Tomorrow (Tue 23 February 2010) is the the final main day (report stage and third reading) in the House of Commons on the government's sex education bill. (The bill has yet to be debated in the House of Lords.) The Conservative opposition has tabled a new amendment (no.60) which seeks to exclude sex and relationships education (SRE) from primary schools.
Please email or telephone your MP immmediately to urge him/her to(a) sign and support amendments 2 and 60, tabled the Conservative opposition for report-stage (see below for more info) and(b) vote against the bill as a whole at third reading. (A widely-reported government amendment on sex education in faith schools is mere window-dressing - see SPUC's 19 February 2010 media release)
What you need to know:
* The government's Children, Schools and Families bill would force all state schools to provide sex and relationships education (SRE) for all primary and secondary school pupils.
* The government want SRE to include signposting and links to abortion and other anti-life/anti-family services in schools, including faith schools.
* The bill would force schools to teach SRE according to principles of "equality", "diversity" and "rights."
* The government's draft SRE guidance interprets those principles to include abortion, birth control, homosexuality and "a wide range of [sexual] practices."
* Schools, if challenged, may well have to prove their SRE programmes accord with the bill's principles and that they had "regard" to the government's anti-life guidance.
* Faith schools may argue that they are entitled to protect their ethos, but the government has demanded that schools accept its sexual health agenda. The government says schools may adapt "the way things are taught", but it insists that all aspects of SRE will have to be delivered in all schools.
* Conservative opposition amendment no. 2 would delete the bill's proposed SRE principles of "equality", "diversity" and "rights". Amendment no. 60 seeks to exclude SRE from primary schools. Whilst these amendments are neither perfect nor comprehensive, they seek to lessen the damage of the sex education proposals.Please ask your MP to show his concern by signing these amendments (which will increase the chance of their being selected for debate) as well as opposing the Bill as a whole.
You can contact your MP by:
* email via the SPUC MPs web page
* telephone via the parliamentary switchboard on (020) 7219 3000.
Please forward any replies you receive to SPUC by:
* email, or post to Paul Tully at SPUC HQ
More information can be found in:
* SPUC's leaflet "Government sex education: priming children for teenage sex and abortion?"
* SPUC's briefing on the government's draft SRE guidance
* SPUC's critique "Sexual health in schools"
"Truly, it is the indescribable sweetness of contemplation which you give to those who love you. In this you have shown the tenderness of your charity, that when I had no being you made me; and when I strayed away from you, you brought me back again to serve you and commanded me to love you." The Imitation of Christ
Monday, 22 February 2010
Urgent - Amendment To CSF Bill...
This information has been sent round by SPUC - it's a last-ditch attempt to stop the corruption of our children, and defend the rights of parents to choose how and when to tell their children the facts of life.
Thanks for that Mac. You put all the points so neatly that it was a fairly simple task to cut and paste the relevant bits and fit them into a letter to email my local MP this morning.
ReplyDeleteI suppose the ammendment is a small positive step.
Can't understand though where the Conservatives are coming from. They are sending so many mixed messages - one moment tabling these ammendments, next saying they are for all the homosex legislation, not appearing particularly pro-family.....
With election time coming up soon who knows what these 'political types' are going to pull out of their hats next!
Why don't they just get on with the job of putting the 'GREAT' back into Britain!!!!
I have written to my MP as you suggest - thank you for the helpful points.
ReplyDeleteOf course, this is only half the battle. There are so many teachers in both primary and secondary schools who are not Catholic, or who disagree with the Church's teaching here, or who don't know or understand it, that whatever 'rights' are won, it is very doubtful whether the Church's teaching will be delivered anyway.
This is what the experts say
ReplyDeleteDr. Ney's a prominent psychiatry professor detailed, point-by-point analysis exposes the truth about the integrity of the human person and why sex education has failed abysmally, and has wreaked havoc with our youth and parents who were taught it in school.
• Sex education inhibits pair bonding.
• The more sex education, the more sexual self-consciousness.
• The more sex education, the more sexual activity.
• The earlier the sex education, the younger children explore sex and try various sexual techniques.
• In preventing disease and pregnancy, sex education has been a failure.
• The idea of "safe sex" has failed.
• The reliance on condoms has been dangerously misleading.
• There is nothing in sex education that cannot be part of a more effective general health education.
• The sex industry profits from sex education.
• Sex education creates mind-absorbing conflicts and preoccupations.
• Sex education tends to result in mental images that interfere with the appreciation of nature and art.
• No sex education teaches the beauty and hazards of pair bonding
Sex education in schools should be: if you have sex outside of marriage, you're a dirty fornicator.
ReplyDeleteTell it like it is, Patricius - don't beat around the bush!
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the Latin for a woman fornicator should be fornicatrix?
ReplyDelete