Education Commission Sex Instruction In Schools Suggested

Press, Volume C, Issue 29506, 6 May 1961, Page 9

Education Commission Sex Instruction In Schools Suggested

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, May 5. Parents of the next generation should be taught to do the job today’s parents were falling down on—instructing their children in sex and family living, the Education Commission was told in Auckland today. The statement was made in submissions by the Advisory Committee on Marriage « Guidance presented by Dr. Elsie Davidge, of the Health Department. The committee said all children within the framework of New Zealand's education system should be educated mentally and emotionally for healthy family living. Dr. Davidge said she found girls in schools and training colleges lacked knowledge about family living, having children and bringing them up and even about the facts of sex. “We have women doctors and others talking to girls in schools, but nothing is being done about the boys,” she said. “We need someone, especially in Auckland, to talk to boys about these things That is particularly so in co-educational schools, w-here girls often receive instructions and the boys do not" The chairman (Sir George Currie): Why make the schools the clinic? Dr. Davidge: You have young children at school , learning how to live and

that seems the time to do this. It is even better, of course, if parents give the instruction, but we know that many do not do it The commission also had submissions tabled by the Rev. E. P. Blamires (Auckland). He said the schools should undertake progressive, systematic education for marriage and family living. This education had been neglected, he said, because it was called sex education “and ideas about sex are in such confusion.”