This blog post is regarding the Article the was posted via ABS News on the 27th of January 2020.

Article Link: Does Australia's sex education curriculum need to include more on sex positivity, LGBTQI+ relationships and intimacy?

Yes PLEASE! I agree with this article and believe it’s so important that this topic is talked about in mainstream media.

As a qualified counsellor based in Adelaide, I have a passion to help close the gap in the Sex Education currently provided in schools. I promote Emotional Safety Education, focusing on communication, consent, boundary setting, checking in, empathy, respect and interpersonal skills to deal with modern day sexual encounters, wanted or unwanted.

This article reminded me of some research I did in the past about what Sex Education was provided in the South Australia school system. I attended courses and found that Adelaide school Sex Education appears to be getting better and is way more comprehensive than some of the other States regarding LGTBQI friendly information, sex positive and in-depth information about consent. However, there are still gaps, particularly in relation to emotional safety.

It is my understanding that some teachers are asked to teach Sex Education whether it be something they are interested in or not. I believe it may be beneficial to students to have some Sex Education lessons if not all being taught by someone who is passionate about the subject and wants to be in the classroom teaching it. It is important to create a shame free space for students to ask questions that they might not feel comfortable to ask a current teacher. (This does depend on each individual class and how comfortable they feel with their teacher.) Further I feel that it would be beneficial for Sex Education to include more of a focus on Emotional Safety which ensures students make important decisions that are inline with their values and provide a good sense of well-being. I believe these 2 gaps that I have focused on are easily remedied and can make a lot of difference to Sex Education.

“At the moment, schools can get away with doing the bare minimum.”

This quote from the article worries me in the sense that we need schools to push for a Sex Education program that is comprehensive, inclusive and really gives young people the tools to create healthy safe sexual encounters.

Thankfully, there are young ladies like Tamsin speaking up about this matter and there are articles being produced that really emphasize the importance of Sex Education being updated.

I am looking forward to helping close the gap so that young people receive a Sex Education that is comprehensive, relatable, and that cover the emotional side as well as the physical challenges relating to sexual encounters in this modern era. Not just how to put a condom on a banana!

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