A piece by Rosemary Bennett, Education Editor, in yesterday’s Times:
All primary and secondary schools will teach children about same-sex relationships and be “sensitive” to transgender issues, campaigners have been told, as a mass consultation on sex education begins.
Ministers will ask parents, teachers and students to contribute to a “call for evidence” on what compulsory sex education should contain. The consultation will last eight weeks. [J4MB: Eight weeks. A clear indicator of contempt for anyone with conservative views.]
From September 2019, all schools in England will be required to teach Relationship and Sex Education (RSE). In primary schools, the focus will be on building healthy relationships and staying safe, the Department for Education said, while in secondary school it would focus on sex as well as relationships.
The department has written to LGBT campaigners saying that new lessons will address their concerns [J4MB: So the department hasn’t written to campaigners with traditional views, to say the lessons will address THEIR concerns. The eight week consultation will be a whitewash.] and that all schools would “ensure that young people, whatever their developing sexuality or identity, feel that RSE is relevant to them and sensitive to their needs”. Guidance is also being updated to address contemporary issues such as cyber-bullying, sexting and online safety.
Thomas Pascoe, of the Coalition for Marriage, said: “There is no age-appropriate way to teach primary school age children about homosexual relationships or transgenderism. We should be teaching young children broad values of respect and tolerance.”
The education secretary is of course Justine Greening, a lesbian. She is also the Minister for Women and Equalities, and has not the slightest interest in addressing the 30-year-old education gender gap. She doesn’t even pretend to be interested in the problem, possibly because to her it’s not a problem, but something to be celebrated.
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