Move on to restrict sex ed in schools

[ckramer]

"The schools should not be in the sex business."

[saltpoint]

1. Perhaps the Christian fundamentalists will recommend genital mutilation --

-- for both sexes from the start of kindergarten to render moot any further discussion on sex education in schools.

Provide responsible information to young people on physiology and protection? Forbid it Almighty God!

[Iris]

2. Honestly, I wouldn't want an elementary ed teacher teaching my kids

about sex.

In fact, I'm quite liberal and would not want my child learning about sex in school. When I was in 9th grade, I had a sex ed teacher tell my class that only lonely, maladjusted people masturbated. That's simply not something I would want my teenaged son (or daughter) to hear.

So, I for one, would not want my child learning about these things from someone I do not know that well. I'm afraid they wouldn't be liberal enough with the information they were giving.

[seabeyond]

3. my son heard sex ed class in fourth grade

he doesnt want to sit with a bunch of girls and talk about penis and vaginas. he just doesnt.

they are starting it way too young. i dont think it is the schools place either. though i do recognize the reason why. in our house we talk about things, in a lot of houses they dont. hardly fair to the kids that are parented, and it is the way it is, we have to suck it up. though we may do it in not wanting, we do it.

4th grade is too young. should be up in the jr high. they start that earlier too, 6th and soemtimes 5th grade

a 9 year old is at the age they dont want to talk it, they dont want to see the kissing, still in the eeew. unfortuneately we dont go by age appropriate or psychologically ready for info, we go on adult timeline ignoring the children

[Iris]

6. a 9 year old girl could already be menstruating.

So somebody better be talking about it.

[seabeyond]

7. how about the parent

lordy at what point did us parents handover our job to all of society. cops government teachers doctors. i really resent it. maybe that should be the issue we address. and then the child that starts at an incredibly young age like 9, if she doesnt start at home where mom can teach her, then she is sent into nurse office and have a chat and call to parent like the old days

yet because of this extreme possiblity we are going to throw sex at all our kids at an inappropriate age.

just thought. not that i care, i take care of my boys. we discuss openly. they are fine

[Heddi]

11. We are sexual beings. We are here because of Sex

Instead of starting sex ed in 4th grade, I would have suggested that your son's school start teaching age-appropriate sex-ed in Kindergarden.

That's what they do in scandanavian countries, adn they have the lowest teen pregnancy and std rates in the world.

I'm in nursing school. I've had to take ALOT of anatomy & physiology just to get into the program. Even in college, the 'reproductive' system is the last part that's taught, it's given a cursory glance, and that's it.

We're just as controlled by sex as we are our heart, our hormones, and our brains.

I find it disturbing (not in your case at all, just with people in general) that they treat sex as though it's taboo. It's no more taboo than our elbow, our toes, or our hair. Yet we give Vagina and Penis and Anus funny ha ha words. Toot-Toot and Wee-WEe and Ho-ho....why don't we give alternate names to our elbow? Our earlobes? Why are the two parts of our body that TOTALLY define who we are and what our species is about given such secretive and "not in polite society' names?

A friend of mine called me about a year ago re: her 3 year old daughter. She said "She says her woo-woo hurts when she tinkywinkys" What the fuck is a woo-woo? Tinky-Winky? Isn't that a teletubby?

Sorry for the rant----I think that we do a major disservice to our youth by NOT talking about sex earlier than we do. I didn't get my first sex-ed class until I was in 8th grade...and by that point, 3 girls in my class had already dropped out because they were pregnant.

At an elementary school in my hometown a few years ago, there was an 8 year old who was pregnant by a 12 year old.

Girls are reaching puberty earlier and earlier....some say because of the hormones in cow's milk...but the fact is, the earlier they reach puberty, the earlier they can get pregnant, and the earlier they have those hormones flying around without any clue what to do with it.

I'm glad you're open with your sons. Sadly, too many parent's aren't. My mom was, and I remember hearing girls in 6th grade talk about how you won't get pregnant if you have sex in a swimming pool, or if you have sex then stand up, or if you douche afterwards. Wehther these girls were having sex, I do not know. But they were getting erroneous sexual information from somewhere, and sadly that info may have come directly from their parents.

We don't delay talking about other health-and-body issues with our children, and I Don't think we should delay talking about sex adn sexuality with our children either. It should be continuous from the time they can talk until the time they leave the house.

We have to give the school some responsiblity because there are LARGE numbers of adults out there who DO NOT KNOW about human sexuality. They don't know how to effectively prevent pregnancy. They don't know how to efefctively prevent STDS. Hell---many parents don't even feel comfortable mentioning S-E-X around their children.

To deny children a quality sex-ed program, we're ADDING to society's costs by having higher teen pregnancy rates, higher STD rates, higher rates of poor and poverty stricken young parents who have never had a sex-ed program themselves so have NO WAY of effectively teaching THEIR children about safe sex.

And sex ed is (or should be) more than "Penis + Vagina = babies" There are TONS of health issues regarding the urogenital region...infections (not necessarily sexually transmitted), general health, how it affects the body whole...kids need to know this so that they can be ADULTS who know this.

sorry for the rant. I promise it wasn't directed at you, but rather what I feel is a misguided system who waits until the horses are in the pasture before shutting the barn door, and then wondering "why is our kids so dumbs?"

[jdj]

12. it's a very tough call, that one.

I honestly don't know what I would do. If you want an honest answer, I think I would move heaven and earth to home school my kids, and sex education is the least of the reasons why.

It just seems to me that our culture has lost through the sexual revolution and growing openess about sexuality any concept of sexual innocense and what that is and what it should be in children. I think that you can discuss the biological terminology in a clinical manner without warping children, but the way the media is being used to foist sexuality, particularly male sexuality, onto and into what should be children's programming, literature, and just their mental sphere in general is very upsetting to me, because I think kids need a time to be safe and free from sexuality, especially female children because we are the underdogs in the world and there is a very small window for a female child to learn to value and appreciate herself as a person irrespective of sexuality before the world starts rating her and foisting it's opinion on her from the outside in.

Like the movie version of "The Cat in the Hat", where Mike Myers take the mother's picture of the shelf and then folds it out like a centerfold...I am about as liberal as you can get with regards to sexuality among adults, but that fucking pissed me off to no end, I mean how FUCKING dare Mike Myers or whomever's idea that was inject that crap into what is a movie about a book written for CHILDREN? I can't abide that shit, I see it all the time nowadays, and I find it very disturbing. Children NEED to have the time in their lives where they are non-sexual respected so that they can form a solid base of self-esteem, and why on earth adults are basically pimping children in so many forms of entertainment to amuse themselves...I don't see why people stand for it. That is why I wouldn't want my kids influenced by this media invasion and sexualization of their turf.

[noamnety]

15. Parents likely do not know the latest info

There's new forms of birth control that have come out since I went through high school, I would have to study up if I had to teach that kind of stuff to my kid now. In some of the other threads here I've learned a bit about new research that's just come out in the last couple of years. And I consider myself fairly well informed.

It might make sense to have teachers that are trained and using current textbooks (hopefully). Just like it makes sense to have a teacher that knows Spanish teach a Spanish class. I'm not trying to argue against homeschooling in general, for some families it works out great. But I don't understand the puritan argument that certain subjects must be homeschooled and certain others are acceptable to be taught in public. That kind of attitude leads to all sorts of societal attitudes that aren't healthy. The more you teach that such things are shameful, the more you end up with situations where people are too embarassed or ashamed to talk to their doctors about things like birth control, or get colon cancer screenings.

[K-W]

13. Many adults are uncomfortable with the topic of sex.

So we should never teach sex ed?

The reason it makes adults and children uncomfortable is because a stigma is attached to it. There is only one way to get comfortable with it, and that is education and discussion.

[LWolf]

4. Like you can avoid it?

Honestly...does anybody think that shutting the door on official "lessons" will make it go away?

Many kids have families that will do a fine job on their own, with no help at all. Many don't. Many need very blunt, explicit information about pregnancy, stds, and prevention.

Try to take sex out of the conversation and see where it gets you. My 5th graders, ages 10-11, have begun puberty. If I want to take sex out of any discussion we have, I have to forcibly review and censor every word that leaves my mouth. For example: Yesterday, getting ready for a game of kickball, I didn't review my vocabulary. We were marking bases in new spots, since the usual spots were mudholes from the recent rain. I pointed to a spot on the ground and said something like, "This little hump right here can be home plate." Were they thinking about kickball? No. It took a couple of minutes to calm the chortling and snorting down and get refocused. Don't use the word "balls." Ever. Be careful about having nuts for a snack.

I could go on, but you get the point. Whether through over exposure or hormonal changes, these kids are already focused on sex. Ignoring it isn't going to make it go away.

In 5th grade, we study the respiratory and circulatory systems. Last year, I had one enthusiastic young man who said, "This is great, Ms. ________________. When do we get to study the "reprodooosive" system?" I gravely replied that in our state, that begins in 6th grade. His obvious disappointment was more than apparent, but he commented several times during the year that he "couldn't wait for 6th grade," because "you get to learn about the really important, cool stuff."

[LizW]

5. This proposal is a scare tactic to freak parents out

It lists a bunch of controversial topics and suggests that those topics are being discussed in sex education classes AND in other classes in schools. The real intent is buried: to prevent gay groups and gay/straight alliance groups from meeting in schools. As always, the obsession is with homosexuality.

I felt like some parents here when my children were younger: I didn't want anyone else teaching them about sex. However, I had no idea how early children enter puberty now, and by fifth grade, I was more than ready. The thing is, it's not enough for you to teach your own child about sex. There are other kids whose parents don't have a clue and those children have to have some education, because they will, whether you like it or not, have an effect on your child. You don't want your child's friends undercutting what you're teaching. It doesn't matter how many times you tell your child she CAN get pregnant the first time, if her friends are telling her she can't. Kids listen to their peers, plus, they tend to hear what they want to hear.

By fourth grade, many girls are menstruating. By sixth grade, almost all are. My son is twelve (seventh grade), and hs is definitely well into puberty. The girls in his class have breasts I could only dream of having at that age. Our school system starts sex ed in the second half of fifth grade, which I think is about right. (Although it varies year to year. One year the parents begged to move it up because this one particular class was so physically mature that they needed the classes sooner.)

The classes are always taught with boys and girls separated. They're taught by a local pediatrician. The materials are available for pre-review by parents, and there is an opt-out provision. The kids can ask questions anonymously. It's not perfect by any means, (three is a LOT they leave out) but it certainly gives a good starting point for parents to build on. I also think it opens an avenue of communication for kids who may need to ask questions, but feel they can't ask their parents.

[DrWeird]

8. I'm sorry, what century is this? The 19th?

Or have I wandered into some parallel universe where people on the Bizarro Democratic Underground are discussing whether or not sex ed should be taught in school?

[Fleshdancer]

9. people act as if there's something exciting about sex ed

I can't think of anything LESS sexual than the memories I have of sitting in class and memorizing the different parts to the female and male reproductive systems, discussing the sperm+egg=embryo equation, and being extremely disgusted over the STD's. It didn't get me into a sex crazed frenzy in elementary school, middle school, or high school.

Sex is an extremely important function of the human body and if kids are learning how the heart, brain, pancreas, etc function, then it's ridiculous to skip over the reproductive system just because it a minority of adults can't handle it.

[noamnety]

10. It's nice to want to protect the kids

Meanwhile, I'm having to come up with special assignments my 16 year old students can do at home while they take their 6 weeks maternity leave.

We're so busy protecting them from facts sometimes that we forget to protect them from ignorance.

[gollygee]

14. This quote makes me want to puke

"What we said was before the teachers can go ahead and discuss things like homosexuality, sodomy, necrophilia, bestiality, and fellatio, they need to notify the parents," said Andrade.

I HATE how they group homosexuality, sodomy, and fellatio with necrophilia and bestiality as if they were all the same.

[sweetheart]

16. Underneath the bleachers, in the field shed...

Sex education is happening in schools, wherever the hormones can get
free for a quick shag. Getting laid on a high school campus was not
hard in my day... and i doubt its changed much. DId we use protection,
of course not, as it would have increased the time and our chances of
getting caught.

Its good to hear that they'll be reserving classrooms for sexual
intercourse, at least it will keep the stains off the gymnasium
equiptment.