Sex Education When?

Agent Smith

Now i'm going to be Vague with one or Two parts of this Story here, just in the unlikely chance that Someone here Knows what Exact thing i'm talking about.



Recently, a girl In cork Gave Birth To a Healthy Baby boy, Both her family and herself were delighted to have A helthy baby boy enter there Family.



The "girl" was 13.


Now after hearing this story, it got me thinking, When Should A Child Get Sex Ed, and more importantly, who should teach it? The school, The Parents, The Church?


as A social group leader, i was Asked by A parent recently, " when were we doing sex ed." I Imformed her That We Dont teach that, ( its not the sort of thing i personally would feel confortable teaching.

I've posted this In Parenting and The Sex and Sexuality boards, just to get a wider audiance.

When, and Who should teach children sex ed, and When did you get sex ed, and By who?

Borat_Sagdiyev

I think it should be the parent's responsibility. A good way to do this is to give them a book and tell them to read it, and if they have any questions after that, then come and ask.

I don't think it should be the sole responsibility of the parents though - the parents should teach the basics. ie a "This is what happens, and this is what you should do" type of teaching.

I think that the science behind it should be taught by the schools though.

denissilver

my son was seven when he started to ask questions.I figured if hes old enough to ask he's old enought to learn.we told him in stages as he asked and we didn't get too technical.he's now eleven and he knows pretty much everything.My daughter is seven now but she hasn't really asked any questions yet.One thing I noticed,their fav programme is friends and we let them watch the censored version at 5pm C4.they have both learned a lot from this ie ross's wife is a lesbian/ being gay is different not wrong Joey sleeps with everyone and wears a condom.They just take it in no problem
I know at that age I would have been freaked by this.

LadyJ

I asked when I was five and my mother reckoned,like denissilver,that if I was old enough to ask then clearly I was old enough to be told.

I think that schools should play a bigger part in sex education. Definitely with the science part but there should also be health classes where it can be talked about openly,without children having to feel embarassed about discussing it.

The church should stay well clear because,let's face it,STDs would wipe out the human race if they were in charge!

Sex needs to be spoken about freely and easily. Kids pick up on taboos and discussing sex should certainly not be one. Parents and schools need to approach the subject as they would when teaching a child to read. Don't make children feel awkward about it because then they'll ask less questions and end up pregnant and riddled with disease at a very young age.

Crea

The school can give the technicalities but it's up to the parents to tell the kids about the morals and responsibilities regarding sex.
A school I know about had a parent and child evening where they were told the facts together. Then they split to parent/child discussion group where they could talk freely. The parents got direction on how to answer questions and the kids got to ask questions that they would be too embarrassed to ask the parents. This allowed the parents to start a discussion with the child at home and they had a full understanding of what the child knew.
I thought this approach was brilliant but there are very few schools that would be prepared to do this.
Parents have to be open and honest when questioned. If the parent gets embarrassed then so will the child. My mother told me the technicalities but I got info about contraceptives and stds from magazines. My mother also tried to teach me about not sleeping around but I have to say my sisters and friends stance on this was far more imortant. Thankfully the were all (fairly) good girls;)

tj-music.com

I am a parent myself with a 13 years old son. We are very open about sex yet it is less embarrassing for him if a third party i.e. the school talks about it.

Perhaps sex education should go hand in hand and parents should maybe be notified when the topic is taught in schools to prepare their answers if needs be

magnumlady

I thought sex education was a part of the curriculum now. My children's school had a meeting about it last year for the parents and the kids had their lessons in the last few months.
To be honest though I thought it was a bit intense as my son, although he is 12, he's a young 12 and I know he found it all really embarrassing. My daughter on the other hand thinks its great!
They both knew the basics before the lessons, but I think it was just the fact of it being a mixed class that made it embarrassing.

deisemum

It is part of the curriculum but a parent has the right to have his/her child not attend these classes. Our school teaches sex ed. in 5th class. It is a mixed school and as girls are getting younger starting their periods (even in 5th class) they want the children to be prepared for it. Parents must sign a consent form. Some parents were concerned about boys and girls being taught together but the teachers that teach this think it's a good age as they normally just see the opposite sex as class mates and not as sexual beings. In 6th class they get to see a Veritas video.

simu

A Veritas video? What's that like? (as in, I'd expect it to be very cheesy and old-school)

deisemum

simu wrote:

A Veritas video? What's that like? (as in, I'd expect it to be very cheesy and old-school)

You got that right. Veritas are the religious lot, publishers I think. Teachers told me it is fairly tame, ie man is in his pyjamas, woman in nightie, suitcase at the end of bed with a just married sticker on it. You get the picture. Debbie does Dallas it ain't

magnumlady

Our school starts the education in 1st class! Just the bit about how babies develop, the rest comes later.
The teacher was telling me that the video was a joke so they opted not to show it.
You can keep your child out of the class but then they would just get 2nd hand information.
Our school got an 'expert' into teach the lessons. She was very nice and at least the kids felt they could ask her questions where as they probably wouldn't have asked their teacher anything and the teacher was very embarressed, poor chap!

6th

I thinks its a case of the basics thought by the parents from an early stage (by early i mean the topic should never be hushed but not pushed at them) and the science should be done in the schools.

At 21 months mine already knows that people kiss when they love each other - too many Disney movies