Recent news reports about schools in Montana that are considering adopting a sex ed course for early elementary students have been flying around the Internet. This latest on the topic was on FoxNews.com:
"According to the 62-page draft proposal, beginning in kindergarten, school nurses will teach students proper terms such as "nipple, breast, penis, scrotum and uterus." Once they are promoted to first grade, children will learn that sexual relations could happen between two men or two women. By the time students are 10 years old, instruction will include the various ways people can have intercourse, be it vaginally, orally or through anal penetration."
I've tried to ignore this story, hoping people would come to their senses and it would just go away, but apparently it isn't going to. The school superintendent of the Helena school district is pushing for the curriculum, saying that the schools share a responsibility for making sure children are informed about the risks of certain behaviors.
Opponents of the plan sharply criticize the idea of giving such specific details about sexual acts to children as young as ten.
I've got to say I am on their side.
There seems to be no childhood anymore. No time of innocence. Children are exposed to too much, too soon in regards to sex and sexual activity. If children below the age of 10 were not battered with sexual content and sexual images all around them, maybe their natural curiosity about such things would wait until they were a little older and better able to process the information.
And this type of detailed sex education belongs in the home, to the parents, who are the best judge of when their child is ready for it.
What do you think?
10 comments:
I think if I lived in the Helena school district I would protest and then I would move. Can't move? Home school.
Parents need to take responsibility for such things and stop letting the government do everything. We are giving away all our freedoms one lazy step at a time.
Giggles and Guns
"we're giving away all our freedoms one lazy step at a time." What a telling statement, Mary. Thanks for sharing your wisdom.
I have to agree with you. My kids are grown, but I would not have wanted them to be learning sex education at that age. I'm for sex education at a later age, though.
Straight From Hel
Oh good grief. I'm all for sex education, but isn't this taking things a bit too far? I cannot see why grade 5s need to know all the different ways of having sex. Seriously. What's going on at recess? What ever happened to a nice game of hopscotch?
Our kids are going to go to a private Christian school just because of crap like this. We'll just have to sacrifice to make it happen.
Stephen Tremp
Maryann: That's me above. I made an error in my typing and tried to delete the post completely. Didn't work.
So, here's trying again:
If I were a parent under such circumstances, I'd probably do home schooling! And try to allow my children to be children. I vividly remember hopscotch and jacks and jump the rope. I'm grateful I grew up when I did and got to be a child. It was fun.
...and what about parents who are too embarrassed or irresponsible to teach these things? I guess that's a whole different blog?
I certainly agree that there is a time and a place for sex education, anatomy lessons, etc, but teaching types of intercourse does NOT belong in the elementary school classroom!
When a child starts asking questions, that is a great time to begin the lessons. As a good friend of mine informed me with her own children, she started with simple things. She tried to keep the information age appropriate, terms scientifically correct, and as uncomfortable as some answers were, as honest as possible.
Thanks for all the great comments. I agree, Elspeth about the hopscotch, but I know what young kids are exposed to and they are not the same games we used to play. That's the best reason I can think of for home-schooling kids and limiting what they are exposed to via entertainment and such. I can't help but think of all those little girls who loved Hannah Montana and then Miley Cyrus got all tarted up and did the "sexy" routine. So all those young girls thought that is the way to behave.
Dany, you make a good point about parents who are too embarrassed to talk about sex with their kids. So yes, some sex education in school might be in order there, but not at such young ages in such detail. Like your friend is doing, dole it out in bits and pieces when a child is asking.
Utterly ridiculous. While as early as junior high it may be a good idea, the elementary level is simply too early. With all the emphasis that is put on the responsibilities of the parent every time a child causes a problem, it's ironic and hypocritical that they are willing to usurp those responsibilities when it suits their own bias.
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