Sex Education in Secondary Schools

Citation

Tucker, J. (2000), "Sex Education in Secondary Schools", Health Education, Vol. 100 No. 5, pp. 223-224. https://doi.org/10.1108/he.2000.100.5.223.1

This book addresses the questions: what sex education is? How sex education should be tackled in schools?; how sex education fits into the community and into the health promoting school. As a secondary science student teacher I found it to be an invaluable resource and an enlightening and enjoyable read.

Since health and sex education are still not fully considered within many PGCE courses, I would recommend using this book as reference, inspiration and a source of knowledge, particularly on teachers’ legal liabilities and responsibilities. There will be something of interest here for everyone, from highly sensitive issues, such as abortion, to a look at school policies. The book also provides a full run through of the biology underlying the sex education.

The book is split into two main parts and each chapter considers a particular issue in depth. It thus has the advantage of being a book the reader can refer to, rather than having to wade through text searching for a keyword or issue. Part I of the book opens up the whole idea of sex education and ways to approach it in a variety of schools. It addresses areas such as: the place of sex education in secondary schools, the role of the “health promoting school”, cultural, spiritual and moral links, emotional literacy, equal opportunity, legal liabilities, and finally some generic teaching strategies. Part II looks at the biological aspects of sex education and provides some fascinating facts and very useful figures and data.

Throughout each chapter there are lists of activities, data and references. The activities provide ways of looking at issues in sex education in a different, more open and explorative way, and are tailored towards both new and experienced teachers. They are designed to allow the reader to become more aware, confident, understanding and to appreciate different points of view. They give an insight into special needs, and social, cultural and moral views. The activities provide inspiration into how teachers can introduce, tackle or adapt sex education lessons, making them relevant, interesting, independent and thought‐provoking.

This well‐written book will be of value to all teachers, not just science teachers. It will appeal to those who have an interest in developing sex education programmes, who deliver PSHE or biology lessons, who are looking for inspiration or more independent learning strategies, or who just have an interest in current thinking on sex education within schools today. The book is an excellent read, making science interesting, in an enthusiastic, easy‐to‐read manner. As a new science teacher I have learnt a vast variety of amazing facts and have been able to pinpoint where my own personal sex education at secondary school failed, and specifically areas that weren’t even tackled!