State Parenting.

I read today that the government is planning to include ‘sex consent’ lessons in the schools curriculum, to be given to all children aged 11. Clearly this isn’t about simple biology and mechanics as the old ‘sex education’ lessons used to be, but about the bigger and more complex matter of attitude. And it seems the state feels the need to take over.

The business of teaching sexual attitude used to be vested in parents and the pressure of over-arcing social axiom. The guiding principle was the received morality of the day, and this in turn was based on the prevailing religious teaching (even though a lot of people didn’t realise it, and such a basis raised questions of its own.) In the modern world this is apparently inadequate. Sex has become a matter of mere recreation; it has entered arenas which didn’t used to exist and become subject to previously unknown pressures. In consequence, parents can no longer be trusted to cope with it. So now another question presents itself:

Who is going to decide what children should be taught and on what basis? Furthermore, should we trust them? Politicians are no experts in either psychology or education, and it’s an open secret that government policies are influenced by commercial and other pecuniary pressures.

I expect time alone will tell. And since I’m not a parent of young children, should I care?