MC has worked SOOOO hard on this!
As always, exceptionally clear and thorough.
This part gets to the nub of it so succinctly:
If children are taught to expect open dialogue with adults on this and other ‘sex positive’ topics, how can they be expected to identify when adults are addressing
them about this subject for the wrong reasons?
Similarly, safeguarding practice has previously relied upon observing when children express overtly sexualised dialogue as a potential sign of abuse, but this normalisation of such dialogue removes this
early warning.
Likewise, no thought seems to have been given to how upsetting it might be for a child who has suffered abuse to be confronted with these topics.
It is also worth considering whether the authority of an adult teacher should ever be applied to instructing children to declare what they know about masturbation or sex acts, since children might not think they are in a position to decline their teachers’ classroom instructions.
Likewise, thought should be given to the argument that to discuss the matter is exposing in a way that compromises a child’s dignity and lays them open to ridicule or bullying by other children when the teacher is not present to mediate.