**** use of neutral he does apply in this post so no hippie gender pronoun complaints**
I just don't always listen to them. Last night watching some Fox news I saw a attrocious selling a christian based approach to sex ed. Starting at the age of 3....
yes 3. It is apperently the hot new trend in sex ed well it seems the NYT did a story on it which inspired Restless Mania to go at it as well.
So when In doubt why not start off with a group whose approach seems more reprehensible on this subject because they make the Christian-Sex Ed guy seem much more sane by comparison.
"People have been told by experts that there's a right age" to learn about intercourse, said Dr. Justin Richardson, a assistant professor of psychiatry at Cornell and Columbia medical schools and an author of "Everything You Never Wanted Your Kids to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid They'd Ask)," one of a number of recently published guides that advocates early tutelage.
"If you're talking about how babies are made, there's no age at which it is harmful to learn that the penis goes into the vagina," he said. "Yes, it's true that exposing a child to sexual stimulation is harmful. But telling a kid how babies are made is very different."
*ahem* How is this not exposing kids to sexual stimulation? Honestly know boys and girls. You are giving them the road map and as the article talks about sexual implications in culture... it means kids as young as 3 can "get" the joke now. The Christian guy advocating this approach ( though not the same regimine) talked about trust building with kids and talking about how a part of the mommy and a part of the daddy help to make a baby and that it is a gift from god. He talked about teaching the morality with the sex ed at the early age.... his approach seems more sane.
But back to the begining of the article....
THIS September 3-year-old Halley Vollmar of Bellmore, N.Y., was having her annual checkup when her pediatrician paused. "I'm going to check your peepee now," he warned, and tugged down her underwear. But Halley protested. "Mommy, why he call my vagina a peepee?" she scolded, telling the startled physician he was a "silly doctor" before allowing him to proceed.
Ok two things here....
#1) This theory is all about proper names. Well PeePee is more general but the doctor might have been checking the urethra and not the vagina. Its this kind of subtlty which is why going into to much anotomical detail with kids isn't such a gang busters idea.
and -much- more importantly
#2) You and your ped are a team.
I had a similar experience when I was little. I was hugely prone to accident and injury. I once flipped out when the doctor said he was using a magic needle and thread. This was the ER doctor and not my regular doctor so my mother explained that I was a bright boy who knew a great deal about medicine and that approach kind of spooked me
( and IIRC this wasn't my first time being patched up in an ER so I was more exposed to this)
Now the doctor you take your kid to for a normal regular check up... he should be some one you clued in on " I want my kids to have a bit more knowledge about their body then other parents."
So this story is really a sign of hugely bad parenting here. Also when you teach little Halley about her body parts you should teach her that not everyone teaches it this way. So you can also begin to teach the child at an early age respect for others.
However why use good parenting when instead people can continue to use fad parenting....
If not, these advocates warn, children will gather their impressions anywhere and everywhere: from prime-time television jokes about threesomes, Internet pop-up ads for penis enlargement pills or even more explicit Web sites. When the Rev. Debra Haffner's son typed "Katrina images" into Google's search box for a school project, he ended up staring at photographs that had nothing to do with the hurricane, said Ms. Haffner, a Unitarian Universalist minister and the author of "From Diapers to Dating."
Here i find myself closer to the minister who was buying into this idea on fox.
You need to have your kids trust you to give them good information. You need to be there for them. So instead of starting on Sex you need to start the kid into a situation where when confronted by things like this and getting confused he knows he can come to mom and dad and get the straight answer.
Also you should when you sit little susie on your knee and show her the interweb you tell her how to avoid bad places on the internet... because just like life their are bad people out there who will do bad things to you. And the best way to stop them is to avoid them
I had a psych class and the prof was talking to us about sex ed with kids. And he said you should tell the child information (1) when they ask for it and (2) at a level that is appropriate for them.
Sadly this new movement seems to be working to saw off #2
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