Friday 17 May 2024

Sex Educations Should Be About Everything

The UK government has released new plans for relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) in primary and secondary schools in England. This would see age parameters introduced for key issues in sex education, with no education on sex at all for children under the age of nine, then puberty taught at age eight and nine, conception and birth when children are nine and ten and explicit discussion of sexual acts when children are aged 13 and 14.
I have no disagreement with any of that and most kids have the internet and will know all about it by the time the lessons roll around anyway, i remember my sex education was a couple of video's in the classroom when i was about 9 or 10 and then all us kids talking about it in the playground afterwards and asking older brothers and sisters and that was it.    
One thing the Government are saying can't be taught is anything around the concept of gender identity which does trouble me a bit because it is leaving out a big part of sex education, when i was a kid we had Section 28 Laws which were introduced by Margaret Thatcher who said that: 'Children who need to be taught to respect traditional moral values are being taught that they have an inalienable right to be gay. All of those children are being cheated of a sound start in life' which meant that schools were banned from 'promoting the teaching of the acceptability of homosexuality' so i never learnt about it.
Looking back at that now it looks outdated and just plain wrong to not teach children about homosexuality, i assume the thinking was if they taught it then some children may turn out gay which is exactly what i assume the thinking is behind keeping quiet about gender issues.
I don't know if the incoming Labour Government will make any changes to it but if it isn't going to be taught it should be at least discussed because the children will be seeing it in their everyday life so it shouldn't be ignored.
The Section 28 of my day just led to homosexuals being classed as 'not normal' and 'weird and strange' but nobody bats an eyelid now except the Churchy types who have that kind of backward looking mentality anyway and try to uphold the 'marriage is only between a man and a woman'  nonsense and by not discussing gender identity then this will also happen to anyone questioning their gender.
If you are going to teach kids about sex and sexual relationships then you need to tell them everything and not just cherry pick the bits you want. 

1 comment:

Liber - Latin for "The Free One" said...

agreed. ridiculous to act as if there aren't people that opt for a homosexual life style.

i don't like schools teaching what parents should be teaching (sex, religion, managing money, personal discipline, personal health, etc.).

keep the topic of "sex" out of school until biology courses (in US 7th grade, age 13).

i don't like sport in school - waste of time and money. parents, put your kids in a club.

i'm iffy on arts taught in school. a major aspect of art is political. since "people" have proven they can't be neutral, keep it out of the school.