Where would you have your kids learn about sex?  For some, the answer is definitely not “in school”.  Some parents want to either take on the job of teaching their kids about sex-related topics themselves or shield their children from the subject matter entirely.  In California, and most other states, I suspect, a parent can opt to have their child skip the lessons but, as one Southern California mom discovered, missing the classroom discussions doesn’t mean your son or daughter won’t be hearing all about it

In fact, missing the lessons almost certainly means your child will end up with inaccurate and even outright wrong information about sex, sexually transmitted diseases, and so on.  In the cases where parents try to have their kids avoid all such information — at home and at school — what is most likely going to happen is that they will simply get misinformation from their friends on the playground.  This is how such myths as “you can’t get pregnant the first time” and “everyone’s doing it” get perpetuated.

So this mom in SoCal is coming to the realization that getting accurate information from an informed educator is probably better than “hearing these other kids’ interpretation of things.”  She also notes that “the things these kids come up with is comical!”  Well, has she never played telephone?  Certainly, secondhand information passed on by fifth-graders isn’t going to be spot-on.

Meanwhile, if she doesn’t do something quick, she could be one of those young grandmothers whose child is sitting there holding their own baby and asking “how did this happen?  No, really, HOW did this happen?  How are babies made?”  Luckily, it sounds like this mom has been spurred into action and will make the effort to make sure her child gets the information they need, but there are, I fear, too many parents who repeat the mantra “just say no” and leave it at that.  We call them grandparents.  *cough*SarahPalin*cough*

As for me, I will make sure that my kids learn about sexual health and reproduction and how their bodies work, supplementing the no-doubt watered down curriculum at home.  Are you planning to take advantage of the lessons the public schools offer, teach yourself them at home, or hope they never find out what the naughty bits are really for?

Tags: abstinence, body, health, public schools, reproduction, sex, sex ed, sex education

This entry was posted on Friday, July 9th, 2010 at 10:00 am and is filed under Education, Parenting Issues, Religion, Sex. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.