Jolanda (Joli),
I am in total agreement with your post expressed here. My closest male friend was in his earlier life - homosexual, till in his late twenties he became a Christian, and found such behaviour totally discusting and unfulfilling. Though many might consider him even now because of some attitudes - gay, he is totally focused on normal hetrosexual attitudes. Homosexuality is not a gene, it is an emotional choice.

Pericles,
Quote, "[Apart from anything else, tolerant people are surely the least likely members of society, by definition, to say "I want my ideas to be accepted".]

Sorry, I had to reduce what I had said there to be 350 words. This is exactly what is in mind in the "Harmony" programme taught in schools. It is the agenda promoted within the UN by the Muslim nations to dumb down opposition to their religion in Western Nations. The "Tolerance" issue is being used by those with a specific agenda to have us believe all value systems and religions are of equal value. For the homosexual at the moment it is is that homosexual relationships are normal and equally valid. The type of tolerance being taught in schools has more to do with political/religion than with race.

Gay behaviour rather highlight there has been an emotional problen in early childhood bonding, a moral problem within society because of the high incidence of AIDS, and the sexual abuse of boys [yes even in the Churches], a population and social problem because two males cannot reproduce a child. It is not a biological possibility that the next generation will be born from the anus of men.

Jolanta, I appreciated your sly attempt to associate homosexuality with war, drugs etc ... but others have pointed out how very little sex education there is in schools, so I don't think you have to worry. You might worry, if you have a child or grandchild that is gay, that they never hear that how they are is OK, and instead feel they have to hide their feelings as if it were a shameful secret.

Poor Philo, since the DSM dropped homosexuality as a psychological disorder needing 'treatment', a new explanation had to found to blame homosexuals for their condition: now it's "an emotional choice". Except none of the evidence says so. We've had so many people, from Boy George to Justice Michael Kirby, tell us about their lives, and I think not one of them, not one, has ever said "Well I became homosexual because .....", "It was that teacher, a man in a public toilet, a film, a book, my mother ...."

To the recently graduated high school student who posted here ... don't be so despondent about intolerance: there have been huge improvements in my lifetime. When a film called "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" came out it was considered shocking because a white girl wanted to marry a black man - in some places in the U.S. that was still illegal ! and many people thought that inter-racial marriage was disgusting and 'unnatural' ( to use Philo's word). Attitudes have changed. Bigots are still out there, and when they push their prejudices they need to be answered, but don't doubt that there have been major advances in the way 'difference' is considered and treated.

Solomon. There was nothing sly in my post. I wasn't trying to connect homosexuality with war or anything else for that matter, you are reading too much into it.

Nobody said anything about making Homosexuals have to hide, I just think that homosexuality shouldn't be presented as the norm as it isn’t the norm and it can confuse people.

I believe that the problem is that we are only asked to tolerate difference, we are not required to accept difference. There is no requirement when tolerating for you to be nice or fair.

There is a lot of sex education and drugs at school. If it is not directly through the curriculum it is through the actions of the students. Promiscuity and sex is not discouraged in schools and in my experience it is actually encouraged. Many students who are not academically inclined and even some who are, are not given interesting things to engage them and to focus their energy or attention on.

School is pretty slow and boring for many of the students and when kids are bored they will get up to mischief.

rancid,

"whenever the Catholic Church is criticised its supporters, like you, will nearly always harp on about the services it (and the many truly giving catholic folk in the Catholic Church) provide as if it some sort of justification for its failings."

Sorry rancid, just stating that if you are looking for 'farming accidents' they are more likely to happen on a farm. I wasn't talking about what crops were being grown. I may or may not be a Catholic farmer, another presumption on your behalf!

"One other thing, the reality in my area is that the Catholic Schools are sucking funds away from road works and other things that will assist the whole community."

You assume that Catholic schools don't assist the community - maybe why so many non-catholics seek enrolment - and that they suck funds (of taxpaying Catholics perhaps?) away from roadworks - what, to tar their playgrounds? The reality is that without independently funded education, the State would have to find billions more for education and we would be lucky to have (according to your logic) any roads!

rancid, you obviously have got a raw deal along the way from aspects of the Church that are perfunctory, but, try & put those aside and say "what is the real world situation, and what can I do to improve it?" If you don't feel the Church has a role in the answer, fine, but, don't denegrate those who do and remain in the Church addressing its (and society's) failings.

At my daughters excellent (wallops most private and selective schools every year in the HSC) comprehensive public school are a number of young men who, if not actually gay, are unconventional enough in their manner and interests to have been bullied and persecuted unmercifully at the expensive, male, religious schools they previously attended. What their idiotic parents were doing sending such boys to such conservative establishments is beyond me. Trying to beat it out of them, perhaps?
They are, quite literally, refugees from the kind of educational establishments some of the posters on this site approve of.
I wish my daughters had attended a class like the one described by Kevin Donnelly, it sounds like the teacher is provocative, imaginative and original. He or she clearly wants to challenge his students to think and to think differently. Also, perhaps, to get them to formulate their ideas and arguments articulately and rationally. And, perhaps to challenge their own beliefs, occasionally, to see if the way they see the world actually stacks up. Sounds like some real teaching and learning might actually have been going on. The opposite of indoctrination, in fact.
It would also be worthwhile to hear the context of the lesson. Was the teacher trying to counteract some bullying of an unconventional (possibly gay) student that had gone on previously?

Jolanta, I think your last post is a good example of the damage done by, for example, Donnelly's hysterical witch hunt. You write: "I just think that homosexuality shouldn't be presented as the norm as it isn’t the norm ". So please provide one, just one, example of anyone, anytime, anywhere saying that homosexuality is the norm. I don't think you can. I suspect that you've just responded to the ridiculously exaggerated tirades of people like Donnelly. Please look for some evidence. You won't be so worried.
I'm a bit confused about what you say about tolerance. It sounds like you are only prepared to treat fairly those people who you approve of.