I was wondering what people thought of sex education in schools?

Question

I am probably going to get shot down for this question but here goes

I was just wondering what people think of teaching kids in school sex education. I am asking this because out of interest I was looking through my little sisters info pack for her new school in September and there is a dedicated lesson for Teen and Sexual Health Education. I don’t know if this is a subject they teach in all schools and I just wondered what people think about teaching 11 and 12 year olds this particular lesson

My thoughts on this is that if you teach a child about sex you make them interested in it and more likely to try at an early age. I think sex ed’ causes more teen pregnancies then it prevents and is responsible for wrecking more young lives then it actually saves. You give a child a gun and say hear you can hold this but dont play with it, do you think they are just going to hold it, no, they are going to experiment with it play with it and BANG off it goes, I think its the same with sex education. The child is given a tool that they are to young to understand fully and they play with it, experiment with it, BANG there is, and STD and then next time there is a teenage pregnancy

That is my thought on it and I was just looking for other people’s views

Answer 1

a get this at school its so embarasing i would rather my mum tell me about it when it is jst me and her and then i can ask her stuff with out getting laughed at like in that class a asked the teacher what a clitoris was cos i really didnt no and everyone laughed at me and i got bullyed for ages cos i asked a question so a stopped going 2 it and then got found out and got detention and got smacked of me mam for not going to class so a think that its silly cos every1 jst laughs and no1 listens to what the teacher is saying and every1 at my school says that they had sex so its a silly class

Answer 2

I don't think its a great idea either but not for exactly the same reasons you believe.

I think teachers and school officials should be leaders. What they do now is decide to have certain things in schools based on the mentality, "They're going to do it anyway." What they don't seem to realize is while a few may be going to do it anyway many, many more would be better off if all the adults around them just "established" that teens are too young.

No matter what's "out there" in the culture, the adults immediately around kids have a powerful influence in helping to define what a 13-year-old does. Young people need someone older and wiser to do just that: define what 13, 14, and 16 should be doing.

With schools introducing all the sex talk into schools so young children are buying the idea that there is no such thing as a kid who is too young for this stuff. The message teachers send is that it is SO impossible to imagine a young person who is in control of him/herself that it is a matter of life and death to start pushing all "education" early.

It isn't as if schools are getting all the students to graduation with 4.0 averages. I think they should work on the academics if they must define elementary school and teen years the way they have been doing.

You are apparently an example of a young person who proves my point - that young people aren't all the out-of-control and crazy people the school seems to think they are.

I have no problem with spending a little time making sure students know about diseases and preventing pregnancy. Other than those two things schools have to back off and stop defining adolescence and teen years the way they do know.

Answer 3

First of all, it's lovely that you are interested and concerned about your little sisters welfare. To be honest, I don't think it's a young enough age to start talking about what these children are already experiencing. You just have to look at the facts. Britain has the highest teen pregnancy rates in europe and with good reason. Everywhere else, children are educated and brought up to believe that sex isn't taboo, but here it's still a dirty word. They are taught about the facts of life in ways suitable to their ages right from primary school. I think this is the way it should be, after all, why do we need to hide the way that babies are made when it is the most natural thing in the world? Aged 11 or 12, these children are already starting to experience confusing changes, both physically and mentally, and if they have no knowledge of why these things are happening, no wonder some of them go a bit wild when they do finally receive some sort of fumbled sex education from an embarassed teacher!

Answer 4

Well when I was in 5th grade we did the "Growing up and Liking it" bit. Nothing really about sex. Just about what was going on and all that. To learn about sex at 12 no. I don't think thats 100% right. A little older I do though. Just because alot of parents don't talk to their kids about sex. It could be their to busy, they get embarrsed talking about it, they actually don't know what to say (I have my own daughter, and I'm not sure what to say to her myself. She's still very young, but I don't want to give her the impression that its ok while I'm talking with her, or the impression that if it would happen I would dis-own her) So some parents just don't inform their children. I also think that if teachers would push more about the STDs, and getting pregant it would mean alot more. We had nothing like this in high school at my school. I think it would have helped a little bit more. I think instead of caring eggs around in 8th grade we should have been made to wear the pregant suit. An egg was really nothing, it went into the refridgeartor at night and that was that. You should wear that suit around school and what not. I think if your going to do the class, they should atleast push how bad it is when your not in love, and make the kids think, instead of giggling through the whole thing...

Answer 5

Sex ed' is the schools' lame attempt to say that they at least tried to inform students about sex before they go and truly mess things up. The intent is good, but the delivery is usually horrible. They get kids thinking about sex, but not about the consequences and responsibility. If they do teach sex ed' in schools, it should be by a 6'3" former Bulgarian female athlete that uses plenty of graphic pictures. That would get the point across about the diseases and hopefully discourage kids from going out and trying sex for themselves anytime soon.

Answer 6

Yeah, it's way too early - recently I've been told about the stuff they start telling 6 year olds, yes that's right - (no typing error!) - 6 years old! Many parents are going to 'preview' the lesson and then taking their kids out of school at the time that lesson takes place because it just isn't suitable for kids of that age who to be honest just do not need to know those things at age 6.

Answer 7

Sex Ed is a waste of time. It only talks about the physical aspect of sex. They never discuss the emotional implications of becoming intimate with someone.
The age thing is a little controversial, How young is too young?, when is it too late?
With all the teenage pregnancies happening, maybe it's just as well that kids are being educated at a younger age.

Answer 8

I think sex ed is an essential part of education now. With sex being on tv and in the media almost constantly then people especially teenagers and pre teens are going to get curious. Its a lot better that they get the facts rather than school yard rumours.

Answer 9

It's human nature to be curious about sex. Teaching a class on it isn't going to magically stir up something they would have never had otherwise. If children are kept sheltered from hot topics like sex, they'll find out what they want to know through other sources (I learned all kinds of things about sex just by riding the bus to school and listening in to conversations). If they're given SOLID information, they'll be more prepared when faced with making decisions for themselves regarding sex. I know someone who grew up in a Christian private school and recently transferred to a public school. She ended up drunk at a party, having sex ON THE FRONT LAWN. My guess is that she was heavily guarded as a kid, kept unaware of what sex was really all about. She got to public school, picked up on it all rather fast, and found out the hard way what it means to be a s!ut. Many kids are seriously misinformed about sex. I see their questions on here all the time. They WANT people to give them answers, and they NEED answers from reputable sources. Maybe I'm the only kid, but DARE really did keep me off drugs, and sex education really did make me want to wait until marriage to have sex. We did that whole handshake thing that linked us to everyone else in the room (like an STD), and it creeped me out enough to be safe. As a Christian AND as a teacher, I think it's important that children be informed about this natural part of life by the people who care about them the most. With sex education comes the duty of teaching morals and sexual responsibility. It CAN be a successful program.

Answer 10

I can understand your views, however, the statistics do not support your argument. in Holland, they have much more sex education than we do in the UK, it is also more explicit and handled in a more matter of fact way. Their incidence of teen pregnancy are way lower than in the UK. If you teach teenagers properly, they are more likely to behave responsibly and less likely to become pregnant or catch STD's

Ignorance of the facts and a natural teenage desire to experiment, when hormones kick in, causes much more problems. As a father of a 15 year old daughter, I don't like it anymore than you, but if it keeps my daughter safe, I would rather she knew the facts and had our support as parents, than her be kept in the dark and come to harm.

My wife and I taught our daughter about sex in an appropriate way from a very young age. Letting her know as much as she needed to about her Auntie becoming Pregnant, Where babies come from. As she got older, we told her more as it became appropriate according to her questions. She is one of the only Virgins in her year at school and is waiting for the 'right person' to come along. We put her on 'the pill' when she started her periods and are always there to answer any questions she has on sex and relationships. She is happy to come to us with any questions and she looks to us for advice. We are always open and honest with her in an appropriate way.

I believe that this has been the correct way to deal with it and her behaviour is testament to this approach.