Teachers should administer sex education

The argument

Professional teachers are better placed than parents to ensure children receive accurate information on sex and relationships, which is why sex education belongs in schools. The case rests on what a curriculum is. A curriculum is devised from medically accurate information and can be updated as the latest technologies emerge, so what a child is taught does not depend on who happens to be teaching them or on what that person learned years earlier. It is written once, checked, and revised as the facts change. A teacher delivering it is accountable for delivering it accurately, and a gap in coverage is a visible failure of the curriculum rather than an invisible one in a particular household. A parent is in a different position, and not through any fault of their own. A parent who likely didn't receive comprehensive sex education themselves while growing up, and who may not be familiar with modern relationships, is not in the best position to teach a teen about sex and modern relationships. The specific subjects where this matters are the ones that have changed most: parents can be misinformed or ignorant about LGBTQ+ relationships, the sexual dangers involved in using dating apps, the latest contraceptive options and their effectiveness, and the rates of sexually transmitted diseases. On each of these, out-of-date information is not merely incomplete but actively misleading, and a teenager has no way of telling which is which. The underlying point is about whose job it is. Like anything, the world of sex is constantly evolving, and keeping pace with it is work — reading, checking, revising. It is not a parent's job to remain abreast of the latest developments, and most parents have no occasion to. But if sex education was standardised and taught in schools, it would be a teacher's job, and the responsibility would sit with someone equipped to discharge it.

Context

Standardising sex education across the school system will ensure that children and teens are receiving accurate information from people who are qualified to teach and are trained educators.

Premises

Counter-arguments

The idea that a capable and informed teacher educates teens on the realities of modern sexual relationships is pure fantasy. In reality, the people teaching sex ed are not the best teachers in the school. Sex education instruction is often left to physical education teachers who receive little instruction or training and instead struggle through an uncomfortable speech on the “penis” and the “vagina”. In these cases, parents would be a far better source of sexual information. Additionally, teachers themselves have many reservations about teaching sex education. They are worried that they will go too far and will face a backlash from parents. In one survey, only 36% of teachers surveyed were confident teaching the subject of identity, which deals with topics such as transgenderism and individual sexuality. All sides could be kept safe if parents undertook the responsibility of sex education instruction instead of teachers.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] Not all teachers are able to effectively teach children about sex. [Rejecting P4] But teachers themselves would prefer not to teach sex education.