Should sex education be taught in schools?

Sex education allows teachers to promote an agenda

Question: Should sex education be taught in schools?
Position1 of 2›: No, sex education should not be taught in schools
Argument‹4 of 7›: Sex education allows teachers to promote an agenda

Many educators have their own personal views on matters like contraceptives, abortion and LGBTQ+ matters. Sex education in schools allows them to push this agenda on children and teens.

The argument

Many sex education programs teach transgenderism, contraceptive measures, and homosexuality as normal and acceptable lifestyle choices. This is not a biological or scientific truth. It is simply a socially held belief. This means that when they teach children about these issues, they are pushing their own socially held beliefs on teens and young adults.

Context

If a teacher is a supporter of same-sex marriage or is pro-choice, sex education classes in school provide a platform for them to push their views onto malleable teenage minds.

Premises

[P1]Proponents of this position argue that many sex education programs present contested social and cultural attitudes as settled fact rather than as one viewpoint among others. [P2] On this view, teaching those attitudes as simply normal means educators are passing their own values on to children rather than neutral information. [C] Therefore, because it lets teachers promote an agenda, these proponents hold that sex education should not be taught in schools.

Counter-arguments

A tightly controlled curriculum would ensure that all children and teens receive the same information presented in the same way across the country, as they do with maths and science. As a result, there is no margin for teachers to insert their own beliefs into the classes. Quite the opposite, putting sex education in the curriculum would prevent teachers from pushing an agenda.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P2] By putting sex education on the national curriculum, the government could control the information students receive and how they receive it. This means there would be no margin at all for teachers to push an agenda.