Maybe some gate-keeping is needed: sexual education under change

 In the 2024 movie The Conclave one of the possible candidates for papacy was described as strikingly modern. One way that the film tried to illustrate this was his phrase "We do not want to return to the times of large families and overcrowded houses 'cause momma and poppa did not know any better", which was a subtile way to illustrate how both the catholic and many protestant churches had handled the issues of contraceptives and sex education. In todays very polemic landscape, it is easy to think that only the most provocative parts of sex eduation (i.e. educating about social gender) is under attack, but the latest development here in Sweden have made me wonder. 

A week ago, NGO RFSU (national association for sexual education) claimed that the proposal for a new curriculum contained what could be viewed as a dismantling of sexual education in Sweden. This was due to sexual education being written out of the general curricula and instead being placed in plans for individual subjects. In theory, this could lead to that some schools did not teach sex ed since it was no longer the individual principal responsibility but rather the individual teacher. It is in this regard not far-fetched that this would create a loop-hole for highly conservative schools to skip sexual education. A similar tendency also exists within the oversight of the teachers education, where one proposal is that question of "human rights, basic democratic principles [...] and sexuality and identity" should no longer be individual goals for the education but fit into "an understanding of the schools guiding documents" (SOU 2024:81, 398). 

As an historian that have worked alot with education policy I can understand that we sometimes need to change curriculums. Examples of when this is needed is when we add new things (hence creating a need to remove older things), when something does not work or do not match social ideals anymore. What however worries me is the tendency that we can se subtile ways to decrease both teachers and students knowledge on sexuality, which might or might not be the result of the current "turn to the right" which many European countries experience right now. 

Another aspect that I personally think is important is that Sweden have a very peculiar tradition when it comes to sexed. The first efforts to place it in general school was during the 1900's first decades, which eventually failed in parliament but actually led to some school being able to provide a voluntarily sexed. In the 1940's the questions were discussed again and even though it met fierce resistance from churches, it eventually was passed and was implemented in all schools in 1955.

                                                            Idealization of a 1950's classroom.

 At that time, Sweden was the first country in the world to do so and has since been seen as a precedent country in the international discussion on sexed. Therefore, a risk with Sweden taking a step back is that it will create legitimacy for those fighting sexeds very existence in various countries. And the result you'll see in the quote at the beginning of this post: overcrowding, social problems and in worst case starvation for children born into poverty due to their parents lacking sufficient knowledge. One of the key people in the early debate for contraceptives once stated that it was better with love without children, than children without love. And 120 years later I still believe this to be true. 

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