to be touched like that. Then there is the lovely play which goes along with it. As described on the BZgA website, it is about a fairy who could have helped a bear named Po (Bottom) but instead just watched him fall. Why? She was bewitched as a child and could neither touch nor be touched or “something” would happen. She finally does and something does happen. Something good.

It sounds quite similar to the way the subject is handled in this brochure. Setting boundaries is repressive and causes the children harm. Because sexual education is not about reproduction and “safe sex.” It is about accepting the child as a sexual being, and encouraging the child to take satisfaction in this aspect of his or her body, beginning at the age of one. This includes allowing those curious hands to touch their own genitalia, that of other children the same age and of the parents. It is about more than the “dry facts of life” but about lovingly escorting them to the discovery of their own sexuality as a source of physical pleasure. It is about the sexualization of children.

This philosophy is not unique to German kindergartens, however, and is why I say there is nothing particularly surprising in this booklet. Harmful to Minors, the Perils of Protecting Children from Sex by Judith Levine, for example, argues for the same approach to juvenile sexuality.

Sex is a wonderful, crucial part of growing up, and children and teens can enjoy the pleasures of the body and be safe, too. In this important and controversial book, Judith Levine makes this argument and goes further, asserting that America’s attempts to protect children from sex are worse than ineffectual. It is the assumption of danger and the exclusive focus on protection—what Levine terms “the sexual politics of fear”—that are themselves harmful to minors. University of Minnesota Press

In Human Sexuality, An Encyclopedia, edited by Robert Francoeur, we learn:

Children depend on adults, therefore how they are expected to behave sexually depends on the values and norms guiding the thoughts and actions of their parents and others. The sexual socialization of infants and young children in the United States has been largely the responsibility of their mothers throughout the 20th century. Generally, her task has been to discourage sexual self-stimulation, inhibit sexual impulses toward family members, supervise and thus frustrate attempts at sexual play with peers, and teach children to be wary of strangers. Her task, generally with the full support of her husband, includes information control. The family attempts to govern how, when, and how many of the “facts of life” the child learns. As part of the conspiracy of silence, parents maintain a secrecy and privacy concerning their own sexual activity. Sears indicates a number of methods used as aids to sexual control in the home (e.g., closed bedroom doors, separate sleeping arrangements for each child, separate bathing, and early modesty training). Such methods have an implicit goal of keeping dormant the young child’s pervasive curiosity and imitativeness, postponing the onset of sexual self-gratification, and limiting sexual activity.

This is why abstinence is viewed as child abuse and why sexual education is so important in the public school curriculum. It is a Brave New World.

For a very long period before th
e time of Our Ford, and even for some generations afterwards, erotic play between children had been regarded as abnormal (there was a roar of laughter); and not only abnormal, actually immoral (no!): and had therefore been rigorously suppressed.

A look of astonished incredulity appeared on the faces of his listeners. Poor little kids not allowed to amuse themselves? They could not believe it.

–Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, p. 32

Poor little kids. Poor repressed kids. Poor kids raised in religious homes. After all, the outcry against this sexualization is merely a politicized attempt by religious fundamentalists to use this issue for their own gains, namely to prevent the efforts of organizations and engaged pedagogical experts to create a sexually friendly education of children which delights in the body and sensuality. How dare they not allow those children to amuse themselves?

Related: State sanctioned child molestation

Körper liebe doktorspiele, sex ed

While I was living in Germany, one thing really stood out to me that I have never really experienced in the United States: the sense of community. There, when someone says “drop by anytime,” they mean it and will be insulted if you never show up. Here, we make superficial invitations, accept them casually, but never would dream of actually following through. In the area where I lived, tea was served at 10, 4 and 8 and dropping in at these times was never an imposition.

I’ve been reflecting on this a lot recently, because I have been feeling painfully isolated. My husband works for the railroad, so is gone a lot. We live several hours from my family. And we really have never made any real friends since moving here. Acquaintances, yes, but no one I feel comfortable just calling out of the blue to chat with.

I’ve tried, but it really seems like I’m just in a different place than those with whom I should naturally connect. The homeschoolers in our church meet now and again, but they are looking for an evening out. That would be wonderful…but I am not going to hire a sitter just to go have a cup of coffee with the ladies from church. All of the social functions the women put together in our church presume a father who is home in the evenings. So I feel a little shut out.

And I would so desperately like for my children to really know what community means.

We have given her plenty of social opportunities. She is involved with Sparks at church and loves her karate class, where she even gets to teach the beginners once in awhile. She is a natural leader with a strong personality and this has given her a good means to develop her God-given talents. This year, she will be starting 4-H which will allow her to meet some children a little closer to home. And, of course, there are always the children in the neighborhood.

I would like to set up some volunteer work for her. There is a lot for her to learn serving others, but something seems strange about driving her into Lincoln in order to teach her some sort of lesson about Christian love. It seems so disconnected from how things are supposed to work. What I would really like is to know our neighbors well enough to teach my children about community service in our own community. I would like my daughter to learn to act when she hears that the lady down the street broke her hip rather than just say, “How awful!”

I would love for her to grow up knowing our neighbors, pulling weeds for them, walking their dogs and helping with simple chores here and there when they are out or need help for some reason. But no one is ever home. There are few things as still as a neighborhood in America during normal business hours, while “after hours” is an endless stream of rushing about to squeeze everything in.

How do you teach community when there appears to be so little community left?

This post is part of Back to Homeschool Week being hosted by I have to say…Check out some more posts on the topic by following the links she is collecting over there.

homeschooling, homeschool, community, socialization

Updated to add: I am printing off a copy of this brochure as I type, so will give an update after reading it. Here it is.

Governments all over the world put out tons of these kinds of brochures. I used to peruse the offerings from our very own Department of Education and found some pretty interesting things. (I mean that in a good way.) Never anything like this, from the German Ministry of Family Affairs:

“Fathers do not devote enough attention to the clitoris and vagina of their daughters. Their caresses too seldom pertain to these regions, while this is the only way the girls can develop a sense of pride in their sex,” reads the booklet regarding 1-3 year olds. The authors rationalize, “The child touches all parts of their father’s body, sometimes arousing him. The father should do the same.” Lifesite News

When I was pregnant in Germany, I became interested in the topic of infant massage. So I went to the library to find out more. The first book I came across paid particular attention to the massaging of the genitalia in order to stimulate proper sexual development. So I lost interest in infant massage very quickly. That was nine years ago, so it is not really surprising that this would have gained acceptance in the mean time.

But maybe, just maybe, something was lost in translation? I went searching for a little more information. The press release announcing their availability, free of charge, is dated 2001 and lets us no that the Federal Center for healthy sexual education would like to support parents with difficult topics, including how the parent can accompany the child through the sexual development of their children.

The pamphlets are listed on the BZgA website, with the notice that the publications have been pulled and are temporarily unavailable. This was in reaction to protest from a parent. I am hoping that the reason this took six years is because it took it that long for anyone to read it. Who could read this and not question what is being promoted:

The vagina and especially the clitoris, rarely receive any attention during tender caressing (either from the father or the mother) and make it more difficult for the young girl to develop pride in her sexuality. Spiegel

I’m sorry, but parental fondling of the genitalia does not promote healthy sexual development. To their credit, when the complaint was lodged, the brochure was pulled. But did they actually read it before they made it available?

Irene Johns of the Child Defense League says

Although the brochures are meant differently, pedophiles could use them as justification. Ibid.

No kidding. It appears that they are training good parents concerned about the development of their children in the art.

Minister of Family Affairs Ursula von der Leyen (CDU) characterized certain statements as “on the border.”

A few of the formulations are misleading and have a double meaning. Ibid.

Since the brochure is unavailable and I am only looking at some pulled quotes, perhaps this is accurate. But it seems like a lame defense from a governmental entity that knows most people will never actually read the document in question. Forgive the mistrust. The German educational system has already developed a reputation for its sexual education. And therein lies the problem.

The co-author of the Hessian Sexual Education Guidelines stated several years ago, “We need the sexual stimulation of the students in order to bring about the socialist restructuring of society and the do away with the obedience to authority, including the love of a child to its parent. Gruende fuer Homeschooling

At any rate, the brochures are not presently available…in Germany. But the Swiss Child Defense League has already expressed interest in adopting the suggestions.

There has been an ongoing discussion for years, reports Spiegel. But the original focus group received the brochures positively and praised them for their content and presentation. The government is merely following suit as the morality of the people declines.

Hat tip: Judy Aron and No Apology