Sexual Education in School... When is Too Young Too Young?

I can't exactly remember when I learned about the birds and bees. There were always little hints as I was growing up, but nothing vivid sticks in my mind. It wasn't until about Form 3 (Grade 9 over here) in school, that I think we really got into "Reproduction" in Biology. Nothing really about actual Sexual Education, rather the biological process in humans and animals.

Of course that was many years ago now...

Recently, a friend of my wife had her son's Test come home from Sexual Education class. He aced it, getting 32 out of 34... Good news. Some of the actual questions seem a bit much maybe, for me at least...

Example:

_____ The opening in a female into which the penis goes during sexual intercourse. It is also the opening through which a baby is born. Answer... Vagina.

_____ When a man's penis is in a woman's vagina. Answer... Sexual Intercourse.

_____ The cord tthat connects the growing baby to it's mother. The baby gets food and oxygen from it's mother through this cord. Answer... Umbilical Cord.

So the fill in the blanks from the word list has some good questions and some questionable ones. The last one IMO is a pretty good question.

Of course, it simply gets better and better, the more they learn. Here is another example from the next page:

When a man and woman are sexually close and it feels good, the man's penis might get bigger and harder. This is called an erection. The same good feeling can cause the woman's vagina to get wet inside so that when the man and woman are ready, and they both wish, the man can put his penis into the woman's vagina. This is called sexual intercourse, or making love.

Now maybe this is a bit graphic for some readers. It could almost be mistaken for some sort of low budget, soft porn romance novel stuff. I mean, really... It is all good information of course, and obviously, the school board feels it is important to get the message about sex out to the kids.

Further along, the test continues with this:

During sexual intercourse, the man and woman might both have an orgasm. This causes a warm, pleasant feeling to spread all over their bodies. When the man has an orgasm, whitish fluid called sperm comes out of his penis and enters the woman's vagina....

It continues on to demonstrate how the fertilization process takes place, and how the fertilized ovum heads for the uterus and grows into a baby.

Now I can understand studying the process. Not graphic sexual reference, but rather the biological function. Sperm, ova, fertilization, love, babies... But in depth description of intercourse and orgasm seem a little heavy.

The whole thing tones down a notch after this. There are some questions on puberty, and the changes in a child's body as they begin to grow up. Good stuff for sure. These are things kids DO need to know.

Some true or false questions finish he test off, and most of these are pretty good as well.

Kissing can cause pregnancy...F

Having an erection always means you are sexually excited...F

Wet dreams are a normal sign that boys are growing up...T

Circumcised and uncircumcised penises work the same...T

Daily bathing is important during puberty...T

Again, a smattering of good stuff, and maybe a little bit heavy stuff...

Now I have several problems with this program in school. In my opinion, they make sexual intercourse sound pleasureable. Fair enough. Consent between too grown ups. Fair enough. But they make it sound too good perhaps. Where are the repurcussions? Pregnancy? STDs? Not a mention about AIDS, Herpes, or any other nastiniess... That doesn't come until next year apparently... So now we have abunch of kids running around, who know all about having sex, and who's parents probably don't know what they are doing half the time...

Too much information, and not the right information I think. Maybe you wonder why this is so bothersome? Well I never mentioned the age of the child who took this test.

10. Most of his grade 4 class is 9.