Some stupid destructive immoral bitch has declared that Sex lessons 'go too far' because
"A course such as this gives children information they do not or should not know,"even though 'it was the first such scheme in Europe to show a reduction in rates of sexual activity among young people'.
My neighbour, with whom I rarely agree, works for an NGO which promotes natural contraception. She ran a course in secondary schools teaching girls to be aware of their bodies, but had to abandon it because of parental opposition to such explicit teaching.
When I was working in Education at a London Borough, it was identified that under-age pregnancies were statistically very high so the Standards Unit sent packs to all the secondary schools with information geared to reducing the level of unplanned pregnancies. One school sent it back saying, "I think you have made a mistake. We are an all-boys school".
Now, don't get me wrong, I don't have this view that all teenage pregnancies are 'wrong'. There are good sound biological reasons to reproduce in one's late teens. What I am opposed to is a culture - Britain - where embarrassment, ignorance and prejudice, mixed with an unhealthy tabloid preoccupation with titillation, prevents too many teenagers from making real choices about their lives.
What is also shocking is the comment in the fifth paragraph up is
Official guidance says sex and relationship education "is about understanding the importance of marriage for family life; stable and loving relationships, respect, love and care".
Shocking.
How well does that go down with all those teenagers whose personal life experience, or that of their friends, is different? What credibility does that lend to sex and relationship education? I think it's perfectly reasonable to explain to teenagers why marriage works for so many people, but it has to be allied with the fact that it doesn't work for everybody, all of the time. The inference is that it is extremely important to marry as young as possible. Over the years many people's lives have been made a misery by this pressure.
