"Social engineering by stealth"

The redefining and dismantling of family life and structure is sadly not a new concept to most of us today. What continues to come as a surprise (to me at least) is the level at which this rhetoric seems to be Government-driven.

The rights of parents to teach their own children what they believe to be right, good and morally correct is being steadily chipped away. If RSE becomes part of the national curriculum from 2018/19, the right of parents to remove their children from RSE lessons may be under threat. Many other pressures on family life are no longer just threats, but reality.

An educational magazine, teach secondary[1], this month published an article by a teacher who has worked in secondary education for over 20 years. This teacher pulled no punches; she called the move towards compulsory RSE throughout primary and secondary education “social engineering by stealth” though “expressed in the language of safety and healthiness”.

The Government appears to want to adopt the role of provider, educator and parent. Should a group of people who have no relationship to you be imposed upon your children to tell them what is good and right, and what they should believe?

Children are increasingly vulnerable and they need their parents to protect them. Parents cannot do this if they are excluded from their child’s moral education. Proverbs 22:6 tells us that we are to train our children up in the way they should go and when they are old they will not depart from it. Children only get one childhood and God intends that their moral education during their formative years leaves an indelible mark on their whole lives. Lovewise exists, to help parents teach their children about marriage, relationships and sex, to lay good foundations, to help guide these vulnerable lives when all else is evaporating, to show that the truth of scripture stands firm and to speak sense into our increasingly confused culture.

 

[1] Louise Burton. “Teaching about relationships is a dodgy business”, teach secondary, Issue 6.5 July 2017