FOCUS
Sexual healing
With a continuing rise in STIs, Katie Mackintosh reports on what is being done to improve Scotland’s
sexual health
T
he primary six pupils at Glasgow
Academy are giggling delightedly
at the rude words and diagrams being
drawn on their teacher’s board. They
are learning about the life of Susan as
she moves through early childhood into
puberty and beyond, until her story
comes full circle and she herself becomes
a mum. The week before, they were
learning about respect and responsibil-
ity, and while they were clearly thrilled
to be told by a grown-up that they have a
responsibility to tell their friends if they
smell – albeit in a respectful way – their
reaction at the end of the lesson when
they were told they would be moving
onto puberty and relationships next time
revealed where their real interests lay.
This is the one they’d been waiting for.
So whether they were sitting on the edge
of their seats, hands straining in the air,
or slouched nonchalantly at the back of
the class, pretending not to care, it was
clear that the presenter had their full at-
tention. Lets talk tions for them too. When Susan goes to “It means falling for someone and
As is to be expected, the children are
about sex?
university, she gets a boyfriend, who the thinking they are perfect, but then some-
full of questions. Some display the inno- pupils name Mac. times you find out they are not,” says one
cence of youth, such as, “If a pregnant “How can Susan and Mac get to girl. “It means having to tell a girl that
woman goes underwater, can the baby know each other better?,” the pupils are her bottom doesn’t look big,” adds one
still breathe?” Or the slightly more mis- asked. boy, equally astutely.
chievous, such as, “What happens if a “They could go into a room and shut The key point is that no question or
baby farts in the womb?” the door,” shouts one boy, to peels of answer, no matter how silly or compli-
Others display a real maturity that laughter from the boys and disapproving cated, is dismissed. However, the result
puts paid to arguments that they may be tuts from the girls. is that the presenter is still being bom-
too young to be discussing such issues. “Mac could take Susan to the park barded with questions as she is packing
One boy wants to know if there is any and they could sit by the pond and watch up to go onto the next class of primary
truth in the reports he heard being dis- the sunset,” suggests another boy as he sevens.
cussed on Radio 4 while riding to school turns to the gaggle of girls, fluttering his Clearly, young people have a lot of
with his mum, that drinking alcohol eyelashes. questions about the fundamental facts
while pregnant can actually be good for The class decide that Mac and Susan of life. However, how and who is best to
the baby. While another girl wanted to like what they see in each other and fall answer them is the challenge currently
know if there were any differences in in love. “But what does love mean,” they facing the Scottish Government.
terms of health benefits for the baby if are asked. While many great minds going In England the debate about sex
it is born by caesarean section or tradi- back thousands of years have struggled education has recently been reopened
tional womb birth. to answer that very question, primary six as a result of the UK Government’s
And the presenter has some ques- are happy to give it a go. announcement that by 2010, “age
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www.holyrood.com | Holyrood magazine | 17 November 2008 |
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