Posted on 03/02/2008 2:58:29 PM PST by wagglebee
Parents should lose their right to withdraw children from sex education classes, say teachers.
A survey of 2,000 staff found two thirds of primary teachers thought sex education should be compulsory. One in four said children should begin learning about sex and relationships at seven years old.
It comes just days after ministers announced a review of how the subject is taught to all age groups.
The Government was accused this week of being 20 years behind its target of halving teenage pregnancies. It emerged that the 2006 rate was 40.4 conceptions for every 1,000 girls aged 15 to 17, well short of its official target of 23.3 per 1,000 by 2010.
Currently sex education is only compulsory as part of science lessons for 11 to 14-year-olds. Primary school children should recognise parts of the body and appreciate that "humans can produce offspring''.
Some aspects of sex can also be taught as part of personal, social and health education (PSHE) lessons at all ages but parents can ask for children to be withdrawn.
A Times Educational Supplement poll showed that three-quarters of teachers wanted compulsory classes in sex and relationships at some point during a child's education.
More than 60 per cent of primary teachers and 35 per cent of secondary teachers said lessons should start as young as nine. A further quarter of primary staff said classes should begin at seven.
Ralph Jaggar, the head of Ackton Pastures Primary in Wakefield, which has sex education classes for seven-year-olds, said it was "the optimum time to teach about puberty".
However, the move is likely to be opposed by many parents, particularly those whose children attend faith schools.
Beverley Hughes, the children's minister, said: "We're aware that young people say the quality of sex education is very patchy and poor in places. We do want that to improve, but it is a very difficult issue."
The TES survey found that almost half of teachers had been asked to teach sex education but three quarters had not received any training.
And they wonder why the teen pregnancy rate is so high.
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Actually, the Netherlands has the lowest teen pregnancy rate in Western Europe and they’re probably the frankest when it comes to sex education. (Even the children’s magazines have nudity and sex in them)....
All Hail the Uber-powerful government! Brave new world.
Government teachers are NOT your friends.
You know what UK is?
Its OUR future 20 years from now.
We are headed in same direction, only lagging a bit, thanks to Evangelicals and other social conservatives who keep the fight to preserve moral values alive.
However, as far as morality and laws go, if you want to know where we are headed, all you have to do is look at UK.
Scary and sad.
Do you think that is a good thing?
7-year old: “Today we learned how to make babies!”
Old punchline: “Oh?”
“You change the -y to -i and add -es.”
New punchline: “Well, it’s about time!!” — Joycelyn Elders
“You know what UK is? ,,,Its OUR future 20 years from now.”
Don’t mean to sound an alarm, but if conservatives can’t wrest back control of the Republican Party and some seats in Congress, we will be like Britain in a few years.
I’m not sure how it is in Great Britain, but over here there are plenty of teachers teaching sex to their students. One or two of them make the news every week.
Well, all I know is the more puritanically minded British and American societies have higher teenage pregnancy rates...
The UK is lost.
There’s always an opt-out. It’s called homeschool.
It makes lost of sense,.... Teach kids about sex early on, try to hand out birth control without the parents knowledge or permission, and ban hugs.
That’s no way to justify the way your country is going down the tubes.
The only sex education kids should have until they’re ready for puberty is that boys (or girls) have cooties. Ewwww....
Maybe the teen pregnancy rate appears to be higher because fewer girls get abortions.
You also don’t account for the number of girls who get pregnant on purpose, as a means to get out of the house and on welfare. It’s not connected to sex education. Those girls clearly know how to avoid getting pregnant if they know how to get pregnant on purpose.
Do you have children?
The hug ban in is Arizona, this is in England.
I'm pretty sure that's what Samiam teaches, of course she gets pregnant all the time so it's probably a little confusing!
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