RSE is a ‘social experiment’ on children
by Carys Moseley, Christian Concern:
Last Wednesday a meeting raising concerns about some aspects of Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) in schools took place in Parliament. The meeting was hosted by the Lords and Commons Family and Child Protection Group and chaired by Sir Jeffrey Donaldson. The meeting was well-attended and featured speakers with professional backgrounds in education and safeguarding.
Importance of maintaining safeguarding
Judith Nemeth, director of The Values Foundation, opened explaining that the meeting was about safeguarding. She said that the Department for Education in England has done a great job of ensuring that people of faith can be ‘RSE-compliant.’ However, she then went on to point out that there is now a lot of evidence of irresponsible teaching of RSE in some places. One of the examples given was of guidance previously on the website of Warwickshire county council advocating teaching of ‘self-touching’ for six-year-olds.
Nemeth explained that the problem of irresponsible teaching of RSE does not simply occur in some local authorities, but that it is linked to the attitude of civil servants in the Department for Education. She gave the example that this week the Department had said that it would “protect teachers who are bullied by parents into not teaching about gender identity.”
She then went on to say that campaigners are now wanting a caution to be put on RSE materials that teach children about ‘gender identity,’ and asking for supplementary material to be provided.
Related Posts
Tags
Share This
