I read about the spate of criticism that an Honorary Minister levelled against the Dominican Friar who proposed the official teaching of the Catholic Church, ie the magisterium. Others, unlike the Friar, but like Pope Francis, are placing the emphasis elsewhere.

Having said that, I tend to disagree with the Honorary Minister that education alone will liberate the person and tend to agree with the Friar that restraint and self-control are also needed in good measure. Apart from the fact that education (in this case sex education) does not mean imparting information which must be fully correct, but also of values and parents should be the primary sex educators.

Every information we contribute is value laden. Let us pass on the values we think make us fully human.

Therefore, we should practise restraint and self-control and make it one of the foundations of our educational system. We should help the child and the teenager to acquire self-control and channel their energies to growth and fruitful ways.

I think that a multifaceted approach helps: a good environment and exemplary models, the following of rules, discipline and order, which is also loving and has a human face, and so on.

Some schools seemed to have abdicated this role. They are afraid to confront certain parents and students who disrupt the learning and teaching environment of the school.

Dun Ġorġ (I prefer to address him in the way people knew Saint George Preca) had a system of education in which rules were followed by adolescents and teenagers to help in character building.

 

Joe Portelli

Nadur