Sex Education to Begin at 4 years

Silverdragon102, BSN · Jul 4, 2008

In a way I can understand it as children these days appears to be growing up a lot quicker. Not sure if aged 4 is the right age to go

allnurses Guide · Jul 4, 2008

From the reports I have heard the early years education consists of the differences between male and female, then linking into the science education with human biology. I think the feeling is that if you start talking about it early it will not be such a taboo subject and children will ask questions rather than experiment.

I think there was an article a few days ago saying that Britain has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in europe which is one of the drivers for this

RGN1 · Jul 8, 2008

I've always been open & honest with my kids, they know the anatomical names for their genitals as well as the more usually used "pet names" but there's a limit to what I'd want to say at each age. As far as I'm concerned at 4 you only need to know that those parts are private and used to wee from!!

From personal experience I think that teenage pregnancy more results from not having a good, close relationship with parents (or another important adult) who you are confident love you & who you feel you can talk to. In the UK childen are too often ostracised, made to feel outsiders & not included in society as a whole. How many of you have received glares from other diners as you walk into a restaurant with your children? When you go to Europe or America it's the norm for kids to be with their families & they are made welcome & spoken to like human beings.

Just my opinion but I think at least parts of it are more than valid. Even now there's a debate going on about children at weddings & whether they should be invited!! Weddings, for goodness sake - a real family occasion!!! I know it stemmed from a vicar who ejected the 2 year old son of the couple getting married because he kept repeating his dad's name but really!!

I also am very aware that some children are badly behaved & that's why peple don't like it but if they were used to being included they would learn the ettiquette required. If they're always included they are much more likely to learn what is expected from them in all walks of their lives.

Shall I get off my soap box now?

allnurses Guide · Jul 8, 2008

I've always been open & honest with my kids, they know the anatomical names for their genitals as well as the more usually used "pet names" but there's a limit to what I'd want to say at each age. As far as I'm concerned at 4 you only need to know that those parts are private and used to wee from!!
From personal experience I think that teenage pregnancy more results from not having a good, close relationship with parents (or another important adult) who you are confident love you & who you feel you can talk to. In the UK childen are too often ostracised, made to feel outsiders & not included in society as a whole. How many of you have received glares from other diners as you walk into a restaurant with your children? When you go to Europe or America it's the norm for kids to be with their families & they are made welcome & spoken to like human beings.
Just my opinion but I think at least parts of it are more than valid. Even now there's a debate going on about children at weddings & whether they should be invited!! Weddings, for goodness sake - a real family occasion!!! I know it stemmed from a vicar who ejected the 2 year old son of the couple getting married because he kept repeating his dad's name but really!!
I also am very aware that some children are badly behaved & that's why peple don't like it but if they were used to being included they would learn the ettiquette required. If they're always included they are much more likely to learn what is expected from them in all walks of their lives.
Shall I get off my soap box now?

No please stay on it, I completely agree, it is always a pleasure on holiday if my daughter gets fidgity then there is always a friendly waiter who is happy to entertain her. Having said that I went to church with her this Sunday, she was reading one of the prayers as the children from the youth group were in charge of the sunday service, there were children sat in the middle of the church, all chatty and happy.

Then one of the little ladies sat a row in front let out a huge tut and stated that if they were her children then she would have taken them to task for being noisy and disrespectful in church. It was a childrens service for goodness sake!!!!!!!!

Fortunately / unfortunately (depending on whos responsibility you think it is) my daughter goes to a catholic school so sex ed is only covered very briefly and contraception not mentioned. This means it falls to me as her parent to cover these bits. Personally I think that it is my responsibility anyway and she knew what she needed to know from me before they taught it in school.

RGN1 · Jul 8, 2008

No please stay on it, I completely agree, it is always a pleasure on holiday if my daughter gets fidgity then there is always a friendly waiter who is happy to entertain her. Having said that I went to church with her this Sunday, she was reading one of the prayers as the children from the youth group were in charge of the sunday service, there were children sat in the middle of the church, all chatty and happy.
Then one of the little ladies sat a row in front let out a huge tut and stated that if they were her children then she would have taken them to task for being noisy and disrespectful in church. It was a childrens service for goodness sake!!!!!!!!
Fortunately / unfortunately (depending on whos responsibility you think it is) my daughter goes to a catholic school so sex ed is only covered very briefly and contraception not mentioned. This means it falls to me as her parent to cover these bits. Personally I think that it is my responsibility anyway and she knew what she needed to know from me before they taught it in school.

Isn't that just typical! I stopped going to Church because wherever I went I ended up spending the whole service in the creche! My DH doesn't go so it wasn't like we could have one week on one week off either! I eventually decided that I may as well stay at home! The one Church I did go to that really was great ended up so popular they had to have two services (over 1000 in the congregation) & decided to have the children in the 2nd one - which ended up in the middle of the day (because tehy always over-ran) & because the kidsalways got hungry & needed lunch you ended up missing the service because of that!

On your other comment I think there is a good case for good sex ed in school. Where my kids go (although only my eldest will have had this advantage) they get a professional organisation in to do the sex ed classes when the children are in their last year (11 or going on 11 year olds.) I think this is the perfect age; too young to have started serious experimenting (I HOPE) old enough to understand properly! The classes are taken by a nurse & she is really good. I hope I can give as good info to my younger ones as she does, as I don't know what Canadian sex ed is like!

Having said that here's a funny story for you - the current top year have had their classes & they link it in with biology too. So yesterday one of my friends kids came out of class & said to her Mum - "eeeew, we saw a video of a baby being born and ****** fainted & I nearly fainted & ****** was sick!!" Well there's 3 girls who won't be doing that in a hurry! :chuckle

AZ hopeful · Jul 13, 2008

SRE already begins as soon as a child starts school, usually starts with learning about who is important to them and why, includes family, friends and also people's 'roles' like what does a nurse do, just delivered that one to 60 reception children this week, had several little nurses wearing my uniforms and kids bandaging each other etc Then they learn about keeping bodies healthy, food, hygiene etc and teaching about the differences in girls and boys is very age related and quite subtle.

Of course the summer term is also 'puberty season' so have been working with year 5 &6 about the changing body, acceptable behaviours etc. Think people get worried because it is called sex education, it is part of the Personal Social and Health education part of the national curriculum. I've only got one more puberty lesson to deliver next week and I'm all done:yeah:

We step up the anti once they are in yr 7 because I work in area with high teenage pregnancy, seems to be working as the rate went down this year

Quig · Jul 16, 2008

Mandatory sex and relationship education for children as young as four is needed to reduce the rising teenage STI and abortion rate, according to two leading sexual health charities.

We all have to sign-up to the

Ian Dunn fan club. They appear to have found the FPA and NSPCC as easy dupes for their shenanigans. They see it as a further opening into the education system.

Only about 0.04 per cent of pupils - 4 in every 10,000 - are withdrawn from non-statutory sex education lessons. (The statutory elements, which are in the national science curriculum, cover anatomy, puberty and the biological aspects of sexual reproduction.). The 0.04 per cent problem constituency (which is not getting pregnant) is clearly so tiny as to be entirely meaningless.