Sex Education: How to Guide Your Child Through the Minefield by Jan Bracken (Essence Publishing, 244 pages, $19.95)

Alex Schadenberg

Sex education in the public schools has caused many Christian parents to become concerned with what and how their children are being taught about sex. Many horror stories have been heard about teachers who have taught their students inappropriate information in the classroom in an undignified manner.

Parents will often worry about how they should approach teachers about the sex education curriculum and often wonder about what rights they have to protect their children.

Jan Bracken, parent, social worker, and a Christian leader, got involved in the issue of sex education in the public schools in London, Ont. more than 10 years ago. Sex Education: How to Guide Your Child Through the Minefield represents the wisdom, research and information that only someone with a decade’s worth of experience in the issue has, and shares it so help others can successfully guide themselves and their children through the minefield.

Bracken begins by recognizing that there is a concern today with the number of teenagers who are sexually active. She delves into the statistics, enlightens the reader concerning the risks and attitudes that lead to teenage sexual experimentation and explains the attitudes and actions that parents can follow to encourage their teens not to be sexually active.

Bracken evaluates the current philosophies that exist among sex education curriculum developers, effectively separating the positive trends from the negative ones, and recommends the direction that future trends should follow. She effectively explains why certain sex education philosophies are based on false ideas. This is good information for a parent trying to understand where a teacher is coming from.

Bracken courageously delves into the question of sexual orientation and differentiates between acts of homosexuality and homosexual persons, emphasizing that we do not know the cause of homosexuality (and noting that many people are able to change).

My favourite chapter in the book is entitled, Nurturing Good Character in Our Children. In it, Bracken presents some excellent research that shows how two-parent, in-tact families who belong to a faith community are more likely to raise well-adjusted and non-sexually active children.

Fascinatingly, we learn about the impact of putting children in child care before the age of five. Studies prove that “regular separation from parents of more than 20 hours per week prior to the age of five years has an unmistakable negative effect on bonding with parents, social-emotional development, and behaviourial adjustment. A minor negative impact on cognitive development was also observed.” Bracken concludes that good character is taught by example.

She then explains how parents can equip their children with sexual virtue. She examines the stages of development of a child and the necessary attitudes and actions that parents need to consider in order to form their children in virtue.

Bracken concludes her book with an excellent chapter on how to deal with the school system. Her own involvement included becoming a parent council member and later, a school board committee member for curriculum development. She has developed, through experience, an expertise that offers excellent wisdom to parents who are concerned about their children.

Sex Education: How to Guide Your Child Through the Minefield is an excellent resource for Christians who have their children in the public school system. Catholic parents will also learn from Bracken’s experience. Parents need to understand the potential threat to their beliefs that current sex education programs represent and they need to protect their children by effectively advocating at the class, school and school board level for their values.

– Sex education: How to Guide Your Child Through the Minefield can be purchased for $19.95 by calling Essence Publishing at 1-800-238-6376.