We recently wrapped up a book discussion group with parents and teachers from my kids’ school. This is a really good book that I think worth sharing. For those who aren’t currently raising children, it could make a good wedding or baptism present. I created a thorough outline as well as some notes regarding other resources shared in this google folder.
PARENTS, CHILDREN
AND
THE FACTS OF LIFE
A TEXT ON SEX EDUCATION FOR CHRISTIAN PARENTS
AND FOR THOSE CONCERNED WITH HELPING PARENTS
By Fr. Henry V Sattler, C.SS.R., Ph.D.
Excerpts from the Publisher’s Preface:
Fr. Henry V. Sattler’s Parents, Children and the Facts of Life will serve as an excellent and much-needed counterpoise to the Godless, public and grossly immodest “sex education” employed in the public schools—and, alas, in all too many Catholic schools. For it will give parents at once both the ammunition to show school authorities that the primary and essential obligation to instruct their own children in sexual matters belongs to THE PARENT and not the school, plus it will more than equip parents for their task.
One might think that the passage of forty years from the printing of the first edition of the book would have rendered it outmoded or grossly dated. But exactly the opposite is the case.
Excerpts from the Forward:
Parents may not entirely consign to others the task of providing for the moral and religious formation of their sons and daughters.
One of the most important phases in this parental duty of promoting the spiritual welfare of the young is sex education.
Most parents would readily admit, the proper fulfillment of this task is by no means easy.
The embarrassment that is likely to accompany the frank discussion of so delicate and personal a matter, the difficulty of choosing the right terms, and the fear that the child will ask questions which they may not be able to answer deter many parents from undertaking their duty, despite the unquestionable fact that in this age of blatant indecency and sexual license the proper sex education of adolescents is vitally necessary if their chastity is to be preserved.
Father Sattler has avoided two extremes which could easily spoil the instruction: on the one hand, vague and unsatisfying statements which are likely to arouse undue curiosity, and on the other hand, vivid and stimulating descriptions that may be a proximate occasion of sin to youthful hearers.
The benefit is greatly increased when a group of parents discuss these points frankly and honestly
It should likewise be noted that this book will also help teachers to discover and fulfill their function in chastity education as delegates and helpers in what is essentially a parental duty.
The book can be purchased on Amazon, Tan Books, ($10 paperback / $6 kindle) and elsewhere.
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