At what age should sex education be taught?

Permabanned
Joined
25 Jan 2013
Posts
4,277
See, it's interesting on this thread, there's a handful of topics about what should and shouldn't be taught, or how things are taught, and even all as adults there's not one complete agreement on anything. So it's no wonder that schools find this stuff complicated to structure or decide what needs to be taught.

It's almost as though the profession of teaching (or indeed, any job that involves the structure and process of education) is completely and shamefully undervalued in this country...
 
Soldato
Joined
25 Jun 2011
Posts
5,468
Location
Yorkshire and proud of it!
I think you, deliberately, like to reduce this to binaries. 'tom-boys' are not being 'diagnosed' as trans.

Yes they are.

Your own previous post had an image showing a 'spectrum' whereby it suggested it is normal to appear anywhere along it. It doesn't 'diagnose' you trans, or even GNC (Gender-Non-Conforming), but simply says that if you don't feel you match up to a strict male/female split, then that's nothing to be worried about.

The spectrum chart is part of a presentation by Mermaids. Pretty princesses at one end, soldiers at the other. I am familiar with their work. You appear not to be. If you want to dispute don't you think you should go and read some of their materials? Talk to people who've seen their presentations? When you get a young girl coming home saying she "has a boy brain" because she likes cars, that's gender conformity. The children's book I shared shows how the little girl who is into super-heroes and wants short hair is really a boy. Research this before pronouncing on what is and isn't happening. Your off-hand dismissal of what you cannot know doesn't happen (it does) shows exactly where you're coming from.
 
Soldato
Joined
25 Jun 2011
Posts
5,468
Location
Yorkshire and proud of it!
Education that everyone is a part of a 'traditional masculine/feminine' spectrum (which is definitely my experience in life) would be better for everyone.

No it wouldn't. Male and female are sexes. It is unhealthy to teach that someone's behaviour or interests puts them in either category. A young girl like mechanics? WHY should that mean she is on the spectrum towards being a boy? It may make her less typical for a girl but it in no way makes her less female. Mermaids and Allsorts teach the opposite.
 
Soldato
Joined
15 Feb 2013
Posts
3,090
Location
Edinburgh
Sounds a lot of hassle. Raise your hand, ask for the box, write a question, put it in the box, have it be pretty obvious it was your question when the teacher then pulls it out. Or do you think kids know what questions they'll think of before the actual talk? Do you think there will be a whole series of talks to make sure all questions are answered and you repeat in a loop until there are no more questions from the previous lesson? In sex education, which is embarrassing enough, you want to do everything you can do to make people feel comfortable asking questions. Separating boys and girls is a very simple and immediate way of helping achieve that for both boys and girls. I suspect you are against it mainly on ideological grounds. If you are worried about boys not learning about menstruation, explain to me why that wouldn't be included in the boys class also.
I'm sorry but that's an astonishing misinterpretation there?
Have you never heard of a suggestion box? I deliberately said 'leave a question'
As in, there's a box you can leave questions in, which are addressed to the whole class.
More-over, you can make everyone ask a question, and then the people with pressing questions can ask, and others could possibly leave it blank.

You suspect ideological grounds? such as?

I suggested the teaching of one class with a box for questions in a response to:
...you were split off with boys in one class and girls in another to talk about stuff related to your own gender.....
Which literally suggests boys would not be taught menstruation.

No it wouldn't. Male and female are sexes. It is unhealthy to teach that someone's behaviour or interests puts them in either category. A young girl like mechanics? WHY should that mean she is on the spectrum towards being a boy? It may make her less typical for a girl but it in no way makes her less female. Mermaids and Allsorts teach the opposite.

A male and female sex has nothing to do with traditional masculine and feminine roles.....
Mechanic being a traditional masculine role, so teaching someone that everyone falls between the two 'traditional binaries' and that only a minority of people actually lie at either end can be nothing but beneficial to a child discovering how they fit into the world.

Mermaids may teach 'how to sacrifice goats' for all I care, if they come to my child's school I'll address their educational materials with them an my child, I'm not arguing what they do and do not teach.
 
Soldato
Joined
7 Nov 2009
Posts
19,798
Location
Glasgow
Absolutely not, I would be horrified if my children were actively encouraged to break the law and came home with condoms in their schoolbag.
.

Your kids are going to have sex.
They are going to have sex before they are sixteen.

Wouldn't you rather that they have sex, using protection, and have been brought up in a surrounding where if they want/need to talk to someone they can? Rather than them being afraid of telling their parents because they broke the law and were worried about the backlash. It's madness you wouldn't want to create a positive environment for them.

What would you do if your 13 year old son came to you and asked for condoms?
 
Soldato
Joined
6 Jan 2013
Posts
21,839
Location
Rollergirl
Your kids are going to have sex.
They are going to have sex before they are sixteen.

Wouldn't you rather that they have sex, using protection, and have been brought up in a surrounding where if they want/need to talk to someone they can? Rather than them being afraid of telling their parents because they broke the law and were worried about the backlash. It's madness you wouldn't want to create a positive environment for them.

What would you do if your 13 year old son came to you and asked for condoms?

Buying condoms and deciding to have sex at that age should be done with the parent's consent, not the schools. That's beyond the remit of education.
 
Caporegime
Joined
30 Jul 2013
Posts
28,821
Buying condoms and deciding to have sex at that age should be done with the parent's consent, not the schools. That's beyond the remit of education.

:rolleyes:

The school aren't giving them consent, they are making sure they don't have babies and get STD's when they have sex, which is something horny teenagers are going to try and do anyway.
 
Soldato
Joined
15 Feb 2013
Posts
3,090
Location
Edinburgh
Associate
Joined
15 Feb 2010
Posts
1,080
What do others think about this, 4 years old to be taught sex education, do you think that's ok?

Both of my kids have been through this program. Just to make it clear, it's not sex education in the way hysterical Daily Mail headlines would have you believe - it's call SRE (Sex and Relationship Education), and starts at reception then carries on all the way through secondary.

At reception age they learned about family units (especially that families can look very different - covered straight/gay/single parent/adoptive families), the PANTS rule and friendships
At 6-7 they learned about bullying, online safety, physical health, fitness and healthy eating
8-11 was puberty, peer pressure and drugs/alcohol (DARE)

Actual sex education wasn't until secondary - although it also covers things like sexting, consent, gender identity and sexual health.

It was all done very age appropriately - neither of my kids even realised they were doing it most of the time, it was just something they did in lessons.
 
Soldato
Joined
19 May 2004
Posts
3,840
Both of my kids have been through this program. Just to make it clear, it's not sex education in the way hysterical Daily Mail headlines would have you believe - it's call SRE (Sex and Relationship Education), and starts at reception then carries on all the way through secondary.

At reception age they learned about family units (especially that families can look very different - covered straight/gay/single parent/adoptive families), the PANTS rule and friendships
At 6-7 they learned about bullying, online safety, physical health, fitness and healthy eating
8-11 was puberty, peer pressure and drugs/alcohol (DARE)

Actual sex education wasn't until secondary - although it also covers things like sexting, consent, gender identity and sexual health.

It was all done very age appropriately - neither of my kids even realised they were doing it most of the time, it was just something they did in lessons.

And this sort of education reduces teen pregnancies and abortion by a decent margin while increasing understanding of all types of families which wont hurt those that go through changes.

Good sex education also stops stupid statements like "Well if she chose not to have her period she would not have to buy pads".
 
Soldato
Joined
23 Jul 2009
Posts
14,083
Location
Bath
I don't know enough about the syllabus to comment, but my 3yr old girl last night told me that her friend at nursery had told her "you're not a girl, you're a boy" which upset and confused her a bit. I asked her what she thought she was and she said she was a girl. So I said "you tell her that then, and tell me or mummy if she keeps saying that". So it is sort of a thing even at that age (gender). I felt like telling her to punch her friend, but thought better of it.
 
Caporegime
Joined
17 Feb 2006
Posts
29,263
Location
Cornwall
Point 2;
I know nothing of the 'Mermaids' approach to teaching, my son hasn't been exposed to it, but I've heard advocates amount people I know.
From their site and your post's screenshot it doesn't suggest 'if you're not these binaries (princess/g.i. joe) you're the third category of 'spectrum''?
Education that everyone is a part of a 'traditional masculine/feminine' spectrum (which is definitely my experience in life) would be better for everyone.
Isn't the point being that the idea of a "spectrum of gender behaviours" is ridiculous?

Ie at one end there are "things that girls do" and at the other there are "things that guys do". And if you are a guy who likes "things that girls do", then you're somewhere between a "proper guy" and a "proper girl".

Which is nuts. Because at the "100% guy" end of the spectrum you can bet it would be "plays Rugby, is considering joining the army" and at the "100% girl" end it might be "wears flowers in her hair and frolics in meadows like Jane Austin".

It's a nonsense way to define girls and boys.
 
Back
Top Bottom