I agree with the message! But it seems like responsibilites are heaped on the girls! Boys 'take advantage!' Like it's a right of passage for boys! So the girls must 'get the message!' Sexual revolution/rights of women; and we wind up back to the 'boys will be boys!'

Michael Sullivan, Toronto, Canada

Young girls should be taking the pill as soon as they have their early menstrual cycles and carry acondons with them. Males should always carry a condom to prevent disease spred. These matters should be taught in schools as most parents lack teaching skills and are also culture inhibited.

Jim Wills, Brisbane, Australia

Lack of confidence and self-worth are important considerations here. If young people feel loved and secure within their families and know they are valued, they will be more circumspect about sex and relationships and will not feel the need to appease or 'hold on to' abusive and selfish partners.

Karen S, London, UK

Sex is a word practically unspoken in tradtional Bengali parents. My mum and dad have never said anything about it to me. I learnt everything from school and just living life.
I hope when I become a father that I can be a 'good' parent and teach my children whats right and whats wrong about sex

Jabed, Wigan, UK

First Class! As a pharmacist issuing EHC to kids of 14 up, I suppose I should be glad that they at least know enough to come to me. But does no-one teach cause and effect, that sex is about making babies, for which they're going to be responsible for the best part of their lives?

John Dickinson, Alton, Hants,

My experience as a volunteer in a school is that everything stopped on PSHE sex day - the younger ones were told about what goes where, the older about relationships.'The Crucible' told of the dangers of sexual repression. More sex education = more 'sexually active' children= more abortions. See?

Maggie, London , England

Ms Turner,

I have just read your article in today's Times and have come on line to congratulate you. When i was eight years old my mother and father sat me down in the kitchen and explained everything, and i mean everything, about sex. It has guided me well.

Phillip Duffy, Aveley, Essex. RM15 $QS, England

What utter rubbish - the Tabloids have become obsessed with sex and there is little discipline in bringing up children - We are becoming a nation of rabbits - just animals. David Smith, Cannes

David Smith, Cannes, France

I've got bad news for this author. I live in the USA where for years there has been the comprehensive sex education you advocate. It hasn't worked to prevent premarital sex or pregnancies. There has been very little abstinence education. I agree with M. Wiiliams of Oxford

connie, New Orleans, USA

"Since parents assume that sex is covered at school - or sucked up by cultural osmosis - ignorance is endemic. " - This sums up the problem. If parents managed to bring children into a fit home, they should pass that skill on. If not, they should learn that skill.

Joseph, NYC, USA

US sex ed covers the whole range of lifestyles and contraceptive choices. By the time I earned my biology degree, I new every detail from ovulation to birth down to the molecular level. This knowledge did not help any of my relationships. Marriage requires knowing your spouse, not knowing molecules.

Joseph, NYC, USA

I attended a girls' grammar school in the late 1950s and never heard of another girl getting pregnant When it happened outside school, there was heavy pressure on the young man to do the decent thing. Of course teach them the facts, but isn't the real problem our over-preoccupation with sex?

M. Williams, Oxford, UK

i do wish commentators would stop repeating the cliches of sexual liberationists; such as `international evidence shows that the more sex education a child has the later they remain a virgin.` If anything, the actual evidence shows the opposite.The word`evidence` is not a talisman.

patsy, london, uk

You don't have to teach young folk about sex because they already know. All you have to do is make sure they don't make a mess of their lives as a result of doing it. Sound advice without hand wringing judgements would be best. Young folk are entitled to privacy and respect just like everyone else.

Colin, Carmarthen, UK

50 years ago without formal sex education I knew what caused pregnancy, Strangely enough the girls knew.
Result I did not know of pre-marital babies.

bob, Shrewsbury,

Couldn't agree more with this article. As a School Nurse I deliver sex and relationship to year 6 kids. At the beginning of the sessions I always ask how many of them have spoken to Mums,Dads, Carers about puberty etc..You would be amazed at how many of them say that this subject is never discussed

Sharrow, Luton, UK

References to shame and morality, as in some comments here, are part of the problem. Teachers and parents need to say that sex is fun, not a matter for any shame, that you should follow your instincts and do it as and when you fancy, in or out of a relationship, and that you should use condoms.

Richard Baron, London,

Sex education should be about love, values and respect as much as mechanics. Value and respect yourself and others.

Andrew, Exeter, UK

In Bethlehem there are almost no teenage pregnancies, almost no STDs, no drug problem among young people, a girl can walk down the street safe at night and families stay together. 15 kms away in Jerusalem the situation is like in London, or Paris or New York. Wonder what they have that we have lost?

ijak, Cheltenham, UK

Amazing isn't it, that with the evidence of parental failure around discipline etc (knife carrying and use, dysfunctional classrooms, parents threatening/attacking teachers who try to discipline their kids) how on earth do we expect them to magically teach kids about sex and relationships?

Tony, London,

By all means, but it should be part of physiology, and creating a deeper understanding of the miracle of life. Sex, by definition, involves attraction and desire. It defies control, it brings on chaos, it defeats theory. Neither Labour nor the church has ever succeeded in controlling it.

David, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Is there really less sex education than fifty years ago ? We were taught all that Mrs Turner's friend had to tell her pupils, plus that adoption, not abortion, would be the fate of the unwary.
Also our Religious Education included information on what The Bible said the unmarried should not do.

Joyce Hackney, Littleover,Derby, England, United Kingdom

Back in the old days the nuns used to say that it was never to early for a girl to learn about shame. Now we only teach children to be ashamed of putting the recycling in with the rubbish.

But Labour ministers shaming us about teenage pregnancy? That I utterly deplore.

Christopher Chantrill, Seattle, USA

I agree that it is time to teach our kids that sex is part of life and not something to be ashamed of. For the British I think it's a question of learning to be more comfortable in gender roles and sexuality and to learn about sex in the context of self respect & respect for one's partner also.

RK, London,

Then why not provide classes for the parents, to help them teach their own children?

The best way to teach this material is at the child's own pace of maturity and curiosity, in the privacy of the family. If parents aren't comfortable doing this job, help them.

AMT, New York, USA

"children learn from internet porn"

haha. Too true. I know I certainly did.

I must have been on of the first of a new generation too!

pete, york, uk

Anyone of any age who doesn't know more than they need to about sex must never read a 'paper or watch television.
The politically incorrect answer is that we live in a society where everyone, including children, are fully informed of their rights but morality is a alien concept.

Bernard, Edinburgh, Scotland

Hear, hear! I'm 18 and my sex education was worse than useless. Luckily I had supportive parents and did my own research about what sex is meant to be about. Sadly, this is not the same for my peers- over 10 girls out of my year group of 200 are either expecting, or on their first/second child.

Amy, Canterbury,

I hate the term teenage pregnancies. It's legal to marry at 16 so teenage pregnancies should be normal, with a young father and mother.

Andrew Chapman, Newcastle upon Tyne, England