Father removes 9 yr old daughter from school over sex ed lessons

Lathyrus

Or maybe it wasn’t. I don’t really find “jokes” that are nasty about people very funny.

No, but evidently some do.

I laughed at your reply so all good Lathyrus

Or maybe it wasn’t. I don’t really find “jokes” that are nasty about people very funny.

Yes my post was a joke too.

Lighten up a bit😬

Yes, I work in a village school where I also live, I literally know everyone and if I was a horrible TA I wouldn't get invited to so many parties

VioletSky

It was a joke Lathyrus

One that parents generally find funny

Lighten up a bit

Ah, it’s a joke. Oh. I thought we were discussing quite serious issues with regard to the next generation…..

VioletSky

When it comes to behaviour, if children generally behaved at school like they do at home we would have a nervous breakdown the first day back

I can only but surmise that you are talking about your own children here, as, obviously, you can’t know what others’ children are like all the time at home. My AC, when young, and my GC now, do not reflect the comment you made.

It was a joke Lathyrus

One that parents generally find funny

Lighten up a bit

Do the parents at you school know you have such a negative view of their parenting?

Does your management team know of your views on parents? Or do they agree with you?

Should parents be expected to entrust their children to a school that expresses such negative views, perhaps subliminally, if not directly, to the children themselves.

We believed that parents and teachers were partners and should treat each other with mutual respect.

When it comes to behaviour, if children generally behaved at school like they do at home we would have a nervous breakdown the first day back

Definitely Caleo

Lathyrus of course teachers only know how children are in school, though we often make deductions of about how they are out of school from how they behave and the things they say.

How they are at home is often totally different, and we are sometimes told that by parents.
In school, unlike at home there is a curriculum which schools are obliged to follow, regardless of whether or not a teacher personally feels it is suitable. Parents have more right than teachers to question what is taught in RSE.

I was responding to Caleos post and agree with what she has explained more fully about an educators understanding of children and how expertise in children’s thinking and learning is important.

But I would reiterate that we only know them in one context, for instance where there are responsible, sympathetic adults that order their environment. Out of school, where they may be the only responsible person in the home, their level of emotional and social understanding may be quite different.

We see and know just part of the pattern that makes the whole.

Lathyrus, of course I do agree with you. What I mean is that teachers know how to let a child express what he knows and what he wants to know. Teachers know what stories to tell a child so he understands sexual and other relationships.

Anatomy, physiology, and psychology of sex may expressed in age- appropriate language. 'Age-appropriate language' is largely child led, and the teacher is skilled in letting the child lead the teacher to understand what understanding he or she already has. Let's not forget too that sex education includes human relationships a field of exploration that can be best understood by way of story. E.g. Jesus taught in parables.

No one said "superior"

I said "you would be surprised how well teachers know children"

It's certainly enough to gage where they are on understanding of social and emotional education

Teachers know children very well in the envyin which they encounter them. But they have no knowledge of how a child behaves in the other environments that make up a greater part of their life or how they interact with other adults and children outside the school environment.

I have been surprised over and over again to encounter a completely different person outside the school environment to the one that I know so well within it -for just a few hours a week. Almost as surprised as they have been to encounter me as a shopper or a mummy or a person doing a silly dance!

We all, parents, teachers, friends, whatever, only know one aspect of a personality, the one that we experience. I’m not sure anyone can claim to have superior knowledge of any child - or adult come to that.

You would be surprised how well teachers know children....

They are measuring their social and emotional development as well as their education

Teachers can't possibly know the children they teach as well the children's parents Caleo and there's nothing wrong with wanting children to be children or any prudishness in the concerns that have been voiced here.

The prudishness and silly ideas of 'innocence' in some of these opinions is evidence that professional teachers are the best judges of how to prepare children for sexual relationships.

By the time we were twelve, we all knew how babies were created, though nothing had actually been taught at our prep. school. But there were gaps in our knowledge. Discussing it in the dormitory after lights out, we did not know what to make of references to a child being a mistake, or unexpected, and we could only conclude that the act of procreation was performed while the participants were asleep. It did not occur to us that the system might be fallible.

Luckygirl3

Clare Rayner called a vagina a "baby-making place" in her book on the facts of life. Groan ........

I did not hear the word vagina till I was an adult. My mother called it "Pammy" - I was very confused when I met a girl whose nickname was Pammy! It was almost as if we had to cover up these bits and never mention them. Out of sight, out of mind - I don't think so!

I think it is important not to confuse innocence with ignorance. My little ones had all the basic facts from a very young age - certainly by Infants.

How do we deal with sexual predilections in all their variety - and when? Social media and TV have made it more of a challenge as parents are forced to address some subjects earlier than they might have chosen. But in every case I think honesty is the best policy. If they ask you a question, then you have to answer it in an age-appropriate way; but that leaves the concern as to where they heard about this particular fact and trying to assure oneself that they are not accessing inappropriate material.

I have looked at the sex ed materials that are used at our local primary school and have no problem with them.

I think it is important not to confuse innocence with ignorance. My little ones had all the basic facts from a very young age - certainly by Infants.

I think it's also important not to 'overload' very young children with information that they might need more time to 'process'. When my son was in Infant's school, he was given (by us, his parents) quite a lot of info (because he was sometimes curious) and anatomical terminology.

When I picked him up from school one day he was excitedly telling me about a 'big' fight in the playground between two boys and told me, with wide eyes, "Mum, it was very bad, he kicked him right up the vagina" - just a bit of information overload - the brain searched for the right word, got it, but applied it in the wrong direction.

Particularly with its and it's.

Doodledog

Ronnies!! What is going on with autocorrect these days? It seems very opinionated.

It's taking over the world Doodledog

I think it is important not to confuse innocence with ignorance so do I Luckygirl.

When we were children, mum answered any questions we had in an age appropriate way and we did the same with our boys.

Sex education in schools as fine as long as it is age appropriate and parents have access to the materials being used.

Clare Rayner called a vagina a "baby-making place" in her book on the facts of life. Groan ........

I did not hear the word vagina till I was an adult. My mother called it "Pammy" - I was very confused when I met a girl whose nickname was Pammy! It was almost as if we had to cover up these bits and never mention them. Out of sight, out of mind - I don't think so!

I think it is important not to confuse innocence with ignorance. My little ones had all the basic facts from a very young age - certainly by Infants.

How do we deal with sexual predilections in all their variety - and when? Social media and TV have made it more of a challenge as parents are forced to address some subjects earlier than they might have chosen. But in every case I think honesty is the best policy. If they ask you a question, then you have to answer it in an age-appropriate way; but that leaves the concern as to where they heard about this particular fact and trying to assure oneself that they are not accessing inappropriate material.

I have looked at the sex ed materials that are used at our local primary school and have no problem with them.