Dr. Fred Kaeser
Celestial Arts, 2011, 216 pp., $14.99
In your ministry opportunities, how often are your conversations about sexuality? Any type of sexuality—the marriage type, single type, dating type, gay type, celibate type, monogamous type, How-far-can-I-go? type, what-do-you-do-in-private-with-your-computer? type, What-do-your-parents-think? type, friends with benefits type and frequency. What is your fallback philosophy about each of these? As most know, it is kind of a mess out there.
In What Your Child Needs to Know About Sex (and When): A Straight-Talking Guide for Parents, Dr. Fred Kaeser provides an easy-to-read book for parents about how to talk to their children about all things sexual. As former director of health for New York City’s public schools and with a doctorate in human sexuality, he has years of training and experience in the arena of shaping young minds toward healthy sexuality. Bear in mind there is not an indication that he shares a Christian worldview, so his views on specific sexual practices probably differ from yours. The benefit to a well-written book such as this is really the discussion and themes created to help parents through the very rough waters of raising children in a sexualized media frenzied culture. Dr. Kaeser calls it “The Wall of Sexualized Messages.”
“Our society is creating a hypersexualized generation of kids. Children today are more likely to confront sexual stimuli on an earlier and more frequent basis than any prior generation of children. Consequently, they are more at risk for thinking and acting in a sexual manner before they are emotionally and developmentally ready” (p. 9).
As ministry leaders, Dr. Kaeser shares your concern for your students and their sexuality. Actually, his book may heighten your concern as you walk the path of interpreting the signs of the times for parents and for their children. I am not sure any parent feels he or she does it correctly, and I’m pretty sure not many students feel their parents have given the sex talk the correct way. This book at least brings the discussion to the table. As a leader of students and as an advocate for parents, this book is a fine resource for bringing the two groups together to help with this awkward dance.
