This was back in the seventies at the start of my career.
Excerpt – A passion for Education – The story of a Headteacher
I’d never heard of PSE as it was then called. I was a biology teacher.
In the normal course of my lessons I came to the section on reproduction and as a natural part of the lesson opened up various discussions on sex and rounded it off with a lesson on contraception and sexually transmitted disease.
The lads seemed to appreciate it. Some of the questions were obviously geared to attempting to cause me embarrassment but when I fielded them honestly they realised that I wasn’t going to get phased by it. It was obvious to me that there was a huge level of ignorance and interest and a great need.
This was before the age of the internet, in a post-60s culture which still had vestiges of 1950s prim prudishness. Information and contraception were not easy to get hold of. Sex was not freely discussed. They were desperate for frank discussion and advice and very receptive.
I thought no more of it.
Mike my head of department, who wandered in and out of my lab while I was teaching, had noted that I was doing sex education with the lads.
‘Does the Head know you’re doing this?’ He asked.
‘No,’ I replied slightly baffled. Why should the Head know? It was only sex education. Most schools in the country were doing it.
‘I think you’d better check with him first.’
I went and checked. He said NO.
Introducing sex education was a major event. We had to get a majority of the staff in favour of such a controversial venture. He agreed to put it on the staff meeting agenda for discussion.
The staff meeting agenda went up and sure enough there it was at number 11.
We had our meeting and went through seven items.
‘Ah well’ I thought. ‘It will be featured next time.’
The next staff meeting came round and it was now number 14. Seemingly lots of really important issues had come up and required urgent attention.
The following staff meeting had fifteen items but sex education was not one of them.
I fumed.
I drew up a list of staff and went round to discuss sex education with all of them one by one. I even included both deputies. By the end of a week I had the agreement of every member of staff with only two abstentions, both of whom were catholics who abstained on religious grounds.
I went back to the Head and presented him with the fait accompli. I softened it by explaining that it was obvious that there wasn’t time to discuss it at staff meetings with all the pressing issues that had to be addressed. The crux of the matter was that the staff were almost unanimous.
He blustered.
It would need governors’ approval. I would have to take my case to the governing body.
I produced a presentation and amazingly won the approval of the governing body.
At my next meeting with the Head I may have inadvertently had a slight air of triumph.
That was soon put to rest.
The governors were only the first obstacle; the whole idea had to be put to parents. It was obvious from his attitude that he felt confident the parents would disapprove.
Unfazed I drafted a letter to parents with a reply slip and had it sent out.
Miraculously there were no objections and most gave their approval.
I once again returned to the Head’s study.
‘You know, Chris,’ he said thoughtfully, finally admitting defeat. ‘These lads are red blooded Englishmen. You can’t tell me that they can watch films of young girls masturbating without being affected.’
I sat there staring at him.
It was obvious that he had not read any of my information and had his own idea of what was involved in sex education. In his mind sex education equated with pornography. His mind had gone down the line that I would be showing pornographic films to the boys.
It had taken me a year and a half to get approval. I realised, in that moment, that a little bit more verbal explanation might have saved a lot of effort.