{"id":653,"date":"2013-06-29T09:42:23","date_gmt":"2013-06-29T09:42:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/f62.931.myftpupload.com\/?p=653"},"modified":"2013-06-29T09:42:23","modified_gmt":"2013-06-29T09:42:23","slug":"stirring-it-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.petehowells.co.uk\/index.php\/2013\/06\/29\/stirring-it-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Stirring it up &#8211; Malorie Blackman, Sex, Literature and Emotional Intelligence"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The bygone era, when \u2018Health and Efficiency\u2019, \u2018Painting Nudes\u2019, and page whatever-it-was of \u2018Lady Chatterley\u2019s Lover\u2019, epitomised a boy\u2019s sex education is long gone. Jokes like, \u201cI\u2019d been having sex for three years before I found out you could do it with someone else,\u201d hold little resonance today. Girls learned from best friends in the playground or from that Wednesday morning when they had to stay behind after assembly. The modern equivalent &#8211; \u2018Sex Education\u2019, taught in Personal, Social and Health Education or alluded to in Science lessons &#8211; \u00a0although more preferable to the Baby Boomer approach &#8211; struggles at times, perhaps understandably, in its efforts to deal with the emotional content associated with sex.<\/p>\n<p>Google your adolescent query and you\u2019re liable to find yourself in a quagmire of unsafe, illicit and sometimes just plain wrong material. We know this only too well and various organisations are attempting to give a little more than mere lip-service to addressing this.<\/p>\n<p>There are children who can talk freely and openly with responsible parents but not that many. Some relate better to their teacher or another trusted adult but it is important that questions and discussions are handled with care and sensitivity. Objective information sharing is one thing; talking about physical and emotional feelings and then linking these to \u2018private parts\u2019 can be difficult for all concerned. Why has it taken so long then for someone to flag up a literary approach?<\/p>\n<p>She\u2019s not been in the job long but characteristically, Malorie Blackman, the recently appointed Children\u2019s Laureate, has already created a stir. She said that young people should read about sex within the \u2018safe setting\u2019 of a book rather than learning about it through, \u2018innuendo and porn\u2019. She was saddened and upset by an article she had read, \u2018where this teenage girl was saying everything her boyfriend knew about sex he knew from porn. He was brutalising her, because that\u2019s what he thought sex was about from watching online.\u2019 (Daily Telegraph <a href=\"http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/q5yc686\">http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/q5yc686<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>I would like to add my voice to those who think that no subject should be off limits to children. Teenagers especially need the reassurance, the education and the guidance that can be presented in fiction. Literature is one of the main routes to our understanding of the world. Sympathy for another\u2019s plight, the empathy and compassion that can come from identifying with this or that protagonists\u2019 situation, are invaluable assets to anyone\u2019s grasp of life. Understanding feelings and developing an emotional literacy is crucial to the well-being of the next generation. It shouldn\u2019t be underestimated. In my own writing I allude constantly to the importance and impact of emotion on lives. I must admit however that I tend to avoid direct or lengthy physical detail when it comes to sex. Its not because I\u2019m prudish, I just think it\u2019s rarely done well and I\u2019m aware that I can\u2019t do it.<\/p>\n<p>I know how well received Malorie Blackman\u2019s book, \u2018Naughts and Crosses\u2019, was with the teenagers I\u2019ve taught. Her new novel, \u2018Noble Conflict\u2019 is already receiving great reviews. (<a href=\"http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/pmr7hxu\">http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/pmr7hxu<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>It is her book, \u2018Boys Don\u2019t Cry\u2019 that deals with the areas above in a poignant and meaningful way. (<a href=\"http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/oz5m24l\">http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/oz5m24l<\/a>). Malorie Blackman isn\u2019t simply suggesting writers should deal with these issues; she\u2019s done it.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s hope more writers and publishers do the same.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The bygone era, when \u2018Health and Efficiency\u2019, \u2018Painting Nudes\u2019, and page whatever-it-was of \u2018Lady Chatterley\u2019s Lover\u2019, epitomised a boy\u2019s sex education is long gone. Jokes like, \u201cI\u2019d been having sex for three years before I found out you could do it with someone else,\u201d hold little resonance today. Girls learned from best friends in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Stirring it up - Malorie Blackman, Sex, Literature and Emotional Intelligence - Pete Howells Author Page<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I&#039;d like to add my voice to Malorie Blackman&#039;s - young people should read about sex within the \u2018safe setting\u2019 of a book rather than from \u2018innuendo and porn\u2019\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.petehowells.co.uk\/index.php\/2013\/06\/29\/stirring-it-up\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Stirring it up - Malorie Blackman, Sex, Literature and Emotional Intelligence - Pete Howells Author Page\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I&#039;d like to add my voice to Malorie Blackman&#039;s - young people should read about sex within the \u2018safe setting\u2019 of a book rather than from \u2018innuendo and porn\u2019\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.petehowells.co.uk\/index.php\/2013\/06\/29\/stirring-it-up\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pete Howells Author Page\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-06-29T09:42:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.petehowells.co.uk\/index.php\/2013\/06\/29\/stirring-it-up\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.petehowells.co.uk\/index.php\/2013\/06\/29\/stirring-it-up\/\",\"name\":\"Stirring it up - Malorie Blackman, Sex, Literature and Emotional Intelligence - Pete Howells Author Page\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.petehowells.co.uk\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-06-29T09:42:23+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.petehowells.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/82b4cb8ede5b822b346217293a9e153f\"},\"description\":\"I'd like to add my voice to Malorie Blackman's - young people should read about sex within the \u2018safe setting\u2019 of a book rather than from \u2018innuendo and porn\u2019\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.petehowells.co.uk\/index.php\/2013\/06\/29\/stirring-it-up\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.petehowells.co.uk\/index.php\/2013\/06\/29\/stirring-it-up\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.petehowells.co.uk\/index.php\/2013\/06\/29\/stirring-it-up\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"http:\/\/www.petehowells.co.uk\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Stirring it up &#8211; 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