MITIOG – Being Sexual strand – 17/07/2018

Random notes

This topic is highly emotive, so you encourage students to express themselves. Students only
experience positive feelings and challenging feelings as opposed to negative feelings.

Important factor of well-being, can ask students to reflect on their surroundings and to sit and think
about how lucky they are. Lots of research on the benefits of being in a state of wonder and awe.

If you aren’t sure if the message that you are about to convey is contradictory to an understanding of
our inherent worth, you can press a ‘reset button’ and come back to the idea at a later date. This can
be used as a safety reset.

- Protective interrupting by teacher so that students feel safe, i.e. ‘Adam and Eve not Adam
and Steve’ would be inappropriate and has potential to harm those who may feel orientated
towards the same sex.
- Students can use it if you are in a culturally diverse setting, may not be able to revisit the
topic dependent on the track or if inappropriate.

Until year 8 students aren’t taught about gay marriage, if you see two ‘mums’ then the student may
have a step mum and a biological mother, we cannot make these assumptions.

Year 7’s fit into Standard 4

Learning intentions for Today

1. Context for teaching Made in the Image of God – Human sexuality R-12
a) Societal

Consideration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural and spiritual history – Christian must
encounter, learn from and engage with this story.

Multicultural richness and diversity – Reflects a variety of expressions of spirituality and religious
practice

Families come from wide ranging cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds, diverse family patterns.
Not necessarily Catholic, need to be reactive to this.

b) Ecclesial

c) Educational

Allowing opportunities for learning, construction of meaning; on learning to learn, think and
collaborate; on pedagogy and individualised learning; and on technologies for learning.

Diverse in knowledge of Catholicism, range of faith affiliations or none

This diversity brings much opportunity, richness and blessing to the RE classroom

These factors can have varying consequences for learners who are at various stages of Christian
development
Most taught topics: Respect in relationships, the physical, emotional and social changes during
puberty, and the idea that our bodies are our own.

What should be taught in more depth: Gender diversity, violent relationships, love and starting a
relationship, girls wanted to know about staying safe online and ending relationships and boys
wanted to know more about, how to have sex, sexual pleasure, masturbation, different sexual acts
and pornography.

Just because students want this information, doesn’t mean that it is our role to give them it. I.e. Not
professional to talk about how to give pleasure. Wouldn’t be appropriate to teach about Karma
Sutra.

2. Responding to these contexts and CESA protocols

We come from the Catholic church which holds the value of human love in the highest esteem and
supports the prime role of family as a community of love.

Families are considered by the Church to be very foundations of society

Class relationship is necessary. At least 1 term

Introduction to teach the ‘Being sexual’ strand

Inform parents of what will be covered and timing well before commencing program.

PROTOCOLS

Know your content, don’t need to know the whole curriculum but need to know what I am teaching
very well.

Be very aware of your school scope and sequence plan for your year level, DO NOT go beyond that.

Some families will request to have their child withdrawn – ensure that content is restricted to set
lesson times only.

Apply the checklist for resources and familiarise yourself with guest speaker protocol.

Guidelines have been created to be age appropriate and developmental.

Don’t answer questions that make you feel uncomfortable.

Don’t share personal stories

Speak in 3rd person

Use correct terminology

If you have a student who is deliberately trying to disrupt the class or change the direction, you can
say to them ‘That is a really important question, we can talk about it at a later time with your parents
present if you like but that is outside the scope of what I am allowed to teach you at this stage’.

Do not work with guest presenters as they can be unpredictable.

Underpinning principles

A commitment to high quality teaching and learning

Sensitivity in initiating the child and adolescent in the problems of love and life without disturbing
their psychological development

Catholic Pedagogy

“Good pedagogy is good pedagogy”

What makes it Catholic is that we animate good pedagogy out of Catholic understandings of culture,
the human person, and creation more broadly.

3. Purpose of human sexuality education

What do we want our young people to take away from their sexuality education in Catholic schools?

**Discussion on butcher paper** what is sexuality?

Titles:

Identity

- Gender – not just male and female

- Relationships
- Culture
- Psychology

Touch and Expression

- Love
- Romance
- Tenderness

**Discussion on butcher paper** What are our hopes for our kids?

- Confidence
- Positive relationships
- Whole hearted people
- Competent communicators
- Sense of self worth

Sexuality is the effects of all aspects of the human person in the unity of his/her body and soul.

It especially concerns affectivity, the capacity to love and to procreate and in a more general way the
aptitude for forming bonds of communion with others.

Human sexuality includes all the ways in which we live out our core vocation to love:

- Spiritual: connecting and relating with openness to the ‘other’

- Physical: connecting and relating with our bodies
- Cognitive: connecting and relating with reasoning
- Affective: connecting and relating with feelings

Education in human sexuality is a lifelong process, a developmental learning experience that ripens,
evolves, and, it is hoped, matures across the years and the decades.
Christian Anthropology

- Created and evolved

- Individual and social
- Bodily and spiritual
- Free and responsible
- Male and female – based around reciprocity of male and female creating new life, is still
accepting of the fact that there are other genders.
- Sinful and graced

The need for sex education

“It can only be seen in the broader education for love, for mutual self giving”

This will illuminate and enrich the language of sexuality (Joy of love; Pope Francis, 2016)

What do we want for our children/young people?

Whole hearted people

- Believe in their own worthiness

- Courage (different to bravery): to tell the story of who you are with your whole heart
- The courage to be imperfect
- Compassion: kind to self, kind to others
- Connection/Strong sense of belonging: a by-product of authenticity, letting go of who they
thought they should be.

What don’t we want for our children/young people?

Not believing in own worthiness – feels not good enough

- Fear of rejection
- Lack of belief in self-worthiness interferes with ability to make connections
- Fear of imperfections
- Trying to be the self they feel they should be rather than the self they are

Sex education should:

- Provide information
- Be mindful that children and young people have not yet reached full maturity
- Information ust be suited to age and development
- Not to overwhelm with data
- Develop critical abilities to deal with new ideas and messages
- Taught to recognise and seek out positive influences ‘to find joy’
- Taught to recognise the things that cripple their capcity to love
- Educate to defend our personal ‘modesty’
- Teach sensitivity to different expression of love, mutual concern and care.
 4. Broad Themes and content R-12
a) MITIOG
- To invite students to develop an integrated understanding of the human person and
sexuality.
- To emphasise the church’s positive affirmation of human existence and relationship with God
- To understand the sexuality is a fundamental dimension of the human person. It is part of
the physical, moral, psychological, and spiritual realities of life
- To appreciate that sexuality is understood by Christians as an integral part of God’s gift to
humanity, a lens through which we relate to others and reveal God’s love to the world
- To promote and encourage behaviours founded on Catholic values by exploring the spiritual,
physical, moral and psychological dimensions of human sexuality
- To develop an appreciation of the Catholic Church teaching regarding sexuality.
b) Australian Curriculum

HPE structure looks into; ‘personal social and community health’

- Years 3-10 look at; people who are important to them, strategies for relating to and
interacting with others, assertive behaviour and standing up for themselves
- Establishing and managing changing relationships
- Bullying, harassment, discrimination and violence (including discrimination based on race,
gender and sexuality)
- Strategies for dealing with relationships when there is an imbalance of power (including
seeking help or leaving the relationship)
- Puberty and how the body changes over time
- Managing the physical, social and emotional changes that occur during puberty
- Reproduction and sexual health
- Practices that support reproductive and sexual health (contraception, negotiating consent,
and prevention of sexually transmitted infections and blood-borne viruses).
- Changing identities and the factors that influence them (Including personal, cultural, gender
and sexual identities)
- Celebrating and respecting difference and diversity in individuals and communities

5. Specific Content by Year Levels (2 Year bands)

Being Sexual Strand – Standard 4 (Year 7-8)

- Photos on my phone of the curriculum framework for year 7/8.

- We don’t jump straight into the sexual part, we discuss being moral, connectedness &
human.
- If you were to have no passport, no name, no form of identification. Who are you? This is a
question that can direct your class in identifying who they are? What makes them, them?
- Who you are is a reflection of what your values are.

- A foundational belief of the church is that ‘Humans are moral beings commanded to love
God and each other.

- Humans are gifted with freedom of choice, temptation is always present.

 - God gave Jesus as the model of full humanity and humans are redeemed through his life and
sacrifice.

CESA do not want us to be out the front of the classroom delivering content, they want us to
facilitate discussion.

6. Challenges and Opportunities

7. Pedagogy: dialogue, critical thinking, and conscience

8. Resources and Resourcing