Sex In The Classroom

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31236, 7 December 1966, Page 3

Sex In The Classroom

(N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND, Dec. 6.

School teachers did not as a whole wish to be involved with sex education in the classroom, said a guidance counsellor and postprimary schooi teacher, Mr M. Symons, at the final general meeting of the Auckland Federation of ParentTeachers’ Associations last night.

Mr Symons was a member of a panel which discussed the problem of sex instruction and family living. “If you want sex education in schools, you are going to ask a group of people to lead discussions who do not feel at all qualified to do so,” he said.

“Teachers are frankly scared to give any sex infor-

matibn at all, even if pupils demand it. “If a teacher answers a question about sex he is sticking his neck out. He knows he could be held answerable to parents, to the board of governors, school committee, the P.T.A. and the Department of Education.”

The panel members agreed that the ideal atmosphere for sex instruction was in the home, but because few parents were coping adequately, some system of instruction should be introduced into schools.

A marriage guidance counsellor, Mrs M. Rowlands, said that people who had been trained to handle sex education should visit school to discuss emotional problems with pupils. “But only specially trained people should be allowed to do it. They must be mature and well-adjusted people who can help children develop mature attitudes,” she said.

The senior lecturer in education at Auckland University, Dr. W. Barney, said that sex instruction should not be set out as a separate subject but dealt with by teachers as the demand for information in the course of ordinary lessons arose.

“I dislike the idea of schools handling sex instructions at all but it seems necessary,” he said. “It should not be made into something different by bringing in an outsider. It should be a natural part of the general body of information and not set apart from any other aspect of knowledge.”