Teaching about Puberty

[Xanthippe_Voorhees]

I agree and it is one big argument for homeschooling.

I was homeschooled.

Kids are curious and talk. They are also resourceful. Older siblings, tabloid magazines and internet are hardly “good” resources, but they are what kids I knew used.

I’m a girl and I know it was far worse with the boys. Homeschooled kids are still kids and they will still talk. The misinformation train is a real thing and far more dangerous than most school sanctioned talks.

You can’t keep your kid from talking about sex unless you plan on not letting your kids ever socialize or go on the internet or to a store…

…but that’s kinda abusive.

 

[SusanneT]

Of course kids will talk, but that is not an excuse for putting the responsibility for the education on parents where the issue has such a moral context.

 

[Xanthippe_Voorhees]

Of course kids will talk, but that is not an excuse for putting the responsibility for the education on parents where the issue has such a moral context.

The issue is that parent’s don’t do their jobs. And morally, teachers do not like that they are in front of a classroom of kids giving each other hordes of misinformation.

Parents don’t do their jobs. Opt out allows the parent to choose to do their job or not. But for the most part parents don’t do their jobs…see my above post. Teachers and admins are forced to do the job of parents on many levels.

 

[Wolfie]

When I got sex education in public school they taught about biology and puberty in 5th grade. Consent, abstinence, and safer sex in 7th grade, and I remember they went over safer sex again in high school. My mother also taught me that I should not have sex even if one day I get feelings that I want to.

Considering what I learned, I would allow my child to go to these classes, but I would also personally teach / reinforce the moral side like my mother did. There were many important issues and questions that were covered by the school nurse that most kids (and definitely most teens) would be too embarrassed to ask their parents. I just don’t see an anxious boy feeling okay to ask his mother or father if his private parts are developing / functioning normally!

Also, your kid will probably be exposed to much worse ideas through their misinformed friends. I remember that some Christian kids had extremely flawed and even immoral ideas about sex because they had to learn from children, porn, and the internet versus a nurse.

 

[ConfusedLucy]

The other thing to add is that over protected teens who are kept young for their age can be a lot more vulnerable to things like peer pressure.