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Sex Education in schools
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Taking inspiration from Sonak's question, I wanted to ask your views on sex education in religious schools.
I went to a R.C High School and I found the sex education were recieved very lacking. The sex education consisted of a discussion lead by the R.E teacher on the importance of sex being within a relationship (fair enough) a truly terrifying video of a woman giving birth, a very graphic video about a woman having an abortion ( I disagreed fundamentally with such shock tactics but i can understand their reasoning) but the main problem was that the main theme was abstention until married with absolutely NO discussion of contraceptives! Whilst I can totally appreciate that being a religious school they must reflect the religious ethos I thought that this way of dealing with this topic was at best naive and at worst conmpletely irresponsible and if I at fifteen could see this problem I'm at a loss why the teacher responsible for sex education couldn't!. Isn't the purpose of sex education in schools to try to prevent teenage pregnancies and prepare teenagers for adult relationships? How does this approach fulfil these aims at all? As a side point as I expected even then, at the age of 21 I am now in a very small minority of people from my school year that doesn't have a child with a significant number of my classmates having several children.
That turned out a lot more ranty than I expected but i really am truly annoyed that sex education is being dealt with in such an irresponsible way.
What do you think?
I went to a R.C High School and I found the sex education were recieved very lacking. The sex education consisted of a discussion lead by the R.E teacher on the importance of sex being within a relationship (fair enough) a truly terrifying video of a woman giving birth, a very graphic video about a woman having an abortion ( I disagreed fundamentally with such shock tactics but i can understand their reasoning) but the main problem was that the main theme was abstention until married with absolutely NO discussion of contraceptives! Whilst I can totally appreciate that being a religious school they must reflect the religious ethos I thought that this way of dealing with this topic was at best naive and at worst conmpletely irresponsible and if I at fifteen could see this problem I'm at a loss why the teacher responsible for sex education couldn't!. Isn't the purpose of sex education in schools to try to prevent teenage pregnancies and prepare teenagers for adult relationships? How does this approach fulfil these aims at all? As a side point as I expected even then, at the age of 21 I am now in a very small minority of people from my school year that doesn't have a child with a significant number of my classmates having several children.
That turned out a lot more ranty than I expected but i really am truly annoyed that sex education is being dealt with in such an irresponsible way.
What do you think?
Answers
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I find it amazing that an all powerfull God with knowledge and vision covering a universe of billions of stars and planets who apparently knows all things and times should be so hung up over a few apes-like beings having a bit of pleasure by sleeping with each other!
I mean after all it's the sort of thing that you'd expect as a hang-over from a nomadic tribal system where women were seen as property and contraception was unavailable.
But that's just crazy talk!
I mean after all it's the sort of thing that you'd expect as a hang-over from a nomadic tribal system where women were seen as property and contraception was unavailable.
But that's just crazy talk!
JTP, yet again I find a thread with you on an anti-church crusade! Don�t tarnish us all with the same brush eh.
littleone, Perhaps their idea of preventing teenage pregnancy was to teach abstinence. Medieval I know but that is what they preached back then. I had an RC upbringing and schooling but I can confirm that my sex education (circa 1981 or thereabouts) was considerably more rounded than yours appears to have been, we were taught all about reproduction, contraception and the risk of STDs. Many of the girls in my class became pregnant before they did their GCSEs (not by me I might add, I was a lot more careful). I think it just comes down to the individual teacher and school, but I suspect regardless of their religious morals the RC church try to preach, the schools are also duty bound to meet curriculum requirements.
littleone, Perhaps their idea of preventing teenage pregnancy was to teach abstinence. Medieval I know but that is what they preached back then. I had an RC upbringing and schooling but I can confirm that my sex education (circa 1981 or thereabouts) was considerably more rounded than yours appears to have been, we were taught all about reproduction, contraception and the risk of STDs. Many of the girls in my class became pregnant before they did their GCSEs (not by me I might add, I was a lot more careful). I think it just comes down to the individual teacher and school, but I suspect regardless of their religious morals the RC church try to preach, the schools are also duty bound to meet curriculum requirements.
Littleone85 - firstly I should say that sex education should be left for parents and not the state to attend to. From what I've read of current sex ed in mainstream schools today, young children are being subjected to quite 'pornographic' material.
Your question was about sex education in religious schools, and as you rightly said this would be in the context of the ethos of their school.
The Bible says that any sexual relationship outside of marriage is sinful. So abstinence is the only answer, they couldn't go on then to talk about safe sex etc.
That would be the same as saying -
"Murder is wrong, so listen up while we tell you how to kill someone" or
"Thou shalt not steal. Now here's how to do it and get away with it"
"You should never be a racist, but say you wanted to be here are a few offensive comments you could use"
Your question was about sex education in religious schools, and as you rightly said this would be in the context of the ethos of their school.
The Bible says that any sexual relationship outside of marriage is sinful. So abstinence is the only answer, they couldn't go on then to talk about safe sex etc.
That would be the same as saying -
"Murder is wrong, so listen up while we tell you how to kill someone" or
"Thou shalt not steal. Now here's how to do it and get away with it"
"You should never be a racist, but say you wanted to be here are a few offensive comments you could use"
The R.C. church has adopted this stance on contraception by a convoluted thought process that has now entered its 'holy tradition', to which they attribute equal authority to scripture.
The Bible teaches sex within the bounds of marriage, but what was marriage originally, except a man and woman deciding to live together .... and have sex? Then, according to scripture, they became, "one flesh."
God gave us the gift of sex for, yes, procreation, but also to enable us to express our love for our husband / wife.
To put man made prohibitions on sex is not only wrong, but obviously unworkable.
The same can be said of enforced celibacy, which is also not biblical.
The Bible teaches sex within the bounds of marriage, but what was marriage originally, except a man and woman deciding to live together .... and have sex? Then, according to scripture, they became, "one flesh."
God gave us the gift of sex for, yes, procreation, but also to enable us to express our love for our husband / wife.
To put man made prohibitions on sex is not only wrong, but obviously unworkable.
The same can be said of enforced celibacy, which is also not biblical.
Thanks everyone for your comments, Lighter, I completely understand your viewpoint and its probably the same sort of viewpoint the school took when deciding what to teach but I just think that although keeping within the religious ethos, it wasn't very helpful. No matter what teachers or religion teaches a significant number of teenagers are still going to have sex and I think practical contraception advice would have been a lot more helpful. I do agree that such teaching would send mixed messages but at the same time I still don't think that the sex education was adequate given the high rate of teenage pregnancies in England. Octavius, when I was at school, during the sex education lesson one of the pupils did ask about contraception and the teacher said that the schools board of governors had decided that contraception advice was insppropriate and so she couldn't talk about it ,also as a side point at my school, parents were also able to opt out of letting their children recieve any sex education at all!
It seems like the religious versus practical advice issue is a real moral conundrum, anyone got any theories on how these competing views might be reconciled?
It seems like the religious versus practical advice issue is a real moral conundrum, anyone got any theories on how these competing views might be reconciled?
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