Sex Education in Primary Schools

[LostTimeLady]

For those of us who are UK residents we've been hearing a lot about plans to make Sex Education not only compulsory but also to start from an age as young as five, a plan that has recently been endorced by government advisors
(for the full story check out this link:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/10333241.stm ).

So what do you think folks? What is the sex-ed like where you live or went to school? Do you think that children as young as five should be taught the facts of life? Will it actually improve awareness and lower the teenage pregnacy rate or have an adverse effect? Does it really matter what age it's taught? Is it really that important to be made compulsory on the cirriculum?

Discuss!

Spoiler: my personal view

Personally I think that being aged five and being taught about the facts of life is a bad idea. I'm sure at that age I didn't even know the meaning of the word sex if I even knew it at all. At that age young people need to learn how to play nice with others, make friends and learn key skills like reading, writing and maths. Learning about something so adult is difficult enough as it is to teach, imagine having to phrase it to a five year old's level! Teacher are rarely well equiped to teach it at high school level, image primary school teachers being faceed with that task and the questions that would arise! Oh, dear.
They need to start by first looking at how to improve the sex-ed classes in high school so that it looks at relationships and takes into account ideas like abstenance and a person's right to say no and not be in a relationship. That needs to be addressed first before we start robbing five year olds of their inocence by being heavy handed.

Edit: this here is another article on the same topic, just in case you're one of those sorts of well-informed people that like to be well-informed from various different view points on a story:
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20100616/tuk-watchdog-backs-sex-education-for-fiv-dba1618.html

 

[Tharwen]

I think it should be taught when they start to take an interest in sex, or just before. Otherwise, it will be a completely alien and unimaginable concept to them.

 

[The_Healer]

5 is too young in my opinion.
At 5 kids have no sexuality, no effort should be made to force it upon them - already we see kids are becoming sexually active at younger and younger ages.

Kids that age should be let alone when it comes to sex ed, 10 years old is the minimum in my eyes. At least then the kids are within 2-3 years of their hormones kicking in.

 

[electric discordian]

I think it's a good idea. But with specialised teachers who come in and just teach that subject. This would mean that there is no awkwardness and they would have a subject expert teaching them.

Let's face it when there are children having kids as soon as they are physically able we need to do something!

 

[Snork Maiden]

I had my first sex ed in year 5, so I was about... 10? That seemed like a decent age to me, although on the other hand I think the thing anyone took most away from it was that the word "stiffy" became heavily in vogue.

 

[Iznat]

I think that 5 is FAR too young. I don't even think that at that age I even knew the differences in gender.

I think age 9-10 is the right time to talk about puberty ('cause some girls will go through it at that age), and that 10-11 is the right age to talk about procreation, but even 9-10 years would be ok.
You have to think about what you're saying. Some parents would have already told their children how sex works, and that should be reiterated, but age 12-13 is when REAL sexual education should start - contraception, STI/STDs, risks, pleasures, everything.
I don't get the idea behind keeping it from kids. Girls at the age of 13 or 14 should be offered the pill if they want to have it - and told to use it alongside condoms. Far too many girls are irregular with their pill and rely on it as their only means of contraception.
Honesty is the best policy, and knowing about it isn't going to make them do it, no more than knowing about surgery will make then cut someone open.

I think the same approach should be taken to drugs, alcohol and cigarettes, personally >_> I'd rather my future kids knew the dangers, and made their own choices, and were safe about it. Drinking is fine, in small amounts. Sex is great, in the right context and at the right time.
Drugs are down to personal opinion, like cigarettes. No, they shouldn't do either, but I'd rather they knew the risks and did it, than were ignorant to them.

There's far too much emphasis on relationships and sexuality, and they're really not important issues. Kids ages 5 don't even tend to recognize gender differences, as I've seen amongst my sister's school friends.
The government needs to set up proper sex ed classes, and spread awareness of different methods of contraception that WORK, not just pulling out and abstinence
That'll stop those teen moms.

 

[FallenJellyDoughnut]

In Australia we learn it at 11-12, 5, is just way too young.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Looks like you're not allowed to be a kid anymore these days.

I've never really seen the purpose of sex ed to begin with except maybe to prevent aids. Sex is a personal and emotional experience that shouldn't be turned into an education. If you're taking Biology you'll learn more than enough about the technical side of sex; the reproductive organs and viruses like aids.

 

[Jack and Calumon]

I learnt about sex when I was Year 6. So... using math, and considering I am now Year 11, I was 11. Wow, Eleven years old when I watched two cartoon characters doing it. At five we'll be getting alot of those "Little Johnny" jokes come true. (Look it up!)

Calumon: Jack! Why do you always click on something then cover my eyes! I better get a cookie from this! >: (

 

[khiliani]

yeah, 5 is too young to learn about this sorta thing, it would go straight over their heads.

first time we were taught about it was grade 5 as well, so about 10. you need to start before the hormones start, so you have a better chance getting the messages across.

the main problem i can see, is in australia at least there is a lot of kids in private schools run by churches of various forms who are going to be rather reluctant to take this sort of thing up

 

[SonicWaffle]

So what do you think folks? What is the sex-ed like where you live or went to school? Do you think that children as young as five should be taught the facts of life? Will it actually improve awareness and lower the teenage pregnacy rate or have an adverse effect? Does it really matter what age it's taught? Is it really that important to be made compulsory on the cirriculum?

You know what sex ed really needs? To be useful. Instead of naming body parts and giving a clinical description of how they interact, they should teach you stuff that you need to know; how to make a woman orgasm, how to take your clothes off without tripping over and making a fool of yourself, why certain positions are a really bad idea, and most importantly, how to talk to someone when you wake up next to them for the first time. If we learnt all this stuff at school, sex would be far less awkward and embarrassing.

We probably shouldn't teach them that at 5, though. Wait until they hit puberty, and can put the knowledge to good use.

 

[Evil the White]

We were 10/11 when we first got taught about this stuff, and then had some more detailed explanations the following year.

Mind, the link is broken so I can't see how they're planning to change it.

 

[LostTimeLady]

We were 10/11 when we first got taught about this stuff, and then had some more detailed explanations the following year.

Mind, the link is broken so I can't see how they're planning to change it.

I've fixed the link. I hadn't left a space between the end of the website address and the end of the brackets. :-S

 

[teh.arkhon]

i think it was good the way they taught us

they didnt teach SEX education until college-form 3 or 4 which is like 9th or 10th grade for americans i think
but they had the whole puberty classes and shit in form 1 which would be 7th grade
i dont think thats too early and its not going too indepth or anything until we were old enough for it

 

[Ninjamedic]

We need sexual harassment panda for this.

 

[SomethingUnrelated]

XD Hah, it'll be disturbing to see 6 years olds instead of 16 year olds sitting in parks, pissed and having sex.

I jest, of course. I think 5 is wee bit young for sex education, but for similar, less explicit stuff, we'll just have to see how it goes.

 

[HuntrRose]

5 year olds? Are they insane?

Sex Ed is important. Getting the kids to think further than 5 minutes ahead even more so. Anyway, sexed should start around 11-12 years of age, when puberty starts for the earliest.

 

[hyplion]

11-12 sounds reasonable to me.
So a 5 year old gets sex ed... they are 5 years olds and playng all day, aren't they going to try what they just learned in class??? just what they try to avoid by the education.

 

[ottenni]

I started sex-ed when i was 11. Of course it wasn't called that it was called Health ed and we mostly talked about things like smoking ect, but we all called it sex ed because with our parents permission we talked briefly about sex, which at the time was hilarious for us. And at the time thats all it was, a brief mention of how kids are made. The actual education part came a few years later when i was 14, then we started to learn about STD's and condoms and the like. And i think that worked really well, five however is to young. They wont understand it, when i was five all i wanted to do was play with toy dinosaurs.

If you are wondering i'm from Australia.