GROWING UP... GROWING WISE
Friendship, puberty, love and marriage from a Christian perspective
Script and user guide included
Lovewise (http://www.lovewise.org.uk)
£50.00
This DVD contains six lessons each intended to last from 45 minutes to one hour, and consisting of PowerPoint slides and video clips.
The target group is children of years 6-7 school age. Some of the subjects included are puberty, wise friendship choices, the importance of marriage, boundaries to sexual intimacy and how babies are conceived and develop. These subjects are tackled from a distinctively Christian perspective.
Each lesson uses diagrams, clear uncomplicated statements, opportunities for discussion and video clips of an actual Christian couple. The material is attractively presented and sensitively done, well pitched for the intended age group. The moral statements are backed up by biblical teaching and appropriate Bible verses are quoted.
The publishers claim that the material fulfils the current DFES guidance on sex and relationship education for this age group. I am not in a position to comment in detail, but friends in the teaching profession have wondered whether its contents are too explicitly Christian to be fully accepted in some state schools. If so, this is a pity because all children need educating in this subject along clear biblical lines.
However, this DVD can certainly be used in schools with a specifically Christian ethos, and in church youth ministry, or even adapted for individual family use. I wish something like this had been available when my children, now adults, were beginning puberty.
One observation is that in Lesson 3, whilst the act of making love is talked about, it is not actually described — and this may be felt to be a significant omission.
Hazel Watts,
wife of pastor of Lower Ford Street Baptist Church, Coventry
