Sex education for four year olds

The following is a recent article from the BBC news homepage:


"Children as young as four should be given compulsory sex education, two leading sexual health charities say. The Family Planning Association and Brook told BBC Newsbeat more should be done to cut abortion rates and sexually transmitted infections among teenagers. They argue gradual education from such a young age would help children not to rush into sex when they were older.

The Department for Children, Schools and Family said it was reviewing the
delivery of sex education in schools. Children aged four might be taught about the names of body parts and basic ideas about different relationships. The government is not giving young people enough information about sex and relationships, the charities add.

Brook chief executive Simon Blake said: "Many young people are having sex because they want to find out what it is, because they were drunk or because their mates were. "That's just not good enough for young people. We've got to have high expectations for them so they've got high expectations for themselves."
He added: "All the evidence shows that if you start sex and relationships education early - before children start puberty, before they feel sexual attraction - they start having sex later.
"They are much more likely to use contraception and practise safe sex."

The basic sex education that children are given in science classes does not go far enough, the charities say. They want sex and relationship education on the curriculum across the UK alongside other compulsory subjects such as maths and English, as is the case in the North of Ireland. The DCSF said effective sex and relationships education is essential for young people to make safe and healthy choices about their lives and prevent early pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. A spokesman added that an advisory group on the issue would be making recommendations on new policy to the government later this month.

Sixteen-year-old Bethany, from Norwich told BBC News she had not understood the consequences of having sex early on.
"I didn't know I could get pregnant," she said. "I think if they started introducing sex education a bit earlier and teaching us a bit more about it so that we were more aware it would have helped me a lot."



This has been a contentious issue in education for a long time and it is one that I have strong feelings about. I agree that more needs to be done in order to cut our relatively very high abortion rate as well as our relatively very high number of STD's among teenagers. I do not agree, however, with the idea of placing the onus of resolving this problem entirely on to schools and teachers.

Those of you who read this blog on a regular basis will already know that I am angered and frustrated by the growing number of selfish, incompetent parents who view their children as an inconvenience and who do not equip them with the requisite behavioural and social skills to be able to cope well at school, or indeed any public environment, and thereafter contribute positively to society as well-mannered, successful adults. And when I say parents, I am not so out of touch with present reality as to assume that every child is living with a mother and a father. I am very much aware of the varied dynamics of the houses - not always homes - that many of my students come out of in the morning. This certainly makes things complicated and more difficult- not impossible.

Making it compulsory for schools to deliver sex education to students at such a young age would serve only to further shift the responsibility away from parents, many of whom are already failing to properly fulfil their roles. I do agree that some level of sex, sexual health and relationship education should be a part of the school curriculum. However, I also believe that the majority of the input and information - the core guidance - should come from the home. The charities mentioned in the article are quoted as saying that the government is currently not providing our youngsters with sufficient information about sex and relationships. What about the parents and other family members? Maybe we should invest the time and money in educating some of them?

I did not receive sex education from such an early age at school and neither did my friends and peers. And the provision that we did get was not exactly powerful and influential. Yet not one of us was involved in a teenage or indeed a pre-pubescent pregnancy. Or sex, for that matter! Why not? Because our parents were involved in our lives and, although we were no angels, they made sure that we had enough knowledge and awareness not to make catastrophic, irreversible choices. Even if we had ended up pregnant or affected by a sexually transmitted disease, our parents would not have blamed the school and it's teachers.

The fact that sixteen-year old Bethany from Norwich did not know that she could get pregnant is not due to a lack of input from school. It is, however, a scandal that a person could be so ignorant and her parents ought to be ashamed of themselves.