WHO wants this for our children?
RSE and the sexuality education matrix; and pushing back against the World Health Organisation
Dear Church Leaders
I recently came across a World Health Organisation (WHO) document — Standards for Sexuality Education in Europe — and thought it worth sharing. Billed as “a framework for policy makers, educational and health authorities and specialists”, the pdf of the English language version can be found here:
Via this website:
The sexuality education matrix
Below are some snapshots from the “sexuality education matrix”. NB the figures in the top left-hand corners relate to the relevant age groups.
Helpful? Or not so much?
It’s certainly a different approach from what I experienced — essentially a single biology lesson in what is now called Year 8, which for me came in the context of reading this book which my parents had helpfully bought for me not long before.
But I suppose the sexuality education matrix may be helpful to teachers who are busy, and who get asked to teach RSE (Relationships and Sex Education). And I suppose that if I were such a teacher, I might look to find some useful information online that would help. And I suppose that if I did that, I might end up looking at what the World Health Organisation had to offer. (Though if I happened upon the advice above, I think the main thing I would be thinking might be, “Exactly what sort of organisation is the WHO?”)
And maybe if I were a government civil servant tasked with putting together guidance for RSE teachers, I might also look to the WHO for information.
But in any case, I guess the above document goes some way to explaining headlines like these:
A further exploration of some of the above issues, and some of the challenges faced by those trying to address them, can be found in this podcast with the inspirational Doc Malik — starting at around 09:40:
Pushing back against the WHO
More broadly, readers of this recent article…
…may recall that it is the WHO that is currently seeking to extend its powers so that it could enforce covid-style border closures, quarantine measures, and vaccine passports on all member countries, including the UK. And it would do this in response to the threat of a pandemic, or the emergence of one, or some other public health crisis which the WHO would identify and define (in much the same way as it has (re)defined “pandemic”, setting the bar rather low).
In the context of the above, it is perhaps not surprising that more than 100,000 people recently signed this UK Government and Parliament petition to End the UK’s membership of the World Health Organization:
Here is the response:
In the US, a campaign to “Exit the WHO” has gained traction:
Recent video here:
And here is former Telegraph cartoonist Bob Moran’s take:
WHO wants this for our children?!
A growing number of people are convinced that there’s a better way:
Update: On 6th May 2024, a Notice of Liability was delivered to Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (WHO Director-General) (discussion here), Dr Maria van Kerkhove (Technical Lead of covid response), Dr Janet Diaz (Team Lead) and Jeremy Farrar (WHO Chief Scientist):
Dear Church Leaders homepage (or search Substack for “Dear Church Leaders”)
The Big Reveal — Christianity carefully considered (click “No thanks” unless you want to subscribe for occasional updates)