Sex lessons for five-year-olds 'should be compulsory'

after oral lessons now the government wants to educate five year olds about sex, in fact in words they used will be demanded by government ministers as another assault on teenage pregnancy.

the advisory group on teenage pregnancy say they have been encouraged by a 10% reduction since 1998

Full story
education.guardian.co.uk...

i think they have gone insane let them play doctors and nurses on their own if they want too but to put that thought into the mind of a child is bordering lunacy.

this is another example of blair and his cronies furthering the agenda of the nanny state where we have no control of how our children are brung up.

and get this if you take the children out of class under new laws the parents can be prosecuted for their children failing to attend class.

now tell me there is no conspiracy against us as a population when they create a law then we see why immediately afterwards very clever.

"They" have no right to be telling five-year-olds anything
This is between a parent and child---not the state.

How soon before they tell us how many kids we can have and when to have them?
Big Brother should be avoided...whenever and wherever possible

What the story isn't saying is *what* is being taught.

Look at this quote from the story:

The teaching of sex and relationships in primary schools is not progressing fast enough to prepare children for the earlier onset of puberty, the Independent Advisory Group on Teenage Pregnancy will warn ministers in its annual report.

Sex isn't all about the mechanics of intercourse. It's also about puberty and physical and emotional changes (we got sex ed way back in the dark ages, and I assure you that intercourse never came into it.) It's also about relationships (dating/marriage) and so forth.

Those things *are* appropriate to teach kids, given that we're seeing earlier puberty and more problems with relationships.

And yes, my own kids began sex ed in grade school -- I was the one who got them books and talked to them when they had questions because the school policy was to scream and hide its eyes when sex/relationships/marriage topics came up. As a result, when they finally got around to teaching a brief course in marriage, sex, and relationships (at age 14, AFTER many of their peers were having sex and a few had gotten pregnant), my kids knew more about it than their friends did.

So don't assume they're going to teach kids the X-rated stuff. Find out what the curriculum is before you toss rocks.

Remember, when we say we're going to "teach kids math in first grade" that doesn't mean we're going to toss them into Calculus and Forrier Transforms.

maybe age 10 would be a good start to educate about sex, but at 5, it will only confuse little kids and it really doesn't serve any purpose.

my 5 year old, has no idea about the concept of sex yet, he knows that no one is allowed to touch his privates and he should not attempt to touch anyone else privates. that's all kids at that age need to know about sex

Originally posted by worldwatcher
my 5 year old, has no idea about the concept of sex yet, he knows that no one is allowed to touch his privates and he should not attempt to touch anyone else privates. that's all kids at that age need to know about sex

I agree worldwatcher. I have kids (6, 4, and 2) and I don't think they need to know about sex until 10, 11, or 12. It would just add more confusion to the daily stuff they have to deal with.

Those things *are* appropriate to teach kids, given that we're seeing earlier puberty and more problems with relationships.

And yes, my own kids began sex ed in grade school -- I was the one who got them books and talked to them when they had questions because the school policy was to scream and hide its eyes when sex/relationships/marriage topics came up. As a result, when they finally got around to teaching a brief course in marriage, sex, and relationships (at age 14, AFTER many of their peers were having sex and a few had gotten pregnant), my kids knew more about it than their friends did.



What does a 5 year old need to know about relationships? They're are growing up too fast. Throwing in the 'drama' surrounding relationships will only add to their ever increasing burden.

My daughter(age 9) just had the 'birds and the bees' explained to her. I thought the time was right. She will be reaching puberty soon, and I didn't want her to learn off the streets about sex.

But a 5 year old? In my opinion, they should be learning how to tie their shoes, playing soldiers or dolls, learning how to spell, and how to behave.

the minute tries to teach my son(when he reaches 5) about 'relationships, sex, or any related materials', I'm pulling him out of that school.

peace

i would also like to point out that this story broke in july of 2003 i for one dont remember the bbc headlining this on their evening news.

They may alread be going through puberty by age 10.
They should know about changes to their body before they happen, especially things like menstruation.

Here's an eye opening study:

Data were analyzed for 17 077 girls, of whom 9.6% were African-American and 90.4% white. At age 3, 3% of African-American girls and 1% of white girls showed breast and/or pubic hair development, with proportions increasing to 27.2% and 6.7%, respectively, at 7 years of age. At age 8, 48.3% of African-American girls and 14.7% of white girls had begun development. At every age for each characteristic, African-American girls were more advanced than white girls. The mean ages of onset of breast development for African-American and white girls were 8.87 years (SD, 1.93) and 9.96 years (SD, 1.82), respectively; and for pubic hair development, 8.78 years (SD, 2.00) and 10.51 years (SD, 1.67), respectively. Menses occurred at 12.16 years (SD, 1.21) in African-American girls and 12.88 years (SD, 1.20) of age in white girls.

pediatrics.aappublications.org...

The article is misleading. Google Personal
Social and Health Education (PSHE). It's a curriculum that spreads from pre-school to 16+. It teaches about hygeine, how to get along with others, smoking and drugs, etc. In the earlier grades, five as the article alludes, it teaches about brushing your teeth. how to cross the street, and the closest thing I could find to sex was how to identify body parts. Later-on, for the pre-teens, it teaches about menstration. It doesn't teach about sex until much later on. And it just a small subject in a program that covers a wide range of things, including stufff like 'citizenship'.

Love your avatar, curme!!
Great film, History of the World part 2.
I can't wait for the sequel.

why dont lazy parents get off their dumb @ss and teach kids themselves. Cuz all of this crap will just raise taxes for smarter people who know how to raise smart children.

This world is going to the dogs

I gotta agree with the "WTF?!" crowd on this one. A 5 year old has no business being taught about sex. At 5 years old they're still picking their noses and pawing their butt-cracks on a regular basis, for pete's sake!

But then again, I suppose the same could be said of the people who proposed this 'curriculum change'.

By the age of 9, children are picking up their own 'playgound' sex education, which can be very flawed indeed. They pick on child they don't like and call him/her all the names they think are not nice about sex, with no clear understanding. If this unsound thinking is not corrected, how long will it be before these children finally discover the truth? Not all have parents willing or able to give them the explainations they need.

I am in full agreement that children should only be told what they're ready to learn about sex. I don't want to take away their childhood. I am, however, as the parent of a 10 year old, fully in agreement with this.

Quote from the article

By 11 they should be able to express opinions about relationships and bullying, recognise their changing emotions, discuss moral questions and know how to resist unwanted physical contact.

They should understand the physical changes that take place in puberty, the need for love in stable relationships and the safe routines needed to avoid the spread of viruses including HIV.

i'm all for sex education and all but how the f#$% do you explain sex to a 5 year old. not to mention kids that young have no sexual intrest what so ever. there too busy playing hide and seek and watching spoungebob.

mutehalo, I think you may be missing the point here. Its more about teaching the younger children about relationships and how to talk about their feelings, building up into sex education as they get older.

The advisory group will ask ministers to give statutory force to sex education guidelines prepared by Ofsted. They say pupils by the age of seven should be able to compare the external parts of the human body, share their feelings and use simple rules for resisting pressure from strangers.

What parents need to watch out is how much religion will be given alone with the sex education, is ok for children to learn about how the came to this world early in life but is they way the teacher will play with the words that is going to affect this children�s beliefs, teachers have more influence in what your children�s learn that most parents wants to belief. So as the school for a curriculum agenda of that particular topic and if you do not agree you as a parent have time to complain.