Sex and relationship education in schools

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The UK Government plans to introduce a new sex and relationships education curriculum in schools from September 2020. This will begin in primary schools and continue right through secondary school, covering different aspects as the children get older. Topics to be covered include the need to respect different types of family, sexual identity, female genital mutilation, online grooming, domestic violence, forced marriage, and much more. The general aim is to arm and protect school pupils by giving them the information they need in order to stay safe and also to engender a spirit of tolerance towards people of different sexualities and lifestyles. This proposal has not gone down well with everybody, particularly people of certain religious persuasions who do not want children to be taught to regard lesbian, gay and transgender people as being of equal status with "straight" people. A column in today's Times newspaper by Melanie Phillips takes up the cudgels on behalf of those people who assert that these issues should not be the province of schools but be dealt with entirely within the family. This is an arguable point, although it is also often pointed out that the failure of many parents to "deal with" such matters is the reason why schools feel obliged to fill in the gaps in children's knowledge. However, there was one line in the article that pulled me up short. This was: "This ideology usurps the right of parents to inculcate their children into their own values". This worries me a lot. I simply do not recognise such a right, although I am well aware that many narrow-minded parents will seek to claim it. What business is it of parents to create moral and social clones of themselves? I see nothing wrong in leading by example in terms of acceptable behavior, but "inculcating"? Surely not! The right I most certainly recognize is that of every child to be able to make free choices about what they want to think, believe and accept. That must mean being presented with all sides of every argument in such matters as religion, relationships and lifestyle choice. Yes - parents will have their own views about how they might want their child to turn out, but the child also needs to know what else is on offer. That is where a curriculum such as that being discussed can play a major role, as well as acting as a shield against the evils that young people can easily become exposed to. What do you think?