Sex Ed in Britain&America (was Infamous Health-Class Talk... Hogwarts Style!)

[Ebony Elizabeth]

No: HPFGUIDX 440

--- In HPforGrownups at egroups.com, "Pam Scruton" <Pam at b...> wrote:
> > In British schools it is usually the school nurse who gives 'the 
> talk' in Primary Schools (age 5 to 11 in England and Wales, 5 - 12 
in Scotland) and if our local school is anything to go by, she gives 
the talk separately to boys and girls. <snip> Sex Education in 
secondary schools (11/12 - 16/18) is a big debating point in Britain -
some schools provide sex ed separately for boys and girls, some teach 
boys and girls together and some do both depending on what is being 
taught.

You have GOT to be kidding.  Sex ed?  Below sixth grade?  If I even 
so much as *mentioned* the "s" word to my fifth graders, TPTB would 
run me out on a rail.

Sex ed, in districts that teach it, is almost NEVER given to children 
below sixth grade.  In the school district that I was educated in and 
now currently work in, "health education" is required in ninth 
grade.  For me it consisted of the athletic director showing graphic 
pictures of STDs in their advanced stages, mothering an egg for a 
semester, and writing budgets for mock weddings.  I am not kidding.

My current character ed curriculum mentions nothing about physical 
well-being beyond "eat breakfast" and "get a good night's rest on the 
night before a test".  Last year, I was not even allowed to give away 
free samples of deodorant and feminine hygiene articles to my fifth 
and sixth graders.  Keep in mind that kids 9-12 nowadays are smack 
dab in the middle of puberty, onset of menstruation, etc.  Despite my 
unit head's cautions, I gave them to the seventh and eighth graders 
in my drama classes.

Now, I may not be as radical as some of you, but I think that our 
mock-Puritanism is absolutely ridiculous.  And yet it seems implied 
that the HP novels in this one regard conform more to American custom 
than British.

Ebony AKA AngieJ (whose mother gave her "the talk" when she was six 
years old)