SEX EDUCATION

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20507, 18 March 1941, Page 2

SEX EDUCATION

‘SHOULD BE COMPULSORY’ HEADMASTER’S VIEWS The view that sex education should be made compulsory in all postprimary schools was expressed by the headmaster of Rongotai College, Wellington, Mr. F. Martyn Renner. “There are many subjects at present taught that might well be omitted before that,” he said.

Mr. Renner was asked to comment on a suggestion by the Auckland School Committees' Association that sex education should be included in the schools’ curriculum. He said that, on the whole, he felt that it should not begin before the postprimary stage. While many children reached adolescence in the primary schools, a vast number did not, and there was, therefore, a danger of the subject being ridiculed.

In the secondary schools, however, where almost all the children had reached adolescence, sex education was of tjie utmost importance. At present a good deal of sex knowledge was picked up out of the gutter, instead of from a pure source; young people often erred through sheer ignorance. His experience as a teacher for many years had convinced him that the problem should be tackled boldly.

It was often argued that parents should accept the responsibility for enlightening their children, but for some extraordinary psychological reason many fathers were too shy With their sons to treat the subject properly, and an imperfect knowledge might do more harm than good. The duty then clearly fell to the schools, and the question arose of who was to do it. Some masters could undertake the work, but others, excellent teachers in the ordinary way, would fight shy of it. The solution seemed to be the appointment by the Government of carefully selected, competent men and women to conduct definite lessons in sex hygiene. At Itongotai, he himself gave a thoroughly enlightening talk once every two years to students from form 2 to form (I. The experiment had been begun eight years ago and had been a surprising success. He honestly believed that it had done a great deal of good.