Sex education

Press, 26 April 1979, Page 20

Sex education

Sir, — In order not to confuse children, there must be harmony between school and home. That which we consider private would appear to be in the province of the home. The problem often rests with the timidity of parents to discuss the sexual, emotional and social

sides of people. I would suggest that as soon as the first child is born, the mother and father be required by law to take a course in “sex education” at a local school. It seems to me that most parents object to courses in “the mechanics of sex” for their children. They are entitled to present their ethical standards to their children but the parent-child conversation should be free and open. Our parental prerogatives must remain our own. But we must be wellinformed parents. — Yours, etc.,

S. WESTERMANN April 21, 1979.

Sir, — Why should TV be blamed for an upsurge of violence when obviously the blame should be placed on the presumed plastic minds of youth incapable of realising that “Batman,”’ “Superman,” “Spiderman” and “Wonder Woman” do not idolise the wicked, naughty, criminal mind. Could a diet of books written by Leslie Charteris, Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Thorne Smith, Dennis Wheatley, Zane Grey, Joan Butler and P. G. Wodehouse, to name but a few, be also blamed for violence or inanities in today’s youth if of course today’s youth is capable of sustained reading? Considering the “plastic minds” of human beings, maybe the violence of Bible characters is too much for even Christians to take literally, with revenge and vengeance in the name of God the keynotes of the Jewish section — the Old Testament. — Yours, etc.,

ROSIE WITTY. April 21, 1979. [This correspondence is now closed. — Editor]