But Catholic parents who oppose C.S.E. may be missing an opportunity to advocate for something true and good that supports the formation of all young people, not just Catholics. Fertility awareness, which many Catholics are familiar with as part of natural family planning, can make a sex-ed curriculum truly comprehensive. By teaching young people just how fertility works, and not simply how reproduction happens, we can change lives.

C.S.E. is intended as an improvement on the simplistic “you will get pregnant and die” approach to sex ed memorably depicted in the film “Mean Girls”—that is, sex is scary because you can get pregnant or infected with something, so don’t do it until some unspecified time in the future (but since you will do it anyway, use condoms). C.S.E. often includes lessons in how to recognize and report sexual abuse, with older students also learning about consent, contraception and abortion, and issues of gender identification and sexual orientation. (The controversial Rights, Respect, Responsibility curriculum is one example.) Some commonly used material is certainly at odds with Catholic teaching, but there are also lessons about interpersonal relationships that address current concerns for both religious and secular leaders, including the epidemic of depression and anxiety issues among teenage girls in particular.

[It’s an interesting essay, but why would Catholic parents want to adopt a curriculum that is “at odds with Catholic teaching”? Why not craft a curriculum that teaches the science and sociology of fertility within the perspective of Catholic teaching? Don’t tell me that it’s impossible; this sounds like an attempt to divorce fertility from values. Divorcing sex education from values is what got us into the present situation where we have to pass laws to keep educators from trying to teach gender ideology to kindergartners and ban drag shows for pre-adolescents. — Ed]