2pints-mate 0 Posted October 23, 2008 Share Posted October 23, 2008 Uproar from the right today as this is announced Quote: Children as young as five will be taught about sex, drugs and alcohol in compulsory lifestyle lessons, ministers announced today. Pupils need schools to help them cope with the dangers of modern life such as binge drinking and substance abuse, according to the Government. But the quality of personal, social and health education is "patchy", as many teachers are embarrassed to discuss topics such as sexuality in class. Ministers said putting social education on the national curriculum for five- to 16-year-olds would help cut teen pregnancy rates and binge drinking. However, headteachers warned that making the subject compulsory was the wrong approach. The move will also anger some family campaigners who believe young children should not be exposed to sex education. Britain has one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in the developed world. Sexually transmitted diseases are on the rise among younger people, while binge drinking has been increasingly common for teenagers. Schools Minister Jim Knight said making social and health education compulsory was "a bold move and a necessary one". I don't have any little ones and so my opinion on this kind of thing is not fully formed, but it seems to me to be rather a young age to be delving into this kind of thing. Can they not be kids any more? Link to post Share on other sites
HelperElfMissy 42 Posted October 23, 2008 Share Posted October 23, 2008 Stooopid! Kids learn from thier parents. If they see Mum chugging back the Chardonnay at 4pm "Oh my God, I sooo needed that glass!" Then they learn to solve thier problems with alcohol. If they get told they can't have any alcohol at all until they become of age, not even a sniff - they learn to lie and drink irresponsibly. SIL is v religious and teaching her kids at home - one main reason is she doesn't want them exposed to sex education. I can just see one of the girls running to Aunty Mamabear preggers when she is 16...no idea what happened.. NOT smart. I don't have all the answers, but we have spent a lot of time openly talking with our kids (teens!) about respect...and hope that guides their experiences. But telling our 9 yr old all about the "in's and out's" (so to speak) of sex, drugs and alcohol use - nah...not necessary! Aaaarrrrggghhhhh! Link to post Share on other sites
Tubby Beaver 209 Posted October 24, 2008 Share Posted October 24, 2008 I think what they are proposing are age-relevant curriculum. So its unlikely that primary school kids are gonna get the full "in's and outs" of sex. TBH its a difficult one, because as you said 2pints, can't kids just be kids, but with the way mass media is they are already exposed to sex in a BIG way. So the question is, is it better to stick our head in the sand and pretend that kids nowadays are as innocent as previous generations and hope nothing else goes wrong, or do we try and be proactive and educate them as a responsible form of damage limitation? personally I think schools are taking a bit of a beating here as Education shoud begin at home and as MB said they will look first and foremost at their parents and if they are irresponsible then its an uphill battle for the kids Link to post Share on other sites
gerard 6 Posted October 24, 2008 Share Posted October 24, 2008 Yea, 'age-relevant curriculum'. I think the Obama campaign got slammed for being associated with sex-ed in kindergarten but actually it was more about teaching young kids not become victim to pervs. Things like the difference between 'good touch' and 'bad touch' and don't get in anyone's car. Anyway, sex, drugs and alcohol sounds pretty good for consenting adults. Two out of three is the best I can do though. Link to post Share on other sites
Tubby Beaver 209 Posted October 24, 2008 Share Posted October 24, 2008 drugs and alcohol? Link to post Share on other sites
gerard 6 Posted October 24, 2008 Share Posted October 24, 2008 There have been times when drugs have been much more reliable than sex, like an old friend but no, not in this lifetime. No drugs for me. Link to post Share on other sites
Go Native 70 Posted October 24, 2008 Share Posted October 24, 2008 Originally Posted By: Mamabear Kids learn from thier parents. Maybe if you're kids never set foot out of the home and meet anyone else, never watch TV or use the internet then I'd agree with this statement. In reality kids will learn and be influenced by many things and people other than their parents. Thankfully in some cases as lets face it there's a heap of people out there with kids who really shouldn't be parents... I guess in England since they seem to have such high teenage pregnancy rates they reckon leaving the sex ed until they are teenagers is leaving it just a little too late. Link to post Share on other sites
torihada 2 Posted October 24, 2008 Share Posted October 24, 2008 Originally Posted By: Go Native Originally Posted By: Mamabear Kids learn from thier parents. I guess in England since they seem to have such high teenage pregnancy rates they reckon leaving the sex ed until they are teenagers is leaving it just a little too late. I think its because we Brits are so hung up about talking about sex. We told our kids about sex when they were about 5 & 7 because they asked. That was easy compared to explaining artificial insemination - 2 gay friends had a child. If you arm you're kids with knowledge it'll help them to make informed decisions, may not be the correct decisions but at least they should have some ideas of the consequences of that decision. As lots of kids don't get any info from home I think there should be frank and liberal discussions about sex at school, and contraception advice from about 11 yrs onwards. Link to post Share on other sites
Mantas 3 Posted October 24, 2008 Share Posted October 24, 2008 Ridiculous! Trying to teach my 6 year old boy about sex would be a waste of time. The only thing it would do is give him a chance to increase his collection of toilet Jokes. Just let kids be kids. How effective is all this 'education' anyway? We are constantly bombarded with drug , speeding , health, anti drinking, anti smoking 'education' ads on TV down here but they just dont seem to work. If you go back 30 years, we had much less 'education' about these issues but there were less social problems. There is a whole range of factors for this, not just public education. Link to post Share on other sites
HelperElfMissy 42 Posted October 24, 2008 Share Posted October 24, 2008 And there is a difference between formally giving sex education to a small child and having things simply openly addressed as the need arises. I reckon if you sat our 9 yr old down and gave him a HS sex education quiz he would get a pass mark - if not an A+, but that is because he is interested and keen to know and asks questions (and picks stuff up by being aware). There are heaps of kids in his class who would not be able to explain how a baby is made - and that is developmentally appropriate for them at this time. Of course there is outside influences over and above parents - but it is what the parents do that has the most impact in most cases. Kids who are raised with high self esteem and open communication with a great set of values are the ones who can most often withstand the most persuasive peer pressures. There is always the ones who are raised well that don't do so well - yes. But don't underestimate the imfluence a parent has ... and that influence is not in what they say so much as what they DO. Link to post Share on other sites
Tubby Beaver 209 Posted October 24, 2008 Share Posted October 24, 2008 Originally Posted By: Mantas Ridiculous! Trying to teach my 6 year old boy about sex would be a waste of time. The only thing it would do is give him a chance to increase his collection of toilet Jokes. Just let kids be kids. How effective is all this 'education' anyway? We are constantly bombarded with drug , speeding , health, anti drinking, anti smoking 'education' ads on TV down here but they just dont seem to work. If you go back 30 years, we had much less 'education' about these issues but there were less social problems. There is a whole range of factors for this, not just public education. yeah and now 30 years later there are ALL these social problems, maybe if there was better education back then there wouldn't be as much as a problem now. Either way the fact is that there is a problem and doing nothing isn't helping it. I agree Mantas that a 6yr old shouldn't be given a frank discussion about sex, but as has been said before it can be given in an age appropriate way Link to post Share on other sites
thursday 1 Posted October 24, 2008 Share Posted October 24, 2008 I learnt about alcohol at age 13. We went down the pub. Link to post Share on other sites
Mantas 3 Posted October 25, 2008 Share Posted October 25, 2008 Parents should be held more accountable for the bulk of these social problems. There has been a real backlash from teachers down here of late about the responibilty imposed on them. Parents are either too busy or too lazy to fully educate their children in issues like health, personal hygene, morality, respect, manners, ettiquete ...etc. Expecting the the teacher to pick up the slack. Link to post Share on other sites
Go Native 70 Posted October 25, 2008 Share Posted October 25, 2008 Mantas in Japan it's just expected the schools will raise your kids. They do a fantastic job of churning out mindless automatons who never question authority and who never have an original idea in their whole lives, but at least they're well behaved! Link to post Share on other sites
Tubby Beaver 209 Posted October 25, 2008 Share Posted October 25, 2008 Originally Posted By: Mantas Parents should be held more accountable for the bulk of these social problems. There has been a real backlash from teachers down here of late about the responibilty imposed on them. Parents are either too busy or too lazy to fully educate their children in issues like health, personal hygene, morality, respect, manners, ettiquete ...etc. Expecting the the teacher to pick up the slack. couldn't agree more mate! Some of the shit that they give their kids to eat and then complain that their kids are too fat and its because of the burger and chips the kid eats at school lunch. Thats 1 meal from 3 in a day!! I agree that school lunches should be healthier but it is only a third of the meals that the kid is eating, the other 2 thirds come direct from the home!! Link to post Share on other sites
yoroshiku onegai shimasu 2 Posted October 25, 2008 Share Posted October 25, 2008 Definitely. For all the work and effort Japanese teachers do (in general), they get way too much stick from ungrateful and downright rude parents. From what I can see anyway. It must be hard at times keeping motivation. Link to post Share on other sites
HelperElfMissy 42 Posted October 25, 2008 Share Posted October 25, 2008 Tubby, Aussie schools don't tend to have school dinners either - that would be an exceptional case. Most Aussie kids take a packed lunch from home or order thier lunch at the school canteen - there is no school dinner program. So there is even less of an OUT to blame someone else. I have to admit though our schools canteen offerings are rubbish. Gave BearCub-age11 the option of ordering his lunch on Friday for a change .... his response "No Thanks Mum, can you make me a healthy lunch instead - a pie and sauce is a crap lunch." YAY! and YES YES YES - parents should indeed have the responsibility for thier children - and the blasted courts/lawmakers/social work groups should allow them to discipline thier children!!!! This 'kids allowed to divorce thier parents and get social security to live away from home at 13 because they got grounded' is ridiculous!! Link to post Share on other sites
JA2340 16 Posted October 25, 2008 Share Posted October 25, 2008 Trouble with "age relevant" stuff is that not all kids develop at the same rate. So, the "average" is used. That, by definition, means that somoe kids will be well and truly beyond the point where they are ready to know, while others are not yet ready to know this stuff. This is yet another thing where the parent's perogative has been usurped by a governmental decision. Like driver ed, sex ed, drug ed, alcohol ed, relationship ed, etc. At some stage, the system has to allow that there is a basic requirement for teaching language basics (English, here), maths, literacy and other important social stuff. Much of the add on stuff is more properly the province of the parents. The trouble with this is that many of the parents don;t have a clue! How they give a "good" influence, when they don't know what is appropriate is a matter for conjecture! Link to post Share on other sites
Tubby Beaver 209 Posted October 25, 2008 Share Posted October 25, 2008 TBH MB, the school lunches are changing for the better. A few years ago a celebrity chef, Jamie Oliver, led a crusade to make school lunch healthier. What happened though is that the kids voted with their feet, they didn't want nice salad lunches, or delicious wraps, they wanted hamburgers, pies and sausage rolls. Jamie Oliver made a TV show about it, he the convinced head teacher of the pilot school to ban kids from leaving the premises during lunchtime and what happened was that kids mothers would turn up at the gate and feed them the fried crap from the local chippy, kebab sho, burger van through the gates of the school!!!! These parents should be shot!! At the school I worked at the lunches were healthy, i used to eat there most often than not, BUT kids didn't they started to go to the shops more and more. Link to post Share on other sites
pie-eater 207 Posted October 25, 2008 Share Posted October 25, 2008 I used to just LOVE jam roly poly pudding with custard. Link to post Share on other sites
Tubby Beaver 209 Posted October 25, 2008 Share Posted October 25, 2008 haha me too, mash that all together....mmmmmmm Link to post Share on other sites
HelperElfMissy 42 Posted October 26, 2008 Share Posted October 26, 2008 Yes Tubby we've had that series down here too - loved it! LOL. We've currently got this Pay It Forward thing Jamie did up north - teach a few people and they teach a few people. What those people were feeding thier kids was criminal. Don't get me wrong - bit of a treat here and there is part of a happy childhood. But living off it is not good. My point was more that because we do not have school dinners here in Aus the Australian parents have even less of a fall guy to blame for thier kids poor diets/weight/health issues. I was actually agreeing with your point ... Quote: Some of the shit that they give their kids to eat and then complain that their kids are too fat and its because of the burger and chips the kid eats at school lunch. Thats 1 meal from 3 in a day!! I agree that school lunches should be healthier but it is only a third of the meals that the kid is eating, the other 2 thirds come direct from the home!! Link to post Share on other sites
Mantas 3 Posted October 26, 2008 Share Posted October 26, 2008 I didn't like Jamie all that much until I saw that series. It takes balls to take on the establishment like that. He certainly didn't do it for the publicity, that was all negitive. My wife helps out occasionally at the school canteen. I quizzed her on the quality of the food. Mostly healthy stuff with a few un-healthy options. Link to post Share on other sites
thursday 1 Posted October 26, 2008 Share Posted October 26, 2008 Jamie Oliver, woosh woosh woosh, wack it in. Glug of olive oil, squeeze of lemon, hadful of salt, and there you have it. How's your father. Cool cooking. Got all his books but they're basically the same recipes. Link to post Share on other sites
soulboy 0 Posted October 27, 2008 Share Posted October 27, 2008 About the original post: I think its a good thing. What good can keeping kids in the dark do ? Countries like sweden are much much less hung up about this stuff and their rates of pregnancy and STDs are much lower. I can't understand the idea of a kind not being ready to hear the facts of life. Its not that big a deal. Its just sex... a bodily function like eating or taking a crap... Link to post Share on other sites
Recommended Posts