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Getting started
Hi!
Today is my first entry. I will be posting things here that have to do with sexuality and relationship issues, classes and workshops offered by Ms. LaVie's School of Loving Arts, and an occasional personal opinion or experience. You will also be able to access my website: http://www.mslaviesschool.com . I hope that readers will find the information helpful and, if not, will let me know how it can be more beneficial and/or interesting.
This morning on tv there was an interview with a young woman from Harvard talking about a new student movement on college campuses, abstinence clubs. It is a follow-up to an article in a recent issue of the New York Time Magazine on the same topic. Subtitles under images shown during the story included "students of virginity" and "sex-free zone". The attention that this topic got makes me angry. I won't go into all the details here (they are widely available elsewhere) but the sexuality education programs stressing abstinence that have been conducted in the public schools across our country over the past 15 year are known to be ineffective for most young people. The current federal administration (the President AND Congress) has been allocating $50 million a year or more for the past 10 years at least to implement these programs and they are causing tremendous problems.
To see the national media cover this issue as if it was a positive topic and news is very distressing. We should be lamenting the fact that young people feel so conflicted or negative toward their sexuality that they have to talk about how to keep from doing it! Instead, we should be talking to people about the positive side of sexuality - why sex is such a gift and a sacred responsibility. Instead of creating abstinence clubs, where the motto is "Control your sexuality rather than be controlled by it", we should be creating opportunities for people of all ages to talk and learn about conscious equal relationships, sexual pleasure, sexual and reproductive health, and sacred sexuality.
My intention in starting Ms. LaVie's School is to have an impact on the current negative attitudes, beliefs and actions related to sexuality that most people hold. There is a growing movement of people also committed to this topic and contributing to this purpose in other ways. We believe it is vital to the health and well-being of our culture that we stop stressing the negative side and start having informed, impassioned, ethical, responsible discussions about sexuality. More about that at another time. Below is the mission statement for Ms. LaVie's School FYI:
"Ms. LaVie's School of Loving Arts is dedicated to creating a sexually healthy and responsible world where individuals have all the knowledge and skills necessary to live joyous, loving, fulfilling, passionate and intimate lives. In this service, Ms. LaVie's School of Loving Arts offers a wide range of opportunities for adults in which they can learn about and discuss topics and issues related to sexuality and relationships within a safe, supportive and sensuous environment, thereby fostering sex-positive communities that support sexual healing and cultural transformation."
A statement from the great architect Buckminster Fuller has been and continues to be a source of great inspiration for me: "You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change things you build a new model that makes the old model obsolete."
Right now the School is in a transitional phase with regular classes on hold temporarily. A regular event still happening on the 2nd Saturday evening of every month is Ecstatic Dance; you can go to the website for details. Women (and the men who love them) can also look forward to a series of workshops called "Awaken the Sexual Priestess" on 4 weekends starting in the fall. Keep checking the website for details.
Today is my first entry. I will be posting things here that have to do with sexuality and relationship issues, classes and workshops offered by Ms. LaVie's School of Loving Arts, and an occasional personal opinion or experience. You will also be able to access my website: http://www.mslaviesschool.com . I hope that readers will find the information helpful and, if not, will let me know how it can be more beneficial and/or interesting.
This morning on tv there was an interview with a young woman from Harvard talking about a new student movement on college campuses, abstinence clubs. It is a follow-up to an article in a recent issue of the New York Time Magazine on the same topic. Subtitles under images shown during the story included "students of virginity" and "sex-free zone". The attention that this topic got makes me angry. I won't go into all the details here (they are widely available elsewhere) but the sexuality education programs stressing abstinence that have been conducted in the public schools across our country over the past 15 year are known to be ineffective for most young people. The current federal administration (the President AND Congress) has been allocating $50 million a year or more for the past 10 years at least to implement these programs and they are causing tremendous problems.
To see the national media cover this issue as if it was a positive topic and news is very distressing. We should be lamenting the fact that young people feel so conflicted or negative toward their sexuality that they have to talk about how to keep from doing it! Instead, we should be talking to people about the positive side of sexuality - why sex is such a gift and a sacred responsibility. Instead of creating abstinence clubs, where the motto is "Control your sexuality rather than be controlled by it", we should be creating opportunities for people of all ages to talk and learn about conscious equal relationships, sexual pleasure, sexual and reproductive health, and sacred sexuality.
My intention in starting Ms. LaVie's School is to have an impact on the current negative attitudes, beliefs and actions related to sexuality that most people hold. There is a growing movement of people also committed to this topic and contributing to this purpose in other ways. We believe it is vital to the health and well-being of our culture that we stop stressing the negative side and start having informed, impassioned, ethical, responsible discussions about sexuality. More about that at another time. Below is the mission statement for Ms. LaVie's School FYI:
"Ms. LaVie's School of Loving Arts is dedicated to creating a sexually healthy and responsible world where individuals have all the knowledge and skills necessary to live joyous, loving, fulfilling, passionate and intimate lives. In this service, Ms. LaVie's School of Loving Arts offers a wide range of opportunities for adults in which they can learn about and discuss topics and issues related to sexuality and relationships within a safe, supportive and sensuous environment, thereby fostering sex-positive communities that support sexual healing and cultural transformation."
A statement from the great architect Buckminster Fuller has been and continues to be a source of great inspiration for me: "You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change things you build a new model that makes the old model obsolete."
Right now the School is in a transitional phase with regular classes on hold temporarily. A regular event still happening on the 2nd Saturday evening of every month is Ecstatic Dance; you can go to the website for details. Women (and the men who love them) can also look forward to a series of workshops called "Awaken the Sexual Priestess" on 4 weekends starting in the fall. Keep checking the website for details.
