Dyb.. not "dib!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

So... a bit of a furore on Msn this weekend over some supposed plan to make Scout have sex education... apart from the fact that some of the nations's incredibly honest and accurate press seem to have the wrong end of the stick, it seems to have fired the public imagination slightly less than the Brand/Ross fiasco (of which, more later...) but has led to the usual trotting out of the usual cliches and ill informed accusations, including several outdated and wrongly spelled dib dib dibs, without using the obvious pun on the reply.. which lack of obvious wordplay strangely disappointed me.... but I digress... (by the way.. it should be dyb... an abbreviation of "Do Your Best".. the reply "dob" of course being "done our best..") below I've pasted my response on the forum, for what its worth.. I'm sure there'll be some dissent from within and without, but there we are.. wouldn't it be awful if we were all the same... but whatever, as far as I'm aware, the aim was never going to be for us all to sit down and explain the birds and the bees... lets be honest, they know all about it anyway... but rather to advise on responsible and safe relationships.. which in my view is a high aim... and lets be honest, I remember our Venture Scouts (anyone remember them??) having, as well as a drug awareness night, and std night presided over by a nurse from our local GUM clinic... (if you really need the acronyms explaining, email me...) whichh was seen by all, Leaders, Ventures, Parents and the Nurse himself as a positive thing... but there we are.. anyway, here, reproduced below, is my response to the forum... as i say, make your own mind up.... and keep Scouting.... !!!





"Hi there... I'm a Scout Leader, but I must first say that the following is a statement of personal opinion, and does not necessarily represent the views or policy of the Scout Association... From what i remember the brief was to educate about safe and responsible relationships... which is a different thing from the mechanics of sex.... and is already covered by our commitment to the spiritual development and well being of members of the Association.... and as long as it doesn't conflict with the Yellow Card (the Scout Association's policy on Child Protection, carried by every leader in the country) there shouldn't be a problem.. we have to accept that some young people won't be getting support in this area at home or at school...( at school all I learned was "man goes on top, woman goes underneath... I bought bunk beds...) and as a responsible adult ( in several ways in this context) it would be wrong of me to refuse advice to someone who needs it.... I would imagine that if there are to be "lessons" on safe sex etc, they will tend to be aimed at the Explorer (14-18) age group, or at the Network (18-25).. indeed, along with drug and substance abuse education, these things already exist, and have done for years... as for the point brought up previously about the suppluy of condoms on camps...well, I have seen this a couple of times on large jamborees, but only ever on the Junior staff and Explorer/Senior Section subcamps.... personally I'm in favour, as i see the choice between thinking " we've got a bunch of 14-18 year olds here, some of them will be having sex, so lets make sure they are able to be as responsible and safe as possible," or we can think "we've got a bunch of 14-18 year olds here, those under 16 are too young and won't have sex, the others are old enough, on their own heads be it..." ... one of those solutions seems responsible, the other naive and dangerous... make your own mind up, but if a scout comes to me with a problem, I will, subject to the aforementioned Yellow Card do my best to help that Scout...."