Late last year, Dr. Jordan Peterson sat down with the Scottish Catholic Observer for a wide-ranging discussion on the culture wars raging across the West. When the interviewer brought up the censorship increasingly inflicted on pro-life groups in Europe, Peterson was unequivocal: “That’s just beyond belief to me, whether you are pro-life or pro-choice. If you think the pro-life voice should be silenced there is something seriously wrong with you. I don’t care what you say about the abortion debate, there is something to be said on both sides at minimum so to stile that debate is part of this totalitarian leftism that I think is reprehensible and dangerous.”
What I found most interesting were Peterson’s comments about the debates on sex education currently taking place across Canada and other jurisdictions throughout the West. One of the reasons these debates generate so much heat is due to the fact that we no longer possess any cultural consensus on sexuality, and thus there is virtually no way to implement state-sanctioned sex education without alienating several groups of people who will strongly disagree. LGBT activists are simply never going to agree with Christians, Sikhs, Orthodox Jews, or Muslims on sexuality, and when they claim the right to teach their ideology to other people’s children, backlash is inevitable and necessary.
“I think we are probably near the point where the state should get out children’s sex education,” Peterson noted, “because there is no cultural consent as to what it should be, so I think that should devolve back to the family.” For obvious reasons, I believe that the only viable solution to this cultural chasm that preserves parental rights and freedom of religion is to do precisely what Peterson says, and I’m glad to hear that he holds this position and is willing to articulate it publicly.
Since Peterson has spent several years as one of the LGBT movement’s most prominent targets, he is well aware of the fact that the common ground our culture once possessed has caved in. He notes that leaving sexuality entirely out of the schools wouldn’t “be a perfect solution, but state-mandated sex education hasn’t been perfect either because it’s become so contaminated with ideology. I think the schools should just leave it be. If your children are taught by ideologues then you should pull them out of the classes because there is no excuse for it.”
That’s a bold statement to make, especially considering the likelihood that if your children attend a public school, they are being taught by ideologues. Specifically, Peterson notes, the gender ideology that has recently infected the elites is both dangerous and spreading fast. “The idea that in the last five years we’ve discovered what gender really is, is the height of absurdity,” he stated firmly. “I do think that the fundamental consequence is that it’s going to confuse more kids than it is going to help.”
It is consistently encouraging to me that a man who tells parents to pull their kids out of school to prevent them from being taught dangerous sexual ideologies has risen to such prominence in such a short amount of time. It is an indication that regardless of how insane our culture appears to be, and despite the fact that the elites have embraced this wicked nonsense whole-heartedly, huge numbers of people have not bought into the progressive’s agenda of radical self-determination and sexual indoctrination. We can only hope that the sanity of Peterson, and those like him, will prevail.
___________________________________
For anyone interested, my book on The Culture War, which analyzes the journey our culture has taken from the way it was to the way it is and examines the Sexual Revolution, hook-up culture, the rise of the porn plague, abortion, commodity culture, euthanasia, and the gay rights movement, is available for sale here.
8 thoughts on “Dr. Jordan Peterson says the government should get out of sex education altogether”
Karol Gajewski says:
Absolutely spot on. The writing was on the wall when it comes to government-controlled sex education syllabi a number of years ago . Writing from the UK as a retired secondary teacher, I refused to teach a sex education module to 14-15 year olds around twenty years ago. I explained to a senior teacher at the school (ostensibly an Anglican foundation) my reasons for challenging the ‘accepted’ views on artificial contraception. Luckily, I had a sympathetic audience and was allowed to undertake other duties while the class was taught. Others may not be as lucky. This was, of course, some years before the transgender bandwagon and the associated official endorsement of it went mainstream.
And as usual in such matters those keenest to teach sex education are the very last ones you would want doing. It is being pushed b the radical left and their idea as always is to indoctrinate not to teach . I too am an ex secondary teacher and school counsellor so Like you I know the inside story .
The government is not in the business of any KIND of “education.” The government is in the business of indoctrination of what it wants the public to believe. Know that agenda (it’s not hard, actually!) why any parent would put their child into ANY public school or institution of “higher learning” (with very few exceptions!) is beyond me.
Clifton High School’s sex education program (class of ’78): VD: how not to get it, and what it looks like if you do. Enough for anyone. No endorsement of kinky lifestyles or pre/extramarital sex. It was a better time to come of age.
I’m bloody confused with the direction society is going with all this sexuality identification or lack thereof, that often times the whole reason Sex Ed was put into the curriculum is now lost.
If I understood the reasoning of it, Sex Ed was supposed to teach us how to be safe than sorry. And if you were one of the unfortunate ones that got “caught” we were guided on what should be my next steps to take care of my body.
Disease doesn’t care what gender you are. Know your body and be prepared. Simple.
Biology is biology. Schools got into the business of teaching basic biology because families did not. Kids did not know how to avoid pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.
If you want to teach your morals, ideas and beliefs DO IT AT HOME. I do. It isn’t a big deal. Making a lot out of nothing here.
Absolutely spot on. The writing was on the wall when it comes to government-controlled sex education syllabi a number of years ago . Writing from the UK as a retired secondary teacher, I refused to teach a sex education module to 14-15 year olds around twenty years ago. I explained to a senior teacher at the school (ostensibly an Anglican foundation) my reasons for challenging the ‘accepted’ views on artificial contraception. Luckily, I had a sympathetic audience and was allowed to undertake other duties while the class was taught. Others may not be as lucky. This was, of course, some years before the transgender bandwagon and the associated official endorsement of it went mainstream.
And as usual in such matters those keenest to teach sex education are the very last ones you would want doing. It is being pushed b the radical left and their idea as always is to indoctrinate not to teach . I too am an ex secondary teacher and school counsellor so Like you I know the inside story .
Someday I will remember to proof read before posting
why is sex education more important than music or art?
The government is not in the business of any KIND of “education.” The government is in the business of indoctrination of what it wants the public to believe. Know that agenda (it’s not hard, actually!) why any parent would put their child into ANY public school or institution of “higher learning” (with very few exceptions!) is beyond me.
Clifton High School’s sex education program (class of ’78): VD: how not to get it, and what it looks like if you do. Enough for anyone. No endorsement of kinky lifestyles or pre/extramarital sex. It was a better time to come of age.
I’m bloody confused with the direction society is going with all this sexuality identification or lack thereof, that often times the whole reason Sex Ed was put into the curriculum is now lost.
If I understood the reasoning of it, Sex Ed was supposed to teach us how to be safe than sorry. And if you were one of the unfortunate ones that got “caught” we were guided on what should be my next steps to take care of my body.
Disease doesn’t care what gender you are. Know your body and be prepared. Simple.
Biology is biology. Schools got into the business of teaching basic biology because families did not. Kids did not know how to avoid pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.
If you want to teach your morals, ideas and beliefs DO IT AT HOME. I do. It isn’t a big deal. Making a lot out of nothing here.