A new petition has been launched, asking the UK government to give parents the right to opt their children out of Relationships and Sex Education. The petition states:
“We believe it is the parent’s fundamental right to teach their child RSE topics or to at least decide who teaches them and when and how they are taught. We want the right to opt our children out of RSE when it becomes mandatory in Sept 2020.”
Once a petition reaches 100,000 signatures, the government will consider it for debate.
We urge you to sign this petition and share it so that parents are given back their right to decide what and how to teach their children about these sensitive topics.
Official government advice on the national curriculum says:
“Sex and relationship education (SRE) is compulsory from age 11 onwards. It involves teaching children about reproduction, sexuality and sexual health. It does not promote early sexual activity or any particular sexual orientation. …
“All schools must have a written policy on sex education, which they must make available to parents for free.”
However, in July, the Department for Education closed a consultation proposing that “schools are required to teach relationships education at primary school, relationships and sex education at secondary school and health education at all state-funded schools.”
Pro-LGBT sex ed taught to young children
However, in reality, relationships and sex education is being taught to children much earlier than this, and it is being used to promote an LGBT agenda. Although it is only compulsory teaching for secondary school age children, more and more primary schools are finding ways to introduce children and promote pro-LGBT issues as well.
In November, the Scottish Parliament made it official by voting to include a focus on LGBT issues as part of their curriculum, which would run alongside their Curriculum for Excellence, from age 5 onwards. Scottish Education Secretary, John Swinney, said that the themes, which will be taught across all subject areas, will include LGBT terminology; ideas about ‘homophobia’, ‘biphobia’ and ‘transphobia’; and teach the history of the LGBT movement.
In the rest of the UK, sex and relationships education is a non-statutory subject for primary schools, but schools may choose to teach it based on a curriculum drawn up by their local council.
Islington Healthy Schools Team has made public their curriculum on sex and relationships education. They state:
“The whole school curriculum of SRE [sex and relationships education] includes detailed lesson plans, along with teaching materials and resources that link both the science and PSHE curriculum. Schools are able to choose ‘when’ and ‘what’ to teach in SRE across the school.”
According to their guidelines, in Year 2 (ages 6-7), children should be taught to “understand that boys and girls can both do the same tasks and enjoy the same things; but that stories, TV and people sometimes say that boys do this and girls do that.” By years 4-5 (ages 8-10), children should be able to “describe menstruation and wet dreams … [and] know and can explain effective methods for managing menstruation and wet dreams.”
However, schools can go even further and subscribe to independent and private curricula. Stonewall, a pro-LGBT lobby group, also has their own curriculum for secondary education on “creating an LGBT-inclusive curriculum” across all subject areas; the Terrence Higgins Trust, a sexual health charity, also provides guidance to secondary schools on being LGBT-inclusive across the curriculum; Jigsaw goes even further, giving primary schools detailed resources on teaching children from age 3 upwards about ‘mindful’ sex and relationships, again promoting a pro-LGBT agenda.
Young children being taught LGBT ideologies is happening more and more. It has been evidenced in a recent case supported by the Christian Legal Centre, where one parent made a stand against her four-year-old child being forced to take part in a gay pride celebration that the school had organised. Izzy Montague said: “I think every parent should … take notice of this because it does open the gateway to many other issues.”
Not just in schools
The gateway to other issues certainly appears open. The LGBT agenda is not only being pushed out across schools; it is now also available to children (should their parents wish) from the moment they can read, with many pro-LGBT children’s story books widely available.
Christian Concern recently acquired one book aimed at young children, telling the story of a ‘transgender teddy bear’, called Introducing Teddy. It came to our attention after one of our supporters saw it placed prominently at their local public library, aimed at young children.
According to her website, the author, Jessica Walton, is “a cancer survivor, amputee, queer, daughter of a trans parent, feminist and teacher.” In fact, the book is dedicated to her “dad, Tina”.
Her website explains how the book came about:“Introducing Teddy began when Jessica Walton started searching for books that she could read to her young son that reflected the diversity in her family. She wanted books that encouraged children to be themselves, and to be accepting of others. … While Jessica found picture books with gay characters, it was much harder to find books aimed at a young audience featuring transgender and gender diverse characters. She decided to write the picture book she needed.”
Drawing on her personal experience, she writes of a teddy bear, ‘Thomas’, who is unhappy being a ‘male teddy’ and really wants to become ‘Tilly the teddy’. While there might not be much story to it, the message is loud and clear: transgenderism is normal and something to be accepted.
What are the alternatives?
With children being taught inappropriate content at such a young age, it is hard to know how and when to teach them the biblical truth about sex, marriage and relationships. However, there are various Christian resources also available to teach children about these topics in a godly way.
Dr Stanton Jones, a former professor at Wheaton College, Illinois, has written a series of three books for children aged 3 and up that explain to children, in simple terms, what the Bible says about sex, marriage and relationships. The first in the series is The Story of Me, designed for 3-5 year-olds, which describes and explains the body that God gave them. What’s the Big Deal?, the second book in the series is aimed at 8-11 year-olds, explaining the basic facts about sex, what God says about sex, and how to respond when faced with sexual peer pressure. Facing the Facts is the third in the series, aimed at 11-14 year-old, teaching them how to deal with the changes their bodies go through during puberty. It also discusses issues such as love, dating and sexuality.
Some more matter-of-fact style books are also available for 7-10 year olds, written by Patricia Weerakoon, a Christian sex educator. Her series, Birds and Bees by the Book, has been put together to help parents teach their children about matters concerning sex and sexuality.
Explaining the need for the books, Patricia said: “Children today live in a super sexualised culture. They are the children of the cyber generation and they are constantly being bombarded with sexualised images and sexual behaviour at a younger and younger age.” She added that if parents don’t take responsibility for teaching their children, “then the world, and social media, and television, and their friends, and sometimes even pornography, will be their educator.”
Links
Read our Wilberforce Publications book, What Are They Teaching the Children?
Read more about the case of Izzy Montague
Sign the petition asking the UK government to give parents the right to opt their children out of Relationship and Sex Education