I think the options shown on the paper are not irrelevant to this kind of class, but I would say that anything like this should have a relatively minor role. I would put far more emphasis on things like relationship counselling - whatever the merits of porn are, it is often a very poor model of a healthy sexual relationship. There doesn’t need to be any endorsement of marriage, but it’s a good idea to help people to deal with conflict and keep a relationship healthy, or to give people the tools to know what they want from a relationship and how to work out early on when they’re in an unhealthy one. Relationships start and end and they aren’t all for life, but they shouldn’t have to turn sour or end due to silly misunderstandings, and people shouldn’t be abused because their partner thinks that what they are doing is normal. I’m not sure what benefit knowing different sexual positions will have in the long term (as this is stuff that people will learn about with or without a teacher), but it is important to know what you should expect from and give to a relationship and what the consequences of your actions are.
Of course, it’s very difficult to tell how the class itself was taught without any context. I couldn’t find anything definite about the specific curriculum that is used in the school, but these are the seven basic topics in the national standards for K-12 education (from this page):
Anatomy and Physiology (AP) provides a foundation for understanding basic human functioning.
Puberty and Adolescent Development (PD) addresses a pivotal milestone for every person that has an impact on physical, social and emotional development.
Identity (ID) addresses several fundamental aspects of people’s understanding of who they are.
Pregnancy and Reproduction (PR) addresses information about how pregnancy happens and decision-making to avoid a pregnancy.
Sexually Transmitted Diseases and HIV (SH) provides both content and skills for understanding and avoiding STDs and HIV, including how they are transmitted, their signs and symptoms and testing and treatment.
Healthy Relationships (HR) offers guidance to students on how to successfully navigate changing relationships among family, peers and partners. Special emphasis is given in the National Sexuality Education Standards to the increasing use and impact of technology within relationships.
Personal Safety (PS) emphasizes the need for a growing awareness, creation and maintenance of safe school environments for all students.
As someone who was excluded from sex ed classes as a matter of principle (these were secular perspectives and therefore not appropriate - not that I did get any guidance from more appropriate sources), a class that used these principles would have been useful (the UK version isn’t all that different). It is interesting to note that specific expressions of sexuality aren’t considered essential in either curriculum/standard though, and I would feel more comfortable if that was reflected in the classes themselves. I do suspect that the unhappiness/uproar/fury is more of a storm in a teacup and doesn’t really reflect the content of the class itself.
