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Wanda Rutledge
All-star
Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2004 6:02 pm Posts: 43
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Kim brought up the topic of "what would you do if you intercepted a note discussing a student's plan to have sex". Well, I'm just curious how many of you are for or against teaching sex education in schools? Also, if you are "for it", at what age do you think it should be taught?
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Sun Apr 04, 2004 2:56 pm |
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Sherry Caudill
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Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2004 6:01 pm Posts: 46
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I feel that sex education is okay in the schools with parental consent. I have students in high school that have false assumptions and ideas about sexual issues. I also remember being in 5th or 6th grade and having a class (boys and girls separate) to discuss the chanages our bodies were going thru. I think this was great because my mother must have been uncomfortable talking about the subject because she never explained what was happening to me. We must be careful how the present the issue. In the Wilkes School system I believe the school nurse conducts the classes. I know she does at our high school.
_________________ Sherry Caudill
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Sun Apr 04, 2004 3:52 pm |
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Jenn Chang
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Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2004 6:03 pm Posts: 43 Location: Boone
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I think that schools should teach sex education to students. I know that when my sister was in middle school she had my parents sign a paper saying that it was ok for her to be in a class where they would talk about it. I never had to do that because the class did not address the subject when i took the same course years later. I did not have an official sex education class until i was a senior in high school, and that was because we requested that our teacher brought someone in to talk about it since so many of our classmates were having babies and other things along those lines. Last year I also took a course on at risk children and for my final i decided to do a presentation on stds and teenage parents. It shocking that children as young as 10 are not only sexually active, but also they are contracting stds at this young of an age. If we as (future) parents and teachers dont help educate our students then they are never going to hear about important issues and topics that will directly effect them. I think that students should be required to take at least a few hours of a sex education course when they are around the age of 11 or 12. At this point they should be informed about body changes and basic sex education things. Then when a students is around the age of 14 they should have to take a second part. In this part they should be confronted with stds and the harsh reality of what all sex can involve. I know that a lot of times it is hard for a school to address a topic like this because they dont feel comfortable talking to students about it. However, I for one will be more than willing to lead a discussion like this when i become a teacher. I think that you should be able to talk to students about these issues and if for no other reason you should put your students knowlegde above your own comfort level and address what many parents dont. That will help to inform students with real facts and not just myths that they hear from friends and in the hallways.
_________________ Jennifer Lee Chang
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Mon Apr 05, 2004 9:17 am |
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Corrie Williams
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Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2004 6:00 pm Posts: 51
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As i replied in another message, you must as a teacher teach the health curriculum. In the younger middle school grades, in NC, abstenence is taught. That is it! It is highschool when they start getting in to birth control. I did send a parent note home when i taught sex ed and I had a professional from the county health dept come to talk to the kids as I felt i might not be able to answer all the questions appropriately. It worked out well and I had full parent support.
_________________ Corrie Williams
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Mon Apr 05, 2004 9:38 am |
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Casey McKnight
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Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2004 6:03 pm Posts: 63 Location: Happy Appy!
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sex ed. in school is good, in my opinion. if i wanted to play the religion card then id say we should teach abstinence all the time. but i know thats not realistic. kids are gonna have sex regardless of their background, religion, whatever. so we might as well give them information about safe ways to have sex so as not to get pregnant or sick.
in relation to what kim might have mentioned about intercepting a note from a student planning to have sex - in high school, im sure thats not uncommon at all. i remember being in high school and all i ever did in class was write letter after letter to my friends. while i didnt talk about having sex, there was still always the risk of getting it comfiscated. and even more today i think kids have less and less inhibitions so i think its quite likely that tons of notes are going around in a high school classroom about who's having sex with who and who's gonna, etc... at that age though, i think kids are old enough to decipher right from wrong and know the whole consequence concept. so i dont think itd be my place to tell their parents or anything. if the note said anything about not using protection or something like that, then i might just sit the student down and have a little sex talk with him/her myself. i think at that age a one-on-one relationship with the student isnt so guarded as it would be with younger kids
_________________ Casey McKnight
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Mon Apr 05, 2004 10:37 am |
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Leah Prandi-Abrams
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Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2004 6:02 pm Posts: 40
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I completely agree with Jennifer. I was taught sex education in the fifth grade, but had I been taught about stds and aids when I was, say 14, I would have understood it all better. I think that education is the one thing we can do in response to teen sex-think about places like Africa where most people aren't taught about diseases like aids-ignorance is not bliss-thousands of people are dying everyday because of it. Kids need to know the reality of sex and what all it brings along with it-I think it should definitely be taught in school.
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Mon Apr 05, 2004 11:53 am |
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Melissa Call
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Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2004 6:08 pm Posts: 48
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I think sex education should be taught in the schools because a lot of kids will not hear the truth about it anywhere else. Fifth and sixth grades are probably about the right age too. It is so important for kids to know the risks involved with sex. If they are taught before they become sexually active, they might not contract disease nor become pregnant.
_________________ Melissa Call made it
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Mon Apr 05, 2004 12:05 pm |
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Kim Holleman
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Joined: Fri Jan 30, 2004 11:30 am Posts: 40
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A lot of partents don't talk to their children about sex-ed. They should be informed about what is going on or what about to go on with their body. Most of the time the way they hear about type of stuff is from other kids. I thind they should be told by an adult.
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Mon Apr 05, 2004 8:39 pm |
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Kaelyn McIver
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Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2004 6:04 pm Posts: 45
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i agree with you guys on this one. it is so crucial to have children informed of what they are about to get into. i remember being about 10 or so and having a 'sex ed' class, but not really learning about stds and what not until i would say eighth or ninth grade. in my opinion, that is too late. i think it should all be taught at about the age of 10. i remember being 12 and knowing kids who had already had sex. the majority of my class had lost their virginity by 14. who knows if they were at all safe. i also have a little sister who is now 14. i know when i left for school (she was, i think, 10 or 11) she asked me sexual questions because she didn't know what it was and had heard her friends talking about it on the bus (things like oral sex, etc.) it's scary how fast kids are growing up now, but its happening and i feel we need to face it head on and inform them.
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Mon Apr 05, 2004 9:00 pm |
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Casey McKnight
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Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2004 6:03 pm Posts: 63 Location: Happy Appy!
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http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/04/06/st ... index.html
how can we educate kids if this is the record adults hold? just some food for thought - i thought this article was kinda relevant to this whole discussion.
_________________ Casey McKnight
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Tue Apr 06, 2004 4:18 pm |
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Rebekah Smith
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Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2004 6:04 pm Posts: 37
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My son is in the fifth grade. We have just had sex education week.
What I like about it is that he is flooded with factual information about the physical body, the changes in the body at puberty, how babies are made, and how babies are born.
That leaves a lot of room for parents to talk to their children about all the other stuff, like feelings, values, consequences, etc. And each family can do that however they wish. Each family is unique with different views and values and ways of approaching the meaning they want this information to take on.
_________________ Rebekah Smith
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Tue Apr 06, 2004 10:05 pm |
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Sarah Gentry
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Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2004 6:03 pm Posts: 36
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I am so glad to hear that people want sex education in schools! In the county were I grew up the only thing taught that related to sex was abstinense. This was becasue the year that we were supposed to have it a group of parents got upset becasue the nurse from the health department was showing the students how to correctly use a condom. So the school board enforced a rule that only abstinence could be taught. Many of the girls from my highschool got pregnant and I feel that if they had been exposed to sex education it may have been prevented.
_________________ Sarah Gentry
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Wed Apr 14, 2004 2:20 pm |
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Heather Ganssle
All-star
Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2004 5:00 pm Posts: 48
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i definitely agree that sex education should be taught in the schools. i read an article not too long ago that stated that children who are taught abstinance actually wait longer to have sex...but it also stated that very large numbers of our population (virtually everyone) has sex before they are married. teaching kids how to have safe sex is so important. everyone needs to know the importance of proper protection because almost every child that goes through the system will have sex...and needs to know!
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Wed Apr 14, 2004 3:06 pm |
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Tobey Mitchell
Semi-pro
Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2004 6:04 pm Posts: 29 Location: App. Heights
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I too agree that sex education should be taught in schools, but I'm still going to be that person that thinks that, though abstinence shouldn't be the only focus of the course, it should be encouraged. Sex education shouldn't be so much a "how to" course as an informative course about the mental and physical reprecussions.
_________________ Tobey Mitchell
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Tue May 04, 2004 4:54 pm |
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