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And Channel 4, who produced it, have withdrawn it from sale in England after a storm of protest.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.