Time has passed since the news earlier this month about the Ofsted report* into sexual harassment in schools. Indeed, this may seem like a remote topic, apart from those AWers in the teaching profession, or with children of secondary school age, for most of us it’s many years (decades) since we experienced teenage years and puberty.
But I wonder if it is not a good topic to discuss in any case. Can the cause(s) for such harassment be identified? What could change the culture or prevent it? Is it different from/better than/worse than it was ‘in my day’? Is it just a boy thing?
I try to look at it from my perspective and experience, growing up in the English culture of embarrassment and squeamishness and jokiness about sex. As I’ve got older, I look back at how I learned about sex and relationships. The sex education I recall was mechanical, precautionary and limited. Relationship education didn’t come into it. Going to a secondary school single-sex from the age of 13-16, the arrival in the 6th form of girls was like encountering a whole new species – and as strange for them – entering an environment where they were » Continue Reading.
