For - Mary Bousted

Parents don’t do very well when it comes to teaching their children about sex. They get embarrassed and their children are left squirming. For most teenagers the very idea of parental sexual activity is repugnant.

With one of the highest teenage pregancy rates in Europe, whatever we are doing at the moment we are not doing well. But ignorance is no answer. Children and young people at appropriate ages and stages have a right and need to know about how their bodies work.

They also have a right to know how to engage when they want to in sex and how to say that they don’t want to.

Times Archive, 1914: The teaching of sex hygiene

Speaking of these subjects must tend to break down the children's natural modesty

• Mr G. Bernard Shaw on sex instruction

Related Links

• Mandatory sex lessons for every 15-year-old

• Pre-consent lessons face legal challenge

• The curriculum through the years

All that requires knowledge.

We must be one of the very few countries in Europe that make such a fuss about sex education. On one hand we expect teenagers to behave responsibly and we’re very critical when they won’t. On the other hand we aren’t giving them the information to help them behave responsibly.

We have got to stop being Janus-headed about this and grow up as we expect young people to grow up. We can’t infantalise them and then expect them to behave responsibly.

Dr Mary Bousted is general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers

Against - James Preece

Catholics are not against teaching children about sex, nor do we expect teenagers to reach 18 without knowing what their bits and bobs are called. What the Catholic Church is against is getting children in a classroom and teaching about sex in a values-free environment.

It is a parental right and duty to impart information about sex. Parents are in the unique position of knowing their child’s personality, when they are ready, and in what order they should learn. Children should be taught individually and in a tailored way. Their parents should be sitting down with them one on one. Not — as the Government is proposing — getting groups of boys and girls together to learn about sex at 15.

It is a parent’s inalienable right to decide how and when their child is taught about sex. If the new rules make parents feel their rights are being removed then they would be justified in breaking the law. They should find out when the lesson is taking place and not let their teenager go to school that day.

No doubt schools can offer help and guidance for some children on a one-to-one basis because their parents struggle. But the Government wants to teach children - “This is how to do it, it’s going to be fun, and you can do it safely. We’re not going to tell you what context it’s right to do it in”.

We want to teach our children that they should give themselves to someone who has given themselves to them in marriage.

James Preece is a Catholic blogger and father of two

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