and Social Engineering<br >Valerie Riches<br >Most people would agree that children need to be told properly<br >about human sexuality， rather than being left to find out about it for<br >themselves. Many parents will take comfort from the fact that<br >schools now provide sex education， perhaps believing that they are<br >thus being supported in their parental duty to bring their children to<br >a sensitive understanding of one of the most important aspects of<br >human life.<br > However， my own family s experience， as well as research that<br > I have done， suggest that sinister motives underlie the sex education<br > movement， and that the content of a lot of sex education is actually<br > hostile to the family values which many parents still support.<br >First-hand experience<br >I first became involved in this subject when our son， then aged 14，<br >came home one day from school profoundly shocked， having been<br >subjected to a dose of sex education. At the time， his main interests<br >in life were birds of the feathered variety， not members of the<br >opposite sex. His biology teacher， fresh from a training course run<br >by the Family Planning Association (FPA)， had shown a range of<br >contraceptives to an embarrassed class. He told pupils that， since<br >they would probably be going to parties where having sex was de<br > rigueur， a means of birth control was indispensable. If， however，<br > a girl nevertheless became pregnant as a result of one of these<br > encounters， an abortion could always be arranged.<br ><br >