Homophobia in schools

An article from the Evening Post came to my attention today about how the Council has been forced to shelve a programme of lessons about homophobic bullying in two Easton primary schools.

Leaving aside the ridiculous way that this article has been written (part of it seems to suggest that they were teaching people about homosexuality full stop when they weren't) it seems to have been sparked by a row between the schools and parents, of which a number of them are Muslims. Now there doesn't appear to be any indication of what was going to be taught exactly or whether the parents actually saw it. But regardless of religious or cultural belief, is it not a good idea to teach kids about all kinds of bullying? Homophobic bullying can certainly be some of the nastiest in schools, and I would have thought that a sensitive discussion on the subject would be very beneficial to personal and social education. There may of course be religious beliefs against homosexuality in general, but schools should be in the habit of teaching all points of view, and in a subject of which there is still a woeful divide in opinion about, it is a good idea to teach the facts and not the ill-informed prejudices. For then children can leave school more informed than they were, and (hopefully) more tolerant of modern society.