Abstinence-only car education

{NB This is not inspired by the revelation a couple of weeks ago by Top Gear that apparently, "car" is Albanian for "penis" - I do not know how true that piece of information is!}

I've been thinking recently about condoms, penises, and sex education recently.   I recall that one of the moves proposed by the coalition government is making it easier for parents to pull their kids from sex education classes because of "moral objections" (especially religious ones) and, as you might guess, I don't like this idea.   It's akin to the whole "abstinence-only" farce that passes for sex ed in the minds of far too many USAians.

I don't know if the following analogy or thought experiment has been used before in trying to illustrate the problem with restricting information available to our young folks about sex, sexuality and safer sex practices but here goes anyway.

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Imagine, if you will, a religion whose followers for whatever reason believe that cars are immoral.   Imagine also that this is a major religion with maybe hundreds of millions of followers worldwide, and a minimum of maybe a million or more in the UK (closer to 10 million in the US).   For the sake of making their lives a bit more bearable, we'll say that their religious texts are interpreted as saying that trains and buses are okay.

Obviously, we live in a car-obsessed society where images and displays of such immorality are to be found everywhere in public.   Everywhere, success is measured by how attractive a car you can have.   Cars are even displayed as being most fun when they are used dangerously (look at car chase scenes in movies, or programmes like Top Gear where cars are driven very fast around a disused airfield).   This tide of filth is deemed by its leaders to be very threatening to the moral fibre of the youth of this religion.

Would we therefore be happy to accept that the religion's followers have the right to pull their children from classes about the Green Cross Code?   Would we be happy for them to stop their children learning about how (in the event that one does decide to take a ride in a car) to wear a seatbelt, and why it is important to do so?   Would we accept their right to stop their children learning about the Highway Code?

Would we accept that an "abstinence only" policy on road safety and cars would keep children safe, either from being "corrupted" or from being hurt?

As they grow up through their teens, is it not likely that their friends will pressure them to accept rides in cars, and (because of all the car-obsessed media making them curious) they might accept?   I have no problem with this religion teaching their kids that cars are wrong and that they should stay away from them, but once that kid has decided to break with that rule, would we not want hir NOT to go flying through the windscreen?   (Like sex, there's no guarantee that unprotected car-riding will lead to an accident (STI) but if there's a risk, wouldn't you want protection?)

(We'll leave aside the rather creepy consequences in this analogy of the UK's law about having to wear a seatbelt while riding in a car - no analogy is ever entirely perfect...!)

Teaching young people how to ride in, or use, a car safely - and how to be around cars safely - would not be immoral in such a society, and I truly believe that there need to be limits on how far religious objections can be taken.   I would have no problem with the parents teaching what they believe about cars to their children (although how they teach such things, and the derogatory language they might use could be a problem; also, this analogy doesn't work when it comes to discussing things related to identity such as being gay or lesbian).   It is up to the individual person (i.e. young person growing up in a car-obsessed society) to decide whether or not to keep to those teachings.   But it would be the duty of education to ensure that the child is prepared for whichever choice zie makes about cars, and to avoid and counter any victim-blaming if the young person should be struck down by a motorist or should be hurt while riding in a car.

Teaching young people about these things should neither be an encouragement to engage in car-related activities, nor should it seek to discourage them.   It should simply give the information and explain both the good and the bad aspects of cars.   Doing so does not negate any "moral" teachings about cars that a religion might wish to impart, and if the young person follows those teachings then the knowledge from car-education would not be important to them anyway and should not bee seen as a threat.

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Sex education has to be compulsory, not because every young person will eventually go on to have sex, but because we can't control which ones will (studies appear to show that abstinence-only sex (lack-of-)education does nothing to prevent teens from having sex of one sort or another).   Recognising the messages and (let's face it) facts about sex (i.e. that it's very pleasurable and desirable) should not be seen as countering religious teachings (and explaining the other facts about STIs and so on shouldn't be seen as upholding those teachings either!)   In the same way that vaccination only provides adequate protection for society against a disease if the vast majority of people do it, there is a social protection imperative for good sex education to be universal - and for similar reasons as vaccination programmes.   Sex education, and in particular how to use barrier contraceptives to prevent STIs, is another way of blocking the prevalence of diseases!   (The analogy breaks down somewhat if one tries to push it to the issue of enforcing condom-wearing for everyone, though - see earlier remark about the law requiring wearing seatbelts...)   It is also about personal choice and properly understanding risks, and how to manage and reduce those risks.   I don't have any intention ever of going bungee jumping, but if I were going to do so, I would want to have all the relevant safety information available before I decided whether or not to go all the way (I would also want y first time to be with someone who's done the topping bit - of attaching harnesses and selecting the cord and so on - a LOT of times, with no problems).