Instilling values a complex task

I READ with concern last Saturday's letter supporting the suspension of all sexuality education programmes offered by external agencies ('Schools should stop offering them altogether').

Some of the questionable assumptions underlying the writer's criticisms of the external programmes include:

• Schools and parents are the primary sources of information on gender and sexuality for young people.
• Focusing on mainstream views and values of Singapore society will help students learn them and adopt them without question.
• Making students aware of alternative views and lifestyles is as good as promoting them.
• All parents and teachers are sufficiently willing and able to teach their children the best values concerning gender and sexuality. These assumptions underestimate the complexity of values education in our contemporary society. The social and cultural environment in which young people are informally educated consists of more than parents and teachers. In today's information society, a child's identity develops under influences that far exceed the censorship of well-meaning adults. Television, cinema, popular music and the Internet, for example, are powerful and pervasive transmitters of popular culture and cosmopolitan values. Such media images of gender roles and sexual behaviour draw on a range of liberal and conservative perspectives. To what extent does the formal curriculum in schools teach students to critically analyse these diverse media messages so as to help them make responsible, well- informed decisions for themselves? Censoring all alternative views would be contrary to the Ministry of Education's (MOE) push for critical thinking. If argumentative essays at the secondary and junior college levels can encourage students to engage both sides of the 'pro-life' and 'pro- choice' abortion debate, why should not this balanced approach be similarly extended to the controversial topics of gender roles and sexual orientation? A mature curriculum for sexuality education should reflect not only the mainstream views and values of Singapore's society but also an educated awareness of alternative views based on well- researched knowledge and information. Perhaps, MOE would be wise to consult students for their views on what ought to be included in a 21st century sexuality education curriculum. Our children are often more precocious than we give them credit for. Silencing their views in favour of the dominant conservatism is itself a kind of prejudice against the ability of young people to think for themselves. Warren Mark Liew