Are Sex Education Classes Really Guaranteed Ideology-Free?

The program, known as EVAR (Education in Emotional and Relational Life), has been three years in development and consists of three annual sessions at each grade level from preschool to fifth grade, according to Causeur. For Didier Lemaire, a prominent French educator and critic, this latest pedagogical innovation fails to mask the declining scholastic performance and growing inequalities plaguing French public education.

Lemaire argues that the fundamental mission of public schools in a democracy is straightforward: to provide instruction that enables every student to transcend their origins by acquiring a common language, shared cultural references, access to knowledge, and the capacity for independent judgment. Schools should prepare individuals to become both autonomous persons and engaged citizens, he maintains.

From Academics to Social Engineering

However, since February 6, 2025, French schools now claim to have responsibilities beyond teaching children to read, write, count, and pursue knowledge. The new program aims to help students care for their physical, emotional, social, and moral wellbeing. The curriculum teaches children from preschool through fifth grade to know themselves, live and grow with their bodies, meet others and build fulfilling relationships, find their place in society, and feel free and responsible.

Lemaire characterizes EVAR as a supposedly scientific education program reminiscent of regimes that claimed responsibility for the happiness of their peoples. He argues the initiative would be laughable were it not occurring against a backdrop of declining academic performance and widening inequality, with public education now primarily benefiting intellectual elites.

Promotional Materials Raise Red Flags

An online video capsule from the Montpellier education authority, validated by the district’s pedagogical inspector for health-promoting schools, presents the program to families, particularly those of non-French-speaking students. The presentation repeatedly uses the word “children” rather than “students,” reinforcing the notion that the institution’s function is no longer primarily to educate but to oversee the welfare and morality of children as if they were its own.

The promotional material promises to teach children to protect themselves, identify their emotions and sensations, make friends, say no and accept no, seek help from trusted persons, name their feelings, discover their differences and similarities, and learn equality between boys and girls.

Troubling Visual Imagery

Beyond what Causeur describes as the debilitating mantra-like quality of the messaging, the visual materials accompanying the program depict smiling young girls wearing Islamic veils as though it were clothing like any other. Critics note the imagery celebrates inclusion and diversity while appearing to exclude Jewish children entirely.

Lemaire contends this semantic confusion between learning as acquiring knowledge versus experiencing imposed norms reflects a fundamental confusion about the school’s mission. Rather than acquiring knowledge and skills, students are now expected to accept predetermined norms and practices.

A Call for Educational Reset

At a time when the French national community faces pressure from Islamist infiltration and identity politics obsessions, Lemaire argues that an education minister genuinely committed to the general interest would immediately close this Pandora’s box and restore the school system to proper functioning before it is too late.

The EVAR program represents yet another step away from classical education focused on academic instruction toward social and emotional programming that critics contend serves ideological rather than educational purposes. As French students continue to fall behind international benchmarks in core subjects, the allocation of classroom time to relational and emotional instruction raises fundamental questions about educational priorities and the proper role of public schools in a free society.

With information from Causeur