CHILDREN from the age of 11 are to be taught about the difference between rape and consensual sex. Plans for “consent” classes address concerns that teenagers are coming under unprecedented pressure to have intercourse at an early age.
The classes will begin this year and will teach children how to recognise and respond to sexual pressure, coercion and manipulative techniques, including lying.
One of the techniques that could be employed is “conscience alley”, a gathering originally devised to help actors come to terms with their characters, but soon to be used in English schools to teach children about the dangers and dilemmas of consenting to sexual intercourse.
In an example of conscience alley, two lines of children face each other as a student known as Alex walks slowly between them, pausing to talk about a drunken sexual encounter. In Alex’s fictional case, his classmates are being asked to offer advice after he got drunk and had sex the previous night. It is all part of a new government attempt to encourage discussion of difficult subjects such as rape, coercion and at what point teenagers are capable of agreeing to sex.
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These so-called consent classes may be taught in English schools soon after the Easter school holidays, after concerns that teenagers are coming under unprecedented pressure to have intercourse at an early age. Parents, teachers and government officials are also increasingly concerned about the prevalence of porn and sexting in children’s lives.
The government has commissioned formal guidance which tells teachers that courses should begin “before young people are sexually active, otherwise it is too late”. It also advises teachers to discuss “rape myths”, among them the false notion that a woman consents to sex by dressing provocatively or “teasing” a man.
The classes, which will be added to the personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education syllabus by the Department for Education, will also examine the question of consent when the woman is drunk as well as coercive scenarios involving pornography.
In an article in The Sunday Times to mark International Women’s Day, Nicky Morgan, the education secretary, writes: “We have to face the fact that many pressures girls face today were unimaginable to my generation and it’s our duty to ensure that our daughters leave school able to navigate the challenges and choices they’ll face in adulthood.”
Morgan, who has a seven-year-old son, says a common complaint she hears from “mothers at the school gates” is the pressure their daughters are put under to have sex.
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The decision to introduce the classes comes amid spreading concern about so-called revenge porn and the use of social media to circulate explicit images.
The grooming and sexual exploitation of hundreds of teenage girls in Oxford and Rotherham by older men of Asian descent has given further impetus to the implementation of the courses, aimed at 11 to 16-year-olds, which will begin in the summer term.
In an effort to head off criticism from groups opposed to teaching young children about sex, Morgan says any materials used in PSHE classes will have to be approved. A recommended list of resources will also be issued to schools to ensure information is not “at odds with fundamental British values”.
The lesson plans have been drawn up by the PSHE
Association, an organisation created in 2006 to support and advise teachers. They include telling pupils that agreeing to have sex once does not constitute consent to do so repeatedly and that “going upstairs” or kissing is not tacit agreement to intercourse. “If consent is not clear, informed, willing and active, it must be assumed consent has not been given,” the guidance says. “ ‘He/she got drunk with me’ is not an excuse for assuming consent.”
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On pornography, the guidance suggests asking pupils: “What misconceptions about consent would an alien get if their only evidence was from pornography?” It also recommends placing drop boxes in classrooms where pupils can post questions anonymously.
Teachers will be told to explain the law on underage sex, “challenge any narrow view of rape as an attack by a stranger” and inform children that most rapes are committed by people known to the victim.
Pupils will be asked to analyse statements including, “If a woman is raped while drunk she is at least somewhat responsible” and “If a girl is dressed provocatively, she is asking for trouble.” They will also be asked to discuss gay rape and the statement that “men are never raped”.
The guidance says that lessons should be “grounded in realistic scenarios, but not the personal experiences of either pupils or teachers”.
The document details eight suggested lessons and by the end of the course, it says, students will be expected to be able to “ask someone to give their consent without putting them under pressure”.
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Andrea Williams, chief executive of the lobby group Christian Concern, said: “I think we are potentially alarming children and introducing them to concepts that they may never encounter. Why should we be exposing 11-year-olds to these things?”