WE ALSO FOUND THAT PLAYING DOCTOR IS PARTICULARLY HELPFUL

Teenagers favour peer-led sex lessons (Polly Curtis, The Guardian, July 23, 2004)

Teenagers want to learn about sex from one another rather than from their teachers, according to the biggest study of peer-led sex education.

The survey of 8,000 teenagers, who had formal lessons about sex from either other pupils or their teachers, revealed that pupil-led classes helped pupils develop better attitudes to sex. [...]

The research backs up last year's sex education report from MPs, which concluded that sex education is too often taught by embarrassed teachers.

It was led by Dr Judith Stephenson, from the Centre for Sexual Health and HIV Research at University College London, and funded by the Medical Research Council.

She said: "Previous studies have shown that sex education has little effect on behaviour and pregnancy so it's rather encouraging that our study has shown some effects."

The peer-led lessons were more likely to engage pupils, she said, because young people were more likely to have active lessons, with role play introduced into sessions about negotiating sexual relationships and quizzes to help people understand sexual health issues. "They could also teach in smaller groups, which cut down on the embarrassment factor," she added.

Just when you think modern social science couldn’t be more hilarious, something like this comes along. One hopes fervently the kids were playing a huge and very funny prank. But give these straight-laced progressive types one thing. Although they been at this game for several generations with disastrous results, they have an uncanny ability to convince us they are just starting their heroic battle against ignorance and tradition and have years of work ahead before anyone could possibly hold them accountable for anything.