Scottish doc calls for kindergarten sex ed

Scottish doc calls for kindergarten sex ed

www.physorg.com

Scotland's senior public health official recommended sex education begin at age 5 to combat rising sexually transmitted disease and teenage pregnancy rates.

"It needs to start at quite an early age, because if you leave it until they are 12 it is too late because some are already experimenting. It probably needs to be started off when children start school," said Dr. Charles Saunders[..]

Students should have access to contraception starting at age 13, he said.

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On the one hand, the doctor has a point. On the other hand, I think 5 years old is a wee-bit too young for such information to be divulged (let alone understood).

I'm having mixed emotions here.

www.physorg.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by Beachcoma


I agree. At least the doctor isn't afraid to talk about how young kids are gettin' it on nowadays; however, 5 yrs. old is way too young. I think teaching kids about sex at 5 would cause more problems than the doctor is trying to fix.

Kids are in almost a trance-like state until age 6 learning about life and developing themselves and their minds. They're like a sponge, absorbing everything they come across. I don't think that turning sex into part of this learning would be a good thing.

Once again, more problems than solutions.

Just inching closer towards promoting pedophilia and accepting 'sexually active' children as something of the 'norm'.

We all played doctor when we were kids. Did we have sex with eachother and get pregnant at age 5? Did we pass STDs by literally having sex?

It should be obvious what this is really about. They want to make the idea of sexually promiscuous CHILDREN something 'normal'. They want to do this for a reason... just look at what people in power supposedly do to little children. Just look at the daycare scandals where they were taken to secret rooms and involved in ritual satanic abuse.

It's all part of expanding control and taking the little ones in to expose them to sex.

Over my dead body, illuminati. You can pay off as many doctors as you want, you can take over the school system (already have) and try to force this on people. Not gonna happen.

I think that if approached in the right way this could be beneficial as many children do 'experiment', one example already given is games like doctor. I think this post is misleading and that any education given to these kids won't be remotely similar to the sex ed that goes on in high schools. If we don't tell kids that certain things are off-limits and not acceptable in certain situations how are they going to know? In certain ways I see a trend towards repressing sexual instincts nowadays in many communities rather then making 'sexy children'.

Many kids can get a warped view of their bodies and their functions from simply not knowing enough when experimenting as young children. I don't mean this in terms of actual sex, but kids do tend to be pretty touchy-feely and certain children are more brazen then others. I'm all for earlier education, just use the old standbys of cartoon-ish characters, rhyming songs and so on to couch it in acceptable terms. No need to be prudes and simply ignore a problem because it touches on certain unsavory practices like pedophilia.

Having just seen a 14 year old with a newborn and the 12 year old father in our hospital, This may not be as far fetched as it sounds.

You really have two choices.

1) Educate. Obviously they will not be screening any training films or going on about comparitive anatomy, but a discussion about disease and transmission without getting to detailed would be appropriate. You set the foundation for future learning. Thats what preschool and kindergarten are for. If you wait till highschool, you may be waaaaaay to late.

2) Leave it to the parents: It works if you have responsable parents that actually do it. But the reality of it is its uncomfortable for many parents to discuss with their children and right or wrong the conversation never takes place.

reply to post by FredT


"Having just seen a 14 year old with a newborn and the 12 year old father in our hospital, This may not be as far fetched as it sounds."

That is one of the most depressing things i have ever read. I dont believe kids should be taught sex education at such a young age, maybe if the media and popstars, people in the public eye who have influence toned down all the constant sex propaganda to make money then kids wouldnt ask the questions so early, you get a journalist condemning this doctor and in their second article they are writing about a popstars sex scandal, just tone it down, lets let kids be kids, in time they will ask questions as long as we can give them the answers then all will be fine. These cases of children having children really are quite rare (not rare enough, but rare) i dont see why all children should have this information given too them when most kids will grow up and learn it in their own time anyway

reply to post by NewWorldOver


I absolutely agree with you here.

There is NO need to teach a 5yr old about sex. If this happened when my child goes to school, I would be throwing major fits about it...and yank my child from school.

I strongly believe the parents should be teaching their children about sex...however, I also know that many parents never will. And that is a real shame.

With that said....there is still no reason why a 5yr old child needs to hear about sex.

If they are so concerned about it.....gather a bunch of great material on how to talk to your children about sex and send it home to the parents!!!! Then send reminders over and over and over saying: "have you had the talk yet? Here is why you should"

Originally posted by R-evolve
That is one of the most depressing things i have ever read. I dont believe kids should be taught sex education at such a young age, maybe if the media and popstars, people in the public eye who have influence toned down all the constant sex propaganda to make money then kids wouldnt ask the questions so early, you get a journalist condemning this doctor and in their second article they are writing about a popstars sex scandal, just tone it down, lets let kids be kids

"I wish we lived in a place more like the America of yesteryear that only exists in the brains of us Republicans." ----- Ned Flanders

Not ment to be cruel, but the bottom line is that society has changed. Parents have to adapt with that change IMHO. While media does exert alot of influence, so do parents if they chose that role. We are letting kids be kids, but we have to let them be kids in this new age.

Also they are not talking about popping in a porno for the wee ones. But rather beginning to lay the foundations of what is to be a lifetime of learning.

[edit on 1/1/08 by FredT]

I think even today 5 year olds are a tad too young for sex ..... will they be teaching them to drive cars and drink alcohol as well I wonder?

I don't know exactly what they teach kids about sex these days, but whatever it is it seems to be doing a good job at encouraging them to indulge in it. Maybe if they pointed out that the sole purpose of sex if procreation? If you want a child, have sex. If you have sex you will get pregnant. If you don't want a child, don't have sex. Pure and simple.

When kids become adults, they can discover that sex doesn't have to automatically result in getting pregnant after all for themselves

It's called lies to children It works. Simple.

Originally posted by Scalamander
If we don't tell kids that certain things are off-limits and not acceptable in certain situations how are they going to know?

They teach children this is in pre-kindergarten, or 'pre-school' and it serves it's purpose. Tell the children that if someone touches them in bad places that they should say no and tell another adult.

The thing is, this is 'sex ed' in kindergarten. If it's anything remotely beyond 'don't touch this area' than it's designed to expose kids to sexual matter in a way that makes it seem institutionalized. Unfortunately, when children really are abused, people within institutions are often involved, or they are otherwise incapable of reporting their parents.

There is a natural tendency for them to hide from the truth at an early age due to their innocence and that's what makes this such a sensitive topic; showing kids what sex is will confuse them in all sorts of ways, and if a child happens to have been abused they will think it was somehow pre-ordained; after all, 'they told us in school that bad people might touch you, so I guess they touched me. Oh well.' This is something that all people abused during childhood go through and they explain it in the same way.

I just think making this 'sex ed' proposal is another way to confuse the hell out of kids and take it out of the parents hands.

Originally posted by FredT
Having just seen a 14 year old with a newborn and the 12 year old father in our hospital, This may not be as far fetched as it sounds.

What kind of ______ kid doesn't realize that sex leads to children at age 12? They know. Kids are having sex because they're exposed to it all the time and it is made to be the epitomy of life when you 'grow up'. In the same sense that they experiment with alcohol or drugs to test that water... they're going to. They also know the consequences beforehand just like every one of us knew what sex was before we were 10 years old, we also knew that people get silly and drunk sometimes etc. We all know.

The problem I have with this is that people think it's a good idea to teach 5 year olds this material. Give me a BREAK. We learn what sex is by the time we're 10 years old and no 10 year old is going to have a baby.

Just think rationally, what business does any institution have exposing 5 year olds to the concept of sex?

I wonder what people here would have thought of the traditions of only a few centuries ago, where typically whole families would sleep in one bed.

There was no need for formal sex ed because everyone knew what was going on

The strangest thing: this was how the Puritans lived (among many others.)

The purer past traditionalists yearn for doesn't exist.
In terms of the reality of peoples daily lives, in many ways the lives of our forefathers make our society seem extremely prudish.

[edit on 1/1/08 by xmotex]

I think this is an excellent idea.

Far be it for me to say that children "aren't ready" for such education - I was four when I asked my mother to explain sex and marriage to me.

Children at this age are like mental sponges - they will more readily absorb and retain information without the skeptical judgement of the adolescent.

I hope this campaign sees positive applications and results.

It's about time we quit kidding ourselves about the intellectual abilities of the younger members of our society.

reply to post by GENERAL EYES


But where do you draw the line in how the subject is taught to very little kids?

Do they show pictures...videos? Do they use little dolls and show what the boy and girl does?

I mean, really....where is the line on how this is taught?

Do they get the parent's permissions? Can parents opt out? What qualifications does the teacher have to teach this subject?

Im a VERY laid back parent. However, I dont believe this is appropriate material for some teacher to be teaching little kids.

Send the material home w/ the kids. Let the parents do it.



And if they are having a major issue w/ teen pregnancies, STDs, etc...they need to look at why before teaching how to have sex.

When our parents were growing up....they didnt teach little kids sex...and there certainly wasnt the problems we have to day.

That leads me to believe that the lack of teaching little kids about sex...is not the problem.

[edit on 1-1-2008 by greeneyedleo]

Originally posted by GENERAL EYES
I was four when I asked my mother to explain sex and marriage to me.

You were not four when you asked your mother to explain sex to you You were four when you asked her what mom and dad are doing when ______. You were four when you asked her why moms and dads are moms and dads, get together etc.

You were four when you asked completely normal questions for children: but you did not ask your mother about the logistics of sex at age four. Kids do not entertain the notion that the sexual organs are meant to operate the way we use them for sexual recreation: if they had any CLUE to that it would mean seeing explicit intercourse in front of their eyes, which is hard to contemplate.

Don't mean to tell you what you did or did not say at four years old... but let's be reasonable. If your mother really told you the explicit details of intercourse, whatever you may think about that, it's pretty unbelievable.

when I was 14 I used to learn how to calculate volume for a portion of sphere or solve X2+ax+b equations ..now they learn about sex(and live for it ) ! I wonder if the plan is to make kids dumber !? then do not wonder when the best jobs in your country will be taken by immigrants from Asia and India ..

[edit on 1-1-2008 by sty]

Like it or not sex is still the taboo issue, especially in the USA. We want kids to be kids and we have the idea that if they are taught anything about sex then we have stolen their childhood. Education is the cure to every problem in humanity, but taboos and morals get mixed in too deeply with sex education discussions. American parents have a few big problems. Parents tend to not want outsiders teaching their children anything about sex and I understand that sentiment. However, those same parents usually cannot see their son or daughter as sexual beings. Sexual activity is a natural instinct for maturing children no matter how much parents hate that thought. There is nothing wrong with human sexual behavior and we do need more education about it not more suppression. There is no such thing as "normal" when it comes to sexual behavior or development. The limitations that we put on children to understand complex subjects are based solely on our own personal fears.

I saw plenty of animals have sex by the age of four or five, both on farms and on nature shows like NOVA or other PBS shows. If a kid can't figure out that they are made in a similar fashion thats pretty sad. Do city kids really not understand how life is created? Skirting around the truth to a childs question is what builds sex up as a "big deal" until they finally experiment and do it. If my parents hid stuff like that from me I wouldn't trust them, as do most kids of the current generation(at least from an outside observers perspective). If you want your kids trust, stop lieing to them and give them the information they need to make better descisions. If you don't talk about it, it must not be important....don't be suprised when little Johnny knocks up the neighbors hot daughter when they are 15, cause you know, it's no biggie or you would have said something right?

Do we need to remind some of the posters in here that the proposal is to teach FIVE YEAR OLDS what sexual intercourse is?

Or are we going to keep hearing the same argument 'kids need to know sex or else they're gonna DEW EET'. That's ridiculous. A five year old has no need to know the mechanics of intercourse and I really doubt we're going to see eight year olds having sex because they weren't taught how to in school.... in fact, that's a completely illogical conclusion. Teaching kids how to have sex when they are little tiny children is probably the best way to ensure a generation of 13 year old girls who will get pregnant.