More than 40% of children under 12 have watched pornography

More than 40% of children under 12 have watched pornography - and experts say it's turning teenagers into SEX ADDICTS The majority of sex addicts begin experiencing problems before the age of 16, says addiction expert
 

The majority of sex addicts begin experiencing problems before the age of 16, says addiction expert

40% of those questioned had watched porn under the age of 12

Broken homes, single-sex schools and poor sex education also to blame

Almost half of those who suffer with sex addiction first experienced problems before they turned 16, according to a startling new survey.

Easy access to online pornography and poor sex education is largely to blame, said addiction therapist Paula Hall, who produced the study.
 
She argues this is proven by survey results that 40 per cent of teenagers had used pornography before the age of 12 and 90 per cent felt it was to blame for their addiction. 

Easy access: The increase in online porn has been blamed for a rise in sex addiction among teenagers.

The research also suggests that factors such as parental separation, single sex schooling and limited sex education are all contributing factors.

And nearly half of those surveyed had experienced some kind of childhood abuse or assault, indicating this to be a major cause of the condition

Hall’s survey of people with sex addiction, conducted for her new book Understanding and Treating Sex Addiction, looked at the age most people started, what factors led them there, whether they sought help and the consequences of their addictions. 

She defines sex addiction in its simplest terms as: 'a pattern of out-of-control sexual behaviour that causes problems in someone’s life'. 

Russell Brand claimed sex addiction almost ruined his career

The survey also highlights the contrasts between male and female attitudes about sex addiction. 

Substantially more men seek help than women, with 57.3 per cent of men seeking professional help, and only 38.3 per cent of women.  

In women, ‘affirmation and feeling wanted’ was their biggest ‘reward’ for their sexual behaviour, with 80 per cent of them citing this as the reason.

For men, ‘excitement’ was identified as being the biggest reward

But the results also indicate the damaging consequences of sex addictions. 

Sixty-five per cent of those questioned struggled with low self-esteem and almost half experienced mental health problems.  

Nearly half had lost a partner because of their behaviour and a quarter said it had effected their sexual functioning. 

Furthermore, 63 per cent said their sex addiction had wasted time and 42 per cent that they’d wasted money.

When asked what the biggest influence was on their sex addiction, ‘easy access’ and ‘lack of education’ were both cited as more significant than ‘negative’ childhood experiences. 

Watching pornography was also identified as being the most common result of addiction.  

As Hall states: 'The reality of the Western world today is that ‘opportunity’ is everywhere and people, with or without a background of trauma and/or attachment difficulties, can now indulge their sexual desires and run the risk of becoming addicted'. 

She conducted her study through the Relate website and through therapy groups, with 350 people suffering with sex addiction replying. 


The results have been published in her new book, Understanding and Treating Sex Addiction. 
Earlier this year, Keir Starmer, the Director of Public Prosecutions and the country's top prosecutor said that teenage relationships are becoming more abusive because of the easy access to internet pornography, expressing his concern about the 'exposure of young people to all sorts of material'.

He admitted there could be a link between the easy access to internet pornography for children and 'emerging research' about increasing violence in teenage relationships.

SIGNS OF SEX ADDICTION

Dr Patrick Carnes, one of the world's leading experts in sexual addiction, suggests there are various possible warning signs:
Feeling that your behaviour is out of control
Feeling unable to stop your behaviour, in spite of knowing the consequences
Persistently pursuing destructive and/or high risk activities
Using sexual fantasies as a way of coping with difficult feelings or situations
Needing more sexual activity in order to experience the same level of high
Suffering from intense mood swings around sexual activity
Spending more time either planning, engaging in or regretting and recovering from sexual activities
Neglecting important social, occupational or recreational activities in favour of sexual behaviour

Sexting: Girls think it's harmless flirting – sex ed is missing the target

As an investigation reveals the brutal truth of sexting – sending naked photos on mobile phones – among teenagers, Cathy Newman argues that school sex education should improve dramatically. 

The research found teenagers were becoming sexualised at an earlier age because many were able to see pornography online

As a parent, there are some realities you'd rather not face up to. "Sexting" is one of them. I was vaguely familiar with the term, but after a Channel 4 News investigation the brutal truth of what and how widespread it is has been brought home to me.

For six months, we've teamed up with the NSPCC to speak to children between the ages of 13 and 16. What we found will shock every parent.

"I get asked for naked pictures ... at least two or three times a week," one 15 year old girl told us. A boy the same age said: "You would have seen a girl's breasts before you've seen their face."

Welcome to the world of "sexting" – sending naked photos on mobile phones. A world that many teenagers inhabit on a daily basis. 
 

Professor Andy Phippen from Plymouth University carried out the research for the NSPCC, and told us: "This is mainstream, this is normal, this is almost mundane for some of the people we spoke to."

Girls we spoke to seemed to think sexting was just flirting – no different to the harmless fun previous generations indulged in.

But if your instinct as a parent is to bury your head in the sand and hope this is a craze which your own children will escape, perhaps it's time to think again.

Children say they have no one to turn to for advice because their parents – outwitted by technology, and struggling to juggle work and home life – don't really know what's going on.

And school sex education is totally missing the target. Every child we spoke to said it was out-of-touch, irrelevant and too little too late. Boys end up turning to porn to teach them what they think they need to know.

Jon Brown from the NSPCC is clear what's needed: "Good quality sex education is absolutely critical. It needs to start actually in primary school. It needs to be age-appropriate if we are able to help them navigate their way through these pressures."

A Department for Education spokesman this morning told me that all schools are encouraged to provide children with a "good education about sex and healthy relationships".

“We are currently reviewing personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education to establish how this teaching can be improved," he said.

I remember when I was pregnant with my youngest daughter I went to the local book shop to get a book for my eldest – then four and a half – about how her baby sister got there. I imagined a quaint little volume about seeds and storks and love would do the trick.

Instead the nice lady behind the counter suggested a smart cartoon book which featured all sorts of different sexual positions mum and dad may or may not have enjoyed to "make" the baby.
I ran a mile and ended up buying a book about a little mouse who was jealous of her new sibling. My eldest daughter never liked it.

I now wonder if I should have opted for the savvy cartoon after all.

Because unless we all talk to our kids about what lies ahead, those pressures and dangers will end up rearing their heads before we've had that conversation (or preferably more than one conversation). And then children will end up facing up to it on their own, when they most need our help and support.

Hong Kong should focus on sex education as a matter of good health

Hong Kong should focus on sex education as a matter of good health.

The public is up in arms about mainland mothers giving birth here, but is largely oblivious to a flood of young Hong Kong women and girls travelling across the border for the termination of unwanted pregnancies in substandard conditions. That unawareness is reflected in the relative indifference to the recent closure of Hong Kong Central Hospital, which performed an estimated 40 per cent of the city's clinical abortions.

The demand for terminations highlights a lack of sex information and education at home and school. In our conservative society, sex remains an awkward subject. Young people are often left to learn by themselves. Sadly, for many, this leads ultimately to hospitals over the border for affordable or discreet terminations, with a higher risk of infection, infertility, trauma and post-abortion emotional stress without psychological support. The reasons include our public hospitals' strict criteria and reluctance to provide abortions, high prices at private hospitals and the Family Planning Association's restriction of abortions to early-term pregnancies.

A drop of nearly 50 per cent in legal terminations in the decade to 2010 does reflect better awareness of contraception as well as the growing cross-border trade and resort to backyard clinics. However, a study commissioned by Mother's Choice, a non-government support organisation for pregnant girls, indicates that about 7,000, mostly from poor or broken families, face "crisis" pregnancies every year. Ignorance of sex issues is major factor, due to a lack of communication at home, reticence among teachers and a not-very-useful clinical hour of secondary school sex education. This leaves students to learn from each other and the internet. One of the many misconceptions unearthed by the Mother's Choice study was that girls cannot become pregnant from having sex for the first time.

Moral and sex education is ultimately the prerogative of parents. But lack of information leading to unwanted pregnancies can also have serious educational, health and financial consequences. Given Hong Kong's social conservatism, New York's answer - handing out contraceptives in public schools - is not an option. The government and non-government organisations should co-ordinate a campaign to promote the benefits of proper education at home and at school on healthy sex practices.

Porn company Kink.com offers sex ed with porn stars

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Students want sex education earlier

High school students say they are not getting sex education soon enough and want topics such as puberty and pregnancy discussed in primary school, a Victorian study has found.

Yet a study by the same researchers found most teachers of year five and six students were uncomfortable talking about the reproductive system in sex education class. More than half year 7, 8 and 9 students think almost all aspects of sex education topics should be introduced in primary school, the survey of about 100 students in Ballarat found.

''Across the board they wanted information much, much earlier than they were getting it,'' researcher Bernadette Duffy said. "I think that they should be at least being taught about [puberty] in grade 3 and 4. Some of them wanted information so they knew what was being talked about when they got to high school.''
The study was one of three from the same researchers at the University of Ballarat on sex education presented at an education conference at the University of Sydney on Monday.

Another study of about 30 year 5 and 6 teachers from 14 schools in Ballarat found five out of six male teachers and a third of female teachers were not comfortable teaching about menstruation. Almost half the female teachers were not confident talking about wet dreams, while even more male teachers found the topic uncomfortable.

The researchers said the results were significant given the national curriculum expects all students to have a knowledge of these areas before high school.

"I was really surprised by the level of discomfort with the teachers," Ms Duffy said. "Some of these topics come up in everyday conversation, so it's not things that just come up when they're running a program."
In October Fairfax Media reported that the Australian curriculum authority would introduce sex education in grades 5 and 6, but not in grades 3 and 4, as earlier recommended.

Communication barriers in sex education put deaf people at risk

A lack of resources in sex education for young, deaf people is leaving many without the knowledge or skills to keep safe and recognise healthy sexual relationships

Charity Deafax says deaf people's lives are being put at 'extreme risk' when it comes to sex education because their communication needs are not being addressed.

 

There is a telling moment in a documentary called Snapshot: Dicing with Sex when a group of young deaf people are shown cards with different words on them. They all instantly recognise the words Facebook, Wii and YouTube, but the words syphilis, genital warts and hepatitis ABC are met with blank expressions.
Broadcast in sign language on digital TV in 2010, the documentary revealed a remarkably uninformed attitude to sex, with several young deaf people saying they preferred not to use condoms, despite experiencing sexually transmitted infection (STIs) or pregnancy.

The charity Deafax says deaf people's lives are being put at "extreme risk" when it comes to sex education because their communication needs are not being addressed.

A survey for the charity's Education & Advice on Relationships & Sex  (Ears) campaign found 35% of deaf people received no sex education at all while at school. Everyone else surveyed – 65% of respondents – said that what information they did get was inaccessible. As a result, they often found out about sex through the media, talking to their friends, or direct sexual experience.

A deaf BBC journalist who spent years working on See Hear, the series for deaf people, told me about a conversation that shocked him while researching a programme on sexual health. A deaf woman said: "I'm on the pill so I won't get pregnant. Simple." When he asked her about avoiding an STI, she said: "The pill stops everything. I don't want a baby now." The possibility of getting an STI wasn't even part of her thinking.

In one of the most horrific stories collected as part of the survey, a teenage mother explained how she was raped and then had men coming to her door asking for sex. She presumed that this was simply "what I was supposed to do".

Nearly half of those who responded were sign language users, and 70% profoundly deaf.

Rubbena Aurangzeb-Tariq, a Deafax sex education trainer, says many communication support workers – who support deaf students in education – do not have a sufficiently high level of sign language to enable them to convey the information, and lessons are often designed to give the basics without using graphics and images that would make sense of the information for students who communicate in a visual language.
Aurangzeb-Tariq, who is deaf, adds: "It concerns me that [my deaf students] feel they 'know' things but it's mainly from gossip and the media."

But schools shouldn't bear the responsibility for sex education alone, she says: "We really need parents to have a sign vocabulary on the subject – it would reduce so many barriers to emotional development."
More than half of those surveyed for the Ears campaign attended a deaf school. But issues with sex education also affect deaf children in mainstream schools, many of whom are regularly visited by a Teacher of the Deaf (ToD).

Deaf teenager Ni Gallant, who is a member of the National Deaf Children's Society's youth advisory board, says that some deaf children who attend the youth group she runs in Worcestershire miss sex education classes because they meet their ToD while the rest of their class have personal and social education lessons. And what sex education they do receive is often taught using videos without subtitles. "The rest of the lessons are spent doing group work or group discussion which [due to her deafness] I personally find a nightmare," she says.

Research by the University of Manchester in 2009 identified other issues with ToDs. Professor Wendy McCracken says that among the themes that emerge was embarrassment "for both the deaf child and the ToD, especially where signs were used as they were graphic and drew attention to the deaf child". Furthermore, ToDs lacked specialist training in sex education and felt there was insufficient time to cover the subject. Training materials were also seen as not being deaf friendly.

The consequences of missing out on sexual education can be far-reaching. The charity SignHealth DeafHope recently set up a service called to support deaf women and children who are victims of domestic abuse. SignHealth's Rowena Dean says that because of missing out on information, deaf people "may have less 'socialisation' of sexual relationships" and as a result may not be as well equipped to recognise an unhealthy sexual relationship.

The importance of being given the language to articulate sex and relationships is backed by the NSPCC, which says: "Deaf children may be more vulnerable because they don't have sufficient communication skills or vocabulary to describe what is happening to them."

With the risk of STIs, unwanted pregnancies or even abuse, communication barriers to sex education have the potential to have a huge impact on deaf lives, yet resources aimed at addressing this gap remain incredibly thin on the ground. Deafax has created a sexual health package with an emphasis on visual communication, while the charity Deafway recently set up a website called Deaf Lizards providing information in British Sign Language and English for young deaf people. But it's clear that much more needs to be done.

Burma Gets First ‘Sex Education’ Magazine

A man reads a copy of Nhyot in Rangoon

Many previously taboo subjects are now being brazenly embraced in Burma, although some changes are only emerging step-by-step in the traditionally conservative society.

Beautiful models clad in revealing dresses can be found in today’s domestic journals and magazines according to so-called “international standards,” and readers can even study erotic issues under the guise of “sex education” thanks to a ground-breaking magazine.

Nhyot, roughly translated as “Allure” in Burmese, is a new publication which boasts erotic images from cover to back. Advertisements for the publication have caused a storm in Burma as well as on social media such as Facebook.

Oo Swe, the editor-in-chief of Nhyot, told The Irrawaddy that topics in his magazine are presented from a health point of view, aiming to prevent unwanted diseases from sexual encounters.

“People in this country don’t know about sex education even after they have grown up,” he said. “In other countries in the world, it has been included in school curricula and people have known about it since they were in primary school.

“Lack of knowledge can unwittingly bring sexually transmitted diseases, which can then be infected in partners. Such problems will have an impact from the family to the national level. This is the idea behind the publication of Nhyot. Articles in the magazine are written from a clinical point of view and carefully supervised.”

Nhyot first hit shelves on Nov. 27 with new issues available in the last week of each month. The owner of a bookshop on Rangoon’s 32nd Street told The Irrawaddy that the attractive magazine has been a hit from day one.

“A lot of buyers, mostly boys, came to my shop to look for Nhyot,” he said. “The price is 3,000 kyat [US $3.50].”

Articles with titles such as “Secrets of the bedroom,” “Will you be in the arms of everyone” and “What men hate about women” seem to deliberately cater for men. And there is also a Q&A section that includes in-depth discussion of sexual topics.

Indeed, the disclaimer “Minors are prohibited” on the cover appears to be enticing a larger readership.
“There has been no such warning in Burma before,” said Oo Swe. “But there are actually many issues, including those related to love, in current magazines and other publications, which minors should not read. I put the warning because my magazine only features issues for adults.”

The pioneering editor explained that literature regarding sex education has existed in the country for a long time with writers such as Dr. Maung Maung Nyo and Dr. Nan Ohnmar covering the subject in their books, although Nhyot is the first magazine of its kind.

A young female reader told The Irrawaddy that Nhyot is interesting although the article titles are very lewd and price high for a newly-published magazine.

“As our country has opened up and enjoys more freedom, such magazines will be published eventually. We can’t stop them,” she said. “We will be able to gain knowledge through this kind of magazine.”

Nhyot, however, has not had a smooth arrival as many conservative people in Burma even complain about advertisements for women’s menstrual hygiene products and men’s potency drugs. The magazine has encountered some quandaries using photos to match with its written content.

“No censor has been applied to us but I won’t publish a magazine like Playboy because we have to pay attention to our culture,” said Oo Swe. “We have carefully taken all the photos ourselves.”

He added that publications on sex education should be readily available in the country to encourage people to be more open about reproductive health.

The end of Nhyot’s first edition editorial reads, “Love and sex are like Kyut-Kyut-Ate [non-recyclable plastic bags]. They are essential but can also bring negative impacts if we don’t use them with discipline. In order to apply them properly, this magazine presents sex education in combination with entertainment.”

Talking to your teen about sex (Sex education)

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The Sex Education Show

Sex Ed Pamphlet Sparks Uproar in Austria

How far is too far when it comes to sex ed? These dolls are used to instruct children in Japan.

How much do children need to know about sexuality? A new brochure has Austrians debating exactly that question. Critics say the booklet goes too far in presenting alternative lifestyles, but its publisher counters that it is just an honest reflection of current realities.
 
Last week, China Central Television performed a provocative experiment. Reporters took cameras into the streets and stopped passers-by to ask them such intimate questions as: "How did you come into this world?" 

For those who believe in the value of sex education, the responses were not particularly encouraging. One woman said her mother told her she was found on a pile of stones. A man said he had been told that he jumped from beneath a rock while his mother was herding goats. A university student told CCTV that she had long believed she had sprung from her mother's armpit. Unsurprisingly, the show elicited widespread demands for more sex ed in public schools.

Still, on the other end of the intimacy-instruction spectrum is the question: How much do children really need to know? It is a question that has gripped Austria in recent weeks. There, a brochure for educators on the topic of sex education has triggered heated protest from those who say that it goes way too far.

The brochure, called "Ganz schön intim" ("Really Quite Intimate"), is a 152-page, rather tamely illustrated publication designed to prepare teachers to instruct school children on sexuality. But it also includes detailed written information on masturbation, homosexuality and intersexuality, the term denoting those born with biological characteristics of both genders.

A Bit Too Challenging
The brochure aims to teach children to speak openly about sexuality and learn to identify their own limits. "First and foremost, good material for sexual education should not merely cement the status quo. It should surprise, inspire and challenge," write the booklet's creators, from the group Selbstlaut, which seeks to combat sexual abuse and violence. The Austrian government hired the group to develop the publication.

In conservative Austria, however, there are many who find the brochure a bit too challenging. The conservative Austrian Freedom Party and the right-wing populist Freedom Party of Austria called it "disturbing" and "a discredit to the so-called core family" during a debate in Austria's parliament, saying they had received several calls from concerned parents. Catholic groups have also called for the publication to be withdrawn. Critics have said it equates "traditional" heterosexual relationships with same-sex partnerships and is an attack on family values.

Perhaps more legally relevant, though, some have also pointed out that the brochure presents the use of sperm banks and surrogacy as possible solutions for child-bearing, although both are illegal in Austria.

Embarrassing Questions

Still, the government in Vienna and the pamphlet's producers have shown themselves to be largely unmoved by the brouhaha. "Conservatives and the right wing have always viewed sexual education with suspicion," said Green party member Harald Walser, adding that it is an important step in fighting the sexual abuse of children. "Children find it easier to talk about their own experiences if they are used to confronting adults with embarrassing questions or difficult feelings," he said. Other groups have also come forward this week to defend the brochure, saying that it merely reflects the realities of today's society. "The whole thing is very user-friendly and practicable," says Olaf Kapella of the Austrian Institute for Family Research at the University of Vienna. He added that teachers in the country are often not trained to give sexual education in schools, making a brochure like "Ganz schön intim" particularly useful and necessary.

For the moment, it seems unlikely that conservatives will succeed in getting the booklet withdrawn. But it may be slightly revised. Kapella noted that a couple of improvements could be made, particularly when it comes to describing where children come from. The list, he notes, begins with adoption, "and is in alphabetical order." He suggests that it might be better to weight the list toward biology.

Edinburgh Zoo's elephant sex-education video makes kids sick

A ZOO’S sex education programme for primary pupils left kids feeling sick.

One young boy almost fainted when his class, from a primary school in an exclusive district of Edinburgh, were shown a graphic video of an elephant giving birth.

And the Edinburgh Zoo video left several other youngsters feeling queasy, a mum claimed yesterday.

The pupils, aged 10 and 11, from Sciennes Primary were also asked to shout out the names of sex organs on a visit to the monkey enclosure.

Anja Shiefler, whose 10-year-old daughter Ivy was on the trip, said: “The film about the elephant was quite full-on and there was one little boy who felt quite sick and was about to faint.
“Quite a few of the pupils felt a bit sick and didn’t want to watch it.”

Zoo education officer Joanna Dick yesterday admitted their Cycle of Life education programme is “no-nonsense”.
She said: “It’s our most popular lesson on offer by far. We saw almost 2500 children take part last year.
“The lesson lasts nearly two hours and it is a no-nonsense, grown-up, scientific approach to sexual education.”

An Edinburgh Council spokeswoman said: “We encourage all schools to create an environment that is creative and engaging for pupils.

“The Cycle of Life programme, which is run by the zoo, does exactly this in a fun and informative way.”

Parenst must be involved is sex education

Let's start with a beyond-dispute premise: We need to do everything possible to prevent unwanted teen pregnancy.

But should pediatricians pre-prescribe “morning-after” pills to girls younger than 17, as the American Academy of Pediatrics has suggested?

Even though I'm the mother of two teen boys, I believe that if I were instead charged with the health and well-being of two teen girls I'd be saying “Heck, yeah!”

But who am I to say that other parents would feel the same?

My neighbors are a devoutly churchgoing Hispanic couple with two sons and a 15-year-old daughter. The father of the family, a cheery Mexican immigrant who holds fast to traditional conservative religious ideas about his daughter's reproductive rights — which is to say he probably doesn't believe she has any — would surely not feel comfortable if he thought his daughter's physician would give her access to morning-after pills “just in case.”

You might be saying to yourself that this child is probably an excellent candidate for becoming one of the 55.7 per 1,000 Hispanic girls ages 15 to 19 who give birth every year — 80 percent of these pregnancies are unintended — and you'd be absolutely right.

With this terrible state of affairs, it would seem obvious that pediatricians should provide explicit, unsolicited counseling about birth control and emergency pregnancy prevention to teens, and especially girls, independent of a parent's wishes, right?

Maybe. Especially maybe in communities where teen pregnancies among minority girls are particularly pervasive. For instance, New York City's public schools face a powerful mix of high poverty, underinsured families, and teens who frequently start sexual activity before the age of 13. The schools are trying pilot programs to provide birth control and morning-after pills right in school buildings. Health officials there recently reported that parents are fine with the program.

What we're really witnessing here is the medical establishment's acknowledgement that way too many parents refuse to admit that in our highly sexualized society, they are the ones who need to provide their children with reliable information about safe sex.

Because overall averages of teen pregnancy have been going down for the last few years, there is an opportunity here to get to the root of the problem, which is less about what talks doctors should be having with their minor patients and more about what information should be shared at home.

Studies have shown that kids of parents who have meaningful and informative conversations about sex are less likely to engage in risky behaviors leading to unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

If the pediatric medical establishment wants to go ahead and codify a policy that says “talk to your kids about safe sex or we'll do it for you,” it should do so hand-in-hand with general practitioners who treat parents.

In other words, as the AAP tells pediatricians to initiate these talks with kids, the American Medical Association and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention should ask that physicians screen patients who are parents for their ability to provide their kids with age-appropriate sex education, give them a score predicting their child's likelihood to engage in risky sexual behaviors and provide them the resources to prevent such negative outcomes.

Another beyond-dispute premise: Efforts to reach kids without involving their parents in helping them make good choices will ultimately falter.

Explicit sex education DVD banned in England

xplicit sex education DVD banned in England still being aired in Scots primary schools 

Naked couple shown in the explicit DVD 

 

A SEX education DVD axed for being too graphic is still being used in Scots primary schools.
Living and Growing features explicit footage of a naked cartoon couple having sex.

And Channel 4, who produced it, have withdrawn it from sale in England after a storm of protest.
Now furious mums in Lanarkshire have demanded that it is taken out of use in schools in the area.
Many parents say they were not made fully aware of the nature of the film.

And Coatbridge mums Barbara Devoti, Pamela Cupples, Yvonne Cass and Nikki McDonald insist it is
inappropriate for very young children.

Pamela said: “I’ve seen the DVD. It’s very crude and unsuitable for kids.

“It doesn’t promote sexuality being in marriage. It’s all about ‘being in love’. We, as parents, are here to know what is best for our children to see.”

Yvonne added: “The decision is taken out of parents’ hands and that is not acceptable.

“Not everyone matures at the same age and it should be my right to decide what is too mature for my child.”
The film includes a section aimed at children as young as five, asking them to name the body parts on a drawing of a naked man and woman.

Another segment, intended for eight year-olds, shows the cartoon couple chasing each other around a bedroom with a feather before having sex.

A North Lanarkshire Council spokesman said last night that parents can withdraw their pupils from the sex education programme.

He added: “We work closely with parents in our schools and write to them making it clear they have the opportunity to view the materials we use and of their right to withdraw their child.

“The vast majority of parents support the programme. However, we fully respect that some parents may not wish their child to take part.

“It has been used in schools throughout the country for more than 15 years and has been well received in helping to address a sensitive subject area.”

South of the Border, Schools Minister Nick Gibb summoned executives from Channel 4 and asked for explicit scenes to be axed from the film.

The title has now been removed from the market in England.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “It is for local authorities and schools to decide which resources are used with pupils, ensuring that all content is appropriate for the children being taught.”

A spokesman for local authority organisation COSLA said: “Councils take their responsibility to educate
children about relationships and sexual health very seriously indeed.

“They will have a programme of work in place on the subject and fully appreciate the sensitivities involved with the issue.”

Abbotsford sex-ed curriculum challenged

VANCOUVER -- Abbotsford, BC's abstinence-based sex-ed program is under attack from the BC Humanist Association's Ian Bushfield, who said that abstinence education is making this generation of children afraid of contraceptives.

Bushfield wrote a letter to BC Education Minister Don McRae, asking him to investigate the district's curriculum and "ensure that students are free from religious dogma and proselytizing."

Bushfield thinks students need to be taught more about how to have safe sex.

The human sexuality curriculum in the Abbotsford district states, "The focus will be on sexual abstinence, as the Board believes that (is) the only truly safe way to avoid pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases."
It also outlines, "While students will be instructed about contraceptives, the 'how to' will not be taught in the classroom setting."

For Bushfield, that isn't enough.

"You know keeping children ignorant, keeping teenagers ignorant is not a good recipe for them to make good choices in the future. You know we need to inform our students," he said.

A spokesman for the minister said school districts have autonomy over this topic, but if anyone feels a district's policy contradicts the School Act, they are free to challenge that in the courts.

District superintendent Kevin Godden has stated that the school district is constantly reviewing all of its policies, and that the district's sex education policy is also slated for re-evaluation and will be shaped by the latest teaching methods and the education ministry.

Poor sex education leaves some children clueless about the birds and bees

• Young people learn about sex ed through porn and the internet 
• There are no minimum standards for sex ed in schools 
• In three years, STIs have increased 20 per cent among young people 

Teen pregnancy could be on the rise with the lack of sex education in some schools. Picture: Fox Searchlight, from the film 'Juno'.

Young people are at risk of unwanted pregnancies because of inadequate sexual education, an expert says. 
CHILDREN can miss out entirely on sexual education because there's no minimum standard, experts warn. Dr Joanne Ramadge, Sexual Health and Family Planning Australia's chief executive officer, said with no national standard for sex education too many children are not getting comprehensive sex education and some may miss out altogether.

She warned inadequate education led to risky behaviour and could lead to unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections.

"Most schools have some element of what we used to call sex ed but it's often not well done, it's often not structured, it doesn't very often meet the needs of the young people,” she said.

"I'm sure it's possible (for children to leave school without sex ed). There's nothing that says schools have to provide it, or provide it a certain way.

"Especially with a mobile population. If they confine sex ed to one class at a certain age, children might … go to another school, it's quite possible that they'll miss out.”

Dr Ramadge said that sometimes teachers might not be properly trained, or might be uncomfortable teaching children about sex.

"Until it's part of a national curriculum it's hit and miss,” she said.

Do you think sex education is adequately taught in schools? Comment below
A study released earlier this year by the Australian Youth Affairs Coalition and the Youth Empowerment Against HIV/AIDS found there had been a 20 per cent increase in sexually transmitted infections among people aged 15-29 over the past three years.

They also found almost as many young people learn about sex through pornography as through their parents, and that the internet was the most common source of information.

AYAC deputy director (young people) Maia Giordana, at the time of the report's release, said in some schools sexual education was "not really happening at all”.

The report recommended a minimum national standard, and for sex education to be taught from Year 5 to Year 12.

Dr Ramadge said gaining knowledge about sex and risky behaviour - such as drugs and drinking which can lead to unsafe sex, sexually transmitted infections and unwanted pregnancies - was crucial early in life.

A Health and Physical Education "shape paper" which will guide the Federal Government's draft national curriculum, due to be finalised next year, has sexual education components.

The changes associated with puberty will be taught from Year 5, while other subjects will be included later on. Sexuality and reproductive health will be a "focus area" of the national curriculum.

A spokesman for the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority said the Health and Physical Education shape paper was the "product of extensive consultation with educators, experts, and the community".

"The feedback we've received is also being used to guide the writing of the draft curriculum," he said.

"Once the draft curriculum is released ACARA will again give the public a chance to respond to what ACARA proposes that young people will learn in health and physical education."

The Lasting Impacts of Single-Sex Education

As a visiting student at Barnard College years ago, I attended the transfer students’ orientation where each student was asked to explain why she had chosen Barnard.  I’ll never forget one woman’s response: Well, I went to an all-girls elementary school and an all-girls middle school and an all-girls high school, and when I got to my co-ed college, I didn’t know how to function around the boys, so I decided to transfer to Barnard.  Well, that’s one solution.  I think I laughed at the time.

But it turns out, she’s not the only one with this problem, and, in fact, given the rapid increase in single-sex programs in public schools, it looks like the trouble may only be spreading.  Take a look at the recently-released November 2010 Arkansas Department of Education’s Application for School Improvement Grants.  It explains that Jacksonville High School (JHS) initiated The Freshman Academy “to help incoming freshmen who needed extra help with academics and social/emotional needs,” a laudable goal.  But, from 2007-2010, JHS was unable to “initiate this program as designed” and now plans to revamp the program.   Instead of using the program to meet its designated goals, JHS leadership used “the Academy as a dual gender reassimilation because the students were coming from gender-based feeder schools. The Academy became a chance for the students to get back together after being separated in the Jacksonville Boys Middle School and the Jacksonville Girls Middle School.”  Got that?  Instead of focusing on techniques that have been proven to improve academic outcomes, the school has to spend its limited resources teaching boys and girls to play well with each other.

Perhaps this outcome isn’t surprising.  Social scientists have found that labeling and separating students based on almost any characteristic (e.g., sex, eye color, randomly assigned t-shirts) makes those differences even more salient to the students and produces intergroup bias.  No wonder students who have been divided by sex for years need help learning how to work and learn together.

Here’s the bottom line: many of our schools are in trouble and coming out of the largest recession since the 1930s, with mounting national debt, we have limited resources.  Many schools are choosing to spend those limited resources on single-sex programs despite the fact that “there is no well-designed research showing that single-sex education improves students’ academic performance, but there is evidence that sex segregation increases gender stereotyping and legitimizes institutional sexism.” As a result of prioritizing single-sex classes, these schools don’t have the funds to spend on techniques that have actually been proven to improve academic outcomes, like smaller class sizes and personalized learning environments with mentors, counseling, and other supports.  AND, then other schools down the line, like The Freshman Academy, are forced to spend their limited resources undoing the damage done by single-sex classes rather than, again, implementing proven techniques to expand academic achievement.  At the end of the day, we are not preparing our students for the real world.  After all, there are very few things one can do as a grown-up, short of joining a cloistered religious order, to be exclusively in a single-sex environment.

All of our kids deserve to reach their full potential, regardless of their sex. And, that starts with a high quality, fair education that focuses on techniques that work and teaches all students as individuals, not as stereotypes.

State Lawmakers Stall Sex Ed Bill To Focus On Anti-Choice Legislation

Ohio’s War On Women: State Lawmakers Stall Sex Ed Bill To Focus On Anti-Choice Legislation

Despite the fact that voters across the country rejected radical anti-choice legislation in this month’s election, Ohio lawmakers have been busy reviving the War on Women during their lame duck session. Ohio’s Health And Aging Committee voted to strip funding from Planned Parenthood last week, Republican lawmakers introduced a misleading “sex-selective” abortion ban at the same committee meeting, and Ohio’s Senate may soon consider an extreme “heartbeat” bill that represents the most restrictive anti-choice legislation in the nation.

And Ohio lawmakers are so focused on their radical anti-choice agenda that they don’t have time for practical legislation that would actually help lower the abortion rate. The Dayton Daily News reports that the House’s health committee gave a “complimentary” hearing to HB 338, which seeks to establish science-based standards for comprehensive sexuality education in the state’s public schools, but has no intentions of advancing the legislation:

In the final weeks of two-year legislative session, Ohio lawmakers are sparring over several bills related to abortion and women’s health, leading to charges from Democrats that their Republican colleagues are engaging in a “war on women.” [...]
Meanwhile, a Democratic bill that is being touted as a comprehensive sexual health and education measure, had its first and probably last hearing this week.
[Rep. Lynn Wachtmann (R)] chairman of the House Health and Aging Committee, said he gave the bill a “complimentary hearing” on Wednesday, but it won’t go any further, at least not this year.

In fact, if Ohio lawmakers are so concerned about preventing abortions that they feel the need to target Planned Parenthood clinics, they might want to start with ensuring that students receive medically comprehensive information about human sexuality, the female reproductive system, and preventative measures like birth control and condoms. Equipping young adults with comprehensive sex education is directly related to helping prevent unintended pregnancies. The states that push abstinence-only education programs in their public schools — which often mislead students about birth control’s rate of effectiveness, and aren’t honest about the best ways to prevent sexually transmitted diseases — have the highest rates of teen pregnancies, while adolescents who actually receive instruction about prevention methods are 60 percent less likely to get someone else pregnant or get pregnant themselves.

A recent survey of the health classes in New York state’s public schools found that they have “shocking gaps” in their sex education programs, highlighting the need for standardized guidelines requiring up-to-date, scientifically accurate information across schools. Ohio’s school system could have the same kind of gaps — but, thanks to Ohio lawmaker’s insistence on prioritizing attacks on abortion access and Planned Parenthood funding, they won’t get addressed this year.

 

What links sex education and Guides? Feminism

A family planning chief at the helm of Girlguiding UK caused outrage, but Julie Bentley shows the organisations aren’t so different after all.Julie Bentley is the new chief executive of the Girl Guide Association 

She has spent five years campaigning to change abortion laws in Northern Ireland, resisting opposition to the UK’s 24-week termination deadline, and pressing for mandatory sex education in schools.

So this week’s announcement that Julie Bentley, the former head of the Family Planning Association, has been appointed chief executive of Girlguiding UK was met with horror from some quarters.

Religious groups lined up to declare that this sex-peddling liberal would destroy innocent girlhood and turn a treasured institution into a hotbed of promiscuity.

“The Girl Guides is an organisation which should protect girls from these sorts of pressures,” boomed Mike Judge of a Christian think tank. Jill Kirby, a social policy author, declared: “One of the reasons why girls want to join the Guides…is that they can escape from sex and television culture.

“I would have hoped that anyone leading the Guides would understand that. I don’t believe Ms Bentley does.”

The message on the institution’s mugs — “Keep Calm and Carry on Guiding” — suddenly seems rather apt. But will Miss Bentley, 43, really be so bad for the Guides?

I first met her when she arrived as the head of the FPA in 2007. I had been a patron since 2000 and the arrival of the vibrant and then 38-year-old (who uses the phrase “Cor Blimey!” without irony) to a 75-year-old charity was a breath of fresh air.

Like me, she could occasionally be frustrated by the term “Family Planning” (she recognised that it meant little to 15-year-olds in Brixton), but she sufficiently respected the heritage of the well-known institution to reject a full-scale overhaul of its name.

I quickly learnt that Miss Bentley was not driven by a belief that people should be having rampant, inconsequential sex.

Instead, she was focused on empowering people, especially young girls, through self-esteem and age-appropriate knowledge, regardless of whether they choose condoms or abstinence. She is also a fighter for the underdog.

At heart, she is driven by the passionately held view that young people are often misunderstood and misrepresented.

Miss Bentley was a volunteer long before David Cameron defined the Big Society. Leaving school at 18, she inquired about being a youth worker in Essex, where she grew up.

“I was told I couldn’t be one, because I was still a youth myself,” she laughs. “So I volunteered two evenings a week at youth clubs and did my training while also working as a post lady.

“I loved that, walking in the outdoors and meeting lots of people.”

Though she was never a Guide, she describes her childhood, in a working-class home, as “fabulous”.
She adds: “So much so that I was aware of how lacking some children’s lives could be.”

Surprisingly, her biggest challenge in taking the helm of the Girl Guides is not to recruit more females to the biggest youth organisation in the UK (it boasts 540,000 members) but to mobilise more helpers.

“We have 100,000 volunteers who deliver literally millions of hours per year.

“But women’s lives are different now — 50 years ago we could give 30 hours a week.

“But we need to be more flexible these days, and if people can only give the odd hour, that’s great.”

She was pushy but polite in recruiting famous faces to the FPA, somehow persuading Jo Brand and Clare Balding to host its annual dinner.

So I’m sure, I tell her, that she will have no trouble in finding the Girl Guides a celebrity figurehead akin to Bear Grylls, who represents the Scouts with muddy-faced machismo.

“No,” she chides. “Women and girls can’t be summed up like that. Some love sport. Others hate all that sweating. No one woman represents all of us.”

I remember much heartache and head-scratching at the FPA as we tried to sum up the charity’s many aims in one sentence.

Miss Bentley, however, swiftly changed the strapline from the rather dreary “putting sexual health on the agenda” to “talking sense about sex”.

This forward-thinking clarity sums her up: a no-nonsense, ambitious goal-setter who celebrated her 40th birthday three years ago by cycling from Land’s End to John O’Groats.

She went on the mission with her partner of 11 years, Sean, in aid of the Feham Village Appeal which builds schools in India. So, as she prepares to bring the same energy to the Girl Guides, how would she sum up their aim in an MTV age?

She pauses for a second. “To have fun, be happy and realise your potential.

“I want to help young people understand that… confidence, self-esteem and inner belief is going to determine what they do with their lives,” she says.

That people have criticised her appointment because of her background in family planning has not fazed her.
“That was lazy headline-writing,” she tells me. “The two are not connected.”

What has surprised her, though, is the shock caused by her description of the Guides as “the ultimate feminist organisation”.

“In 1909 the Girl Guides started because a group of girls marched on a Scout meeting and said, 'What about us?’ For over 100 years, we’ve been echoing that same sentiment.

“I find it extraordinary that people are offended by the word 'feminist’ in 2012, but it has been very corrupted.”

But in these inclusive times, she is inevitably having to answer questions about the Guides’ female-only policy. (The Scouts, on the other hand, have included older girls since 1976, with younger girls admitted from 2007.)

“It is right and proper that girls and boys mix across society.

“But girls need freedom to be themselves and have fun with other girls without stereotypes.”
As a mother, I can think of nothing better than several hours a week in which my daughters might spend time with other girls (especially at a cost of roughly £20 for a three-month term), but surely the Guides is just not cool?

“Anyone who thinks Guides isn’t cool needs to look again,” Miss Bentley says with passion.
“Every year we have the Big Gig, a pop concert in which we fill Wembley with the latest acts and Girl Guides. It’s amazing.

“And of course we still do all the outdoor stuff as well — zip-wires, rock-climbing and grass-sledging.”
Although my two girls are only three and 18 months, Miss Bentley teases me that the popularity of the Guides is such that “you need to get their names down now”.

She adds: “We have a 50,000-strong waiting list.”

She reads my mind: “Don’t worry, there’s no uniform to iron! It’s all hoodies and tracksuits now.”

School board questions sex education change

BROOKVILLE - Following a presentation by a concerned parent, members of the Brookville School Board asked when and why a portion of the elementary school curriculum had been changed.
Carol Shindler of Church Street, Brookville, told the board that she has three children in school, in grades 11, 9 and 5. "I was recently informed," she said, "that the school is no longer offering any type of sex ed classes to the fifth and sixth graders. I'm kind of at a loss as to why the school has made a decision to disregard the importance of this."

Shindler, who is a registered nurse anesthetist, said that she agrees that the primary responsibility for sex education "does fall with the parents, but I think the school needs to be involved in providing factual, age-appropriate information. Puberty is a time of physical and emotional changes which can be very frightening to an unprepared child. I believe the school should be teaching physical development, reproductive anatomy and physiology, bodily changes and emotional changes in an age-appropriate curriculum. Parents who would want to opt out of this could certainly be given that option. There are a lot of children that have a very poor home life and a lot of them are not going to get proper and accurate explanations at home."

She added that "I know many parents are very satisfied with the Safe Touch program that is offered in the earlier grades. In a time when there is more child abuse, teen pregnancies, STDs, AIDS and so forth, I'm not sure how it's possible for the school to ignore the elementary children. They need to be instilled with the knowledge to help them care for their bodies and to help them maintain personal boundaries, to understand when lines of impropriety have been crossed and who they should report it to."

Shindler told the board that she "would like to know what, if any, plan the school has to address this now or in the future to make sure our children have accurate information and support for their well-being as they begin the maturation process."

She said that her two older children both had received sex education in elementary school but her 10-year-old daughter, who is in fifth grade, "has not had anything." When she talked to Hickory Grove principal Ed Dombroski, she was told "there was no more program," and there is no type of sex ed program until ninth grade.

As several members of the board asked when and why the sex ed program had been dropped without the board being involved, board president Tom Maloney told Shindler that it would not be discussed at the meeting. "But your question is certainly a very valid one and the administration can follow up."

During his report on last month's IU6 meeting, Michael Smith told the board that the IU6 executive director, John Kornish, will be retiring in August. He said the board will start its search for someone to fill the position.
Board member Fred Park reported on a busy board meeting at Jeff Tech, at which several staff vacancies were filled. He said Jeff Tech's reorganizational meeting will be held Thursday, December 6, with a workshop and dinner to precede the meeting. He encouraged all board members to attend.

The next meeting of the Brookville School Board will be held Monday, December 3. The board will hold its reorganizational meeting at 7 p.m., followed by the monthly board meeting.

No Substitute for Sex Ed

Although pornography isn’t made for adolescents, it would be naïve to believe they don’t watch it. Earlier generations snuck peeks at their parents’ magazine or VHS collections. Today most U.S. teenagers have Internet access and thus a virtual buffet of porn. But how does such exposure affect them?

Scientifically, it is difficult to tease out the effects that porn use has on adolescents; some of the correlations may not be causations. Research has found that adolescents who seek out porn are more likely to engage in certain sexual behaviors (like anal sex and group sex) and to begin having sex at younger ages. But are they engaging in more varied sex acts and at younger ages because they watched porn? Or are they highly sexually interested young women and men who sought out sexual stimulation in the form of both pornography and partners?

Of course, porn isn’t going anywhere – nor is it becoming more vanilla or true to life. A recent study found that popular mainstream porn featured anal sex in about 55 percent of scenes. However, my research team’s data suggest that only about 4 percent of Americans engaged in anal sex during their most recent sexual experience -- a sizable difference that emphasizes that porn is fiction. Other issues that concern people include how porn generally depicts women, shows sex as casual rather than intimate, and frequently has partners couple and part ways without exchanging names or wearing condoms.

Yes, pornography is fiction. That’s part of why many people enjoy it. However, there’s a risk if young women and men misunderstand sex as a result of a porn-only sex education.

Many of my college students who have watched porn but had little sex education (whether in schools or from their families) often have a skewed view of sex. They may believe that anal sex and group sex are common, that genitals should be hairless, and that facials (not the spa kind) are par for the course. Once they engage in a real relationship with someone they care for, many of their beliefs are challenged and they find themselves readjusting to sex in the real world -- very different from the sex they’ve seen online. Then again, young women whose ideas about sex and love are shaped by “Fifty Shades of Grey” or Hollywood romantic comedies will also have to make room for reality.

It’s the larger context of sex education that is critical to examine. Pornography and “Fifty Shades” aren’t the problem.

Many college students say I am the first adult to teach them about sex. This is striking. If parents and schools don’t teach teenagers about sex, intimacy and healthy relationships, then pornography will remain their primary source of sex information. It doesn’t have to be that way. We need age- and developmentally appropriate sex education in schools that spans years, not just a single video about puberty in fifth grade.

Young women and men need to learn about their bodies, how to be emotionally vulnerable with one another, and what’s common (and not) about sexuality so that when they’re faced with creating their own sexual lives, they can create the sexual life that feels good to them rather than recreating the fictionalized, and often risky, sex they’ve seen online. They’ll know that pornography and romantic novels are fictions of sex and love -- and that it’s for them to create reality.

Sex education proposal in teacher training institutes

KUALA LUMPUR: The Women, Family and Community Development Ministry has proposed that the teaching of sex education be included in the curriculum at Teacher Training Institutes.

 Its deputy minister, Senator Datuk Heng Seai Kie, said the  ministry was still in its initial stages of discussion with the  education ministry on the proposal.

“If this can be implemented, all our teachers will be equipped  with the knowledge and skills to teach sex education.

“They will know how to handle issues or problems among  students related to sex,” she told a press conference after  launching the National Women’s Safety Campaign Anti- Crime Against Women workshop on Monday.

She also said the ministry, in collaboration with the  education ministry, would continue and expand its pilot  projects — “I’m In Control” and “Pekerti Programme” — for  Standard Six and Form Three students in the next five years. About 30,00 students will undergo the programmes every  year.

“We have chosen to target these two groups of students  because usually after their national examinations, they have  some free time before the holidays,” she said, adding that this  was to ensure that their normal schooling hours were not  interrupted by the eight-day programmes. In light of the recent uproar over the cases of two convicted  rapists escaping jail terms, the programmes will also include  knowledge on Section 376 of the Penal Code which governs  the penalty for rape.

Heng said the students would not only be taught about the  biological changes of their bodies but also the risks of pre- marital sex and consequences of underage sex. Besides sending the ministry’s officers and non-govern mental organisations to conduct these programmes, she said  selected teachers would also be trained over the next five  years to conduct  the programme in their schools.

Earlier in her speech at the workshop, she said based on  police statistics there were 465 sexual harassment cases  reported from 2009 to 2011.

There was however a decline in rape cases from 3,626 in  2009 to 3,301 in 2011; molest cases from 96 (2009) to 71  (2011) and in incest cases from 31 (2009) to 17 (2011). The workshop is the ninth of the 20 planned to be held  nationwide this month. It aims to educate more than 20,000  females on how to defend and protect themselves in cases of  crime or violence against them.

"Sex Matters" At Least in English

It's official -- women speak better English than men. EF's English Proficiency Index's (EF EPI) recent survey of 1.7 million adults from 54 countries has concluded that when it comes to adopting the world's lingua franca, females are outperforming males. (Full disclosure --- I am both female and work at EF Education First, the international education company which publishes the index).

Why do women perform better than men in English language?

Worldwide, women's English proficiency outpaces men's by a measurable margin (see chart). There are a myriad of possible reasons for this, the more convincing ones linked to educational trends as reported by UNESCO: women now outnumber men in worldwide university enrollments and graduation rates. In many countries, female students tend to be over-represented in the humanities. As Forbes reports, in U.S. higher education, women make up 56 percent of the student population -- the highest percentage on record in thiscountry.

Women hold up half the sky
The gender gap in English is the widest in the Middle East. Women in the Middle East and North Africa score more than five points above men. In this region, where gender equality lags behind worldwide standards, there is a certain justice in knowing that women are outperforming men. The world's largest women-only university, Princess Nora University, opened in Saudi Arabia to great fanfare last May and is a promising start to that region's recognizing the potential of their female population.

Women's strong performance in English isn't merely a triumph for women's rights. English, as the key to global communication and international business, can help raise the competitiveness of industries, countries and entire regions.
All is not lost for man-kind
Out of the 54 countries included in the global English rankings, there are a few outliers, like Sweden, Chile, Portugal, and Switzerland where men are seen scoring slightly better in English than females. The EF EPI report this year also shows the ranking between 54 countries, the Nordics topping the list and Libya finishing in last place.

Time to make sexuality education part of Vietnamese school curriculum

A 9-year project ensuring young people`s rights to sexual and reproductive health in rural areas of Vietnam has come to an end. The two driving forces behind the project are The Danish Family Planning Association (DFPA) and Center for Gender, Family and Environment in Development (CGFED). Steps to mainstreaming sexuality education in Vietnam are now being taken.
 
On September 20 CGFED and DFPA arranged a conference in Hanoi to highlight the results of the project and to advocate for an institutionalization of sexuality education in Vietnam. The project has shown its strength through the outreach and mobilization of community and local government support for sexuality education in the areas Nam Dinh, Bac Giang, Phu Yen and Ho Chi Minh City.

Aiming at enabling continued cooperation between DFPA and CGFED in a partnership to promote sexuality education in Vietnam, the conference was attended by more than 90 people, including the secretary general of DFPA, Bjarne B. Christensen, Executive Director of CGFED, Ms. Ngoc and representatives from the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health.

 

Mr Christensen explained that from Danish experience, good quality sexuality education is based on a legal framework, qualified human resources and good education materials.

According to Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoang Yen from Vietnam Institute of Educational Sciences, the Ministry of Education and Training, the time is right to make sexuality education part of the school curriculum.

Facts and feelings: Sexuality education for middle schoolers

Middle school students "are at a unique point, going through puberty, learning about relationships and how to interact with someone they are attracted to," said Kirsten deFur, one of the facilitators of a sexuality education program at the Unitarian Church.

  STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Whatever age it happens, the way we learn about sex is usually memorable, The whole picture is often pieced together from various and sundry sources — the “the talk” with mom or dad, stories of friends, health class and a host of print and electronic media. The result can be a confusing mix of fact and misinformation. 

At the Unitarian Church of Staten Island, parents decided to provide middle school students with a more complete approach to their sexuality with a broad base of information. While sex education is part of the intermediate school curriculum, parents have found the emphasis to be on preventing STDs and AIDs and not on the range of physical and emotional changes that come with puberty.

“We don’t want a fear-based sexuality education program. We want one where sexuality is seen as a positive thing. If we give this age group the right information, they can make responsible decisions,” said Kate Howard, religious exploration coordinator.

The course is part of the the Unitarian Universalist’s program for sexuality education known as OWL — Our Whole Lives.

 

  KIRSTEN DeFUR 

The curriculum is secular and free of any religious doctrine. It will be facilitated by Rona Solomon, president of the Unitarian Church of Staten Island and sexuality educator Kirsten deFur.
“These students are at a unique point, going through puberty, learning about relationships and how to interact with someone they are attracted to,” said Ms. deFur who has a master of public health in sexuality and health from Columbia University.
“It’s important for them to think about relationships and sexuality and how people get along before they enter into a serious relationship,” she added.
“More than the birds and the bees,” says Ms. deFur, the course emphasizes relationship skills and healthy living, by including a range of areas, including body awareness, human development, friendship, dating, gender issues and social responsibility.

RONA SOLOMON 

Ms. Solomon has an extensive background in human and reproductive rights that includes founding executive director of the Staten Island Aids Task Force and Development Director of Community Family Planning Council.

Students will have the opportunity to read, discuss and ask questions.

“It’s important to have a safe base to explore and talk about sexuality,” said Ms. deFur. The curriculum is meant to support a parent’s role as the primary educators of their children.

A parent orientation will be held Sunday, Nov. 11 from 12:45 to 2:15 p.m. Parents can register their children on that day for the 11 week course that begins Jan. 6. The fee for the course is $150. Financial assistance may be available. For more information, contact Ms. Howard at 718-447-2204 or recoordinator@uucsi.org.