Sex Education. A waste of time or a necessary life lesson? What's your opinion? I know what most of the kids in my school would say. I have many memories of sex education lessons right from the start of year 7: I sat at the back of a science lab cringing and giggling with my best friend as theTV screen played out the birth of a baby - zoomed in (officially scarred for life). I apologise if that innapropriate image has put you off your next dinner. My point being I was just 11yrs old and, 3yrs later, that image is still imprinted on the back of my brain. So I think you've probably guessed my theme for todays post but if you haven't it is the relevance of sex education lessons (that sounds really fancy compared to the hormone fuelled affaires in our classroom). This is quite a delicate subject to blog about...erm...i think i'll start with the news article that inspired this post.

I was watching TV on a weekend morning and 'The right stuff' came on. I don't know if you know what that is but its basically people talking about the latest news. So, anyway, they were discussing this new government law thing about sex education. You may be wondering why this is all relevant to christianity, well as part of this new law it states that faith schools will not be able to opt out. All the people on the panel seemed to agree with this new law and it got me pondering - at first my view was conclusive but as I began to think more and more about it the scales kept tipping from side to side until eventually they ended in the indecisive middle. So I quess I'm asking you for your views on the law - kinda like our own 'It's the right stuff'...

I've read a few newspapers (cuz im cool like that) on the subject and I found that some seemed less drastic than others. Obviously I found it so much more interesting to read the drastic articles but i had to consider the others too. The basic outline of the plans are:



Key stage 1 (5-7yrs)

• Taught the basic changes we go through from birth.


• Understand the difference between boys and girls


• Identify different relationships

Key Stage 2 (7-11yrs)

• Puberty and the physical and emotional effects


• Reproduction


• Learn the different types of relationships: marriage, civil partnerships and seperation


• Respecting views and feelings

Key Stage 3 (11-14yrs)

• Sexually intercourse, STI's, Pregnancy and Reproduction


• Same - sex relationships


• How to deal with relationship breakdown


• The importance of marriage

Key Stage 4 (14 - 16)

• Impacts of divorce, bereavement and seperation on famalies


• Parenting skills


• How to obtain information about sex


• How the media portrays young people and body image.

Alot of these things do not agree with the christian way and at first I believed strongly that Catholics should be able to opt out but then I understood the goverments wish for everyone to have the same education; what do you think? I am totally indecided - I think i believe that if every child in the country were taught in the Catholic or Christian way then problems such as STI's and pregnancy just wouldn't exist.