Categories: uncategorized
Date: 01 December 2005 20:07:25
The full details of what he was charged with were in the paper tonight. It was even worse than I thought. I still cannot believe he has been so stupid. But part of me still really feels for him though.
I was listening to an interesting thing on the radio again today. They were discussing controversial childrens / teenagers books. They were talking about whether they should write about issues related to sex, teen pregnancy and relationships with teachers (all involving teenagers).
They also talked about sex education, and the fact that evidently the UK has the highest teen pregnancy rate in Europe and that if more than 10 lessons of sex ed are taught, it dramatically reduces the chance of teen pregnancy (I think I have that right).
I guess it's one of those things which you can never get 'right'. If you introduce it younger, then it seems like it's encouraging sexual activity. If you leave it until older, it might be too late. It also varies so much from child to child, and location etc. When I was at school we had 'about the body' / basics of 'how babies are made' type sex ed age 11. There was no one as far as I know who even considered anything more than pretend boyfriends, and holding hands etc.
When I taught in a middle class village / small town school 7ish years ago, they were just introducing it for age 10's. At the estate working class school where I taught about 3 years ago, they were talking about doing some form of sex ed at age 9. At the two different schools, there was such variety. There was one 8 year old who was amazingly aware of everything sexual, and boys and 'bits' etc. But on the other hand, there were some 11 year olds at the other school who were the opposite. Although children seem to be generally scarily much more aware and want to 'grow up' so much quicker.
So, is it up to the parents to talk to their children about these kinds of thing? Simply because they can judge when is 'right' for their child. Although then you risk children not learning, and mistakes happening as a result. So when and where is the right time?