"Parental Rights in Education" bill

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Kids find this sort of thing very funny.
It is Australian humour friendly, also.

To lose your job because of this?
"Curious?"

I'd find it hard to believe this would be typical behaviour by parents, even Ammmuuurian parents.

American society is unusually squeamish about sex. It's our Puritan roots or something.

I'm not really sure what cyberdad thinks American students are taught.

They get the basic birds and bees right before puberty, very scientifically presented, girls separate from boys, usually, and parents can opt out.

I'm racking my brain and maybe my kids didn't keep me well informed, but I don't think there is official sex related education in most high schools, although I think there are often special speakers who may include safe sex in their talks trying to empower teenagers to stand up against all types risky behaviors. Some schools, especially in areas with high rates of teen pregnancy, will import a short "safe sex" type special unit curriculum. Many states have laws limiting such intervention to abstinence only, despite all the data that shows specific, comprehensive education about birth control is the most effective. I really don't think any of it was covered in my kids classes, but they did know where to go if they needed information. Referral information to non-profits was in the girl's bathrooms.




More information isn't always good information. Kids see and hear a LOT through everyday life, but that TV show with a little nudity isn't exactly teaching them the details about effective rates of different kinds of birth control, or how to properly use it. The gossip with their friends is mostly likely full of misinformation. Pre-teens are little young for that level of detail, but by the time kids are full on teenagers, they don't want to hear about any of it from their parents. America is very squeamish about sex. Night and day how different it is here than in Europe.

I would prefer high school aged

I think that it's fair to say that the UK is also fairly squeamish when it comes to talking about sex. That's been my experience at least. My sex education at a teenager was terrible. I remember my teacher talking to a class overseer complaining about how no one was going to listen to this but that he had to teach it due to pressures from the education board and the parental association. Granted, I was eavesdropping and wasn't meant to hear that discussion, but consider it an act of teenage rebellion.

Anyway, I was taught abstinence until marriage and not a lot else. There was some amusement to be had from them kicking out a heavily pregnant teenage girl so they could teach us about the importance of abstinence. Which, I mean, that sentence alone should tell you there's a problem. To make matters worse, when a student asked our teacher about same-sex relationships, his response was "Why, are you gay?" in a mocking tone. He laughed and so did most of the class. It was an uncomfortable moment and I was almost tempted to get up and leave. Then, he later added towards the end of the class, "just don't have gay sex if you can help it, because it's pointless".

I sat through another form of sex ed a couple of years later when the 'British Values' scheme was introduced. That was an odd experience. We had to fill out a test about terrorism and talk about the warning signs, then afterwards it suddenly switched to questions about sex ed. I guess education boards were starting to become aware that they may have messed up how they taught us the first time. Frankly it was embarrassing because I knew very little and just sat there feeling a bit lost. I leaned towards another student and as discreetly as I could, I asked her "Hey, my sex ed was pretty bad and I don't want to fail this because it's embarrassing, could you help me answer these questions?" Thankfully she was understanding and let me copy her answers.

This was during my A-level equivalent college course. So after high school but before University. It was really eye-opening just how varied our sex education experiences had been up until the scheme. One student had learned all about contraception and even safe-sex in same-sex relationships! However, another told me that she had been given a whole bunch of outdated resources and taught about AIDS in a very biased manner (she even told me about the homophobic language that the teacher had used and statements that made my sex ed look almost competent in comparison ). I told her about the pregnant girl who had to sit in the library during our abstinence classes. She found it funny and remarked "It's a shame she didn't ask them Sorry, could you speak up? My baby can't hear you! " to which I absolutely burst out laughing. However, our friend who had experienced a much more detailed sex ed just looked at us both with a look of concern and asked "What was wrong with both of your schools?!" Bonding over how bad our sex ed had been sure was an experience.

I knew I couldn't really ask my parents about sex ed. Certainly not in regards to same-sex relationships. So naturally, I took all my questions to the internet. I asked forums for advice and was redirected to a bunch of health journals. Thankfully fully peer-reviewed and informative. Still, if you don't know where to look, then it can be a daunting experience learning about such topics.

^^^ Really appreciate all the detail. I think it tends to be all over the map here, too. Elective college courses are often when students finally get solid information.

Homophobia was still rife when I was doing my undergrad but that was back in the mid-1980s. It was during the height of the AIDS virus and there was a lot of misinformation. I was somewhat of a trailblazer in that I chose to hang out with the only gay student in my cohort, I recall he and I would sit at the cafeteria and our classmates would get up and change tables. They were grown adults. People have amnesia and pretend this stuff never happened.

Does the parental rights bill protect young students from religious activist teachers, also?

That didn't answer my question.

How old?

This is simply a teacher that shouldn't be teaching, by any standards.
It is the sort of teacher that should be outed.



I didn't have Google when I was a kid.
I very much regret that.
As I said, there is a lot more information available now than there was 50 years ago.

I have spent most of my life without the Internet. The first 35 years of my life, in fact.

Yes, how old were the children in the sex-ed class?
You said there are already classes.

I am making the point that it would be inappropriate for children in kindergarten, imo.
But not for older students.

Mine was back in 1982 and I was 15.

There's a weird experience watching Seinfeld or Friends knowing they lived back in the days of landline phones. Like entering a time machine.

I tend to like shows like "Gilligan's Island" and "The Odd Couple"----shows WAY before "Seinfeld" and "Friends."

From a time when one couldn't even buy their own phone.