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Relationships and sex education

Organisations write to education secretary before review, saying Englands schools have vital role in tackling misogyny and abuse

Thu 23 Mar 2023 20.01 EDT

Dozens of organisations and charities have written to the education secretary, amid fears that sex education in England may become a casualty of the culture wars.

More than 50 organisations concerned with education and tackling violence against women and girls (VAWG) have written to Gillian Keegan to urge her to resist the politicisation of sex education, following a row in which Conservative backbench MPs claimed that children were being taught graphic lessons on oral sex, how to choke your partner safely, and 72 genders.

Rishi Sunak responded by asking the Department for Education to ensure schools are not teaching inappropriate or contested content in the subject of relationships, sex and health education (RSHE), and said he would bring forward a review into the subject.

The letter comes after an independent investigation for the Isle of Man government this week found that claims that children had been left traumatised by inappropriate and graphic sex education taught by a drag queen in a school on the island were inaccurate and had led to teachers facing death threats.

The prime minister confirmed a review into sex education, which will apply only to state schools in England, after a Tory MP, Miriam Cates, said children were being exposed to sex education classes that were age-inappropriate, extreme, sexualising and inaccurate. But teaching unions said the claims were inflammatory rhetoric and the review was politically motivated.

Led by the End Violence Against Women coalition and signed by organisations including Rape Crisis, SafeLives and the Sex Education Forum, the letter argues that schools are critical to tackling abuse, but currently were being left to deal with the fallout left by misogynistic influencers and tech companies.

It states: In light of recent headlines which have the potential to incite opposition to much-needed RSHE delivery in schools, we are seeking assurances that the upcoming review will not be unnecessarily politicised, and will be focused on what children and young people need to live happy and healthy lives, and the urgent need to do more to tackle VAWG and the rising influence of online misogyny in schools.

The letter states that young people are being exposed to misogynistic influencers online and increasingly looking to porn to fill the gaps in sex education, adding: We urge you to commit to providing teachers with much-needed support and resources to hold space for young people to openly discuss these themes. We cannot afford the cost to these young people, and for wider society, of shutting these conversations down.

It also argues that the VAWG sector had a long history of delivering evidence-based and trauma-informed interventions with children and young people and should be a critical partner delivering lessons.

The organisations accused the government of spending only 3.2m of the promised 6m funding package for RSHE, despite research from the DfE estimating that it would cost 59m to deliver the RSE curriculum. It also pointed to recent research from SafeLives that found teachers felt time, resources and school prioritisation presented major barriers to effective delivery.

A government spokesperson said: All children deserve to grow up in a safe environment, which is why we will be publishing further guidance on how schools can create a culture of respectful relationships, and teach effectively about sexual harassment, sexual violence and stamping out violence against women and girls.

We are also protecting children though our online safety bill, by ensuring technology firms will be required to enforce their age limits to stop children from being exposed to harmful material online.

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Gillian Keegan urged to not let culture wars weaken sex education - The Guardian

EXCLUSIVE: Republican senators are readying to make the case that the Pentagons progressive military policies under the Biden administration are to blame for the Armed Forces dire recruitment crisis.

The Senate Armed Services Committee is holding a hearing at 9:30am this morning on the militarys shortage of new troops, which the Center for Strategic and International Studies called "the worst recruiting crisis since the creation of the All-Volunteer Force nearly 50 years ago."

Sens. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, and Rick Scott, R-Fla., members of the committee and military veterans themselves, drew a link to their own time serving the country when asked by Fox News Digital about the current personnel crisis.

"My family didnt have much growing up, and the Navy gave me the opportunity for a better life and a better education it can provide that for so many kids across our nation. But unfortunately, this administration has made their focus more on pushing the failed agenda of the radical Left than building a lethal force and advertising the opportunities our military provides and how great our service can be for ones life," Scott said. "When our military is more focused on achieving some diversity metric rather than defeating our enemies, our national defense and the American people lose."

AIR FORCE GOES ON DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION HIRING SPREE: TOP JOB PAYS UP TO $183,500

Ernst told Fox News Digital, "The militarys purpose is to fight and winnot crusade for social causes. As a combat veteran, this is personal to me. The Department of Defense must act urgently to fix waning recruitment and retentionand ultimately to build a more lethal force. Our adversaries are watching."

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BIDEN ARMY SECRETARY RESPONDS TO WOKE CRITICISMS, SAYS DEI PROGRAM IMPORTANT

Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., another member of the panel, told Fox News Digital that hes looking to press the Pentagon officials at todays hearing on their commitment to upholding national safety rather than waging "culture wars at home."

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"The goal of our military should be to meet global challenges facing America with decisive authority, not to wage culture wars at home," Schmitt said. "I look forward to questioning top military officialsto get more answers and ensure that our military is laser-focused on addressing the challenges that our adversaries pose to our country and our freedoms."

Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, a military veteran, blasted the Biden administration's "failed agenda"

In a statement made to Fox News Digital late last week, the committees top Republican, Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., warned that "divisive" policies imposed by President Joe Bidens appointees are leaving the U.S. more vulnerable to its foreign adversaries.

"In the competition with China and Russia, our greatest asset is our people. The divisive social policies being pushed by senior Democrat appointees at the Pentagon are undermining this advantage," Wicker said.

DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION WORKERS FRET COMPANIES AREN'T HIRING THEM ANYMORE: INSANE, PATHETIC

The personnel shortage has so far hit the Army the hardest, having fallen short of its 2022 recruitment goals by 25%. The Navy, Air Force and Marines all barely scraped by after dipping into their pools of deferred recruits guaranteeing a setback in reaching this years benchmarks.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., referenced the dire recruitment statistics in his own comments to Fox News Digital.

Sen. Joni Ernst, also a veteran on the Armed Services Committee, said the military's purpose was not to "crusade for social causes"

"While the Biden administration declares climate change a national security threat, our real enemies are growing in strength and numbers," Tuberville said. "Last year the Army missed its recruitment goal by 15,000 recruits more than an entire division. This year is shaping up to be even worse. This national security emergency ought to be a wake-up call for Pentagon leadership but theyve refused to take responsibility. Its time for them to get serious about keeping our country safe."

Testifying at the Tuesday morning hearing will be the undersecretaries of the Army, Navy and Air Force.

Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin is expected on Capitol Hill later this week for a House hearing on Biden's Defense budget proposal.

Follow this link:
Republicans will use hearing to assert Dems' 'culture war' policies hampering military recruitment - Yahoo News

Opinion

Charities should be open to fair criticism, but the reaction to our inclusive language guide was offensive and divisive

Tue 21 Mar 2023 06.00 EDT

Last week, we updated Oxfams inclusive language guide, an internal document intended to help our staff speak about our work. The guide explores the role of language in tackling poverty and the words we choose to use when talking about, for example, gender, migration, race and disability. Like many other progressive organisations taking this approach, we faced an onslaught of criticism.

Perhaps not surprisingly, we were quickly accused of wokery of the worst kind, of wasting money, banning words and being ashamed of Britains heritage. The Daily Mail splashed Beyond Parody across its front page (its anti-wokery almost beyond parody in itself); Piers Morgan weighed in with a sarcastic tweet that very poor people really wanted to be addressed by the right preferred pronoun; and, before we knew it, our own tweet had been viewed more than 5m times.

Over the past few days, Ive taken time to consider the responses and, amid the heady mix of transphobia, offensive language, racism, thoughtful criticism and supportive comments, to see if I could understand why people are worried about our approach and what we can do to respond to their concerns.

The first complaint seemed to be that producing the guide shows Oxfam is wasting money, and instead we should just get on with fighting poverty. These concerns are built on the assumption that fighting poverty simply involves delivering things, such as food or money, directly to beneficiaries with few or no overheads. Any bureaucracy to manage or improve the work of the charity (such as this guide, or indeed any paid staff) is then considered wasteful.

Development charities cannot pretend to use donor money solely for feeding people and building loos, while surreptitiously using some funds to cover core costs and campaigns. We need to be upfront about the fact that good quality programming needs overheads, that systemic change needs campaigning, that treating people with dignity is a critical part of ending poverty.

This is not just the right choice to make, its also the best way to inspire the next generation of supporters. Talking about the importance of decolonising aid or about trans-inclusion may not feel popular, for now at least, but it will help us to transform the development sector into something more fit-for-purpose in the 21st century.

Words are powerful. In recent weeks, Ive visited Oxfam teams in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and in Ukraine. In both places, were taking practical action to improve the lives of people in need, but I was also reminded by individuals I met that dignity and solidarity are just as important. When I asked what more we could do, the answer was use our voice: to champion peace and justice, to express solidarity, to ensure people living in challenging circumstances know they are not forgotten.

The second criticism seemed driven by headlines claiming Oxfam has banned mothers and abandoned women. The variety of brilliant Mothers Day displays in our network of shops over the weekend suggests otherwise. Despite our guide saying were not banning any words (stating in its introduction that it is just a guideline and not intended as a prescriptive document), and despite the use of parent, carer or guardian being commonplace in all sorts of contexts, we became a target for those who hate what they see as woke gone mad.

Our guide tries to encourage a considered and nuanced approach to how we refer to people, yet it sparked a reductive, divisive response. Clearly, there is still much to be done to win hearts and minds, to allay fears and to show the centrality of our work with women and girls around the world.

I was perhaps most surprised by the strand of criticism that suggested pronouns dont matter in the global south and that this obsession is a western creation. There are so many communities around the world in which notions of gender are more nuanced than simple binaries. There are also many societies in which sexual minorities are among the most persecuted, and therefore the most poor and vulnerable. Understanding the intersectional nature of the factors that shape poverty, and changing our approach accordingly, has to be an important part of how we operate as an international organisation.

Last, we faced criticism that Oxfam is ashamed of its heritage. The fact that we said English is the language of a colonising nation seems to have hit a particularly raw nerve. To me, its difficult to argue against the fact that English (alongside French, Portuguese and Spanish) is spoken by as many people as it is because of colonisation. In many parts of the world where we work, English is seen as the foreign language of the coloniser. Being aware of this isnt about carrying a sense of shame of Britains past; its a pragmatic recognition of a reality we need to take into account when we communicate. This kind of progressive internationalism has been at the heart of Oxfams approach for all of its 80 years.

Just this month, the chair of the Charity Commission, Orlando Fraser, urged charities to avoid inflammatory rhetoric and to model a better kind of public discourse, one that makes our society kinder and more cohesive. Its a responsibility that Oxfam takes seriously.

In the end, Oxfam only has one agenda: to beat poverty. Our vision is of a kinder and radically better world. The last few days have shown just how challenging that is, but they have also served as a reminder of the importance of the task.

Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah is the chief executive of Oxfam GB, and a former secretary general of Civicus, a global alliance of civil society organisations

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

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Oxfams job is to end poverty we refuse to be distracted by the toxic culture wars - The Guardian

EXCLUSIVE: Republican senators are readying to make the case that the Pentagons progressive military policies under the Biden administration are to blame for the Armed Forces dire recruitment crisis.

The Senate Armed Services Committee is holding a hearing at 9:30am this morning on the militarys shortage of new troops, which the Center for Strategic and International Studies called "the worst recruiting crisis since the creation of the All-Volunteer Force nearly 50 years ago."

Sens. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, and Rick Scott, R-Fla., members of the committee and military veterans themselves, drew a link to their own time serving the country when asked by Fox News Digital about the current personnel crisis.

"My family didnt have much growing up, and the Navy gave me the opportunity for a better life and a better education it can provide that for so many kids across our nation. But unfortunately, this administration has made their focus more on pushing the failed agenda of the radical Left than building a lethal force and advertising the opportunities our military provides and how great our service can be for ones life," Scott said. "When our military is more focused on achieving some diversity metric rather than defeating our enemies, our national defense and the American people lose."

AIR FORCE GOES ON DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION HIRING SPREE: TOP JOB PAYS UP TO $183,500

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has come under fire from Republicans for placing an emphasis on progressive policies like DEI in the military's ranks, amid a dire recruitment shortage (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Ernst told Fox News Digital, "The militarys purpose is to fight and winnot crusade for social causes. As a combat veteran, this is personal to me. The Department of Defense must act urgently to fix waning recruitment and retentionand ultimately to build a more lethal force. Our adversaries are watching."

BIDEN ARMY SECRETARY RESPONDS TO WOKE CRITICISMS, SAYS DEI PROGRAM IMPORTANT

Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., another member of the panel, told Fox News Digital that hes looking to press the Pentagon officials at todays hearing on their commitment to upholding national safety rather than waging "culture wars at home."

"The goal of our military should be to meet global challenges facing America with decisive authority, not to wage culture wars at home," Schmitt said. "I look forward to questioning top military officialsto get more answers and ensure that our military is laser-focused on addressing the challenges that our adversaries pose to our country and our freedoms."

Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, a military veteran, blasted the Biden administration's "failed agenda" (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

In a statement made to Fox News Digital late last week, the committees top Republican, Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., warned that "divisive" policies imposed by President Joe Bidens appointees are leaving the U.S. more vulnerable to its foreign adversaries.

"In the competition with China and Russia, our greatest asset is our people. The divisive social policies being pushed by senior Democrat appointees at the Pentagon are undermining this advantage," Wicker said.

DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION WORKERS FRET COMPANIES AREN'T HIRING THEM ANYMORE: INSANE, PATHETIC

The personnel shortage has so far hit the Army the hardest, having fallen short of its 2022 recruitment goals by 25%. The Navy, Air Force and Marines all barely scraped by after dipping into their pools of deferred recruits guaranteeing a setback in reaching this years benchmarks.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., referenced the dire recruitment statistics in his own comments to Fox News Digital.

Sen. Joni Ernst, also a veteran on the Armed Services Committee, said the military's purpose was not to "crusade for social causes" (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

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"While the Biden administration declares climate change a national security threat, our real enemies are growing in strength and numbers," Tuberville said. "Last year the Army missed its recruitment goal by 15,000 recruits more than an entire division. This year is shaping up to be even worse. This national security emergency ought to be a wake-up call for Pentagon leadership but theyve refused to take responsibility. Its time for them to get serious about keeping our country safe."

Testifying at the Tuesday morning hearing will be the undersecretaries of the Army, Navy and Air Force.

Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin is expected on Capitol Hill later this week for a House hearing on Biden's Defense budget proposal.

Read the original here:
Republicans will use hearing to assert Dems' 'culture war' policies hampering military recruitment - Fox News

Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios

Statehouse Republicans are proposing widespread changes to Ohio's higher education system that they say will better protect free speech on campus by, among other things, banning mandatory diversity training.

Why it matters: The effort to ward off perceived political bias in higher education is one of several recent attempts by GOP lawmakers to more closely shape public education's operations and curriculum.

Driving the news: Senate Bill 83, the Ohio Higher Education Enhancement Act, would outlaw any employee at a public university from going on strike. It would also prohibit:

Flashback: One example of a university publicly commenting on a potentially "controversial belief or policy:" Ohio State president Michael Drake's campus-wide letter in 2020 condemning institutional racism.

Of note: The bill primarily focuses on public universities, but some elements apply to private colleges that receive state dollars.

Meanwhile, SB83 also would also require:

What they're saying: State Sen. Jerry Cirino (R-Kirtland), the bill's main sponsor, told reporters there are cases of ideological discrimination happening at Ohio campuses.

The other side: The American Association of University Professors' Ohio chapter condemned the bill for seeking to micromanage universities on issues "rooted in the culture wars."

What we're watching: Sweeping bills typically undergo major changes during the legislative process after members hear from constituents and interest groups.

More:
Campus free speech battle reaches the Ohio Statehouse - Axios