Penni,
I agree with you that ideally sex education should be the province of the parents. I think that the reason schools took it on was not because the wicked NEA disapproved of what parents were teaching, but because so many parents simply weren't doing it, leaving the kids to learn it from their peers. If a parent won't teach a 13 year old girl about the changes going on in her body, who should? Her teacher, or the 16 year old boy down the block, who of course will be ready and willing to take on the task. The notion that teenagers wouldn't think about sex if we didn't have sex education is too ridiculous to even bear discussion. When we reach reproductive maturity, we start thinking about sex. If parents abdicate their responsibilities, as so many have, the only way to get kids the accurate, scientific, information that they need to make informed decisions is through the schools. That information is desperately needed as a counterweight to the onslaught of movies, TV, and most of all advertising. We can't censor all of those, and the genie won't go back in the bottle. All we can do is prepare kids to deal with it. You have obviously done that well, and I hope to do the same. But for many kids, their only source for that knowledge will be school. I should say that the sex education I got (when the idea was still very new, and classed under "health") was too clinical to be at all titillating, and covered nothing we didn't already know. I suspect it hasn't changed much. It's much worse around here. I know a woman who was taught, in a Catholic high school, that if she swam in a pool with boys they would ejaculate uncontrollably, and the sperms would swim through the pool, homing in unerringly on their targets, penetrate their bathing suits, swim up their little snappers, and make them pregnant. Not surprisingly, the girls paid very little attention.
As for homosexuality, I don't think schools should encourage it or discourage it, not that it would matter - nobody ever became gay because teacher said it was ok. We should teach that it exists and always has, and that some people are that way, just as some people belong to different races, religions, or genders. No need to pronounce it right or wrong, good or bad. It exists.
Personally, I would like to see the coverage of school curricula cut back down to the basics: tools (reading, writing, math, information, (history, science, etc.), and process (the art of thinking). The latter should include a strong dose of ethics, as opposed to religion, for reasons already stated many times, though still unresponded to. If we teach kids how to think, there will be much less need to teach them what to think.
I suppose it should be clear to all by now that the schools can do nothing without the parents. I remember the school Joey went to 1st grade 1 in, up in the tribal country. Only place I've ever heard of where 80% of the parents turned up for PTA meetings. They had no resources at all, and did a superb job. It's amazing what can be done when people care.
I'm actually pretty happy about the school he's in now; the curriculum is very strong, and they do a good job. It bothers me sometimes that his tuition would make a respectable annual salary in this country, not because I begrudge the money but because I don't want him to think himself part of an elite. Though I have to say they do address the issue of privilege and responsibility, which I guess shouldn't be a huge deal to an 8 year old anyway.
Enough babbling. It's morning...
Steve |
