Light in the tunnel

"Education of Children in the Family" was the main theme of the 15th international conference "Choose the Life" held on 22-23 March in Rajecké Teplice. The event is traditionally organized by civil association Forum for Life and non-profit organization Yes for Life and it gathers experts from Slovakia and abroad who present their views on various topics regarding the principal issue of discussion.Changes in perception of family. The situation regarding changes in perception of the family in the Slovak society after 1989 was introduced by Martin Slosiarik from marketing and research agency Focus, Bratislava. As he said, despite the gloomy moods in the society and negative prognosis in regard to demography, there is a "light in the tunnel". According to the results of a survey conducted on more than a thousand respondents, the family is still number one priority among inhabitants of Slovakia and its importance statistically even increased in the past twenty years from 86.7% to 89.5%. According to the survey, the most principal condition for happy marriage remains fidelity. On the other side, the factor of "children" as a condition of happy marriage has dropped down by 20% since 1989, which gradually leads to the demographic crisis mentioned above. Respondents of the survey were also asked the question about the priorities in education of children. While in 1991 "decency" dominated among the results, actual research surprisingly pointed to "ability to work hard" as a priority in raising children in Slovakia. Slosiarik also introduced numbers regarding increasing divorce rate, growing average age of motherhood and a fact that Slovakia has experienced a rapid fall in the area of birthrate which has brought the country to the last position within the European Union. Education as deterioration of values. The main lecture was delivered by renowned German sociologist and publisher Gabriele Kuby. She spoke about education of children in Germany and other western european countries, pointing to inapropriate teaching in the area of sexuality which results in "deformation of attitude of children and young people towards marriage, family, God and society". According to Kuby, children are given the information about existence of several kinds of family, including so-called "rainbow partnerships", they are encouraged to engage in sexual games and in a very early age they get information about pornography, sexual practice and use of contraception as a "responsible way" to avoid pregnancy. The speaker related this kind of education to increasing number of sexual abuse, mainly in the age of 14-16 years and warned from the consequences of indifferent attitude of parents towards this situation. "Fathers and mothers should go to school and clearly say what they want and what they don’t want", appeals Gabriele Kuby, inviting parents to cooperate on education of their children.Education to love and responsible parenthood. Although in the countries of the middle and eastern Europe including Slovakia the situation is not so serious, experts in education are deeply concerned about the future. Methodical guidebook on sexual education on the second level of basic schools published in 2007 has been used in many schools, despite the protest of Catholic Church against its accreditation. "Our Church defends dignity of a person from conception until natural death. If the document is not based on these values, we can’t agree with it", explains spokesman of the Bishops’ conference, Jozef Kovácik, adding that the guide book introduces "gender based sexual education reduced to sexual literacy and prevention from unprotected sex, sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancy". Marek Michalcík, vice-president of Forum for Life, pointed to the fact that parents have almost no possibility to influence this development which – especially in Christian families – "contradicts fatally with the values transmitted to children by their mother and father". In this regard, Zuzana Lauková, director of the Center of Billings Ovulation Method in Poprad, presented a "TeenSTAR program" as an instrument for education of children to love and parenthood at schools. As she said, it represents an "alternative" to aggresive sexual education common at schools in Germany and some other western countries, as well a "solid base for a long-term preparation for marriage based on love and mutual respect". Currently, the program is being introduced in family and catechetical centers all over the country, but Lauková expressed a wish to integrate it in the structure of existing religious education and ethics lessons at schools, which will require negotiations with state authorities as well as with the Church. "We hope that this method of formation of children to love and responsible parenthood, running successfully in almost 30 countries of the world, will find a wider support within our society", concludes Lauková.