08-01-2011, 08:30 AM
I am not sure that is any business of the schools of whatever stripe they be. But Heslopian's first comment, about the pointlessness of teaching kids when the are too young I am complete agreement with. It is as interesting to an 8 year-old as would be a description of the cardio-vascular system: it's just meaningless.
At an older age than that, my eldest son did get some birds and bees lessons. They went on to rabbits, and so on. When he arrived home, we talked about it, and plainly, it had not grabbed and kept his attention, since he held the view, that a woman giving birth was as likely to produce a litter of rabbits as anything! Later, jokes about boys or people being gay abounded, and I realised that he (and quite possibly his mates) had got things, so to speak, arse about face. I delivered a very blunt explanation of the 'facts of life', rather skipping the bit about the navigational problems, but, as I recall, using my forefinger to go from a bent position, to the straight one, and bunging it into a notional hole. Once i was sure he had the general picture, I was able to say that some men preferred other men, and in that case, it was an arse thing. He was genuinely relieved, and went off to play footie.
At an older age than that, my eldest son did get some birds and bees lessons. They went on to rabbits, and so on. When he arrived home, we talked about it, and plainly, it had not grabbed and kept his attention, since he held the view, that a woman giving birth was as likely to produce a litter of rabbits as anything! Later, jokes about boys or people being gay abounded, and I realised that he (and quite possibly his mates) had got things, so to speak, arse about face. I delivered a very blunt explanation of the 'facts of life', rather skipping the bit about the navigational problems, but, as I recall, using my forefinger to go from a bent position, to the straight one, and bunging it into a notional hole. Once i was sure he had the general picture, I was able to say that some men preferred other men, and in that case, it was an arse thing. He was genuinely relieved, and went off to play footie.