Do U care about AWARE?

[mintcc]

I like the newpaper report on the beginnings of AWARE.

http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/story/0,4136,200750,00.html

Hope that after this saga, AWARE will become stronger and wiser and continue to fight for the cause of women.

[mummyjoyce]

Just finished reading the Sunday Times on this matter & I think the outcome is expected.

This episode shows that women in Singapore do voice out (but why the paraliment has so few women MPs still) and will really go all the ways to express themselves. I think this is really good.
However the old guard needs to also welcome new comment and accept constructive criticism good forward and should not be so protective over everything.
Just my thoughts on a lazy Sunday afernoon waiting for my child to return from her tuition.

[mintcc]

I was :!: to read that the ex new exco spent 90k in the 2 months they were in charge. Way above the 20k/mth limit they were allowed to spend without first consulting the members. They are simply not ready for running a non profit organisation…spending money in that manner.

[westmom]

I stumbled about this interesting parent exchanges about CSE (the sex education prog run by Aware) in the below blog. I am not a supporter of either the old or new Aware but I am concern about this contentious school program.


http://tampinescourt.blogspot.com/2009/04/has-moe-lost-its-mind.html

[sunflower]

insider:

I was surrounded (sitting among of) by the gay and lesbian community that seemed to have turned up in full force.

Sounds like a lot of homosexuals went to the EGM to give support to the old guard. Hopefully AWARE wld not become an organisation for the homosexuals after this.

Frankly, I’m quite concerned about their choice of show during the charity event reported earlier. I’m not sure what the charity event aimed to achieve. Unless the charity event was to raise funds for homosexuals, I don’t think it’s appropriate to screen a show abt lesbians.

In my opinion, regardless of religions, I think Singapore is still quite a conservative society which value traditional values, and I think traditional values are still important in weaving a more cohesive and safe society. I wld be concerned if my girls are exposed to explicit terms of performing sex such as oral/anal sex etc. in secondary school, esp if it’s being taught by teachers, and the course content seems to have touched on quite a fair bit of the “how to” of sex, which I’m not comfortable with.

Teenagers are impressionable and like to experiment. If they are introduced to something that they have not heard before, they might think that it’s fun (well, the course content says that sex is fun), and want to find out more and even try them out. I wld rather they know about the details when they’re much older, when they’re more mature in the way they see and think things.

For the record, I’m neither the supporter of the old or new guards. I’m just stating my views as a concerned mother.

[westmom]

Oh…I know some gays too and they are quite likeable. However, we are now parents entrusted with the responsibilities of guiding our kids to the right path and depending on our kids’ age, we do not want some CSE program planting ideas in them that anal sex or lesbianism "is healthy" or neutral. They are too young to discern the message that is given and may be misled easily. As an analogy, if our kids eventually become drug addicts for whatever reason, we should continue to shower them with love and help them but when educators go around planting ideas in schoolkids that taking drugs is "neutral", then that becomes wrong. But I guess everyone is entitled to have their own opinion.

[sunflower]

insider:

sunflower:

Frankly, I’m quite concerned about their choice of show during the charity event reported earlier. I’m not sure what the charity event aimed to achieve. Unless the charity event was to raise funds for homosexuals, I don’t think it’s appropriate to screen a show abt lesbians.

That is the danger if one were to read / know things out of context. From what I know, AWARE was offered at times movies of various themes for screening during events. At that point of time, Spider Lillies seems to be the best choice among what had been offered (many other titles might be \"spiderman\" or whatever which consists of none of what AWARE is presenting).

During the Spider Lillies screening, some young lesbians brought their parents to attend the event (heard the event was attend by several pairs of mothers who have lesbian daughters). In the event, both parents and child tried to reconcile with each other (meaning AWARE maybe encouraging a mother who had chased her daughter out of the house because she is a lesbian) or to build a closer bond.

Like what I said, I’m not sure what the charity event was for. As you mentioned, if it was to encourage lesbian children to reconcile with their parents, then perhaps screening that show served to fulfil the desired outcome.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against people who are homosexuals. It’s their way of life and I respect that. There’s too much hype abt this homo thingy in this saga, which is only one part of it. What I’m more concerned abt in the CSE materials is the fact that certain terms such as ‘anal sex” and the explicit details of performing sex such that it’s “fun”, “pleasurable”, “foreplay” etc have been introduced to impressionable teenagers, which I think most, esp 12 and 13 yr olds are not yet ready and mature enough to learn abt these things. I’m not sure abt other children but for one, my tween child is still quite innocent and I wldn't want her to be exposed unnecessarily to these kind of explicit sex stuff at her age.

westmomwrote[quote]Oh...I know some gays too and they are quite likeable. However, we are now parents entrusted with the responsibilities of guiding our kids to the right path and depending on our kids' age, we do not want some CSE program planting ideas in them that anal sex or lesbianism \"is healthy\" or neutral. They are too young to discern the message that is given and may be misled easily. As an analogy, if our kids eventually become drug addicts for whatever reason, we should continue to shower them with love and help them but when educators go around planting ideas in schoolkids that taking drugs is \"neutral\", then that becomes wrong. But I guess everyone is entitled to have their own opinion.[/quote]Totally agree.

insider wrote[quote]Being an educator, I am beginning to wonder again whether is it the same case of the kids are ready but their parents are not? [/quote]I think whether kids are ready really depends on their life experiences and the exposure from their home/parents. Of course, friends/internet/media play an important role too which is why I emphasise the importance of mutual trust and 2-way communications between children and parents, so that we, as parents, wld be able to steer them in the right direction if we sense that they’re going astray.

[corneyAmber]

westmom:

Oh...I know some gays too and they are quite likeable. However, we are now parents entrusted with the responsibilities of guiding our kids to the right path and depending on our kids' age, we do not want some CSE program planting ideas in them that anal sex or lesbianism \"is healthy\" or neutral. They are too young to discern the message that is given and may be misled easily. As an analogy, if our kids eventually become drug addicts for whatever reason, we should continue to shower them with love and help them but when educators go around planting ideas in schoolkids that taking drugs is \"neutral\", then that becomes wrong. But I guess everyone is entitled to have their own opinion.

I totally agree too as I was discussing with my hubby and we also used drugs as an example to test our line of thoughts as parents.
I have gay friends too who confide in me. If I discriminate, would I win their confidence? I fully respect them and totally enjoy their company(one of them is my buddy in fact) but do I want my child to think that it is ok to have that kind of sexual orientation by choice? No, not unless she is born with the issue biologically, then I will support her to manage her condition and live as she needs to, i.e. be with a woman. Otherwise, being influenced and following trends is not what we would support and this is not discrimination but this is making wrong choice based on so-called \"informed\" information. I happen to know also girls who become lesbian or rather bisexual because they could not cope with stress of life. Having that orientation gives them selfishly the best of both worlds. So would we support our child to manage her stress this way? Nonsensical if we do. If we are not careful....it is not about homosexualism....bisexualism will invade us faster than we know based on such a way of knowledge sharing. Given the highly stressed world we live in, this will propagate like wild fire. By that time, it will be too late to regret cos the issue would have gone totally out of control. So pro-choice??? Pro-disaster is more like it. With this, new sicknesses may also invade us. Between bisexualism and polygamy, I would rather support polygamy...all the men can rejoice. :lol:

So, no one is talking about discrimination against homo(this is always taken out of context because of the sensitivity of the topic) but contents in the CSE programme as it is now is indeed a serious problem to look into for children who are starting to be exposed to such knowledge. It is not about parents not being ready, the content is totally absurd to be consumed by the children without a precursor of a value system education to align the content better. I am keen to find out what changes MOE can make if any and I don't think there is a need to defend AWARE anymore. They have won, they can defend themselves now. And if they are found unsuitable to develop the materials for CSE, let MOE deal with them. And if they are found suitable, let MOE reply to the parents who are concerned.

[csc]

[quote] was surrounded (sitting among of) by the gay and lesbian community that seemed to have turned up in full force.
[/quote]This was not reported in the newspapers at all !!!

[mintcc]

I am too uncomfortable with some of the wordings in the CSE program. I believe that MOE and the schools as well as AWARE should review the materials to be more targeted to the age group which the students who were taught. One should also raise the question of whether an advocacy group is a good choice to develop such sensitive programmes for our schools. Ourselves as parents should also make ourselves heard when we feel parts of our children's education materials objectionable to us.


That said, Public Education is just an aspect of AWARE's work, CSE part of public education and the questionable part of the CSE program form a small portion of the program. AWARE's work in many areas are commendable (helplines, legal clinics, support groups and counselling services, legislation/civil service policy changes for the equality of women) and many women had benefited from their work. I don't think hijacking of AWARE was justified and I am glad for the outcome of the AGM, not becuse I am pro or against the CSE or other gender issues but for issues quite nicely sum up by this article
http://theonlinecitizen.com/2009/05/aware-lessons-from-a-fiasco/