Feature

Accentuate the positive

Julian Cohen offers a personal prescription for a self-confident and moral — but not moralistic — approach to sex education

1. Be proactive, not reactive

We have become almost apologetic about sex education. We find ourselves continually trying to justify our work and sometimes almost apologising for it. Much of our work has been covert, it has deliberately avoided drawing in a wider audience and has involved a high level of self-censorship and covering our own backs. In particular we have run scared of the media. It is about time we were more assertive and set more of the agenda. With the publication of the new Department for Education sex education guidance for schools we should move into more stable times and can then be bolder in setting out our stall.

2. Stop the internal bickering and political correctness

It is bad enough having to put up with the moralising minority but in the last few years individualism, competitiveness, job insecurity and narrow political correctness have led to tremendous squabbling among people who should be allies. How can we win the arguments in the wider public domain when we are such a shamble ourselves?

3. Let’s get moral

We have avoided talking about moral frameworks and vacated the middle ground to the anti-sex education lobby. We need to be clear that we also have a moral framework for sex education and specify what it is. Things like self-respect and control, mutual consent, respect for others of different views, background, sexuality and sexual behaviour and the rights of young people to information, education and services and to make their own informed decisions should be central to our moral framework.

4. Use the available evidence

We may not have very much useful research in the UK to back up our work but some is available and we need to parade it. Local research on young people’s sex education needs shows they get too little, too late and demonstrates the need for explicit sex education using groupwork methods and providing opportunities to discuss freely and question. Research into young people’s sexual behaviour shows that increasing numbers are sexually active and experience intercourse at an earlier age. The recent WHO review of the impact of sex education on sexual behaviour unfortunately found no UK studies to include. But of the studies it reviewed, it found no instances of sex education encouraging sexual behaviour.

On the contrary, it showed sex education is more likely to delay the onset of young people having intercourse and to encourage safer sexual practices in those who do have intercourse. And research into parents’ views show the vast majority support school-based sex education.

5. Stop confusing sexual activity and intercourse

We need to be specific about what we mean. Too often the terms are used interchangeably. Most young people are sexually active from a very young age even if they are not engaged in intercourse. Sex education is not just about intercourse. Our society has so many hang-ups about intercourse and tends to see sex education as being about reproduction. It is much wider than that. By distinguishing between the two, we can more easily justify our sex education work, especially with younger age groups.

6. Putting ideas into their heads

This is what education is all about. Young people need to have thought clearly about sexual issues well before they engage in them. They also need to be aware of the broad range of sexual behaviour in society so they can understand and be in a position to help other people. Sex education is not just about the individual in the here and now.

7. Talk about sexual careers

We all have sexual careers that change, sometimes dramatically, at different stages of our lives. They can include times when we are having a lot of sexual activity, times we have none, times we choose to have none, times we have none but would like some, times we enjoy certain sexual activities but not others, times we enjoy sex and times we do not, times we are heterosexual, times we are attracted to or sexually active with the same sex and so on. Introducing the concept of a sexual career that changes over time can make us all a bit more humble and relaxed about sex education.

8. Use the example of the Netherlands but…

Yes, the Netherlands does have the lowest teenage pregnancy and abortion rates in Europe in complete contrast to the UK. But this probably has more to do with availability and take up of services for young people and a more open and honest attitude towards sex in wider society than the programmes in schools. School sex education in the Netherlands tends to be quite narrow and didactic.

Schools may be more receptive to giving out information and linking with services but do not seem to have the active group work sex education programmes we advocate.

9. Multi-agency approaches but…

Yes, we need multi-agency work and must develop healthy alliances. The trouble is this can sometimes become an end in itself with huge resource input and relatively small outcomes. Some professionals seem to spend an inordinate amount of time in meetings and at conferences.

10. Finding out what young people need

This is very important, as is involving young people in defining the nature of our work. However, at one level we already know what young people need. There have been many local studies and they come up with very similar findings (see number 4 above). The problem is we are still far from delivering what young people need. Yet another focus group study of needs is a poor substitute for actually trying to meet the needs we know exist.

11. Develop school policies but…

Policies are certainly needed. The problem is so much effort often goes into them and at the same time school sex education practice remains very poor. But sometimes policy development is a safe option that avoids the real issue of delivering a good sex education programme.

12. Peer education/ theatre in education but…

These are both useful aspects of sex education development. But both can be extremely resource intensive with relatively small positive outcomes. They are not a substitute for good quality sex education facilitated by a confident teacher. Too many peer education projects have resulted in groups of ill-prepared young people not being able to achieve what was intended. Too many theatre-in-education projects become one-offs and may detract from ongoing, integrated sex education. Handle both with extreme care.

13. Stop moaning

About John Patten (or Gillian Shepherd), the DfE guidance, the lack of resources in schools etc, etc. Now we have the DfE guidance and Health of the Nation targets let’s use their positive aspects. Resources might be scarce but there is a lot more expertise among teachers and support agencies than a few years ago. We are also have more relevant sex education resources available.

14. Be positive

Let’s get on with the task of developing good practice in sex education in schools. Let’s write the necessary resources, train and support teachers, work with young people, parents and governors, develop meaningful and realistic policies, link with other agencies and outside services and develop health services for young people. And let us be proactive with the media and give them ‘good news’ stories instead of reacting defensively to their agenda. Let’s go forward and take the middle ground.

For further details ring Healthwise on 051-707-2262.