Sexuality workshop carries no religious content: Vendor

SINGAPORE — The vendor of a controversial workshop on managing relationships, which it conducted at Hwa Chong Institution (HCI), yesterday defended the content of its programme, saying it was based on well-researched materials by trusted family life and relationship experts.

In a statement posted on the website of Focus on the Family Singapore, a Christian charity, CEO Joanna Koh-Hoe stressed that the workshop in question, It’s UNcomplicated, had been developed to ensure it “carries no religious content”, given its use in schools. “As with other community programmes conducted by faith-based organisations, there is also no attempt to proselytise or share the faith and beliefs,” she said.

Ms Koh-Hoe added that the programme was based on materials from experts such as author Gary Chapman, who is known for his concept of the Love Languages, as well as social researchers Jeff Feldhahn and his wife Shaunti, whose work is internationally recognised.

There is increasing research that supports the workshop’s content, said Ms Koh-Hoe, noting that neurological studies, for instance, had shown how male-female brain differences might contribute to generalised differences in behaviour between the genders.

Earlier this week, HCI student Agatha Tan shared a letter she had written to her principal on her Facebook page, saying the programme “seemed to emphasise and enforce traditional gender roles in a relationship”.

Referring to a booklet that was given to students, she took issue with lines such as what a girl wears matters “lest she becomes an ‘eye magnet’ that cannot be avoided”.

In a letter to students and teachers on Thursday, HCI principal Hon Chiew Weng said the school had found that the facilitators of the workshop were ineffective in addressing participants’ concerns and plans to design its own workshops in future.

Ms Koh-Hoe said Focus on the Family Singapore is “regretful” that the handbook had offended a group of HCI students and caused such “strong reactions from a JC female student”.

“There is definitely always room for improvement and necessary updates,” she added.

Ms Koh-Hoe noted that more than 14,000 students from 13 schools had attended the workshop since its launch last year.

More than 1,000 HCI students attended 10 workshops conducted last week, she said, with 73 per cent of them rating the workshop as “Very Good/Good” and 87.7 per cent giving the facilitators the same grade.

Ms Feldhahn shared an open letter, dated Wednesday, to leaders of Focus on the Family Singapore on her website. She noted that as the Feldhahns’ research had been extensive and scientifically rigorous, it provided a good foundation for a strong education in key elements that young people and married couples most need to know.

However, Ms Feldhahn — who, along with her husband, was invited to Singapore in 2009 by the then Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports to share their research — added that there had been some who “misunderstand or misread the research”. Citing the example of how the wiring of the male brain makes it difficult, if not impossible, for a man to avoid noticing a woman who is dressed provocatively, she noted that each man also has a choice of how to handle such a reaction.

“We strongly disagree with the idea that teaching the brain wiring and mutual respect is somehow contributing to a ‘rape culture’. That is a clear misunderstanding and it confuses the real and important issue. Teaching that will help both men and women,” she said.