Spanish region includes masturbation in sex education curriculum

With all the news about the struggle for marriage for same-sex couples, anti-LGBT hate crimes, the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the continued effects of the recession, the Spanish region of Extremadura's plan to teach "self-exploration and self-pleasure" in its sexual education curriculum certainly provided this all too skeptical cynic a few very hearty laughs late yesterday afternoon.

The BBC further reported Extremaduran officials based their campaign around the masturbation-inspired slogan "pleasure is in your own hands." A local youth council reportedly proposed the idea as part of a broader curriculum, but Spain's Roman Catholic establishment and conservative media have rather predictably blasted the mere mention of masturbation in Extremadura's public schools. And the group's president has even complained about the attention the proposal has received.

I'm sure more than a few readers would have almost certainly liked to have experienced a hands-on sex education curriculum in school, but I will let them use their more than capable imaginations to come to a conclusion about how they feel about this Spanish row.