After the latest sex ed scandal, I think it’s high time we made a distinction between teaching that belongs at school and teaching that is best handled by parents at home.
I am not a prude and I understand that there are some bad parents out there who refuse to meet the basic expectations of their role, but the overcrowded school system should not be expected to take on the slack left by parents. It is the responsibility of parents to teach their children about sex, drugs, alcohol, gambling and body image. By handballing these all important life lessons to the classroom, we are enabling parents to continue to act inert and unresponsive.
The comments that caused this latest furor were quite shocking and deeply inappropriate. It was also an attempt to teach girls about having self respect. But you cant teach children how to love themselves. You have to show them they are special, prove to them they are worthwhile and try to extoll their virtues whilst building on their weaknesses. It is extremely unlikely a program or classroom lesson will ever get a child who hates themselves to change the way they perceive themselves.
As I’ve argued before, these programs are essentially boring, preachy, expensive and a burden to teachers trying to cover a crowded curriculum. To students they are just an extension of everything else they dislike about school. In other words, not inspiring at all!
Year 7 girls have been warned not to have multiple sex partners or risk becoming like overused sticky tape, in a Christian sex education program at a public Victorian high school.
The students at Fairhills High School, in Knoxfield in Melbourne’s outer east, were also told that a chemical released in females’ brains made them more needy than boys.
A booklet titled ‘Science & Facts’, that was given to the students, said that “girls are needier than guys in a relationship and always want to be close”.
It said that a chemical called oxytocin, is released when “two people touch”, and was produced by women more than men, making them needier.
“If a woman becomes physically close and hugs a guy for 20 seconds it will trigger the bonding process, creating a greater desire to be near him. Then if the guy wants to take the relationship further it will become harder for her to say no,” the booklet said.
It warned that having too many relationships could break “this special chemical bond” and harm a woman’s capacity to form future relationships.
“Having multiple sex partners is almost like tape that loses its stickiness after being applied and removed multiple times. So the more you have the harder it is to bond to the next,” it said.
The booklet was given out during a weekly youth program run by Epic Youth, which is part of a Melbourne Pentecostal megachurch called CityLife, and was delivered during school hours in June.
Click on the link to read Teacher Takes Class on a Field Trip to a Sex Shop
Click on the link to read The Five Day School Trip that Resulted in 7 Students Getting Pregnant
Click on the link to read School Distributes Condoms to 6th Graders
Click on the link to read Should High Schools Install Condom Vending Machines?
Topical Teaching 