Sex Education

[Plantaholic]

Story in the paper today reports that children can defy their parents wishes for them to be withdrawn from sex education lessons and opt in to sex education lessons when they are 16. As it stands now parents have a right to withdraw their child up to 18 from sex education lessons. I should think by then they would know more than the parents. I wonder how many parents withdraw their children from relationship education in primary schools and relationship and sex education in secondary schools.

[Qwerty]

I did hear on the news yesterday that teenage pregnancies are down by 50% and teenagers are becoming more aware of good careers etc instead hope that’s true

[Plantaholic]

I do hope so Qwerty.

[Daisy]

Plant - I remember when our sons were in primary school there were several children from a particular religious group and they were withdrawn from religious education and 'relationship' education. (I can't remember what they called it in those days.)

[Oma]

I think the more information they get the better ,
Im not saying it will stop them getting up to stuff but they will be better informed and aware of prevention ,
At 16 their parents are being rather silly if they think they know nothing , unless they have been kept in a bubble away from the world ,

[Gemini]

I would imagine it would be certain religions and groups which would prefer their children, particularly girls to not receive the sex education.
As others have said, at 16 in a lot of cases it will be closing the stable door after the horse has bolted

[Nana]

I remember going to a meeting at my DD1's school. She was 12 at the time & at Catholic school. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the school's policy on teaching Contraception. The Church's ruling then is to only use the withdrawal method of contraception. No sex before marriage etc. I think that still stands.

The large hall was full to bursting so it took guts to stand & speak. I plucked up the courage & asked why they couldn't teach sex education bearing in mind the reality of HIV. Uproar! I felt totally embarrassed wishing a hole would open up & swallow me. All the opposition was from other parents.

It only stopped when a Consultant/parent stood up to speak. He rolled out medical statistics of how many HIV cases there are in our area. How many are treated at our local hospital where he works. How he wished that other parents would have the courage to stand up & speak out like I had done. ( The irony is that a few yrs after his daughter had a baby just as she was leaving 6th form college).

I would imagine this is still a very controversial subject in religious quarters Plant.

[Gemini]

Very brave of you Nana.

Hard to imagine why a Catholic school even bothered with such an evening really, as contraception is officially banned. I say officialy as I have catholic friends who I know for certain use contraception.

[Daisy]

Nana - well done for speaking up - I bet a lot of the parents wished they were as brave as you were. I don't want to criticise or denigrate anybody's firmly held beliefs, but youngsters are programmed by evolution to experiment in all sorts of ways as teenagers, and having accurate up to date knowledge enables them to make sensible choices.

I grew up in a predominantly Catholic community and have a lot of Catholic friends, and they have all used contraception, but if I were a Catholic following the Church's strict teaching on the subject I would still want my children to have the knowledge to make wise choices.

[Nana]

Oooo don't get me started. I can give my own personal reasons why I chose to do my own thing when I was a practicing Catholic. Not wanting to insult anyone's beliefs on here but I just think of how many of the rules are made by men. 😠

[Gemini]

My grandfather was Italian and all 5 children were baptized Catholic.The older 3 went to Caholic school, but my grandmother put her foot down and the youngest 2, mum and her brother, went to non catholic schools.. So I have heard quite a lot over the years about various things.

[Nana]

It's worse to have lived it Gem. My sister on the other hand is a devout Catholic & my brother's a priest. Guess who's the odd one out.😉 Fancy you having Italian blood Gem. I never knew.