Pages

Thursday, March 14, 2024

Alwyn Poole: “Sexuality” education in NZ.


Despite promises from the new government to quickly review/replace these bizarre documents it appears that this remains the current official document in NZ that school Boards of Trustees must implement.

“Relationship and Sexuality” education in Years 1 – 8

This features features statements such as:

In English, ākonga can:

• critically explore how the diversity of families, schools, and communities is represented in texts

• explore and critique the representation of gender roles and relationships in texts

• co-construct ground rules for engaging in critical discussions about text content

• create oral, visual, or written texts about the roles and relationships within their whānau or family

• engage in dialogue and debate in the context of provocative online posts linked to relationships, gender, and sexuality

In science, ākonga can:

• consider how biological sex has been constructed and measured over time and what this means in relation to people who have variations in sex characteristics

• consider variations in puberty, including the role of hormone blockers


This is for children between 5 and 12 years old (Year 1 – 8). There is no way they are going to be allowed to be kids. They get the worries of the adult world thrust down upon them and, for the record, I have always felt the sex and sexuality education belongs in the home.

What happens in NZ is that when a topic like this comes up a range of self-interest idealogues put their hands up and the Ministry calls the “experts” and gives them carte blanche. Families/parents and/or represents of those pillars of society are most certainly not welcome to express their views.

The most insidious part of these documents was to spread the content through every learning area so that the ability for parents to withdraw their children was significantly negated.

Here is just one example of how the NZ documents are a disaster:

“Puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones

Puberty blockers (gonadotrophin-releasing hormone analogues) are not available to children and young people for gender incongruence or gender dysphoria because there is not enough evidence of safety and clinical effectiveness.

From the age of 16, teenagers who’ve been on hormone blockers for at least 12 months may be given cross-sex hormones, also known as gender-affirming hormones.

These hormones cause some irreversible changes, such as:
  • breast development (caused by taking oestrogen)
  • breaking or deepening of the voice (caused by taking testosterone)
Long-term cross-sex hormone treatment may cause temporary or even permanent infertility.

However, as cross-sex hormones affect people differently, they should not be considered a reliable form of contraception.

There is some uncertainty about the risks of long-term cross-sex hormone treatment.

Children, young people and their families are strongly discouraged from getting puberty blockers or gender affirming hormones from unregulated sources or online providers that are not regulated by UK regulatory bodies.” (www.nhs.uk/conditions/gender-dysphoria/treatment/)

Parents must be the key agents is all things to do with sex/sexuality in NZ. The State/Ministry has no role to play. Time for parents to be in touch with the Minister on this.

Alwyn Poole, a well-known figure in the New Zealand education system, he founded and was the head of Mt Hobson Middle School in Auckland for 18 years. Alwyn blogs at Education plus ... Challenging Mediocrity. - where this article was sourced.

4 comments:

Robert Arthur said...

Most of the very effective teachers I had in pri school would have found these directions even more unfathomable than I did. Alwyn is correct about burdening the young. A friend of our family had a young daughter and had explained the birds and bees long before it was then customary. The girl was obsessed with matters sexual; instantly wanted to know what sex the cat was etc etc.

Anonymous said...

I've read the curriculum on these topics and here you have only described those up to age 12 but it goes on from there to the older students also. Concerningly, it describes how students are taught to understand and support school policies on sex and gender diversity. 'Support' is the only option there, there is no option to decide not to support them. They are taught how to 'critique hetero-normative messages... and recommend actions to address these'. Again, no option to decide for themselves if they agree or disagree with these ideologies. It is clear that only one position is allowable for these students.

No more critical thinking, only 'right' thinking.

Anonymous said...

We introducedour family to such matters as they arose in appropriate language as an ordinary part of life. We used correct terminology and never made a fuss. It was so simpIe and effective.

Anonymous said...

Parents are the key to de-railing this evil mischief called sexuality education. Are they too busy or too complacent to care/to act?
Sexualising children at a very young age is becoming a societal norm thru the various media available, including the tyranny of television. "Hetero-normative" is exactly that. Normal. We are digressing into a sickness that the current and future generations may well rebuke us for. Tolerating the intolerable. Encouraging a completely amoral world view can only promote degenerate standards in future adults and is a slippery slope to mental illness and worse. The lowest common ideological denominator is where all this is heading. Parents need to collectively reject this "sex-washing" before it is too late.