Sex education in primary schools

[lazarus 68]

Children are not left to be children, they are dressed as young adults from around six months old to replicas of their parents by the time they can walk, now they are trying to rob them of their innocence, crazy.

[Halibut 12]

6 minutes ago, lazarus said:

Children are not left to be children, they are dressed as young adults from around six months old to replicas of their parents by the time they can walk, now they are trying to rob them of their innocence, crazy.

Do you have a view about sex/relationship education in primary schools though?

[Eccy Beach 11]

Part of the problem with this issue is lots of people fixate on the 'sex' element of relationship and sex education - mainly because it suits their agenda of moral panic. Primary school children do not get taught about gay sex or any other forms of sex, they get taught about different family make-ups and relationships. Ultimately this type of education is about preparing kids for life in a pluralistic and diverse society and I don't know if you can start too early on that journey, as long as material is age appropriate.

 

As others have said the use of 'gay' as an insult is rife among many generations, more education and more positive interventions from people like Joe Root will help. At the end of the day homophobia is a hate crime and as such you could say this sort of education is preventing children from becoming criminalised as well as teaching them about diversity.

I'd rather my kids learnt this through a structured syllabus than in the playground.

[the_bloke 17]

17 hours ago, makapaka said:

In 1990 in my last year in primary school we were shown a cartoon video of two cats rubbing their nexts together until

some fireworks appeared on screen followed by  a cartoon  of the fertilisation of an egg.

 

true story.

 

learnt more from kids in the playground and was never really told about it by my parents not that I would have wanted to.

 

as a parent now I’m secretly happy that the school has had to do the explaining if I’m being honest....

That's odd, my primary school in the mid 1980s was happy to show us videos of naked men and women to explain puberty and the change in the human body, and animated drawings of men and women together to explain what happens when the bearded man and the woman with the hairy armpits want to 'lie close to make a baby'. I guess schools had more choice on what material to show children.

 

Differences like that only highlights the need for everyone to be taught the same thing.

10 hours ago, Lex Luthor said:

The trouble with only discussing same sex relationships in primary schools if there is a child with same sex parents in the class is that children's experiences are not confined to the school setting.  They might have a friend living next door with same sex parents. 

Agree absolutely. My children spend two thirds of the time living with their mother, who is in a same sex relationship; for them to be taught in school that only men and women could have meaningful relationships because some religious fool has forced the curriculum to only teach what they see acceptable rather what society sees acceptable is abhorrent.

[Guest makapaka]

1 hour ago, the_bloke said:

That's odd, my primary school in the mid 1980s was happy to show us videos of naked men and women to explain puberty and the change in the human body, and animated drawings of men and women together to explain what happens when the bearded man and the woman with the hairy armpits want to 'lie close to make a baby'. I guess schools had more choice on what material to show children.

 

Differences like that only highlights the need for everyone to be taught the same thing.

Agree absolutely. My children spend two thirds of the time living with their mother, who is in a same sex relationship; for them to be taught in school that only men and women could have meaningful relationships because some religious fool has forced the curriculum to only teach what they see acceptable rather what society sees acceptable is abhorrent.

Yes it is odd I agree. 

[NicolaJayne 37]

17 hours ago, lazarus said:

Children are not left to be children, they are dressed as young adults from around six months old to replicas of their parents by the time they can walk, now they are trying to rob them of their innocence, crazy.

thank you for demonstrating your ignorance of basic child development topics 

 

the  Schema is  set by age 6  ,   

gender  identity and sexuality, having a  durable biological basis  are  also something that  children are aware  of  from a very young age, as the  cisgender heterosexual normative    way in which much of society operates. 

15 hours ago, Eccy Beach said:

Part of the problem with this issue is lots of people fixate on the 'sex' element of relationship and sex education - mainly because it suits their agenda of moral panic. Primary school children do not get taught about gay sex or any other forms of sex, they get taught about different family make-ups and relationships. Ultimately this type of education is about preparing kids for life in a pluralistic and diverse society and I don't know if you can start too early on that journey, as long as material is age appropriate.

 

As others have said the use of 'gay' as an insult is rife among many generations, more education and more positive interventions from people like Joe Root will help. At the end of the day homophobia is a hate crime and as such you could say this sort of education is preventing children from becoming criminalised as well as teaching them about diversity.

I'd rather my kids learnt this through a structured syllabus than in the playground.

spot on 

 sexuality and  gender identity have a durable  biological basis , you can't 'make' someone  straight / bi or pan / gay  ,  you  can;t make a cisgnender person transgender  ( John Money tried that  and has blood on his hands) and you can't make a transgender person cisgender  ( churches and  alledged  psycho-the-rapists  have  tried that  many times and  their hands  are blood  soaked )

[alchresearch 214]

I was watching BBC News this morning.  This is the "sex education" they were talking about, and its primarily to educate children why other children might have two moms or two dads picking them up.

 

 

[catmiss 12]

We live in a very diverse world and introducing this to children in an age appropriate way can only be for good. Pity that it’s left to schools  to teach rather than just being normal life with parents answering any questions which may occur earlier than school age. I felt much more equipped to answer these sort of questions when my kids were young than “why is the sky blue”. Perhaps that’s why they’re quite rounded individuals but not asto physicists 😀

[Lex Luthor 10]

1 hour ago, catmiss said:

We live in a very diverse world and introducing this to children in an age appropriate way can only be for good. Pity that it’s left to schools  to teach rather than just being normal life with parents answering any questions which may occur earlier than school age. I felt much more equipped to answer these sort of questions when my kids were young than “why is the sky blue”. Perhaps that’s why they’re quite rounded individuals but not asto physicists 😀

In this day, to raise rounded individuals is quite an achievement, so well done to you. 

[Michael_W 11]

11 hours ago, catmiss said:

We live in a very diverse world and introducing this to children in an age appropriate way can only be for good. Pity that it’s left to schools  to teach rather than just being normal life with parents answering any questions which may occur earlier than school age. I felt much more equipped to answer these sort of questions when my kids were young than “why is the sky blue”. Perhaps that’s why they’re quite rounded individuals but not asto physicists 😀

I'm not quite sure what needs teaching, if kids are growing up in a diverse world then they will hardly need introducing to it ….. it's the norm surely !

Maybe times have changed but lots of people my age grew up quite rounded regardless of how we learnt things, neither my parents nor my school had to teach me specifics they simply taught me right from wrong, respect and how to think for myself, modern day nannying seems to have cause more problems than it solves IMHO !

[catmiss 12]

On 28/03/2019 at 04:25, Lex Luthor said:

The trouble with only discussing same sex relationships in primary schools if there is a child with same sex parents in the class is that children's experiences are not confined to the school setting.  They might have a friend living next door with same sex parents.  

 

Also, children have an awful habit of using the word 'gay' as an insult, even in primary schools.  Children need to have a grasp of why that's wrong and the effect it could have on others. 

And this exactly the response of the developer of the programme. I’ve always been open with my kids and answered questions honestly so much so that my eldest couldn’t understand why his fellow 11 year olds were sniggering in the first sex education class. 

[catmiss 12]

On 30/03/2019 at 11:54, Michael_W said:

I'm not quite sure what needs teaching, if kids are growing up in a diverse world then they will hardly need introducing to it ….. it's the norm surely !

Maybe times have changed but lots of people my age grew up quite rounded regardless of how we learnt things, neither my parents nor my school had to teach me specifics they simply taught me right from wrong, respect and how to think for myself, modern day nannying seems to have cause more problems than it solves IMHO !

Perhaps you were lucky. If growing up in a diverse world without guidance was enough there wouldn’t be any prejudice