By Anthony Barich
CATHOLIC education – both secondary and tertiary – has a crucial role to play in dispelling the myths perpetuated by a relativistic society that does not see beyond individual desires to the greater good, the Perth Archdiocesan director of Catholic Marriage Education Services (CMES) said.
Derek Boylen told Billings educators on 16 July that, increasingly, young women in high school are less likely than young men to believe that marriage has advantages over cohabitation or staying single, he said, which is why education is so crucial at both secondary and tertiary level in Catholic institutions.
Therefore, “better education in schools is the number one priority to change this perception,” he said.
“A lot more education is needed in Catholic schools and in our universities to educate people about cohabitation and its possible effects.” Such data needs to be in the curriculum in Catholic schools, he said.
It is also to communicate to students and parents that there is no research to suggest that there are any negative factors linked with not living together prior to marriage, he said.
Educating parents is crucial also, he said, as many young couples are being pressured by their own family to live together, as “parents aren’t encouraging them to make healthy decision for their lives”. “There’s definitely a place through campus ministry and the Department of Education in Catholic universities; and in school psychology departments, to talk about the research around cohabitation effects,” he said.
“The information provided needs to be rigorous and scientific, then students will be more open to hearing it, otherwise they switch off as they just think it’s ‘Catholic propaganda’.
“Forming teachers is also important, as they need to be aware of this information so that when they talk to students they have the right information.”
WA Catholic Education Religious Education director Debra Sayce said schools throughout the Archdiocese have units in Religious Education that teach about relationships from the younger primary years, and units on sexuality, looking at men and women, on being a girl and a boy and units on vocations and marriage as a Sacrament, especially in the year 10 and year 12 programme.
Asked whether students are taught the social science data that Mr Boylen mentioned showing the dangers of cohabitation, Mrs Sayce said students have access to media to locate that information and “it may be touched on”, but “our main emphasis is why the Church teaches what it does on the sanctity and Sacrament of Marriage and why children should be had within the context of marriage. The “vocation element” is particularly important in Catholic education, she said, as vocations for single people are just as valid as that of Marriage and Holy Orders. In this context, she said, teachers could present social data around cohabitation in a contemporary context.
Health education units also look at relationships and sexuality, she said, and “I’m certain that teachers even in other subjects like English would incorporate the religious dimension in the Catholic traditon. I would hope they would get that Catholic dimension in the other subjects as well,” she told The Record.
The health syllabus focuses on “right and respectful“ relationships. “The ‘whole person’ is taught rather than one dimension of the person; and how we teach it is very important, as we’re called to be whole people,” she said. How this is done varies between teachers, she added.
“Parents are the primary educators of their children and much depends on how a child is brought up at home,” she said.
“We know it’s tough with some families but we’re there to support parents in their role by teaching the children about the Catholic tradition.”