Sex Ed for Fourth Graders?

Sex Ed for Fourth Graders?

Saturday, December 15, 2007

A Florida county approves a controversial sexual education curriculum.

After months of contentious community-wide debate, the St. Lucie County School Board in Florida approved a sex education curriculum that would teach students as young as nine about condoms, reports the Palm Beach Post. Their "Get Real About AIDS" program will be taught to kids in the fourth through 12th grades. This is a departure from the district's previous abstinence-only policy. "Supporters of the curriculum noted that St. Lucie County faces a near epidemic of HIV and AIDS cases in its black community, and many of the new cases involve youths,"

reports the Palm Beach Post. The abstinence-only approach doesn't work, they argued. Opponents of the policy say 9-year-olds shouldn't be learning about sex under any circumstances.
Hmm—do you know what the sexual education policy is in your school? And how old do you think kids should be when they learn about sex?
Comment now.

4 comments so far | Post a comment now >>

I don’t know the policy in my school but I am going to find out. My son is in third grade. I don’t want him learning about this at school until I’ve talked to him first. Maybe sixth grade is best to start talking about this? Fourth grade seems too young.

- Janet

Posted 12/15/07 12:11 PM

Maybe you should research the facts…kids start having sex when they are even younger than your child is right now! Early intervention is the best method!

- Pam

Posted 12/15/07 01:34 PM

Unfortunately in this day and age kids are younger and younger when they are exposed to sex and when they start having sex. If left up to the parents who knows what they would be told and you know some of these kids are never told anything and some are learning by what they are observing in their own homes. It is a sad state of affairs. I for one am glad that I was reponsible in talking to my own kids. Please, you had kids, so now it is time for YOU to raise them.

- Michelle

Posted 12/16/07 11:04 AM

Way to go St. Lucie County! Scholarly studies (the ones that are never talked about) show that over 90% of parents agree with comprehensive sex ed in schools, yet tons of governments, from local to fed, continue to represent a slim minority that have sex ed be a “non” sex ed - teaching abstinence only. Also, overwhelmingly, scholarly studies show that teaching “abstinence-only” does not slow the progression of kids deciding to have sexual encounters, but does slow their knowledge about what to do when they decide to become sexually active. I think its a good thing for kids to have the word condom in their repetoire of what sex is all about early, not because they’ll be having sex yet (for most, the idea is still “gross”), but because when they do start having it (and lets discuss the media if we’re going to talk about where kids get a lot of their unhealthy ideas about sex and sexuality!), girls and boys will know about condoms.

- Vania

Posted 12/17/07 11:15 AM