Should NFP be Taught in Public Schools?

 
Yes, of course it should be taught. By NFP, however, we mean the sympto-thermal or Billings method of natural family planning. NFP does not infringe upon nor destroy an adolescent’s moral, human or spiritual values. Teaching them the use of artificial birth control methods and contraceptive means is a violation of their basic human rights. Educating them on the knowledge of their natural physical sexual rhythms of ovulation, fertility cycles, temperature changes, days of abstinence, etc. is something good and normal. Such instruction will help them to develop a healthy sexual attitude in relation to their bodies and the later intimate union of marriage.

The question is: why are some parents opposed to this type of education in the schools? Why do they themselves not instruct their own children on these things? The answer is that many of them were raised with a prudish attitude towards physical sex. The problem with them concerns the fundamental attitude they hold towards the body. It stems from a Puritan-Manichaeism sort of thinking in relation to anything physical. To them, the body is a source of evil and must be subjugated. Any mention of physical sex must be repressed and put away. It is something dirty, shameful and taboo. Really now, this exaggerated fear in relation to the body and its normal manifestations and expressions is immature, silly, stupid, infantile, cowardly, backward, blind and ignorant. To accept, respect and be open to the knowledge of the dignity of one’s body is to accept and be open to the dignity of oneself. To reject the body and its natural characteristics is to create an unhealthy and perverse attitude towards it.

The Vatican, in its document on catechetical formation, has asked that NFP be taught to First Communion and Confirmation candidates by their teachers. Couples being prepared for marriage are also to be instructed in it. This is official Catholic teaching. How many Catechists are doing this with their students? In regard to sex education, parents who practice contraception and artificial birth control have nothing to teach or offer to their children. They are contradicting themselves and giving a false testimony to their sons and daughters.  That is why they enter into crisis when they need to talk about these things with them. When  parents themselves have the courage to learn and practice NFP, it will be no problem to pass on a healthy and wholesome sexuality to their own adolescents and youth.

Anthony Mellace