TO TEACH OR NOT TO TEACH?

[dropcap]S[/dropcap]ex education covers a wide array of topics that affect sexuality and sexual health. Topics like delaying sex, body image, birth control, gender, relationships, sexual identity, anatomy and prevention of sexually transmitted infections. That is according to ‘Worcester Impact on Sexual Health’.

Comprehensive Sex Education, according to the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS) includes age appropriate, medically accurate information on a broad set of topics related to sexuality, including: human development, relationships, decision making, abstinence, contraception and disease prevention.

Are these aforementioned subjects part of our local school curriculum and, if not, should they be? Some are now advocating for government to introduce comprehensive sex education in our schools. When I attended primary school, some eight years ago, there was no subject that carried that name. We did, however, do a course called Health and Family Life.

Health and Family Life (HFLE) is defined by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as a comprehensive life skills-based programme which focuses on the development of the whole person by: fostering development of knowledge, skills and attitudes that make for healthy family life, increasing the ability to practise responsible decision making about social and sexual behaviour and enhancing the potential of young persons to become productive and contributing adults.

I looked forward to my HFLE classes, not necessarily for what was going to be taught, but because it was the opportunity many took to catch a breather from the earlier more difficult classes like Science or Math, and chat with friends. Though I paid little attention in HFLE class, one thing I did learn was a boy is a boy and a girl is a girl. It appears that Comprehensive Sex Education is far different from HFLE.

As mentioned earlier, one of the many components of Comprehensive Sex Education is ‘sexual identity’. Sexual identity is based on feelings, attractions, and desires. It includes gender identity or how one identifies their sexual orientation, which would encompass who one is sexually attracted to.

There are three main viewpoints concerning this very controversial issue: the biblical view, the way of nature, and the LGBT view. The biblical view is that a person is born either male or female and that sexual relations should only be carried out with the opposite sex.

The natural point of view is that nature shows us that one is born either a male or female, and that males and females (human and animal) mate and reproduce.

Finally, the LGBT view is that each person is entitled to make their own decisions relating to sexual orientation and sexual identity.

While it is reported that some countries have introduced the subject in the curriculums of some schools, in Saint Lucia the majority has held on to either the biblical or the natural viewpoints. With requests now being made for Saint Lucia to move away from the beliefs we hold on to, and introduce Comprehensive Sex Education, what will we do?

There are many beneficial components of the subject, such as body image, anatomy, relationships, decision making, abstinence, contraception and disease prevention, that can and should be taught without violating our moral beliefs as a nation. However, where do we draw the line? Another question worth asking is: How comprehensive is comprehensive? Will it open the door for other controversial subject matter in the future?