Sex lessons planned for all (UK) children (The Observer)

(Oh I can't wait to hear the RW reaction to this, here in the U.S.)

Sex lessons planned for all children

· Five-year-olds to get lessons on emotional life
· Leak reveals teenagers' ignorance and confusion

Denis Campbell, social affairs correspondent
Sunday December 4, 2005
The Observer

Compulsory sex lessons for primary school children as young as five are to be backed by the government's official advisers on sexual behaviour in an unpublished report obtained by The Observer. If accepted, the proposals would be the biggest shake-up in sex education in schools in England and Wales.

The document says the current system for sex lessons, which are mostly optional, is unfair, confused, damaging to pupils' health and development and partly responsible for Britain having the highest rate of teenage pregnancy in western Europe. At present all pupils get basic biological information, but those at some schools are also given details about subjects such as contraception and sexually transmitted infections.

A joint report from the Government's independent advisors on sexual health and teenage pregnancy recommends that detailed knowledge about sex should become a routine part of all pupils' education and points out that adopting such an approach makes young people better able to handle sexual issues. The 42 advisors include senior doctors, experts in sexual behaviour, specialists in bringing up children, nurses, and leading academics in the field.

They want ministers to make Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) a statutory subject in all primary and secondary schools in England and Wales. Certain schools provide PSHE to help prepare their students to understand the adult world of sex, alcohol, drugs and bullying.

<http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1657308,00.html?gusrc=rss>
(more at link above)

"If implemented, primary school children would be taught mainly about emotional issues such as relationships and friendships, with older ones starting to learn about puberty. Only secondary students would discuss sexual activity and its potential pitfalls."

No nookie for the tinies.

It says that only secondary school students would receive comprehensive sex education-- pregnancy, STDs, emotional abuse, etc-- while younger ones learn more about the the simple things like relationships.

from the article:

If implemented, primary school children would be taught mainly about emotional issues such as relationships and friendships, with older ones starting to learn about puberty. Only secondary students would discuss sexual activity and its potential pitfalls.

I see no problem with this at all.

...RW Reactionary/intelligent design crowd will probably make their snap judgments and condemn this immediately as outrageous and sinful.

If our society had a policy of teaching children how to love and how to get along with other members of society, I have a feeling that we would have a much healthier society than we currently have now.

that can be taught?

in the same way that kids are socialized in all other ways. And obviously sex ed can and ought to be taught.

some kids are ready early we were on a farm, and sex was part of the farm.

classes for kiddies would never fly here. Too many confrontational parents that would scream and yell about the school dictating who their kids should be friends with.

As well, the right wing would hijack it and start teaching anti-gay philosophy, as well as trying to include Jesus as your best friend.

In my opinion, teaching about emotional issues should be primarily taught by parents, and if there are seriously troubled kids who have crappy parents that never taught them about relationships and friendships, those kids should be handled seperately.

To me, school is a place for teaching knowledge, and not emotions... for the same reason we don't want religious discussions in elementary schools... too easy to exploit.

Are you saying we should let the parents (not all parents obviously just those that don't know what or don't care what their doing) screw the kid up and then we will try to fix them. Why not let the schools discuss relationships, friendship, etc. and maybe they can help the kids before the parents screw them up. Again I am not saying all parents.

teaching their children about relationships and friendships. However, parents are slacking off on that, and have been getting more and more reliant on teachers to teach values to their children.

Kids are going into kindergarten knowing less and less each year. It used to be that parents actually taught their kids how to at least write their name before they were 5 years old. Now... not so much.

If anything, we need to have manditory classes for PARENTS. Why not fight the problem at the source?

Most parents I see totally abdicate all responsibility for teaching their children basic manners and ettiquette. More complicated things such as negotiating sex and relationships are completely off the menu.

How do you expect the parents who let their kids run screaming through the aisles of a restaurant to manage these issues? How about Misses "touch that and I'll beat your ass" in the WalMart aisle? The parents who give the kids keys to a Ford F250 to drive to school? The parents who don't notice their 13 year old is smoking or drinking?

I work every day with college students. Some of them are great and have immaculate houses and seem to manage their lives well. Many of them haven't been taught to shop for groceries, cook a single days meals or load a washing machine. It's not their fault if they're eighteen. At 25 is gets old.

You expect the same parents who raise these kids to deal with sexuality?

Welcome to teenpregnancyland.:rant:

that we should fix this at the actual start of the problem, the parents. By the time a kid gets to Kindergarten, he has the basic moral values instilled in him that will last the rest of his life.

Some changes can be made with individual teaching of these children, but simple lectures to a class of first graders about friendship is not going to make much of a difference if these same kids are going home to parents that treat them like crap and don't reinforce these relationship beliefs. An hour a day of classes on how to be nice will be canceled out by 12+ hours of parental neglect.

You wouldn't try to eliminiate drugs by going after every drug dealer, would you? You would you after the source of the problem, the people who make the drugs.

Anyways, these are just my opinions :-)

Hell, you can barely make a case that parents pay any attention to the school sytem their kids go to unless CPS or a custody battle is in progress. Parents just don't have to pay attention if they don't want to.

Sex education reminds me of an experiment I saw at a science museum. There was this massive steel pendulum inside a ring. Kids had small magnets on a string that they could attatch to the pendulum and pull the string. If you pull hard on the string your magnet falls off. But if you keep a tiny bit of tension on the string a four ounce magnet can be used to shift the orbit of a 200lb pendulum.

Sex education has to be like that second example. We have to latch on to these kids early a pull a little every day. That's how you promote positve sexuality.

To someone growing up in a messed-up household.

And how pointless for someone who's family isn't neglecting that part of a kid's education.

I commend them for wanting to do something good for the urchins, but this is just more from Brave New World.

I hope they can get someone marginally more attactice than John Cleese.

All I could picture was John Cleese and the sex ed skit. One of my favorites.

...Said, in order to discourage pre-marital sex, get the two oldest teachers in the High School, cover them in butter and...

:kick:

...what will we say to the children?
How 'bout stuff to keep them from early pregnancies. (And "just say no" aint good enough but for Nancy Reagan.)

Boundary issues should be taught in school. Kids should be taught that it is not alright to be abused and it is not alright to abuse others. I suppose that they taught that in my school a little bit, but I don't think that it went far enough or perhaps I was being raised poorly in this way or perhaps kids teach each other contrary to this. I suppose that parents might complain about this because it involves teaching values and these values might be contrary to what they believe. It could also be contrary to what is practiced in the corporate world. I could see how some of this stuff could get murky.
Of course it would be discussion based, not lectures.