Scouts are to be taught how to use condoms in a new sex education campaign organised by their leaders.
Nearly 35,000 Scouts aged 14 and over will be offered lessons in which they will get the chance to ‘feel what a condom is like’. The courses will go alongside tuition in sexually transmitted diseases, sexual language and relationships in a campaign to ‘promote good sexual health within Scouting’.
The founder of the Scouts movement, Robert Baden-Powell, would have raised an eyebrow at the initiative. He advised that the proper response to sexual longings was washing with cold water. He also encouraged those with ‘primitive sexual urges’ to shift their energies into hiking and ‘out-of-door manly activities’.
But yesterday, Chief Scout, Bear Grylls, said: ‘This programme is about getting the right information to young people to help them make smart decisions about their relationships. ‘We want to help young people become confident, clued-up and aware. My message is: Make your own mind up and don’t let others do it for you. We only get one body, so respect it.’
The programme, My Body, My Choice, follows on from an initiative in 2008 in which the Scout Association introduced formal guidance for leaders who were asked about sex and relationships. That opened up the possibility of trips to sexual health clinics and the distribution of condoms by leaders in special circumstances.
Health Protection Agency figures show that the UK has the highest rate of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and teenage pregnancies in Europe, with STIs being most prevalent in under-25s.
The Scout Association believes these statistics are most likely to be reversed if young people are given clear information about safe sex. As part of the programme, scouts will be able to participate in an activity allowing them to anonymously write down any questions about sex they want answered.
Simon Blake, chief executive of sexual health advice charity Brook, said: 'We welcome the introduction of this type of no-nonsense material. The material is clear and simple and is the type of information young people tell us they need to help them understand how their bodies work and to help them make informed decisions.'
Matt Mills, a scout leader from Braintree in Essex, who was involved in the development and testing of the material, said: 'This new guidance means that the young people who we work with will be supported in making informed decisions about their health and well-being. We are providing a resource which will deliver advice to young people at a crucial stage in their lives covering topics of sexuality, STIs and abstinence."
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1IcQA1CH2
Be prepared!
Be prepared!
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: Be prepared!
Is it just me, or is it decidedly icky having Scout Leaders teach scouts what a condom feels like on?
Sounds more like an excuse to enter into untoward behavior.
I had to play with his willy to get an erection for the condom, your Honour.
Sounds more like an excuse to enter into untoward behavior.
I had to play with his willy to get an erection for the condom, your Honour.
Bah!
Re: Be prepared!
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”